In the king's face, which he wore as a mask, there was a remoteness and inaccessibility of grief which I shall never forget.
Its remoteness from the control of the authority of the German and French kings, together with its inaccessibility, gave special facilities in Lower Lorraine to the growth of a number of practically independent feudal states forming a group or system apart.
The large amounts fixed for the wergelds of nobles and even of freemen were paid no doubt, as in later times, not only by the slayer himself, but by every member of his kindred in proportion to the nearness or remoteness of his relationship; and in like manner they were distributed among the kindred of the slain.
The test of remoteness was one well entrenched in common law.
Men who did not know when their visit had terminated, though I went about my business again, answering them from greater and greater remoteness.
