In Germany the custom was not uniform. In the Sachsenspiegel, and in one text of the Schwabenspiegel, the principle is laid down that a defeated appellant escaped with a fine to the judge and to his adversary, while the defendant, if vanquished, was visited with the punishment due to his crime, or even with a heavier penalty;[544] while the Saxon burgher law and another text of the Suabian code direct that whichever party be defeated should lose a hand, or be executed, according to the gravity of the crime alleged.[545] An exceptional case, moreover, was provided for, in which both antagonists might suffer the penalty; thus, when a convicted thief accused a receiver of stolen goods of having suggested the crime, the latter was bound to defend himself by the duel, and if defeated, both combatants were hanged without further ceremony.[546] That these penalties were not merely nominal is shown by a case which occurred at Frankfort in 1369, when the divine interference was requisite, not to determine the victor, but to evade the enforcement of the law. Two knights, Zierkin von Vola and Adolf Hanche, who had married two sisters, quarrelled over the inheritance of a deceased brother-in-law, and agreed to settle their difference by the duel. When the appointed day came, October 12, they entered the lists on their chargers, prepared to do battle to the death, while their pious wives were earnestly praying God to soften their hearts and incline them to peace. These prayers were heard. With a mutual impulse the two warriors leaped from their horses, throwing themselves into each other’s arms and exclaiming, “Brother, I confess myself vanquished.” The chief magistrate of the city, who presided over the combat, was not disposed to deprive the spectators of their promised entertainment, and indignantly declared that the law of the duel did not permit both antagonists to depart unhurt, for the one who yielded must be put to death; and he confirmed this sentence by a solemn oath that one or the other should die before he would taste food. Then an affecting contest arose between the late antagonists, each one proclaiming himself the vanquished and demanding the penalty on his own head, when suddenly divine vengeance visited the bloody and remorseless judge, who fell dead, thus fulfilling his impious vow that he would not eat until he had a victim.[547]