"In fact, Colonel Arbuthnot, you prefer law and order to private vengeance?"

If the law is too mild, private vengeance comes in.

If one of their members was killed, I believe they would seek private vengeance.

So it would be private vengeance if I killed him now.

If you're thinking of private vengeance, then forget it.

He couldn't put them at the same risk, not for the sake of a private vengeance and an unspoken promise to the little Maltese.

Anglo-American criminal law came into existence as a substitute for private vengeance.

These bodies are the result of private vengeance, citizens no longer afraid of the Handmen and considering themselves free to act without fear.

But that's not all-not just private vengeance, I mean.

How much would that achieve apart from an act of private vengeance?