"And if it happen so that the King would take the quarrel in his hand and make them accorded without more fighting, then the Constable taking the one party and the Marshal the other shall lead them before the King, and he showing them his will, the said Constable and Marshal shall lead them to the one part of the lists with all their points and armour as they are found, and having when the King took the quarrel in his hand as is said. And so they shall be led out of the gate of the lists evenly, so that the one go not before the other by no way and nothing, for sen he hath taken the quarrel in his hand, it should be dishonest that either of the parties should have more disworship than the other. Wherefore it hath been said by many ancient men that he that goeth first out of the lists hath the disworship and this as well in cause of treason as in other cause whatsoever it be." It cannot be repeated too often or too clearly understood that the duel was not exclusively a chivalrous custom, confined to those of high station. Like the ordeal, it was prescribed, as a mode of juridical determination, for burgesses and others, though, as we have shown, equality of rank was postulated in the combatants no less than equality of "points." By way of illustration we may turn to the annals of Leicester, where wager of battle was enforced on the townsmen for the settlement of their disputes. We have seen that knights undertook to bring matters to a conclusion within the space of one hour. Honest burgesses, less expert in the use of lethal weapons, and either less courageous or less callous in taking human life, appear to have shown extremely poor "sport" in their involuntary matches. At Leicester a combat is recorded to have commenced at 6 a.m. and continued till 3 p.m., when it was terminated through one of the parties falling into a pit. The character of the affair and the behaviour of the champions occasioned a great scandal; and the townsmen, in order to prevent a repetition of the incident, engaged to pay the Earl their lord three pence for each house, on condition that the "twenty-four jurors who were in Leicester from ancient times should from that time forward discuss and decide all pleas they might have among themselves." In London and other chartered towns parties to a quarrel could not be made to fight against their will. The rule was that wager of battle did not lie between two freemen without the consent of both; and a case is on record in which one citizen, having been charged with felony and robbery, offered to defend himself with his body. The appellor declined dereignment by battle, and so it was decided that the accused should be tried by the Middle Law, with eighteen compurgators.