Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/133

 4. GREEN: HENRY II 119 save from the miraculous aid of the saints ; and society at that time, as indeed it has been known to do in later days, was for ever appealing from the iniquity of law to God, — to a God who protected murderers if they murdered Jews, and defended robbers if they plundered usurers, who was, indeed, above all law, and was supposed to distribute a vio- lent and arbitrary justice, answering to the vulgar notion of an equity unknown on earth. We catch a glimpse of a trial of the time in the story of a certain Ailward, whose neighbour had refused to pay a debt which he owed him. Ailward took the law into his own hands, and broke into the house of his debtor, who had gone to the tavern and had left his door fastened with the lock hanging down outside, and his children playing within. Ailward carried off as security for his debt the lock, a gim- let, and some tools, and a whetstone which hung from the roof. As he sauntered home, however, his furious neighbour overtook him, having heard from the children what had been done. He snatched the whetstone from Ailward's hand and dealt him a blow on the head with it, stabbed him in the arm with a knife, and then triumphantly carried him to the house which he had robbed, and there bound him as " an open thief " with the stolen goods upon him. A crowd gathered round, and an evil fellow, one Fulk, the apparitor, an under- ling of the sheriff employed to summon criminals to the court, remarked that as a thief could not legally be mutilated unless he had taken to the value of a shilling, it would be well to add a few articles to the list of stolen goods. Per- haps Ailward had won ill-fame as a creditor, or even, it may be, a money-lender in the village, for his neighbours clearly bore him little good-will. The crowd readily con- sented. A few odds and ends were gathered — a bundle of skins, gowns, linen, and an iron tool, — and were laid by Ailward's side; and the next day, with the bundle hung about his neck, he was taken before the sheriflF and the knights, who were then holding a Shire Court. The matter was thought doubtful; judgment was delayed, and Ailward was made fast in Bedford jail for a month, till the next county court. There the luckless man sent for a priest of