Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/324

180 1 80 ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE, PART against the crown itself, it was set in motion at the '. suggestion of the latter, and limited in its opera- tion to the maintenance of public order. The crimes, reserved for its jurisdiction, were all vio- lence or theft committed on the highways or in the open country, and in cities by such offenders as es- caped into the country ; house-breaking ; rape ; and resistance of justice. The specification of these crimes shows their frequency ; and the reason for designating the open country, as the particular the- atre for the operations of the hermandad, was the facility which criminals possessed there for elud- ing the pursuit of justice, especially under shelter of the strong-holds or fortresses, with which it was plentifully studded. An annual contribution of eighteen thousand maravedies was assessed on every hundred vcci- nos or householders, for the equipment and mainte- nance of a horseman, whose duty it was to arrest offenders, and enforce the sentence of the law. On the flight of a criminal, the tocsins of the villages, through which he was supposed to have passed, were sounded, and the quadrilleros or ofifi- cers of the brotherhood, stationed on the different points, took up the pursuit with such promptness as left little chance of escape. A court of two al- caldes was established in every town containing thirty families, for the trial of all crimes within the jurisdiction of the hermandad ; and an appeal lay from them in specified cases to a supreme council. A general junta, composed of deputies from the cities throughout the kingdom, was annually con-