COERCIVE METHODS 125

compulsion was constantly necessary. The King adopted an in-
denture system, whereby men undertook to provide a certain
number of troops for a certain length of time, and such men were
probably mainly volunteers. But, apart from these, we find the
King ordering his officers to compel the men chosen by the
ordinary methods to come forward, and giving them powers to
punish the refractory and rebellious. Even so, he had the greatest
difficulty in getting enough men into the ranks, and had to issue
pardons to those criminals and outlaws who would corne for-
ward to serve him. We may well believe that the peasant was the
first to feel the pressure of all such coercive measures. Where other
men could buy themselves off with a bribe they had nothing
but the barest household goods or stock to offer, and little power
to withstand the officer who impressed them in place of a richer
faint-heart. Here, as in many another situation, the serf had to
suffer in silence, for he knew no one in the village sufficiently
learned and powerful to voice his wrongs.