The Secret Societies Of The Middle Ages

association , receives au order from a superior of the society , who recognizes the traveller on his arrival , to prevent his progress by some means or other , so that he shall bo obliged to remain there for the night ; aud his horse goes lame accordingly . On the closing of his bedroom door behind the landlord , who conducted him , it struck him that the creaking of a bolt immediately followed the shutting of the

door . He hastened to assure himself on this head—the door was indeed bolted outside . On examining the windows , he found them also secured with strong iron bars . Scarcely had he completed his survey of the apartment , when he perceived a panel in the wainscoat of the room suddenly glide back , and . a naked arm thrust through the aperture . The hand struck a dagger forcibly into a table which

stood near the Avail ; the arm was withdrawn as speedily as it had appeared ; and the panel glided back into its ]} lace . AU this was the work of a moment . The young man rushed forward , ancl tried to remove the panel but iu vrtin . He then turned his eyes to the dagger that had been thrust into the table ; a cord was twisted round the handle , and to that cord was fastened a sli p of parchment . The traveller tore the parchment away , and g lanced his eyes , in profound alarm , over the lines which were traced upon it , and which ran thus : —

" By the cord and dagger , you are commanded to follow , without resistance , and in profound silence , the person who will visit yon at midnight . Herein fail not . " ff' ( V' * The traveller , though he knew but little more of the Yehmiquc tribunal than its existence , yet knew enough of its power to be aware .

that if any ever resisted it , under any circumstances , he at least was not in a condition to do so ; and accordingly , when midnight arrived , he followed Avithout resistance the armed man who came to his apartment . They descended tho stairs , and passing out of the inn , struck into a path which ied into a pine forest . On arriving at an open space where a rude chapel had been built for the use of wayfarersthe guide

, stopped and informed his charge that he must blindfold him . ( We will not follow them through ail their journey , but will at once accompany them to the scene which , it is more immediately our purpose to describe . ) The messenger at length guided him into a room , where a blaze of li ght immediately struck his eyes , even beneath tho thick bandage which had been tied over them .

The bandage was then removed from his eyes , and he found himself in a large apartment , fitted up as a tribunal of justice . At the farther end was a species of throne raised upon a dais , and overshaded by a canopy of velvet , and on that exalted seat was the free count , or president of the court . On benches rising in an amphitheatrical semicircle round the dais , sat the members of the

Vchmgerichte , all bareheaded , aud Avithout arms or armour . Upon a table before the seat of the free count , lay the sword , which , as the archives of the Yehm record , was deemed the symbol of