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Other pecuniary payments, in the shape of aids, as they are called, may, under certain circumstances, be exacted from the tenant. Whenever the baron's daughter, whom we saw just now walking on the parapet of the castle, her half-drawn veil blown aside by the evening breeze, shall be married to the young count, whom she was watching as he kissed and waved his hand on his prancing steed, and then vanished among the trees-whenever the eldest son, the heir of his father's estates and honours, shall be made a knight-or whenever it shall happen that the baron himself is taken captive, and a ransom is demanded for his release, the tenant will be bound to contribute pecuniary aids to his lord, which aids appear to be unfixed in their amount, and to depend much on the arbitrary will of the exactor.

Soon a quarrel breaks out between the baron and another noble, and as there is no common jurisdiction to decide the matter, in these times, when the royal authority over its vassals has sunk into utter inefficiency, an appeal is made to arms. It is one of the savage but boasted rights of the barons, that they are at liberty thus to settle their disputes by the sword. The vassals must be armed to attend their lord to the field, and, therefore, the young knight must mount his horse and follow his feudal master to the scene of conflict. Forty days' service may be demanded from all who hold a knight's fee; but the law as to the distance to which they are bound to follow

their lord, is by no means fixed: according to the usage, in some baronies, the vas sal is not bound to go beyond the limits of the lordship; in other cases, he must follow wherever his superior may lead, provided it be not more than a day's journey from home. Upon the knights in this barony, we will suppose, it is obligatory to attend upon their suzerain to a much greater distance. The battle has been fought the victory gained: and now the knight returns to his home, and suspends his shield and helmet in the paternal hall.

Ere long, he receives another summons, not to perform the service of a soldier, but to discharge the functions of a judge. It has been noticed already that the baron has a legislative and judicial authority over his own territories; but it is necessary that his knightly vassals, who are peers of his court, should attend to aid his councils, and to unite with him in the decision of such cases as may be submitted to his tribunal. The assembled vassals may be seen standing about that little mound of earth in the court-yard, which is the place of justice, and there our young knight mingles among them. By this baron's court is possessed the power of life and death-or la haute justice, as it is called-a prerogative not confined to barons of the highest class, but extended to all châtelains, or possessors of castles, and sometimes even to the inferior nobility; an odd distinction, however, is kept up among them, in the form of the instrument of death

which they employ, for the baron's gallows may have three posts, or supporters, the châtelains but two, and the inferior lord only

one.

In the present instance, the court is summoned to determine a case of disputed civil right between two tenants. It is difficult to decide the point; the defendant impugns the statement of the plaintiff, declares him perjured, and, throwing down his gage, appeals to the judgment of God, and claims trial by combat. This practice has succeeded the trial by ordeal, and is of the same absurd and cruel character; for the man who, perhaps, has already been deprived of his rights, is now in danger of being deprived of life. The privilege of making this appeal extends still further, and even were the case adjudged by the baron's court, the party who conceived he had suffered wrong, might call his judges into the field, and decide the question by the sword. The wager of battle just thrown down by the defendant is accepted by his adversary, and the day of combat is appointed by the baron. They are to meet on horseback, accoutred as knights, for they are of gentle blood-were they plebeians, they would be armed with club and target. They must fight till one party is slain or cries for mercy. In the latter case

the person who gives in will lose his cause, and be further subject to a fine. Women, ecclesiastics, and men above sixty years of age, may employ champions to assert their cause in the

field of combat; but should the proxy yield, he is liable to have his right hand cut off.

One of the tenants of the baron wishes to part with his lands to a stranger, in other words, to alienate his fief. The assent of his lord is requisite. He has received his fief, it is supposed, for reasons relating to himself and family, at least his heart and arm are bound to his superior, and his service is not to be changed for that of another, who might be unwilling or unable to render it. By the law of France, the lord is entitled, upon every alienation made by the tenant, either to redeem the fief, by paying the purchase-money, or to claim a certain part of the value, by way of fine upon the change of tenancy.

Another event occurs. An old vassal dies, and leaves no one to inherit his lands. What becomes of his estate? It is escheated, to use the legal phrase, that is, it reverts to the lord. He is the fountain whence property and power emanate, and the reservoir to which, under these circumstances, they

return.

The fiefs now described are regular and military; but before we leave the baron's domains we must glance at another development of the feudal principle. Among the horsemen whom we saw accompanying the baron to the castle there were certain retainers, holding land upon conditions different from those which we have just enumerated: and there are others filling domestic offices in his household, who,

on that tenure, hold certain estates. Among the former, are the baron's marshal and master of the horse, who, by filling such offices, secure possession of some of the neighbouring fields. Among the latter are his cup-bearer and steward, who swell his retinue on state occasions, and receive their reward in landed property. By keeping up this kind of pomp, the baron emulates the splendour of the sovereign. Mechanical arts, also, are carried on in the castle, (coining money, for instance, which is one of the baronial rights,) and the workmen engaged in such occupations, like the rest of the baron's dependents, are repaid for their skill and toil by receiving lands on condition of their rendering these useful services.

Feudalism has also extended its influence over other persons than warriors and domestics, and over other things than landed estates. The fisherman mooring his bark on yonder bank of the river, and throwing out his nets, is a vassal of the lord, and holds as a fief the right of fishing in the stream, for which he pays certain dues; and the woodman, whose axe resounds in the neighbouring forest, possesses the right of cutting down the trees, upon condition of rendering some feudal service. The system has entered the church, and the priest of the village pays to his ecclesiastical superior an acknowledgment for the revenues he receives from baptisms, marriages, and the churching of women. In fact, society is pervaded by the spirit of feudalism. The

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