Note 11 — Chapter I · PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Thus in the Laws of the XII. Tables the manifest thief would be killed if a slave, or if free become the bondman of the person robbed; if, however, he were captured later, he had to refund double the value of what he had taken. By the Germanic codes a thief might be instantly chased and then hanged or decapitated, but fines for homicide would be imposed if he were slain after an interval. Henry Maine, Ancient Law, ed. of 1906, pp. 387, 388.