He endeavoured to push past Harry; but the latter barred the way, saying: ‘You’ll have poor old Captain West up as a felon! Why, man, you’re mad! A simple old man like that, who never stirs beyond his garden, who never said an evil thing of any one, much less did a wrong to any one! Come, be more explicit.’
‘I’ve said more than I intended,’ continued Rodley; ‘and you don’t get another word out of me.’
Again he tried to get past Harry, and again Harry prevented him, saying: ‘Neither of us shall budge from here until I find out more about this.’
Rodley made a desperate effort to get past Harry. The two men struggled together, and as they were evenly matched in weight and strength, the issue was doubtful. Suddenly, Rodley loosened his hold of Harry’s arms, stooped, caught him by the legs, and jerked him over the steep side of the rampart. Harry fell heavily, struck a projecting mass of stone half-way down, and rolled amongst the sharp stones and rubbish at the bottom, where he lay motionless and bleeding. Rodley did not stop to look after him, but walked rapidly back into the town.
TRIAL BY ORDEAL.
One of the most remarkable judicial systems of olden times was the trial by ordeal, a mode of procedure founded on the presumption that, should a person be wrongfully accused, heaven would interpose, and in some marked way make his innocence undeniable. With the exception of China, this test was of almost universal adoption in the middle ages; and, whilst still surviving amongst the uneducated portion of most civilised communities, is even nowadays largely practised by uncultured races. As far as its origin is concerned, it may be traced back to remote antiquity; and the bitter water by which conjugal infidelity was revealed—an ordeal pure and simple—will readily occur to the biblical student as an interesting instance in Hebrew legislation and history. Herodotus relates how King Amasis—whose reign immediately preceded the invasion of Cambyses—‘was, when a private person, fond of drinking and jesting, and by no means inclined to serious business. As soon, however, as means failed him for the indulgence of his amusements, he used to go about pilfering; and such persons as accused him of having stolen their property—on his denying it—were wont to take him to the oracle of the place, where he was oftentimes convicted, and occasionally acquitted.’ The Greeks had their ordeals, a good illustration of which occurs in the Antigone of Sophocles, where the soldiers offer to prove their innocence in various ways:
Ready with hands to bear the red-hot iron,
To pass through fire, and by the gods to swear,
That we nor did the deed, nor do we know
Who counselled it, nor who performed it.