from the roof. As he sauntered home, however,
his furious neighbour overtook him, having heard from the children what
had been done. He snatched the whetstone from Ailward's hand and dealt
him a blow on the head with it, stabbed him in the arm with a knife, and
then triumphantly carried him to the house which, he had robbed, and
there bound him as "an open thief" with the stolen goods upon him. A
crowd gathered round, and an evil fellow, one Fulk, the apparitor, an
underling of the sheriff employed to summon criminals to the court,
remarked that as a thief could not legally be mutilated unless he had
taken to the value of a shilling, it would be well to add a few articles
to the list of stolen goods. Perhaps Ailward had won ill-fame as a
creditor, or even, it may be, a money-lender in the village, for his
neighbours clearly bore him little goodwill. The crowd readily consented.
A few odds and ends were gathered--a bundle of skins, gowns, linen, and
an iron tool,--and were laid by Ailward's side; and the next day, with
the bundle hung about his neck, he was taken before the sheriff and the
knights, who were then holding a Shire Court. The matter was thought
doubtful; judgment was delayed, and Ailward was made fast in Bedford
jail for a month, till the next county court. There the luckless man sent
for a priest of the neighbourhood, and confessing his sins from his youth
up, he was bidden to hope in the prayers of the blessed Virgin and of all
the saints against the awful terrors of the law, and received a rod to
scourge himself five times daily; while through the gloom shone the
glimmer of hope that having been baptized on the vigil of Pentecost,
water could not drown him nor fire burn him if he were sent to the
ordeal. At last the month went by and he was again carried to the Shire
Court, now at Leighton Buzzard. In vain he demanded single combat with
Fulk, or the ordeal by fire; Fulk, who had been bribed with an ox,
insisted on the ordeal of water, so that he should by no means escape.
Another month passed in the jail of Bedford before he was given up to be
examined by the ordeal. Whether he underwent it or whether he pleaded
guilty when the judges met is uncertain, but however this might be, "he
received the melancholy sentence of condemnation; and being taken to the
place of punishment, his eyes were pulled out and he was mutilated, and
his members were buried in the earth in the presence of a multitude of
persons."