ctacle
that attracted their attention being the body of a man hanging from the
limb of a tree above their heads.

Such might have been supposed to be some act of private vengeance or
bold outrage, but the exulting lookers-on knew better. For they
recognized the body, perhaps as that of the robber baron of the
neighboring castle, perhaps that of some other bold defier of law and
justice, while in the ground below the corpse appeared an object that
told a tale of deep meaning to their experienced eyes. This was a knife,
thrust to the hilt in the earth. As they gazed upon it they muttered the
mysterious words, "_Vehm gericht_," and quickly dispersed, none daring
to touch the corpse or disturb the significant signal of the vengeance
of the executioners.

But as they walked away they would converse in low tones of a dread
secret tribunal, which held its mysterious meetings in remote places,
caverns of the earth or the depths of forests, at the dread hour of
midnight, its members being sworn by frightful oaths to utter secrecy.
Before these dark tribunals were judged, present or absent, the
wrong-doers of the land, and the sentence of the secret Vehm once given,
there was no longer safety for the condemned. The agents of vengeance
would be put upon his track, while the secret of his death sentence was
carefully kept from his ears. The end was sure to be a sudden seizure, a
rope to the nearest tree, a writhing body, the signal knife of the
executioners of the Vehm, silence and mystery.

Such was the visible outcome of the workings of this dreaded court, of
whose sessions and secrets the common people of the land had exaggerated
conceptions, but whose sudden and silent deeds in the interest of
justice went far to repress crime in that lawless age. We have seen the
completion of the sentence, let us attend a session of this mysterious
court.

Seeking the Vehmic tribunal, we do not find ourselves in a midnight
forest, nor in a dimly-lighted cavern or mysterious vault, as peasant
traditions would tell us, but in the hall of some ancient castle, or on
a hill-top, under the shade of lime-trees, and with an open view of the
country for miles around. Here, on the seat of justice, presides the
graf or count of the district, before him the sword, the symbol of
supreme justice, its handle in the form of the cross, while beside it
lies the _Wyd_, or cord, the sign of his power of life or death. Around
him are seated the _Schoeffen_,