"The writ _de Nativo Habendo_ lieth for the lord who claimeth inheritance in any villein, _when his villein is run from him_, and is remaining within any place out of the manor unto which he is regardant, or when he departeth from his lord against the lord's will: and the writ shall be directed unto the sheriff.... And the sheriff may seize the villein, and deliver him unto his lord, if the villein confess unto the sheriff that he is his villein; but if the villein say to the sheriff that he is frank, then it seemeth that the sheriff ought not to seize him: as it is in a replevin, if the defendant claim property, the sheriff cannot replevy the cattle, but the party ought to sue a writ _de Proprietate Probanda_: and so if the villein say that he is a freeman, &c., then the sheriff ought not to seize him, but then the lord ought to sue a _Pone_ to remove the plea before the Justices in the Common Pleas, or before the Justices in Eyre. But if the villein purchase a writ _de Libertate Probanda_ before the lord hath sued the _Pone_ to remove the plea before the Justices, then that writ of _Libertate Probanda_ is a _Supersedeas_ unto the lord, that he proceed not upon the writ of _Nativo Habendo_ till the Eyre of the Justices, or till the day of the plea be adjourned before the Justices, and that the lord ought not to seize the villein in the mean time."[179] [179] Fitzherbert, Natura Brevium, Vol. I. p. 77. These authorities are not merely applicable to the general question of freedom, but they distinctly contemplate the case of _fugitive_ slaves, and the "suits at Common Law" for their rendition. Blackstone speaks of villeins who "ran away"; Hargrave of "fugitive villeins"; Comyns of a villein "who flies from his lord against his will"; and Fitzherbert of the proceedings of the lord "when his villein is run from him." The forms, writs, counts, pleadings, and judgments in these suits are all preserved among the precedents of the Common Law. The writs are known as original writs, which the party on either side, at the proper stage, could sue out of right without showing cause. The writ of _Libertate Probanda_ for a fugitive slave was in this form:-- "LIBERTATE PROBANDA.