was the marshal, who replaced him on occasion. The chamberlain's duty was about the person of the king. As regards the power and duties of the barons, it was ruled that they were allowed, if they pleased, to give their fiefs to the church ; that the fiefs should always descend to the male heir; that the baron or seigneur should succeed to a fief alienated by the failure on the part of the feudatory to perform his duties ; that the baron should be the guardian of heirs male and female. These, if male, were to present themselves when the time came, saying, " I am fully fifteen years of age," upon which he was to invest them ; while maidens were to claim their fiefs at the age of twelve, on condition that they took a husband to protect it. Nor was any woman who remained without a husband to hold a fief until she was at least sixty years of age. In the ordeal of battle, the formula of challenge was provided, and only those were excused who had lost limbs, in battle or otherwise, women, children, and men arrived at their sixtieth year. In a criminal case death followed defeat ; in a civil case, infamy. Slaves, peasants, and captives were, like cattle, subject only to laws of buying and selling. A slave was reckoned worth a falcon ; two slaves were worth a charger ; the master could do exactly as he pleased with his own slaves. They were protected by the natural kindness of humanity alone. In the days of its greatest prosperity the different baronies and cities of the kingdom of Jerusalem could be called upon to furnish in all three thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine knights. But this was after the time of Godfrey, the David of the new kingdom. Of course the. seigneurs and barons took their titles from the places they held ; thus we hear of the barony of Jaffa, of Galilee, of Acre, and of Nablous ; the seigneur of Kerak and of Arsûf. And thus in the soil of Palestine was planted, like some strange exotic, rare and new, the