“And if he will defend it by _combat_, he is then obliged to defend the right of the demandant word to word as he sheweth it against him, either by himself or some other fitting person; but note, that after the _combate_ shall be thereupon waged, it behoveth him who holdeth the land, to defend it by _combate_, and thenceforth not to put himself into the _great assize_; and, after the _combat_ waged, he may again reasonably essoins himself thrice, as for his own person, and thrice for the person of his champion. All which essoins being made, as they rightly ought to be, it is necessary that, before the _combat_ be begun, the plaintiff do appear in court, and have his champion there in readiness to fight; nor may he bring any other champion than one of those, upon whom he did put the trial of his cause; neither may he change another for him, after the first waging of the battle.... “And if the defender (i. e., the champion) shall happen to be vanquished, his lord shall lose the land by him claimed, with the profits and commodities thereof, at the time of the seisin found in that fee, and shall never after be heard in court again for the same; but whatsoever things shall be determined by combat in the court of our lord the king are to remain firm forever; and thereupon there shall be a precept directed to the shireeve, that the victor shall have the land which was in dispute.... “This, if the demandant shall prevail in the combat; but if he be overthrown by the vanquishing of his champion, then the tenant shall be acquitted from his claim without recovery by the demandant.”[35] Selden describes the ceremony governing the civil combat, upon issue joined upon a writ of right,[36] as follows: “A piece of ground is in due time set out of sixty feet square, enclosed with lists; and on one side, a court erected for the judges of the court of common pleas, who attend there in their scarlet robes; and also a bar is prepared for the learned serjeants at law. When the court sits, which ought to be by sun-rising, proclamation is made for the parties and their champions, who are introduced by two knights, and are in a coat of armour, with red sandals, bare-legged from the knee downward, bare-headed, and with bare arms to the elbows. The weapons allowed them are only _batons_, or staves of an ell long and a four-cornered leather target, so that death very seldom ensued this civil combat ...