ESCHEATS, "the blind _escheats_" (R183,_d_), lands or tenements which fell to the crown or lord of the fee through failure of heirs or corruption of blood: the latter kind was abolished by the Felony Act, 33 & 34 Vict., ch. xxiii. "The last consequence of tenure in chivalry was _escheat_; which took place if the tenant died without heirs of his blood, or if his blood was corrupted by commission of treason or felony. In such cases the land escheated or fell back to the lord--that is, the tenure was determined by breach of the original condition of the feudal donation. In the one case there were no heirs of the blood of the first feudatory, to which heirs alone the grant of the feud extended; in the other the tenant, by perpetrating an atrocious crime, forfeited his feud, which he held under the implied condition that he should not be a traitor or felon."--Blackstone, _Commentaries_, bk. ii., ch. 3. EXALTATIONS, "follow their good _exaltations_" (R234,_d_), exhortations. EXTENT, "at the highest _extent_," etc. (R219,_a_), sale under compulsory powers (M). EXTREATS, "the scape of extreats" (R183,_d_), _i.e._ estreats, enforced by trick. At law an estreat is an official copy of the specification of fines or penalties (such as a forfeited recognisance for use of the bailiff or sheriff's officer in levying). "A forfeited recognisance," if taken by a justice of the peace, "is certified to the next sessions; and if the condition be broken by any breach of the peace in the one case, or any misbehaviour in the other, the recognisance becomes forfeited or absolute; and being _estreated_ or extracted, taken out from among the other records, and sent up to the Exchequer; the party and his sureties, having now become absolute debtors of the Crown, are sued for the several sums in which they are respectively bound."--Blackstone, _Comment._, bk. iv., ch. 18. See Respublica for authorities dealing with the systems of extortion referred to in these lines. FAITOUR, "ye are no _faitour_" (M12,_c_), deceiver, imposter: a generic reproach. "There be many of you _faitours_."--Gower, _Confessio Amantis_ (1393), i. 47. FALL, "_fall_ back, _fall_ edge" (R250,_b_), _i.e._ whichever way it turns out I am prepared (edge = aside or sideways). FARTHING, "I may not change a man a _farthing_" (M18,_b_), in the least or smallest degree. A farthing, the fourth part of a penny, and the smallest copper coin current in Great Britain, is mentioned as far back as Robert of Gloucester. It seems to have become a simile of small value or amount in most early writers. "In hire suppe was no _ferthing_ sene Of grese, whan she dronken hadde hire drauht."--Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_ (1383), Prologue, 134. FASHION, see I-fashion.