in exchanging these ties for the harsher connecting links of mutual
self-interest.

"When a freeman shall do fealty to his lord," the statute says, "he shall
hold his right hand upon the book, and shall say thus:--Hear you, my lord,
that I shall be to you both faithful and true, and shall owe my faith to
you for the land that I hold, and lawfully shall do such customs and
services as my duty is to you, at the times assigned, so help me God and
all his saints."

"The villain," also, "when he shall do fealty to his lord, shall hold his
right hand over the book, and shall say:--Hear you, my lord, that I from
this day forth unto you shall be true and faithful, and shall owe you
fealty for the land which I hold of you in villanage; and that no evil or
damage will I see concerning you, but I will defend and warn you to my
power. So help me God and all his saints."[11]

Again, in the distribution of the produce of land, men dealt fairly and
justly with each other; and in the material condition of the bulk of the
people there is a fair evidence that the system worked efficiently and
well. It worked well for the support of a sturdy high-hearted race, sound
in body and fierce in spirit, and furnished with thews and sinews which,
under the stimulus of those "great shins of beef,"[12] their common diet,
were the wonder of the age. "What comyn folke in all this world," says a
state paper in 1515[13] "may compare with the comyns of England in riches,
freedom, liberty, welfare, and all prosperity? What comyn folke is so
mighty, so strong in the felde, as the comyns of England?" The relative
numbers of the French and English armies which fought at Cressy and
Agincourt may have been exaggerated, but no allowance for exaggeration will
effect the greatness of those exploits; and in stories of authentic actions