Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/93

Rh D. With all due reverence, one should not use examples but reasons in these matters.

M. That is so; but it happens, at times, that the causes of things and the reasons of sayings are secret, and then it suffices to bring up examples relating to them; especially if they are taken from the cases of prudent men, whose deeds are circumspect and are not done without reason. But whatever we have said about these things, taking part for this privilege or against it, thou may'st be sure that in this matter we have called nothing certain, unless what the authority of the king decreed should be observed. But the account of the forests and also the punishment or absolution of those who transgress with regard to them, whether it be a pecuniary or a corporal one, is kept separate from the other judgments of the kingdom, and is subjected to the will of the king alone or to that of some one of his intimates specially deputed for this purpose. It subsists by its own laws, which, they say, are not subject to the common law of the kingdom, but to the voluntary decree of the princes; so that whatever has been done according to its law may be said to be not absolutely just, but just according to the law of the forest. The forests, moreover, are the sanctuaries of kings and their greatest delight; thither they go for the sake of hunting, having laid aside their cares for a while, so that they may be refreshed by a short rest. There, the serious, and at the same time natural uproars of the court having ceased, they breathe in for a while the boon of pure liberty; whence it comes that they who transgress with regard to the forest are subject to the royal displeasure alone.

D. From my earliest youth I have learned that it is wrong for a prudent person to prefer to suffer ignorance rather than to demand the causes of things that have been said; in order, therefore, that the foregoing may more fully be made clear, do not put off revealing what a forest is, and what an essart.