"Sir Yvo de Taillebois is the appellant," said the high-constable. "Do you take up the glove, and are you ready in like manner to defend your charge with your body?"

"I am ready, with my own body, or with that of my champion; for, unless the wager of battle be deferred these two months, I may not brook the weight of my armor, or wield a sword, as my leech has herein on oath testified;" and, with the words, he handed a scroll to the court.

"Thou hast the right to appear by thy champion. To defer the trial were unseemly," said the constable, after a moment's consultation with the mareschal. "Take up his glove, Sir Yvo de Taillebois."

De Taillebois took it up; and both parties being called upon to produce their pledges, Sir Yvo de Taillebois gave Lord Dacre and Sir Hugo le Norman, and Sir Foulke d'Oilly, Sir Reginald Maltravers and Sir Humphrey Bigod, who became their godfathers, as it is termed, for the battle. Whereupon, Sir Humphrey de Bohun, the high-constable, thus spoke, and the herald, following his words, made proclamation—

"Hear ye, Sir Yvo de Taillebois and Sir Foulke d'Oilly, appellant and appellee; ye shall present yourselves, you Sir Yvo de Taillebois, appellant, in your own person, or by your champion, to be by this court approved, and you, Sir Foulke d'Oilly, appellee, in your person, in the tilt-yard of this Castle of Lancaster, at ten o'clock of the morning of the third day hereafter, to do battle to the uttermost on this quarrel. And the terms of battle shall be these—on foot, shall ye fight; on a spot of dry and even ground, sixty paces in length, and forty in breadth, inclosed with barriers seven feet high, with no one within them, to aid or abet you, save God and your own prowess. Your weapons shall be a long sword and a short sword, and a dagger; but your arms defensive may be at your own will; and ye shall fight until one of you be slain, or shall have yielded, or until the stars be seen in heaven. And the conditions of the battle are these; if the appellee slay the appellant, or force him to cry 'craven,' or make good his defense until the stars be seen in heaven, then shall he, the appellee, be acquitted of the murder. But if the appellant slay the appellee, or force him to cry 'craven,' or if the appellee refuse to continue the fight, then shall he, the appellee, be held convicted of the murder. And whosoever of the two shall be slain, or shall cry 'craven,' or shall refuse to continue the fight, shall be stripped of his armor, where he lies, and shall be dragged by horses out of the lists, by a passage made in one of the angles, and shall be hanged, in the presence of the mareschal; and his escutcheon shall be reversed, and his name shall be declared infamous forever. This is the sentence of this court, therefore—that on the third day hence, ye do meet in the tilt-yard of this Castle of Lancaster, at ten o'clock of the morning, and there do battle, in this quarrel, to the uttermost. And so may God defend the right!"

Before the court adjourned, a messenger came into the hall from the grand jury, and Kenric was re-conducted into the presence, still ironed, and in custody of the officers.

Sir Ranulf de Glanville opened the parchment scroll, and read aloud, as follows—

"In the case of Kenric surnamed the Dark, accused of deer-slaying, against the forest statute, and of murder, or homicide, both alleged to have been done and committed in the forest of Sherwood, on the 13th day of September last passed, the grand inquest, now in session, do find that there is no bill, nor any cause of process.

"Done and delivered in Lancaster Castle, this 6th day of December, in the year of Grace 1184.

"Walleran de Vipont,
"Foreman of ye Grand Inquest."