Today, in our common speech, we still hear of an occasional вЂњmanhunt,вЂќ and we still speak of being caught вЂњred-handed,вЂќ though time has softened the gory import of theВ words. Non habet legem-he has no law-is the curt phrase of the Assize held by Henry in 1166 at Clarendon. If the felon failed to escape, he did not survive the hue and cry. If there was certainty both as to the offender and as to the offense, we may take it that justice was indeed swift, though the name of Judge Lynch was not yet known. Such was the fate of the hand-having thief, caught with the stolen thing in his hand of the man bent upon arson, caught with the flaming brand from which the thatch had taken fire of the murderer, with the bloodstained weapon still upon him. If a woman was forfeit, she became a вЂњwaifвЂќ the protection of some man was withdrawn from her, and being вЂњwaived,вЂќ she likewise was withoutВ law.

Caput gerat lupinum: let him bear the wolfshead: in these words the courts then still decreedВ outlawry.Д«ut what if the felon were overtaken by hue and cry? The old law was that if the offender were caught in the act, or with the evidence of his crime upon him, his life was forfeit and when we say forfeit, we say fors fait, which is French and quite literally means вЂњput outвЂќ out of the peace. Even as late as the thirteenth century, when outlawry, by reason of that miraculous growth of law which marked the first two centuries of Norman rule in England, had lost its exterminating character, and become a means of compelling the contumacious to obey the judgment of the courts, the old state of things was not forgotten. He is to be slain like a wild beast, for a wild beast he is: he bears the вЂњwolfs-headвЂќ! This, the oldest term, is also the most expressive. Nor will native expressions such as вЂњa friendless man,вЂќ or вЂњa man without peace,вЂќ serve our enquiry. We shall have to go back further than the Latin word utlagere, a monkish transcription into the language of the Caesars of the Saxon words ut, meaning out, and lagan, to make law. The most ancient words which our ancestors use to describe the outlaw may prove to be of interest. It is every manвЂ™s duty, as it is his privilege, to pursue him, to track him down as a wild beast, and to slay him. If the villain escape, he becomes an outlaw he is then outside the peace. вЂњHue and Cry,вЂќ says Matthew Bacon, writing in the eighteenth century, вЂњis the Pursuit of an Offender from Town to Town, till he be taken, which all who are present when a Felony is committed, or a dangerous Wound given, are by the Common Law, as well as by Statute, bound to raise against Offenders who escape, on Pain of Fine and Imprisonment.вЂќ вЂњNote,вЂќ says the book called вЂњCrompton,вЂќ however, вЂњthat a person having a parsonage is not held to follow the hue and cry, for that he should be about the visitation of theВ sickвЂќ!

Hue and cry final battle