: 'Wilt thou do me no injury until I stand up and am ready
for fight?' 'Not I,' replied his foe, 'for I hold it base to strike
an unarmed man.' 'Then,' replied Conrad, 'I shall lie still all
night.' But on the next day he transfixed the other with his
spear.'

The same story is told of an eminent Irish lawyer, who had offended the
client of a rival pleader. 'Will ye get up till I bate yees?' 'An' would
ye strike a man lying down?' 'Divil a bit!' 'Then I'll jist go to slape
again.' In the modern stories the foes are reconciled--in the old camp
incident all is fierce and characteristic of the bloody feuds of the
middle ages, and the final murder of the great-hearted enemy strikes us
with a pang. The _sed postri die alterum cuspide transfixit_ seems
brutal and ungenerous; but the event, whether literally true or feigned,
had no such discord to the readers of those days. It was more essential
to establish the thorough bravery of Conrad, than to reward the
magnanimity of his foe. Truly, the history of jests is the history of
civilization.

In relation to this transmission of the renown of stories of the olden
times to lawyers of the later day, we may cite the well-known incident
of the honest criminal who, travelling alone on foot, was met by Sir
Matthew Hale, and in answer to the questions of the latter, admitted
that he was going to a distant court to be tried for his life. The same
noble truthfulness is beautifully set forth in the following, _Pulchra
historia simplicis praetoris et furis_, or 'Fine Story of a
Simple-hearted Superintendent and Thief.'

'My lord of Stoeffel, of that free and excellent nobility which
are called barons, had a superintendent of his serfs. And he, when
a certain man was accused of theft, and condemned by him to the
torture of the cross (_ad crucis tormentum damnasset_), with rustic
simplicity sent the criminal to the church that he might confess
his sins, first taking his word that he would return after
confession. So he entered the shrine, confessed, and not heeding
the privilege of ecclesiastical immunity (i. e., the right of
sanctuary), 'whereby he might have escaped, kept his faith with the
superintendent (_fidem praetori servavit_), and again returning
underwent extreme punishment. And this I knew from my boyhood, that
he went up to the place of punishment with such alacrity, that it
would seem as if h