9. A momentary pause ensued. The main body of the suitors retreated from the high-sheriff, as though he had been a center of repulsion. After a short but vehement conversation among themselves, one of the bettermost sort of yeomen, a gentleman farmer, if we may use the modern term, stepped forward and addressed Sir Giles: "Your worship well knows that we, your commons, are not bound to proceed to the election. You have no right to call upon us to interfere. So many of the earls and barons of the shire, the great men, who ought to take the main trouble, burthen, and business of the choice of the knights upon themselves, are absent now in the king's service, that we neither can nor dare proceed to nominate those who are to represent the county. Such slender folks as we have no concern in these weighty matters. How can we tell who are best qualified to serve?"
10. "What of that, John Trafford?" said the sheriff. "Do you think that his Grace will allow his affairs to be delayed by excuses such as these? You suitors of the shire are as much bound and obliged to concur in the choice of the county members as any baron of the realm. Do your duty; I command you in the king's name!"
11. John Trafford had no help. Like a wise debater, he yielded to the pinch of the argument without confessing that he felt it; and, having muttered a few words to the sheriff, which might be considered as an assent, a long conference took place between him and some of his brother stewards, as well as with other suitors. During this confabulation several nods and winks of intelligence passed between Trafford and a well-mounted knight; and while the former appeared to be settling the business with the suitors, the latter, who had been close to Sir Giles, continued gradually backing and sidling away through the groups of shiresmen, and, just as he had got clear out of the ring, John Trafford declared, in a most sonorous voice, that the suitors had chosen Sir Richard de Pogeys as one of their representatives.
12. The sheriff, who, keeping his eye fixed upon Sir Richard as he receded, had evidently suspected some manœuvre, instantly ordered his bailiffs to secure the body of the member. "And," continued he with much vehemence, "Sir Richard must be forthwith committed to custody, unless he gives good bail—two substantial freeholders—that he will duly attend in his place among the commons on the first day of the session, according to the law and usage of Parliament."
13. All this, however, was more easily said than done. Before the verbal precept had proceeded from the lips of the sheriff, Sir Richard was galloping away at full speed across the fields. Off dashed the bailiffs after the member, amid the shouts of the surrounding crowd, who forgot all their grievances in the stimulus of the chase, which they contemplated with the perfect certainty of receiving some satisfaction by its termination; whether by the escape of the fugitive, in which case their common enemy, the sheriff, would be liable to a heavy amercement; [C] or by the capture of the knight, a result which would give them almost equal delight, by imposing a disagreeable and irksome duty upon an individual who was universally disliked, in consequence of his overbearing harshness and domestic tyranny.
14. One of the two above-mentioned gratifications might be considered as certain. But, besides these, there was a third contingent amusement, by no means to be overlooked, namely, the chance that in the contest those respectable and intelligent functionaries, the sheriff's bailiffs, might somehow or another come to some kind of harm. In this charitable expectation the good men of the shire were not entirely disappointed. Bounding along the open fields, while the welkin resounded with the cheers of the spectators, the fleet courser of Sir Richard sliddered on the grass, then stumbled and fell down the sloping side of one of the many ancient British intrenchments by which the plain was crossed, and, horse and rider rolling over, the latter was deposited quite at the bottom of the foss, unhurt, but much discomposed.
15. Horse and rider were immediately on their respective legs again: the horse shook himself, snorted, and was quite ready to start; but Sir Richard had to regird his sword, and before he could remount, the bailiffs were close at him. Dick-o'-the-Gyves attempted to trip him up, John Catchpole seized him by the collar of his pourpoint. [D] A scuffle ensued, during which the nags of the bailiffs slyly took the opportunity of emancipating themselves from control. Distinctly seen from the moot-hill, the strife began and ended in a moment; in what manner it had ended was declared without any further explanation, when the officers rejoined the assembly, by Dick's limping gait and the closed eye of his companion.
16. In the mean time Sir Richard had wholly disappeared, and the special return made by the sheriff to the writ, which I translate from the original, will best elucidate the bearing of the transaction:
"Sir Richard de Pogeys, knight, duly elected by the shire, refused to find bail for his appearance in Parliament at the day and place within mentioned, and having grievously assaulted my bailiffs in contempt of the king, his crown, and dignity, and absconded to the Chiltern Hundreds [E], into which liberty, not being shire-land or guildable, I can not enter, I am unable to make any other execution of the writ as far as he is concerned."
17. At the present day a nominal stewardship connected with the Chiltern Hundreds, called an office of profit under the crown, enables the member, by a species of juggle, to resign his seat. But it is not generally known that this ancient domain, which now affords the means of retreating out of the House of Commons, was in the fourteenth century employed as a sanctuary in which the knight of the shire took refuge in order to avoid being dragged into Parliament against his will. Being a distinct jurisdiction, in which the sheriff had no control, and where he could not capture the county member, it enabled the recusant to baffle the process, at least until the short session had closed.