Some have maintained that the benefices granted, in the way described, were originally revocable by the lord at pleasure, and that it was not till some time afterwards that an hereditary interest was possessed by the tenant; but Mr. Hallam, whose learning and judgment in such matters are equally admirable, questions this, and believes that hereditary fiefs obtained in many instances, from the beginning. Subinfeudation, or the parcelling out a territory to a number of under-tenants, was an early result, proceeding from the possession of hereditary benefices. Traces of this practice are found in the times of Pepin, king of France; they are more numerous under Charlemagne; and in later times they are so general as to prove that the custom was nearly universal. Thus two classes of fiefs arose--the _royal_, or principal fiefs, held immediately from the crown; and the _arrière_, or subordinate fiefs, which were dependent upon the nobility. The parties who had received their fiefs from the king swore allegiance to him as their lord; and they, in their turn, exacted a similar oath of fidelity from their own tenants. Still, only some part of the property of a country was held on the feudal tenure; a considerable part remained allodial, or free. But what guarantee had the proprietor for quiet possession? A number of small landholders found themselves surrounded by mighty chieftains, whose estates were extensive, and whose power was increased by the number of vassals they gathered about them through the practice of subinfeudation. In an age when the spirit of justice was scarcely known--when law furnished no shield of protection--the freeholder was constantly exposed to the oppression of his haughty neighbours. If some feudal baron cast his eye upon the field of the allodialist, as Ahab did on Naboth's vineyard, it was in vain for the proprietor to resist. It was better to yield it up to him at once, as a feudal estate, and to occupy it as a fief incident to certain services, than to have it taken away altogether, or even subjected to depredation and pillage. Beside, in seasons of anarchy and war, when foreign enemies invaded a kingdom, or rapacious lords issued from their castles to gather a harvest of spoil, the possessor of an independent estate felt that if he would keep what he had, it would be better for him to put himself and his estate under the wing of feudalism, and thus secure the only kind of protection which the times afforded.