The name is absent

edly could by the free soldier in the Hereban, but
depended entirely upon the will of the chief, and
his notions of policy : a right could not have been
described as the result of his liberality. In the
historical time of Charlemagne we have evidence of
this¹ : “Quo accepto .... idem vir prudentissimus
idque Iargissimus et Dei dispensator magnam inde
partem Komam ad Iimina Apostolorum misit per
Angilbertum dilectum abbatem suum; porro reli-
quam partem obtimatibus, clericis sive Iaicis, cae-
terisque Iidelibus suis Iargitus est : ” or, as it is
still more clearly expressed in the annals of Egin-
hart², “ reliquum vero inter optimales et aulicos,
Caeterosque in palatio suo militantes, Iiberali manu
distribuit.” And similarly we are told of ÆlSel-
stan : “ Praeda quae in Castro reperta fuerat, et ea
quidem amplissima, magnifiée et viritim divisa.
Hoc enim vir ille animo imperaverat suo, ut nihil
opum ad crumenas Corraderet ; sed omnia conqui-
sita, vel monasteriis, vel fidelibus suis, munificus ex-
penderet³.” The share of the freeman who served
under his geréfa, and not under a lord, was his own
by lot, and neither by Iargitio nor Iiberalitas,—a
most important distinction, seeing that where all
was left to the arbitrary disposition of the chief,
the subservience of the follower would very natu-
rally become the measure of his liberality.

The relation of the Comités was one of fealty :
it was undertaken in the most solemn manner,

¹ Annal. Lauribh_i an. 796. Pertz, Mon. Germ. ɪ. 182.

² An. 796. Pertz, i. 183.

³ Will. Malm. Gest. Reg. i. 213, § 134.

and with appropriate, symbolic ceremonies, out of
which, in later times, sprung homage and the
other incidents of feudality. AU history proves
that it was of the most intimate nature ; that even
life itself was to be sacrificed without hesitation if
the safety of the prince demanded it : the gesi^lδas
of Beowulf expose themselves with him to the at-
tack of the fiendish Grendel¹; Wiglaf risks his own
life to assist his lord and relative in his fatal con-
test with the firedrake²; and the solemn denuncia-
tion which he pronounces against the remaining
comités who neglected this duty, recalls the words
of Tacitus, and the infamy that attached to the sur-
vivors of their chief³:

But we are not compelled to draw upon the stores
of poetry and imaginative tradition alone : the sober
records of our earlier annalists supply ample evi-
dence in corroboration of the philosophical historian.

¹ Beowulf, 1. 1682 seq.

³ Ibid. 1. 6763.

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