We have stated that the king claimed the disposal of the hands and fortunes of heiresses: the barons claimed a still greater privilege from their tenants. In some localities the feudal lord insisted upon enjoying the person of one of the daughters of each tenant who happened to be blessed with a plurality of them. He returned her to her parents within a given time. Every extreme is followed by a reaction in the opposite direction. The abject condition of women, as indicated by the foregoing facts, led to the institution of chivalry, which elevated her from the position of a slave, and the mere instrument of sensual gratification, to that almost of a deity, thus assigning her a rank as much above her real sphere as her former one had been beneath it. Previous to the advent of this system, women could not appear at any public exhibition or place of amusement unless accompanied by a band of armed retainers. Any female encountered alone and unprotected was liable to insult. Chivalry, if it did not put an end to, greatly modified this state of things. By its rules each of its members was constituted a champion of female virtue and honor. No man was admitted into the order whose valor was not above suspicion, and a word uttered by him derogatory to the _beau sexe_ excluded him from its ranks. No woman, however, was deemed worthy of knightly protection who had not preserved her honor, it being to that quality alone that knighthood volunteered its safeguard. At public ceremonies, if a woman of easy virtue ventured to take precedence of a woman of honorable fame, she was immediately reminded of the impropriety of her conduct by some member of the order, and compelled to retire to the rear. This recognition of virtue had a strong tendency to promote female chastity. It could not put a stop to voluntary prostitution, but it at least prevented virtuous women being necessitated to yield their honor to force. It held out, moreover, an attractive premium to correct conduct among the sex by making it the object of heroic exploits, celebrated in the romantic lays of minstrels and troubadours. Its observances have a fantastic aspect in the light of modern civilization, but they unquestionably exercised a powerful corrective influence over the female character, so degraded at its commencement, while, at the same time, they elevated that of the male sex by teaching them to respect themselves.