It is
considered that Denise's appeal is null, for in it she does
not say that she saw the deed. The jurors being asked, say
that they suspect him of it; the whole county likewise
suspects him. Let him purge himself by water [ordeal] under
the Assize. He has waged his law.
2. William de Ros appeals Ailward Bere, Roger Bald, Robert
Merchant, and Nicholas Parmenter, for that they came to his
house and wickedly in the king's peace took away from him a
certain villein of his whom he kept in chains because he
wished to run away, and led him off, and in robbery carried
away his wife's coffer with one mark of silver and other
chattels; and this he offers to prove by his son, Robert de
Ros, who saw it. And Ailward and the others have come and
defended the felony, robbery, and breach of the king's
peace, and say that (as the custom is in Cornwall) Roger of
Prideaux, by the sheriff's orders, caused twelve men to come
together and make oath about the said villein, whether he
was the king's villein or William's and it was found that he
was the king's villein, so the said Roger the serjeant
demanded that [William] should surrender him, and he
refused, so [Roger] sent to the sheriff, who then sent to
deliver [the villein], who, however, had escaped and was not
to be found, and William makes this appeal because he wishes
to keep the chattels of Thomas [the villein], to wit, two
oxen, one cow, one mare, two pigs, nine sheep, eleven goats.
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