So great a guerdon did valiant men earn of old; and thus did the ancients think noble rank the due of bravery.

For it was thought that the luck a man had should be set down to his valour, and not his valour to his luck.
(o) He also enacted that no dispute should be entered on with a promise made under oath and a gage deposited; but whosoever requested another man to deposit a gage against him should pay that man half a gold mark, on pain of severe bodily chastisement.

For the king had foreseen that the greatest occasions of strife might arise from the depositing of gages.

(p) But he decided that any quarrel whatsoever should be decided by the sword, thinking a combat of weapons more honourable than one of words.

But if either of the combatants drew back his foot, and stepped out of the ring of the circle previously marked, he was to consider himself conquered, and suffer the loss of his case.