[Footnote 492: When any one, says Bracton, speaking of the crime of læse majesty, knows another to be guilty, he is instantly to apprise the king, or one of his ministers. He should not abide in one place for two nights nor two days; but disregarding every other affair, however urgent, he should hasten to the king, scarcely daring to wait to look behind him. (Bracton 118. b. See also Fleta L. 1. c. 21. 22. and Mirror c. 8. s. 1.) In the latter Author, we find the following despotically comprehensive definition.—“Treason is every mischief which a man knowingly does or procures to be done to one he is in duty bound to be a friend to.”] [Footnote 493: This is a most singular part of the Code of the age when Glanville lived. The obligation upon a man to defend himself, when another starts forward to accuse him, seems the necessary result of men living together in a state of society, and, as coeval with society itself, is strongly enforced by the municipal Laws of every Nation. This seems to have been the object of the punishment _peine forte et dure_. That singular institution shewed a strong, but rough, hand in the Legislature, more capable of directing its laws to a good and wise _end_, than nice or happy in selecting the _means_. The proceeding was naturally abolished as the Law became more refined—more humanized. As to the passage of our Author’s text now before us, it receives some light from Bracton—a suggestion, for which I am indebted to Mr. Reeves’s valuable work. Bracton speaks of an Indictment _per famam patriæ_, which, in all probability, was the same proceeding our Author alludes to. The foundation of that proceeding was a presumption entertained by good and grave men who deserved credit, and not the flying report of common conversation. (143. a.) But the subject receives additional elucidation from the Norman Code. _In criminalibus tamen manifestis seu notoriis maliciis quos famâ publicâ seu fide dignorum testimonium nunciant culpabiles, non expectato Juris ordine debent arrestari et carceribus mancipari._ (Grand Cust. c. 4. and 68.) In Mr. Kelham’s translation of Britton’s Pleas of the Crown, (page 18. Note 15.) the Reader will find the valuable record of an Indictment on suspicion. The Reader may also be referred to Bracton 143.—LL. Hen. 1. c. 45.—Mirror c. 2. s. 22. and Fleta L. 1. c. 21.] [Footnote 494: “At the Common Law a man accused or indicted of High Treason, or of any felony whatsoever, was bailable, upon good security: for at the Common Law the Gaol was his pledge or security that could find none.” (2 Inst. 189.) This serves to elucidate the text, which is obscure from its brevity. A similar explanation is given in the progress of the present chapter, but is qualified, with the exception of the plea of Homicide.]