absurd a notion as that conception evidenced consent, should in modern times have obtained amongst any whose education and intellect were superior to those of an old nurse is indeed surprising: at this day, however, facts and theory concur to prove that the assentation of nature in this respect, is no ways connected with volition of mind.” _Burn’s Just. tit._ Rape. It is not necessary that the quantum of violence be extreme; it is sufficient that the offence is committed without consent; as where a woman is violated in her sleep, or during a fit, and query if she have been intoxicated for that special purpose, so that in truth she should have no rational power to consent or deny; or if the ravisher imposed himself in the night, on a married woman as her husband. If a woman be compelled by violence to marry, and carnal knowledge be had by force, it is a rape, 1 _Hale_, 629; but as there is another remedy by _statute_ 3 _Hen._ 7. _c._ 2. for the forcible abduction, it is not necessary to enquire whether an indictment will lie, until the marriage be dissolved. Nor will a subsequent marriage purge the offence: formerly “it was held for law, that the woman (by consent of the judge and her parents) might redeem the offender from the execution of his sentence, by accepting him for her husband, if he also was willing to agree to the exchange, but not otherwise.” _Glanv. l._ 14. _c._ 6. _Bract. l._ 3. _c._ 28.; and this was reasonable while the prosecution was at the suit of the party by appeal, for as the king could not pardon, the power of remission might be properly left to the person injured; but that outrages might not be too readily compromised to the injury of public justice, the statue 6 _Rich._ 2 _st._ 1. _c._ 6. enacts, that the woman consenting, and the ravisher, be “disabled to challenge all inheritance, dower, or joint feoffment, after the death of their husbands and ancestors,” and the husband, or if she have none, the father or next of blood shall have the appeal[638]. But Rape having been made felony by _Stat. West._ 2. _c._ 34. and a new appeal given, the option of the woman is now taken away. It would have been unnecessary to have dwelt on this point if a vulgar error did not to this day prevail among the lower orders, that the punishment of Rape might be escaped by the connivance of the nominal prosecutrix, even after judgement. The party grieved is so much considered as a witness of necessity in this, as in other personal injuries, that in Lord _Castlehaven’s_ case, who assisted[639] another man in ravishing his own wife, she was admitted as a witness against him. The same testimony was received in Lord _Audley’s_ case[640], 1 _East. P.C._ 444. 1 _Hall_, 629: 1 _St._ Tri. 387. 1 _Stra._ 633. _Hutt._ 116.[641]