tion of the King, as it might be), and from which
he received produce to the value of fifty shillings at least (as in
corn, hay, and other produce); and this I am ready to prove by my
freeman John, or if anything should happen to him, by him or
him"--several might be named, though only one might wage battle--"who
saw this."

Or the form might conclude: "And this I am ready to prove by my freeman
John, whom his father on his death-bed enjoined, by the faith a son owes
his father, that if he ever heard of any plea being moved concerning
this land, he would dereign (or prove) this, as what his father had seen
or heard."

The tenant might then defend himself in person or by deputy at his
option. The demandant's champion was not to be a person hired for
reward, and if he was convicted of receiving money or vanquished in a
duel on the point of right, not only did the demandant lose his suit,
but the champion forfeited his _legem terrae_--that is, he could never
act in a similar capacity again--and was fined sixty shillings _nomine
recreantisae_--for cowardice. In the reign of Henry II. these
arrangements were modified, and the tenant might put himself on the
assise. "The assise," says Glanville, "is a royal benefit conferred on
the nation by the prince in his clemency, by the advice of his nobles,
as an expedient whereby the lives and interests of his subjects might be
preserved, and their property and rights enjoyed, without being any
longer obliged to submit to the doubtful chance of the duel. After this
the calamity of a violent death, which sometimes happened to champions,
might be avoided, as well as the perpetual infamy and disgrace attendant
on the vanquished, when he had pronounced the _infestum et inverecundum
verbum_." The horrible word was "creaunt" (or craven).

JUDICIAL

CHAPTER XII

OUTLAWRY

Many of our ancient ballads and lyrics, such as the cycle of Robin Hood
and that exquisite love-poem "The Nut-Brown Maid," are based on the
custom of outlawry. One of the most charming of these early English
productions is "The Tale of Gamelyn," in which we meet with the
following passage alluding to the ban:

"Tho were his bonde-men sory and nothing glad,
When Gamelyn her lord wolues heed was cried and maad;
And sente out of his men, wher they might him fynde,
For to seke Gamelyn vnder woode-lynde,
To telle him tydinges, how the wynd was went,
And al his good reued, and alle his men schent."