[001] immediately re-ejects him, the heir will not recover by the assise as of his free tenement [002] because he did not find the seisin vacant.1 If the chief lord cannot eject the [003] heir, he ought to be ejected by a superior acting ex officio, since he [the lord] cannot [004] recover by the assise. When the chief lord has thus put himself into vacant seisin, [005] he either knows who the heir is or does not, or if two or more dispute the inheritance [006] he does not know which of them is the nearer heir, or if he knows which is the nearer [007] he does not know whether he is alive or not, of full age or not. [If] when the heir is [008] traveling abroad the chief lord enters into possession in his [the heir's] name, possession [009] is immediately acquired for the heir, even though he knows nothing of it, as by [010] the animus and corpus of a procurator.2 And so if the heir is present, whether of full [011] age or a minor. But if the lord does not know who the heir is, or if he knows, does not [012] know whether he is alive or dead, or if he is in doubt3 as to which of the several who [013] claim as heir is the nearer heir, through his seisin he does not acquire a free tenement [014] for any of them, since he entered into possession in the name of no certain person; in [015] such circumstances he may maintain himself in possession without acting contrary to [016] law until it is clear who the heir is.4 Hence if no heir appears the inheritance may be his [017] escheat, and if he is ejected he will recover his seisin as of his free tenement by the [018] assise of novel disseisin, [that is], until the heir is ascertained. Suppose that a chief [019] lord finds a younger brother or a bastard son who claims to be the lawful heir in [020] seisin. Quaere whether without incurring a penalty he can eject such persons without [021] judgment, when another is the heir apparent. It is evident that he cannot,5 for that [022] is to be done by the heir, not the chief lord, because if such persons, when they have [023] been ejected, bring an assise against the chief lord the exception of free tenement or [024] of bastardy does not lie for him. Such matters are no concern of his since there is an [025] heir apparent. But if there is none, these exceptions would be available to the lord [026] in the absence of an heir. [I say this unless such [persons] have been so long in possession [027] through the weakness or negligence of the chief lord that they cannot be ejected [028] without judgment.] If in the absence of the chief lord the true heir finds a bastard in [029] possession, or a near heir, as a younger brother, let him eject him at once and without [030] delay before he has long and peaceful seisin and thus, through time that suffices for [031] title, a free tenement, [for] he may not do so after a time, nor will he [the heir] [032] recover by an assise of novel disseisin, because the mere right which descends to [033] him is not immediately conjoined with seisin, nor does the assise of mortdancestor for [034] acquiring the seisin of an ancestor lie for him