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[001] he was released by the king's bailiff (or ‘until A. gave so much for his ransom’).
 [002] And that he did this wickedly and feloniously he offers to prove by his body [or in
 [003] the other way] as the king's court may award.’ He may also appeal another as
 [004] accessory and another as instigator.

B. comes and makes denial.


 [006] ‘And B. comes and denies force and wrong and breach of the king's peace, and the
 [007] taking and the imprisonment and the detention in prison and the ransom for so
 [008] many shillings, the wounding and the mayhem, and whatever is alleged against
 [009] him in the form in which it is alleged aginst him, by his body as the king's court may
 [010] award.’ Then whether he defends himself by his body or in the other way,1 since he
 [011] has his choice, let the procedure be as above in the other appeals, [unless he has
 [012] defences and exceptions, which he ought to put forward at once in order to avoid
 [013] the appeal,

Of the exceptions against an appeal of this kind.


 [015] for, as in other appeals, he may pray that it be allowed on his behalf that the
 [016] appellor did not raise the hue, or did not make suit, as above,2 or that there is a
 [017] variance in his appeal;3 or he may admit [the imprisonment and say] that he did
 [018] not imprison him as a free man but as his villein and nativus, in support of which,
 [019] if the appellor replies that he is free, let him immediately produce the appellor's
 [020] villein kinsmen that they may acknowledge that they are villeins,] and let the
 [021] matter be decided accordingly, either by his body or by the country.

This appeal may be sued civilly or criminally, with or without the assignment of felony, [and] depending on the words of the appeal a [corporal] punishment, or [a pecuniary penalty] according to the seriousness of the offence follows.4


 [023] In an appeal of breach of the peace and wounding and imprisonment, though the
 [024] deed is criminal,5 the suit may be brought civilly, as where one says, as though
 [025] complaining of an injuria,6 and without adding words of felony, that such a one
 [026] imprisoned such a one against the peace of the lord of that court,7 or if the complaint
 [027] is in a city, vill or borough, against the peace of the lords and the peace of the bailiffs,8
 [028] [or] if it is in the county court, against the sheriff's peace.9 [If [he speaks] of
 [029] the king's peace, even without assignment of felony, no common person may intermeddle,
 [030] the sheriff or any other;10 that is, the sheriff may not do so in his own name
 [031] but only in the name of the king whose peace is named.]11 No corporal punishment
 [032] then follows, only a pecuniary penalty by way of damages,12 [which would be
 [033] otherwise if felony were assigned, where the inquest is a matter for the king alone,
 [034] because life and members are placed in jeopardy,13

Notes

1. ‘vel alio modo’ from line 9

2. Supra 394, 409

3. Supra 395

4. ‘secundum verba ... delicti,’ from lines 21-2

5. Supra 291, 396, infra 425

6. As though it were an actio iniuriarum; but see Woodbine in Yale L. Jour., xxxiii, 369-70

7. Infra 436

8. Infra 436, n. 13; Eng. Hist. Rev., xli, 33

9. Infra 436

10. Infra 436, 437

11. Supra 300, 332, infra 437, 439

12. Supra 290, 359, infra 436, 437, 438, iv, 363

13. Infra 441

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