repair to us (or our justiciar, if we are out of the realm) and, laying
the transgression before us, petition to have that transgression
redressed without delay. And if we shall not have corrected the
transgression (or, in the event of our being out of the realm, if our
justiciar shall not have corrected it) within forty days, reckoning
from the time it has been intimated to us (or to our justiciar, if
we should be out of the realm), the four barons aforesaid shall refer
that matter to the rest of the five-and-twenty barons, and those
five-and-twenty barons shall, together with the community of the whole
land, distrain and distress us in all possible ways, namely, by seizing
our castles, lands, possessions, and in any other way they can, until
redress has been obtained as they deem fit, saving harmless our own
person, and the persons of our queen and children; and when redress has
been obtained, they shall resume their old relations toward us. And let
whoever in the country desires it, swear to obey the orders of the said
five-and-twenty barons for the execution of all the aforesaid matters,
and along with them, to molest us to the utmost of his power; and we
publicly and freely grant leave to every one who wishes to swear, and
we shall never forbid any one to swear. All those, moreover, in the
land who of themselves and of their own accord are unwilling to swear
to the twenty-five to help them in constraining and molesting us, we
shall by our command compel the same to swear to the effect aforesaid.
And if any one of the five-and-twenty barons shall have died or
departed from the land, or be incapacitated in any other manner which
would prevent the foresaid provisions being carried out, those of
the said twenty-five barons who are left shall choose another in his
place according to their own judgment, and he shall be sworn in the
same way as the others. Further, in all matters, the execution of which
is intrusted to these twenty-five barons, if perchance these
twenty-five are present, that which the majority of those present