Secret Societies Of The Middle Ages.—Iii.

knew that it would be easy to satisfy his niece in the morning relative to the disappearance of the traveller , by the simple excuse that he had taken his departure at a very early hour . The contrivance of the fatal couch , adds the author , was by no means singular to the Black Sivan . Germany at that time ( the date of the narrative is betiveen 1493 and 1517 ) abounded with taverns Avhose

landlords Avere devoted fco the interests of the blood y league , in Avhich particular chambers Avere provided with secret avenues of communication , and Avith beds so fashioned as to afford a facility for effacing all signs of the dark vengeance of that tremendous tribunal . But it Avas not intended by the members of the hol y Vebm that their victim should escape them , though they had accidentall y

despatched another person instead of him ; and a servant of the Vehm Avas accordingly sent forward to intercept him on the road , Avhich he had in the course of conversation at the inn declared his intention of taking . An accident , hoAveA'er , deprived the servitor ofthe Vehm of life , in the very act of attempting the life of the traveller ; and a few words uttered in penitence before he dieda warning against Anselm

, , and tbe significant dagger with a cord tAvisted round the handle , still borne in the hand of the dying man , shoived the young man Avhence this attempt on his life originated—that the vengeance of the Vehmique tribunal Avas not yet satisfied , and Avould be satisfied with nothing short of his life .

Another incident in this narrative m connection Avith the subject of the Vehm , was the assassination of an imperial courier in 1595 , Avho had left Vienna one evening , charged Avith despatches for the governor of Laybach . The unfortunate man had been discovered in a Avood , about five miles from the capital , stabbed to the heart with a dagger , the handle of which AA'as surrounded with a cord . To that cord Avas

fastened a slip of paper , Avhereoa the folkwing words were written , and to Avhich the usual symbolical signature of three daggers was appended : —

" Let all AA'ho meditate mischief against the members of the holy Vehm , take warning from the fate of this man ! The hol y Vehm strikes alike those that plot evil designs against its authority , and those that bear the commands of such as so conspire . " j-j-j-, " The courier ' s money and Aveapons Avere all safe about his person ; but his despatches had disappeared . That these despatches contained matter in some measure hostile to

the Vehm , is evident from the above passage itself , as it is certain that those AA'ho Avould so readily commit a murder , would not hesitate to open imperial despatches b y force , as theyAvould attempt any other violent [ action , if through their extensive ramifications they were not by some means able beforehand to obtain a knowled ge of their contents ; but it seems to be confirmed by the strange fact , that on

the morning after the courier had left Vienna , Avhen the emperor aAvoke , his eyes fell on a dagger sticking in a table near his couch . The Aveapon had the symbolic cord tAvined round the handle ; and a