stealeth a man] (Whether free, or a servant to another) shall be put to death: because usually they that did so meant to sell them for slaves: and so they did great injurie to those whose in right they were, and brought great misery upon the partie sold; especially if he were free and ingenuous before; and this law is principally meant of stealing such a one.
found in his hand] If not yet sold, or used like a lave, it seemeth hard, that the man-stealer should die, therefore they conceive, that if after the fact it could be proved, that he had beene in the stealers hand, he should die for it; yet the phrase and manner of expression imports another sense, which is, that if the stollen man be not yet sold, and the theft apparent (as taken in the stealers hand) he shall die for it.