THE BOOK-MEN. 473 



like. Even in our time vestiges of the like belief exist among us, but 

 then it was universal and denied by none, whether prince, priest, or 

 populace. There is no parallel to this state of things in modern times, 

 except in the interior towns of Africa. 



It was then universally conceded that the nobles were men of a 

 superior race ; that their blood was different and purer than that of 

 other men. All the land belonged to them. No one doubted their 

 title. The population of every barony considered the baron as their 

 rightful master, holding his authority from God himself. It was next 

 to sacrilege to disobey him. Yet these barons were brutal, extortion- 

 ate, and cruel. They were constantly at war with each other, and 

 therefore lived in fortified castles, whence they now and then sallied 

 to levy contributions among their own serfs, rob passengers and cara- 

 vans on the highway, or plunder and* burn the property or massacre 

 the people of neighboring fiefs. They had the right of life and death 

 over their vassals. These could not marry or travel without their per- 

 mission. The maidens of the baronies were obliged to gratify the 

 lusts of the baron whenever he took a fancy to any of them ; and this, 

 so far from being considered as an act of outrageous despotism, was 

 generally accepted as an honor conferred. No Turkish pasha or Rus- 

 sian boiar holds now greater power than the feudal lords possessed 

 and abused during the middle ages. They exacted and took the first, 

 the largest, and the best products of the labor of the people ; and none 

 (not even those who were the victims of unscrupulous tithes, tribute, 

 and pillage) ever suspected that the nobles exceeded their divine and 

 rightful privileges. The people, when robbed, or put to the rack, 

 might think their lord was a hard and cruel master ; but his right to 

 do as he pleased was to every mind unquestionable. 



The laws which then existed (if indeed the name of law could be 

 justly applied to such an ordination of society) were only such as 

 were calculated to maintain the power and fortune of the tyrants we 

 have just described. Murder was punished only when the culprit was 

 a villain, or a man of inferior rank to that of his victim ; and then the 

 punishment was graded, so that the murder of a noble or priest by a 

 villain or inferior was avenged by the most revolting and agonizing 

 tortures and death, while, if on the contrary the victim was a villain 

 and the homicide a nobleman, a few pence was the price of blood. 

 Trials there were none worthy of the name. They tested the guilt or 

 innocenc'e of those who were suspected of offenses by various super- 

 stitious practices, such for instance as making the supposed offender 

 walk over red-hot plowshares. If he got burned he was guilty, if he 

 passed over unscathed he was innocent. The favorite mode of de- 

 ciding causes before the courts was the trial by battle. The parties 

 were made to fight ^t out, but not always with equal arms. The 

 villains were permitted only to wield the club, while the gentry en- 

 tered the lists sword in hand, clothed in armor and on horseback. 



