[64] For full explanation of the different legal phases presented in this poem, see, Neilson’s “Trial by Combat,” pp. 180, 188. [65] See White’s “Law in Shakespeare,” for full discussion of this and other scenes on “Trial by battle,” as used by Shakespeare. [66] King Richard II., Act I., scenes I. and III. [67] King Richard II., Act IV., Scene I. The dramatic quarrel between Henry, earl of Hereford (afterward King Henry IV.) and the Duke of Norfolk, presented by Shakespeare in his play, Richard II., is described by a graphic writer in Herbert’s “Antiquities,” pp. 145, 146. [68] King Richard II., Act IV., Scene I. [69] Act IV., Scene I. [70] Act I., Scene III., and Act II., Scene III. [71] King Lear, Act V., Scene III. For exposition of the above portions of Shakespeare’s plays, dealing with “Trial by Battle,” see, White’s “Law in Shakespeare,” Sec. 191, pp. 229, 232. [72] The combat between the Clan Chattan and Clan Kay, on the Inch of Perth, made memorable by this great novelist, actually occurred in the year 1396. (Neilson’s “Trial by Combat,” 239; 244; 250; Bower, xv, ch. 3.) CHAPTER V. TRIAL BY ORDEAL. Trial by ordeal was the method used to ascertain the guilt or innocence of a person accused of crime, according to his ability to perform certain acts, or accomplish results which would, in the ordinary course of events, be hurtful to him.[1] If the suspected criminal was injured or killed in the performance of the act required of him, he was adjudged guilty, but if he performed the part assigned to him without injury, he was declared innocent. The tests that the suspected person was subjected to were called ordeals,[2] or judgments of God. The custom of referring disputed questions such as the guilt or innocence of a person accused of crime, to the judgment of God, to be determined either by lot, or the success of certain dangerous experiments, has existed, from the earliest times, among various widely separated nations and peoples.[3] We find that according to the “law of jealousies,” laid down in the Mosaic code Fifteen hundred years before Christ, the guilt of a woman, accused of infidelity, by her husband, was determined according to this trial of ordeal, for it is recorded: “And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled; then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest.... And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness; with another, instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water, that causeth the curse: ... And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse; and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter....