The duel was employed for the determination not only of criminal, but of civil causes, and in such controversies the demandant, whatever his condition, might not engage in the combat himself, but was represented by a champion, who occupied the position of a witness. The claim would be made in some such form as the following: "I demand against B. one hide of land in such a vill (naming it) as my right and inheritance, of which my father (or grandfather, as it might be) was seised in his demesne as of fee, in the time of Henry I. (or, after the first coronation of the King, as it might be), and from which he received produce to the value of fifty shillings at least (as in corn, hay, and other produce); and this I am ready to prove by my freeman John, or if anything should happen to him, by him or him"--several might be named, though only one might wage battle--"who saw this." Or the form might conclude: "And this I am ready to prove by my freeman John, whom his father on his death-bed enjoined, by the faith a son owes his father, that if he ever heard of any plea being moved concerning this land, he would dereign (or prove) this, as what his father had seen or heard." The tenant might then defend himself in person or by deputy at his option. The demandant's champion was not to be a person hired for reward, and if he was convicted of receiving money or vanquished in a duel on the point of right, not only did the demandant lose his suit, but the champion forfeited his _legem terrae_--that is, he could never act in a similar capacity again--and was fined sixty shillings _nomine recreantisae_--for cowardice. In the reign of Henry II. these arrangements were modified, and the tenant might put himself on the assise. "The assise," says Glanville, "is a royal benefit conferred on the nation by the prince in his clemency, by the advice of his nobles, as an expedient whereby the lives and interests of his subjects might be preserved, and their property and rights enjoyed, without being any longer obliged to submit to the doubtful chance of the duel. After this the calamity of a violent death, which sometimes happened to champions, might be avoided, as well as the perpetual infamy and disgrace attendant on the vanquished, when he had pronounced the _infestum et inverecundum verbum_." The horrible word was "creaunt" (or craven). JUDICIAL CHAPTER XII OUTLAWRY Many of our ancient ballads and lyrics, such as the cycle of Robin Hood and that exquisite love-poem "The Nut-Brown Maid," are based on the custom of outlawry. One of the most charming of these early English productions is "The Tale of Gamelyn," in which we meet with the following passage alluding to the ban: