dred. The blood-feud, the taking of blood for
blood, endured for centuries in Scotland after the peace of the whole
realm became, under David I., "the King's peace." Homicides, for
example, were very frequently pardoned by Royal grace, but "the pardon
was of no avail unless it had been issued with the full knowledge of the
kin of the slaughtered man, who otherwise retained their _legal_ right of
vengeance on the homicide." They might accept pecuniary compensation,
the blood-fine, or they might not, as in Homer's time. {27} At all
events, under David, offences became offences against the King, not
merely against this or that kindred. David introduced the "Judgment of
the Country" or _Visnet del Pais_ for the settlement of pleas. Every
free man, in his degree, was "tried by his peers," but the old ordeal by
fire and Trial by Combat or duel were not abolished. Nor did
"compurgation" cease wholly till Queen Mary's reign. A powerful man,
when accused, was then attended at his trial by hosts of armed backers.
Men so unlike each other as Knox, Bothwell, and Lethington took advantage
of this usage. All lords had their own Courts, but murder, rape, arson,
and robbery could now only be tried in the royal Courts; these were "The
Four Pleas of the Crown."

THE COURTS.

As there was no fixed capital, the King's Court, in David's time,
followed the King in his annual circuits through his realm, between
Dumfries and Inverness. Later, the regions of Scotia (north of Forth),
Lothian, and the lawless realm of Galloway, had their Grand Justiciaries,
who held the Four Pleas. The other pleas were heard in "Courts of
Royalty" and by earls, bishops, abbots, down to the baron, with his
"right of pit and gallows." At such courts, by a law of 1180, the
Sheriff of the shire, or an agent of his, ought to be present; so that
royal and central justice was extending itself over the minor local
courts. But if the sheriff or his sergeant did not attend when summoned,
local justice took its course.

The process initiated by David's son, William the Lion, was very slowly
substituting the royal authority, the royal sheriffs of shires, juries,
and witnesses, for the wild justice of revenge; and trial by ordeal, and
trial by combat. But hereditary jurisdictions of nobles and gentry were
not wholly abolished till after the battle of Culloden! Where Abbots
held courts, their procedure, in civil cases, was based on laws
sanctioned by po