y stirring. But the feudal system was not devised
for the purposes of love, and matrimony, while not inherently prejudicial
to them, omitted, as an institution, to consider love at all. Love was not
regarded as compatible with marriage and a lady married to one man was
openly adored by another, whom she honored at least with her colors, which
he wore quite as openly in war and in war's splendid image which the
tournament was.

In circumstances such as these and in spite of ideals and injunctions, it
becomes obvious if only from the _Chansons de geste_, which are replete
with lovers' inconstancies, that the hacking of spurs could not have
continued except at the expense of the entire caste. The ceremony was one
that hardly survived the early investitures of the men-at-arms of God. It
was too significant in beauty.

The fault lay not with chivalry but with the thousand-floored prison that
feudalism was. In it a lady's affections were administered for her.
Marriage she might not conclude as she liked. If she were an heiress it
was arranged not in accordance with her choice but her suzerain's wishes
and in no circumstances could it be contracted without his consent. Under
the feudal system land was held subject to military service and in the
event of the passing of a fief to a girl, the overlord, whose chief
concern was the number of his retainers, could not, should war occur, look
to her for aid. The result being that whatever vassal he thought could
serve him best, he promptly gratified with the land and the lady, who of
the two counted least.[38]

The proceeding, if summary, was not necessarily disagreeable. Girls whose
accomplishments were limited to the singing of a lai or the longer romaunt
and who perhaps could also strum a harp, were less fastidious than they
have since become. Advanced they may have been in manners but in delicacy
they were not. Their conversation as reported in the fabliaux and novelle
was disquietingly frank. When, as occasionally occurred, the overlord
omitted to provide a husband, not infrequently they demanded that he
should. As with girls, so with widows. Usually they were remarried at once
to men who had lost the right to kill them but who might beat them
reasonably in accordance with the law.[39]

The law was that of the Church who, in authorizing a reasonable beating,
may have had in view the lady's age, which sometimes was tender. Legally a
girl could not be married until she was twelv