<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
<div class="blockquot">
<p><i>Macbeth.</i> How now, ye secret, black, and midnight hags,
What is't ye do?</p>
<p><i>Witches.</i> A deed without a name.</p>
<p class="i20"><i>Macbeth.</i></p>
</div>
<p>We have said in the conclusion of the last chapter,
that, after a day of unwonted fatigue and
extraordinary excitation, the merchant, Philipson,
naturally expected to forget so many agitating
passages in that deep and profound repose which
is at once the consequence and the cure of extreme
exhaustion. But he was no sooner laid on his
lowly pallet than he felt that the bodily machine,
over-laboured by so much exercise, was little disposed
to the charms of sleep. The mind had been
too much excited, the body was far too feverish,
to suffer him to partake of needful rest. His anxiety
about the safety of his son, his conjectures
concerning the issue of his mission to the Duke of
Burgundy, and a thousand other thoughts which
recalled past events, or speculated on those which
were to come, rushed upon his mind like the
waves of a perturbed sea, and prevented all tendency
to repose. He had been in bed about an
hour, and sleep had not yet approached his couch,
when he felt that the pallet on which he lay was
sinking below him, and that he was in the act of
descending along with it he knew not whither.
The sound of ropes and pulleys was also indistinctly
heard, though every caution had been taken
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</SPAN></span>
to make them run smooth; and the traveller, by
feeling around him, became sensible that he and
the bed on which he lay had been spread upon a
large trap-door, which was capable of being let
down into the vaults, or apartments beneath.</p>
<p>Philipson felt fear in circumstances so well
qualified to produce it; for how could he hope a
safe termination to an adventure which had begun
so strangely? But his apprehensions were those
of a brave, ready-witted man, who, even in the
extremity of danger, which appeared to surround
him, preserved his presence of mind. His descent
seemed to be cautiously managed, and he held
himself in readiness to start to his feet and defend
himself, as soon as he should be once more upon
firm ground. Although somewhat advanced in
years, he was a man of great personal vigour and
activity, and unless taken at advantage, which no
doubt was at present much to be apprehended, he
was likely to make a formidable defence. His
plan of resistance, however, had been anticipated.
He no sooner reached the bottom of the vault,
down to which he was lowered, than two men,
who had been waiting there till the operation was
completed, laid hands on him from either side,
and forcibly preventing him from starting up as
he intended, cast a rope over his arms, and made
him a prisoner as effectually as when he was
in the dungeons of La Ferette. He was obliged,
therefore, to remain passive and unresisting, and
await the termination of this formidable adventure.
Secured as he was, he could only turn his
head from one side to the other; and it was with
joy that he at length saw lights twinkle, but they
appeared at a great distance from him.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</SPAN></span></p>
<p>From the irregular manner in which these scattered
lights advanced, sometimes keeping a straight
line, sometimes mixing and crossing each other,
it might be inferred that the subterranean vault
in which they appeared was of very considerable
extent. Their number also increased; and as they
collected more together, Philipson could perceive
that the lights proceeded from many torches, borne
by men muffled in black cloaks, like mourners at
a funeral, or the Black Friars of St. Francis's
Order, wearing their cowls drawn over their heads,
so as to conceal their features. They appeared
anxiously engaged in measuring off a portion of
the apartment; and, while occupied in that employment,
they sang, in the ancient German language,
rhymes more rude than Philipson could well
understand, but which may be imitated thus:—</p>
<div class="poetry-container">
<div class="poem">
<p>Measurers of good and evil,</p>
<p>Bring the square, the line, the level,—</p>
<p>Rear the altar, dig the trench,</p>
<p>Blood both stone and ditch shall drench.</p>
<p>Cubits six, from end to end,</p>
<p>Must the fatal bench extend,—</p>
<p>Cubits six, from side to side,</p>
<p>Judge and culprit must divide.</p>
<p>On the east the Court assembles,</p>
<p>On the west the Accused trembles—</p>
<p>Answer, brethren, all and one,</p>
<p>Is the ritual rightly done?</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>A deep chorus seemed to reply to the question.
Many voices joined in it, as well of persons
already in the subterranean vault as of others who
as yet remained without in various galleries and
passages which communicated with it, and whom
Philipson now presumed to be very numerous.
The answer chanted ran as follows:—
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="poetry-container">
<div class="poem">
<p>On life and soul, on blood and bone,</p>
<p>One for all, and all for one,</p>
<p>We warrant this is rightly done.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>The original strain was then renewed in the
same manner as before—</p>
<div class="poetry-container">
<div class="poem">
<p>How wears the night?—Doth morning shine</p>
<p>In early radiance on the Rhine?</p>
<p>What music floats upon his tide?</p>
<p>Do birds the tardy morning chide?</p>
<p>Brethren, look out from hill and height,</p>
<p>And answer true, how wears the night?</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>The answer was returned, though less loud than
at first, and it seemed that those by whom the
reply was given were at a much greater distance
than before; yet the words were distinctly heard.</p>
<div class="poetry-container">
<div class="poem">
<p>The night is old; on Rhine's broad breast</p>
<p>Glance drowsy stars which long to rest.</p>
<p class="i2"> No beams are twinkling in the east.</p>
<p>There is a voice upon the flood,</p>
<p>The stern still call of blood for blood;</p>
<p class="i2"> 'Tis time we listen the behest.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>The chorus replied, with many additional
voices—</p>
<div class="poetry-container">
<div class="poem">
<p>Up, then, up! When day's at rest,</p>
<p>'Tis time that such as we are watchers;</p>
<p>Rise to judgment, brethren, rise!</p>
<p>Vengeance knows not sleepy eyes,</p>
<p>He and night are matchers.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>The nature of the verses soon led Philipson to
comprehend that he was in presence of the Initiated,
or the Wise Men; names which were applied
to the celebrated Judges of the Secret Tribunal,
which continued at that period to subsist in
Suabia, Franconia, and other districts of the east
of Germany, which was called, perhaps from the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</SPAN></span>
frightful and frequent occurrence of executions by
command of those invisible judges, the Red Land.
Philipson had often heard that the seat of a Free
Count, or chief of the Secret Tribunal, was secretly
instituted even on the left bank of the Rhine, and
that it maintained itself in Alsace, with the usual
tenacity of those secret societies, though Duke
Charles of Burgundy had expressed a desire to discover
and discourage its influence so far as was
possible, without exposing himself to danger from
the thousands of poniards which that mysterious
tribunal could put in activity against his own life;—an
awful means of defence, which for a long
time rendered it extremely hazardous for the sovereigns
of Germany, and even the Emperors themselves,
to put down by authority those singular
associations.</p>
<p>So soon as this explanation flashed on the mind
of Philipson, it gave some clue to the character
and condition of the Black Priest of St. Paul's.
Supposing him to be a president, or chief official
of the secret association, there was little wonder
that he should confide so much in the inviolability
of his terrible office as to propose vindicating the
execution of De Hagenbach; that his presence
should surprise Bartholomew, whom he had power
to have judged and executed upon the spot; and
that his mere appearance at supper on the preceding
evening should have appalled the guests; for
though everything about the institution, its proceedings
and its officers, was preserved in as much
obscurity as is now practised in free-masonry, yet
the secret was not so absolutely well kept as to
prevent certain individuals from being guessed or
hinted at as men initiated and intrusted with high
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</SPAN></span>
authority by the Vehme-gericht, or tribunal of
the bounds. When such suspicion attached to
an individual, his secret power, and supposed acquaintance
with all guilt, however secret, which
was committed within the society in which he
was conversant, made him at once the dread and
hatred of every one who looked on him; and he
enjoyed a high degree of personal respect, on the
same terms on which it would have been yielded
to a powerful enchanter, or a dreaded genie. In
conversing with such a person, it was especially
necessary to abstain from all questions alluding,
however remotely, to the office which he bore in
the Secret Tribunal; and, indeed, to testify the
least curiosity upon a subject so solemn and mysterious
was sure to occasion some misfortune to
the inquisitive person.</p>
<p>All these things rushed at once upon the mind
of the Englishman, who felt that he had fallen
into the hands of an unsparing tribunal, whose
proceedings were so much dreaded by those who
resided within the circle of their power, that the
friendless stranger must stand a poor chance of
receiving justice at their hands, whatever might
be his consciousness of innocence. While Philipson
made this melancholy reflection, he resolved,
at the same time, not to forsake his own cause, but
defend himself as he best might; conscious as he
was that these terrible and irresponsible judges
were nevertheless governed by certain rules of
right and wrong, which formed a check on the
rigours of their extraordinary code.</p>
<div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i047" id="i047"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/i-047.jpg" width-obs="367" height-obs="550" alt="" /> <p class="caption">THE SECRET TRIBUNAL.<br/> <span class="s08">Drawn and Etched by R. de los Rios.</span></p> </div>
<p>He lay, therefore, devising the best means of
obviating the present danger, while the persons
whom he beheld glimmered before him, less like
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</SPAN></span>
distinct and individual forms than like the phantoms
of a fever, or the phantasmagoria with which
a disease of the optic nerves has been known to
people a sick man's chamber. At length they
assembled in the centre of the apartment where
they had first appeared, and seemed to arrange
themselves into form and order. A great number
of black torches were successively lighted, and the
scene became distinctly visible. In the centre of
the hall, Philipson could now perceive one of the
altars which are sometimes to be found in ancient
subterranean chapels. But we must pause, in
order briefly to describe, not the appearance only,
but the nature and constitution, of this terrible
court.</p>
<p>Behind the altar, which seemed to be the central
point, on which all eyes were bent, there were
placed in parallel lines two benches covered with
black cloth. Each was occupied by a number of
persons, who seemed assembled as judges; but
those who held the foremost bench were fewer,
and appeared of a rank superior to those who
crowded the seat most remote from the altar. The
first seemed to be all men of some consequence,
priests high in their order, knights, or noblemen;
and notwithstanding an appearance of equality
which seemed to pervade this singular institution,
much more weight was laid upon their opinion,
or testimonies. They were called Free Knights,
Counts, or whatever title they might bear, while
the inferior class of the judges were only termed
Free and worthy Burghers. For it must be observed,
that the Vehmique Institution,<SPAN name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</SPAN>
which
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</SPAN></span>
was the name that it commonly bore, although its
power consisted in a wide system of espionage,
and the tyrannical application of force which acted
upon it, was yet (so rude were the ideas of enforcing
public law) accounted to confer a privilege on
the country in which it was received, and only
freemen were allowed to experience its influence.
Serfs and peasants could not have a place among
the Free Judges, their assessors, or assistants; for
there was in this assembly even some idea of trying
the culprit by his peers.</p>
<p>Besides the dignitaries who occupied the benches,
there were others who stood around, and seemed
to guard the various entrances to the hall of judgment,
or, standing behind the seats on which their
superiors were ranged, looked prepared to execute
their commands. These were members of the
order, though not of the highest ranks. Schöppen
is the name generally assigned to them, signifying
officials, or sergeants of the Vehmique court,
whose doom they stood sworn to enforce, through
good report and bad report, against their own
nearest and most beloved, as well as in cases of
ordinary malefactors.</p>
<p>The Schöppen, or Scabini, as they were termed
in Latin, had another horrible duty to perform—that,
namely, of denouncing to the tribunal whatever
came under their observation, that might be
construed as an offence falling under its cognisance;
or, in their language, a crime against the
Vehme. This duty extended to the judges as
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</SPAN></span>
well as to the assistants, and was to be discharged
without respect of persons; so that, to know, and
wilfully conceal, the guilt of a mother or brother,
inferred, on the part of the unfaithful official, the
same penalty as if he himself had committed the
crime which his silence screened from punishment.
Such an institution could only prevail at
a time when ordinary means of justice were excluded
by the hand of power, and when, in order
to bring the guilty to punishment, it required all
the influence and authority of such a confederacy.
In no other country than one exposed to every
species of feudal tyranny, and deprived of every
ordinary mode of obtaining justice or redress, could
such a system have taken root and flourished.</p>
<p>We must now return to the brave Englishman,
who, though feeling all the danger he encountered
from so tremendous a tribunal, maintained nevertheless
a dignified and unaltered composure.</p>
<p>The meeting being assembled, a coil of ropes,
and a naked sword, the well-known signals and
emblems of Vehmique authority, were deposited
on the altar; where the sword, from its being
usually straight, with a cross handle, was considered
as representing the blessed emblem of Christian
Redemption, and the cord as indicating the right
of criminal jurisdiction, and capital punishment.
Then the President of the meeting, who occupied
the centre seat on the foremost bench, arose, and
laying his hand on the symbols, pronounced aloud
the formula expressive of the duty of the tribunal,
which all the inferior judges and assistants repeated
after him, in deep and hollow murmurs.</p>
<p>"I swear by the Holy Trinity, to aid and co-operate,
without relaxation, in the things belonging
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</SPAN></span>
to the Holy Vehme, to defend its doctrines and
institutions against father and mother, brother
and sister, wife and children; against fire, water,
earth, and air; against all that the sun enlightens;
against all that the dew moistens; against all
created things of heaven and earth, or the waters
under the earth; and I swear to give information
to this holy judicature, of all that I know to be
true, or hear repeated by credible testimony,
which, by the rules of the Holy Vehme, is deserving
of animadversion or punishment; and that
I will not cloak, cover, or conceal, such my knowledge,
neither for love, friendship, or family affection,
nor for gold, silver, or precious stones;
neither will I associate with such as are under the
sentence of this Sacred Tribunal, by hinting to a
culprit his danger, or advising him to escape, or
aiding and supplying him with counsel, or means
to that effect; neither will I relieve such culprit
with fire, clothes, food, or shelter, though my
father should require from me a cup of water in
the heat of summer noon, or my brother should
request to sit by my fire in the bitterest cold night
of winter: And further, I vow and promise to
honour this holy association, and do its behests
speedily, faithfully, and firmly, in preference to
those of any other tribunal whatsoever—so help
me God, and His holy Evangelists."</p>
<p>When this oath of office had been taken, the
President addressing the assembly, as men who
judge in secret and punish in secret, like the
Deity, desired them to say, why this "child of the
cord"<SPAN name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</SPAN>
lay before them, bound and helpless. An
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</SPAN></span>
individual rose from the more remote bench, and
in a voice which, though altered and agitated,
Philipson conceived that he recognised, declared
himself the accuser, as bound by his oath, of the
child of the cord, or prisoner, who lay before
them.</p>
<p>"Bring forward the prisoner," said the President,
"duly secured, as is the order of our secret
law; but not with such severity as may interrupt
his attention to the proceedings of the tribunal,
or limit his power of hearing and replying."</p>
<p>Six of the assistants immediately dragged forward
the pallet and platform of boards on which
Philipson lay, and advanced it towards the foot of
the altar. This done, each unsheathed his dagger,
while two of them unloosed the cords by which the
merchant's hands were secured, and admonished
him in a whisper, that the slightest attempt to
resist or escape would be the signal to stab him
dead.</p>
<p>"Arise!" said the President; "listen to the
charge to be preferred against you, and believe you
shall in us find judges equally just and inflexible."</p>
<p>Philipson, carefully avoiding any gesture which
might indicate a desire to escape, raised his body
on the lower part of the couch, and remained
seated, clothed as he was in his under-vest and
<i>caleçons</i>, or drawers, so as exactly to face the
muffled President of the terrible court. Even in
these agitating circumstances, the mind of the
undaunted Englishman remained unshaken, and
his eyelid did not quiver, nor his heart beat
quicker, though he seemed, according to the expression
of Scripture, to be a pilgrim in the Valley
of the Shadow of Death, beset by numerous snares,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</SPAN></span>
and encompassed by total darkness, where light was
most necessary for safety.</p>
<p>The President demanded his name, country, and
occupation.</p>
<p>"John Philipson," was the reply; "by birth an
Englishman, by profession a merchant."</p>
<p>"Have you ever borne any other name and profession?"
demanded the Judge.</p>
<p>"I have been a soldier, and, like most others,
had then a name by which I was known in war."</p>
<p>"What was that name?"</p>
<p>"I laid it aside when I resigned my sword, and
I do not desire again to be known by it. Moreover,
I never bore it where your institutions have
weight and authority," answered the Englishman.</p>
<p>"Know you before whom you stand?" continued
the Judge.</p>
<p>"I may at least guess," replied the merchant.</p>
<p>"Tell your guess, then," continued the interrogator.
"Say who we are, and wherefore are you
before us?"</p>
<p>"I believe that I am before the Unknown, or
Secret Tribunal, which is called Vehme-gericht."</p>
<p>"Then are you aware," answered the Judge,
"that you would be safer if you were suspended by
the hair over the Abyss of Schaffhausen, or if you
lay below an axe, which a thread of silk alone
kept back from the fall. What have you done to
deserve such a fate?"</p>
<p>"Let those reply by whom I am subjected to
it," answered Philipson, with the same composure
as before.</p>
<p>"Speak, accuser!" said the President, "to the
four quarters of heaven!—To the ears of the free
judges of this tribunal, and the faithful executors
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</SPAN></span>
of their doom!—And to the face of the child of
the cord, who denies or conceals his guilt, make
good the substance of thine accusation!"</p>
<p>"Most dreaded," answered the accuser, addressing
the President, "this man hath entered the
Sacred Territory, which is called the Red Land,—a
stranger under a disguised name and profession.
When he was yet on the eastern side of the Alps,
at Turin, in Lombardy, and elsewhere, he at various
times spoke of the Holy Tribunal in terms of
hatred and contempt, and declared that were he
Duke of Burgundy he would not permit it to extend
itself from Westphalia, or Suabia, into his
dominions. Also I charge him, that, nourishing
this malevolent intention against the Holy Tribunal,
he who now appears before the bench as child
of the cord has intimated his intention to wait
upon the court of the Duke of Burgundy, and use
his influence with him, which he boasts will prove
effectual to stir him up to prohibit the meetings of
the Holy Vehme in his dominions, and to inflict on
their officers, and the executors of their mandates,
the punishment due to robbers and assassins."</p>
<p>"This is a heavy charge, brother!" said the
President of the assembly, when the accuser
ceased speaking. "How do you purpose to make
it good?"</p>
<p>"According to the tenor of those secret statutes
the perusal of which is prohibited to all but the
initiated," answered the accuser.</p>
<p>"It is well," said the President; "but I ask
thee once more, What are those means of proof?
You speak to holy and to initiated ears."</p>
<p>"I will prove my charge," said the accuser, "by
the confession of the party himself, and by my
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</SPAN></span>
own oath upon the holy emblems of the Secret
Judgment—that is, the steel and the cord."</p>
<p>"It is a legitimate offer of proof," said a member
of the aristocratic bench of the assembly;
"and it much concerns the safety of the system to
which we are bound by such deep oaths—a system
handed down to us from the most Christian and
holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, for the conversion
of the heathen Saracens, and punishing
such of them as revolted again to their Pagan
practices, that such criminals should be looked to.
This Duke Charles of Burgundy hath already
crowded his army with foreigners, whom he can
easily employ against this Sacred Court, more
especially with English, a fierce, insular people,
wedded to their own usages, and hating those of
every other nation. It is not unknown to us, that
the Duke hath already encouraged opposition to
the officials of the Tribunal in more than one part
of his German dominions; and that in consequence,
instead of submitting to their doom with
reverent resignation, children of the cord have
been found bold enough to resist the executioners
of the Vehme, striking, wounding, and even slaying
those who have received commission to put
them to death. This contumacy must be put an
end to; and if the accused shall be proved to be
one of those by whom such doctrines are harboured
and inculcated, I say let the steel and cord do
their work on him."</p>
<p>A general murmur seemed to approve what the
speaker had said; for all were conscious that the
power of the Tribunal depended much more on
the opinion of its being deeply and firmly rooted in
the general system, than upon any regard or esteem
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</SPAN></span>
for an institution of which all felt the severity.
It followed, that those of the members who enjoyed
consequence by means of their station in the ranks
of the Vehme saw the necessity of supporting its
terrors by occasional examples of severe punishment;
and none could be more readily sacrificed
than an unknown and wandering foreigner. All
this rushed upon Philipson's mind, but did not
prevent his making a steady reply to the accusation.</p>
<p>"Gentlemen," he said, "good citizens, burgesses,
or by whatever other name you please to be addressed,
know, that in my former days I have
stood in as great peril as now, and have never
turned my heel to save my life. Cords and daggers
are not calculated to strike terror into those
who have seen swords and lances. My answer to
the accusation is, that I am an Englishman, one
of a nation accustomed to yield and to receive
open-handed and equal justice dealt forth in the
broad light of day. I am, however, a traveller,
who knows that he has no right to oppose the
rules and laws of other nations because they do
not resemble those of his own. But this caution
can only be called for in lands where the system
about which we converse is in full force and operation.
If we speak of the institutions of Germany,
being at the time in France or Spain, we may,
without offence to the country in which they are
current, dispute concerning them, as students debate
upon a logical thesis in a university. The
accuser objects to me, that at Turin, or elsewhere
in the north of Italy, I spoke with censure of the
institution under which I am now judged. I will
not deny that I remember something of the kind;
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</SPAN></span>
but it was in consequence of the question being
in a manner forced upon me by two guests with
whom I chanced to find myself at table. I was
much and earnestly solicited for an opinion ere
I gave one."</p>
<p>"And was that opinion," said the presiding
Judge, "favourable or otherwise to the Holy and
Secret Vehme-gericht? Let truth rule your tongue—remember,
life is short, judgment is eternal!"</p>
<p>"I would not save my life at the expense of a
falsehood. My opinion was unfavourable; and I
expressed myself thus:—No laws or judicial proceedings
can be just or commendable which exist
and operate by means of a secret combination. I
said, that justice could only live and exist in the
open air, and that when she ceased to be public
she degenerated into revenge and hatred. I said,
that a system of which your own jurists have said,
<i>non frater a fratre, non hospes a hospite, tutus</i>,
was too much adverse to the laws of nature to be
connected with or regulated by those of religion."</p>
<p>These words were scarcely uttered, when there
burst a murmur from the Judges highly unfavourable
to the prisoner,—"He blasphemes the Holy
Vehme—Let his mouth be closed for ever!"</p>
<p>"Hear me," said the Englishman, "as you will
one day wish to be yourselves heard! I say such
were my sentiments, and so I expressed them—I
say also, I had a right to express these opinions,
whether sound or erroneous, in a neutral country,
where this Tribunal neither did, nor could, claim
any jurisdiction. My sentiments are still the
same. I would avow them if that sword were at
my bosom, or that cord around my throat. But I
deny that I have ever spoken against the institutions
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</SPAN></span>
of your Vehme, in a country where it had its
course as a national mode of justice. Far more
strongly, if possible, do I denounce the absurdity
of the falsehood, which represents me, a wandering
foreigner, as commissioned to traffic with the
Duke of Burgundy about such high matters, or to
form a conspiracy for the destruction of a system
to which so many seem warmly attached. I never
said such a thing, and I never thought it."</p>
<p>"Accuser," said the presiding Judge, "thou hast
heard the accused—What is thy reply?"</p>
<p>"The first part of the charge," said the accuser,
"he hath confessed in this high presence—namely,
that his foul tongue hath basely slandered our holy
mysteries; for which he deserves that it should be
torn out of his throat. I myself, on my oath of
office, will aver, as use and law is, that the rest of
the accusation—namely, that which taxes him as
having entered into machinations for the destruction
of the Vehmique institutions—is as true as
those which he has found himself unable to deny."</p>
<p>"In justice," said the Englishman, "the accusation,
if not made good by satisfactory proof, ought
to be left to the oath of the party accused, instead
of permitting the accuser to establish by his own
deposition the defects in his own charge."</p>
<p>"Stranger," replied the presiding Judge, "we
permit to thy ignorance a longer and more full
defence than consists with our usual forms. Know,
that the right of sitting among these venerable
judges confers on the person of him who enjoys it
a sacredness of character which ordinary men cannot
attain to. The oath of one of the initiated
must counterbalance the most solemn asseveration
of every one that is not acquainted with our holy
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</SPAN></span>
secrets. In the Vehmique court all must be
Vehmique. The averment of the Emperor, he
being uninitiated, would not have so much weight
in our counsels as that of one of the meanest of
these officials. The affirmation of the accuser can
only be rebutted by the oath of a member of the
same Tribunal, being of superior rank."</p>
<p>"Then, God be gracious to me, for I have no
trust save in Heaven!" said the Englishman, in
solemn accents. "Yet I will not fall without an
effort. I call upon thee thyself, dark spirit, who
presidest in this most deadly assembly—I call
upon thyself, to declare on thy faith and honour,
whether thou holdest me guilty of what is thus
boldly averred by this false calumniator—I call
upon thee by thy sacred character—by the name
of"——</p>
<p>"Hold!" replied the presiding Judge. "The
name by which we are known in open air must
not be pronounced in this subterranean judgment-seat."</p>
<p>He then proceeded to address the prisoner and
the assembly.—"I, being called on in evidence,
declare that the charge against thee is so far true
as it is acknowledged by thyself—namely, that
thou hast in other lands than the Red Soil<SPAN name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</SPAN>
spoken
lightly of this holy institution of justice. But I
believe in my soul, and will bear witness on my
honour, that the rest of the accusation is incredible
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</SPAN></span>
and false. And this I swear, holding my hand on
the dagger and the cord.—What is your judgment,
my brethren, upon the case which you have
investigated?"</p>
<p>A member of the first-seated and highest class
amongst the judges, muffled like the rest, but the
tone of whose voice and the stoop of whose person
announced him to be more advanced in years than
the other two who had before spoken, arose with
difficulty, and said with a trembling voice,—</p>
<p>"The child of the cord who is before us has been
convicted of folly and rashness in slandering our
holy institution. But he spoke his folly to ears
which had never heard our sacred laws—He has,
therefore, been acquitted, by irrefragable testimony,
of combining for the impotent purpose of
undermining our power, or stirring up princes
against our holy association, for which death were
too light a punishment—He hath been foolish,
then, but not criminal; and as the holy laws of
the Vehme bear no penalty save that of death, I
propose for judgment that the child of the cord be
restored without injury to society, and to the
upper world, having been first duly admonished of
his errors."</p>
<p>"Child of the cord," said the presiding Judge,
"thou hast heard thy sentence of acquittal. But,
as thou desirest to sleep in an unbloody grave, let
me warn thee, that the secrets of this night shall
remain with thee, as a secret not to be communicated
to father nor mother, to spouse, son, or
daughter; neither to be spoken aloud nor whispered;
to be told in words or written in characters;
to be carved or to be painted, or to be otherwise
communicated, either directly or by parable and
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</SPAN></span>
emblem. Obey this behest, and thy life is in
surety. Let thy heart then rejoice within thee,
but let it rejoice with trembling. Never more let
thy vanity persuade thee that thou art secure from
the servants and Judges of the Holy Vehme.
Though a thousand leagues lie between thee and
the Red Land, and thou speakest in that where
our power is not known; though thou shouldst be
sheltered by thy native island, and defended by
thy kindred ocean, yet, even there, I warn thee to
cross thyself when thou dost so much as think
of the Holy and Invisible Tribunal, and to retain
thy thoughts within thine own bosom; for the
Avenger may be beside thee, and thou mayst die
in thy folly. Go hence, be wise, and let the fear
of the Holy Vehme never pass from before thine
eyes."</p>
<p>At the concluding words, all the lights were at
once extinguished with a hissing noise. Philipson
felt once more the grasp of the hands of the
officials, to which he resigned himself as the safest
course. He was gently prostrated on his pallet-bed,
and transported back to the place from which
he had been advanced to the foot of the altar.
The cordage was again applied to the platform,
and Philipson was sensible that his couch rose
with him for a few moments, until a slight shock
apprised him that he was again brought to a level
with the floor of the chamber in which he had
been lodged on the preceding night, or rather
morning. He pondered over the events that had
passed, in which he was sensible that he owed
Heaven thanks for a great deliverance. Fatigue
at length prevailed over anxiety, and he fell into
a deep and profound sleep, from which he was
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</SPAN></span>
only awakened by returning light. He resolved
on an instant departure from so dangerous a spot,
and, without seeing any one of the household but
the old ostler, pursued his journey to Strasburg,
and reached that city without further accident.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</SPAN></span></p>
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