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1 In the time of the Polish Commonwealth the carrying out of

judicial decrees was very difficult, in a country where the

executive authorities had almost no police at their disposal, and

where powerful citizens maintained household regiments, some of

them, for example the Princes Radziwill, even armies of several

thousand. So the plaintiff who had obtained a verdict in his

favour had to apply for its execution to the knightly order, that

is to the gentry, with whom rested also the executive power.

Armed kinsmen, friends, and neighbours set out, verdict in hand,

in company with the apparitor, and gained possession, often not

without bloodshed, of the goods adjudged to the plaintiff, which

the apparitor legally made over or gave into his possession. Such

an armed execution of a verdict was called a zajazd [foray].