ago ANNUAL REGISTER, 17970 
Proceedings of the Vientic or Wefthhalian 
“Court. From Mr. Coxe’s Eerter to tie 
Counte/s of Pembroke. 
HE meeting, in order to be 
competent, muft confift of 
the Free Count and at leaft fourteen 
Affeffors; the door being clofed, the 
fudge can neither rife until the 
whole precefs is concluded, nor 
furrender his place to another per- 
fon, excepting the Emperor, thould 
he happen to be prefent.. The af- 
{eflor wha accufes, takes an oath 
that the delinquent is guilty of the 
crime; and immediately the name 
of the accufed is written down ina 
book, called the Boek of Blood. 
If another than an aflefor accufes, 
,he is brought into the court hold- 
ing the writ of accufation folded 
up in his hands, with a green crofs, 
anda pair of white gloves, The 
afleflor was accuftomed to touch 
thofe whom they called tojudgment 
Lightly with a red, or to whifper 
thefe myfterious werds :—* As good 
bread is eaten elfewhere as this.’ 
Should four affeffors, furprife a per- 
fon in the commiffion ef flagrcat 
crimes, they are empowered to try 
and hang him up on. the. fpot. 
Six weeks and three days are 
allowed for the appearance of the 
culprit; and the writ of accufation 
is given to two afleiiors, who de- 
clare, with an oaih, that they will 
make the citation atthe ftated time, 
and inform the. court when they 
fhall have effected it.. Should the 
perfon who is fummoned conceal 
himfelf, letters are, written to thefe 
among whom ke is hid, fignifying 
‘that he ought to furrencer himfelf 
.at a given time and place; and if 
he has taken an afylum ina for d- 
fied caftle, the citator goes citl er 
_by night or by day, on feet or cn 
his wife a widow, 
horfeback, cuts out three flips from 
a wooden rail, and places in the 
incifion a coin‘and the writ of cita- 
tion. He keeps the three flips as 
a memorial that he has) executed 
his commiffion, and calls out to the 
porter, to inform the man who has 
taken refuge within, that he is 
fummoned, and will find the writ 
inclofed in the rail. Ifthe accufed 
can nowhere be foind, the affef- 
fors proclaim him guilty towards the 
four corners of the world, | If, after 
three fummonfes, the accufed does 
not appear, the judge declares that 
he will proceed againft him as con- 
tumacious, and pronounce fentence 
on aftated day: having firft pro- 
claimed his name four times, he 
commands him to attend, and an- 
{wer to the charge... If after thefe 
fiummonfes the accufed does not 
make his appearance, then the judge 
proclaims, ‘In confequence of the 
fupreme law, which Charlemagne 
fanctioned, and Pope Leo confirm- 
ed, and which Princes, Counts, 
Nobles, Freemen, in the Saxon 
land, have {worn to obferve, I caft 
this man from the higheft to the 
loweft degrée ; I deprive him of all ° 
privileges, liberties, immunities, and 
righis; I fubject him to the Royal 
Ban, to hatred, to execratioéns, to 
hofiility, and to the greateft poftble 
_punifhment which can be conceived 
by man, I render him incapable 
of all law and pardon; Achloes, Re- 
chioes, Segeloes, Wedeloes.  Laft- 
ly, according to the laws of this tri- 
bunal, I condemn him to death; 
Ladjudge his neck to the halter, his 
body to birds of prey, to be con- 
fumed in the air; his: fouloli com- 
-mend to-God; his fiefs and ‘eftates, 
it he has any, J pronounce to-have 
lapfed to the Sovereign; I declare 
and his children 
orphans.* 
