“Gif fæderenmǽga mǽgleás mon gefeohte and mon ofsleá, and ðonne gif he médrenmǽgas hæbbe, gylden ðá ðæs weres þriddan dǽl, þriddan dǽl ða gegyldan, for þriddan dǽl he fleó. Gif he médrenmǽgas náge, gylden ða gegyldan healfne, for healfne he fleó. Gif mon swá gerádne mon ofsleá, gif he mǽgas náge, gylde mon healfne cyninge, healfne ðám gegyldan.” Ælfr. § 27, 28. Thorpe, i. 78, 80. Footnote 486: Ælfr. § 41. Thorpe, i. 88. ----- The reciprocal rights and duties of the mǽgburh were similarly understood by Eádweard: he enacted that if a malefactor were deserted by his relatives, and they refused to make compensation for him, he should be reduced to serfage; but in this case his wergyld was to abate from the kindred[487]. And Æðelstan distinctly holds the mǽgð responsible for their kinsman. He says, “If a thief be put into prison, let him remain there forty days, and then let him be ransomed for 120 shillings, and let the kindred go surety for him that he shall cease from theft for the future. And if after that he steal, let them pay for him with his wergyld, or replace him in prison[488].” But he goes further than this, and imposes upon them the duty of finding a lord for him, or exposing him to the penalty of outlawry: “And we have ordained respecting those lordless men of whom no law can be got, that the kindred be commanded to domicile him to folkright, and find him a lord in the folkmote; and if then they will not or cannot produce him at the term, let him thenceforth be an outlaw, and let whoso cometh at him slay him[489]:” a provision which obviously cannot apply to free landowners, who would have been included in a tithing, and could not have been thus compulsorily commended to a lord. Where a man is slain as a thief, the relatives are to clear him, if they can[490], inasmuch as they would have a right to pursue the slayer and claim the compensation for their kinsman’s death. Again it is provided that if a lord has so many dependents that he cannot personally exercise a due supervision over them, he shall appoint efficient reeves or bailiffs in his several manors, to be answerable to him. And if need be, the bailiff shall cause twelve relatives of any man whom he cannot trust, to enter into sureties for him[491]. ----- Footnote 487: Eadw. ii. § 9. Æðelst. v. cap. 12, § 2. Thorpe, i. 164, 242. Footnote 488: Æðelst. i. § 1, 6; v. cap. 1, § 4, cap. 9. Thorpe, i. 198, 202, 228, 238. Footnote 489: Æðelst. i. § 2. Thorpe, i. 200. Upon the just principle that “He may die without law who refuseth to live by law.” “Utlagatus et weyviata capita gerunt lupina [wolves’ heads] quae ab omnibus impune poterunt amputari: merito enim sine lege perire debent, qui secundum legem vivere recusant.” Flet. lib. i. cap. 27, § 12, etc. Footnote 490: Æðelst. i. § 11. Thorpe, i. 204. Footnote 491: