Other pecuniary payments, in the shape of aids, as they are called, may, under certain circumstances, be exacted from the tenant. Whenever the baron's daughter, whom we saw just now walking on the parapet of the castle, her half-drawn veil blown aside by the evening breeze, shall be married to the young count, whom she was watching as he kissed and waved his hand on his prancing steed, and then vanished among the trees--whenever the eldest son, the heir of his father's estates and honours, shall be made a knight--or whenever it shall happen that the baron himself is taken captive, and a ransom is demanded for his release, the tenant will be bound to contribute pecuniary aids to his lord, which aids appear to be unfixed in their amount, and to depend much on the arbitrary will of the exactor. Soon a quarrel breaks out between the baron and another noble, and as there is no common jurisdiction to decide the matter, in these times, when the royal authority over its vassals has sunk into utter inefficiency, an appeal is made to arms. It is one of the savage but boasted rights of the barons, that they are at liberty thus to settle their disputes by the sword. The vassals must be armed to attend their lord to the field, and, therefore, the young knight must mount his horse and follow his feudal master to the scene of conflict. Forty days' service may be demanded from all who hold a knight's fee; but the law as to the distance to which they are bound to follow their lord, is by no means fixed: according to the usage, in some baronies, the vassal is not bound to go beyond the limits of the lordship; in other cases, he must follow wherever his superior may lead, provided it be not more than a day's journey from home. Upon the knights in this barony, we will suppose, it is obligatory to attend upon their suzerain to a much greater distance. The battle has been fought--the victory gained: and now the knight returns to his home, and suspends his shield and helmet in the paternal hall.