Note 53 — Chapter V · Trial by Ordeal.
Reading edition
This order to the justices, as we have seen, in the Essay on Peine forte et dure, had the effect of filling the jails of the kingdom with prisoners content to await the invention of some other method of trial than that of ordeal, and since none such was provided, to refuse to plead and thus baffle the king’s justices. To overcome this custom, the order not to endanger their lives or limbs, soon gave place to the terrible torture, by which they were literally pressed to death, for standing mute.