on.
Proceeding under an oath-bound covenant, it invoked, seemingly--by
adopting the emblems of their rule--the powers of darkness to assume the
protectorate over its affairs, and levied on the code of pirates for a
rule of discipline that should awe the stoutest hearts into meek
submissiveness. To break the least of its commandments was esteemed a
crime for which death would be a weak expiation, and to retreat from its
enterprises, good or evil, bold or weak, was to be exposed to a fate more
horrible than the chain and vulture. Their periodical gatherings, or dark
seances, were held in caves in the bowels of the earth, where they were
surrounded by what might be aptly termed the panoply of the lower
regions--rows of skulls, coffins and their furniture, human skeletons,
ominous pictures _copied_ from the darkest passages of the Inferno or
Paradise Lost; and, brooding over all, that spell-like mystery which
waited ever as an inspiration from the tomb upon the movements of the
weird brotherhood. Here, habited in full regalia, and seated in alignment
on raised benches, the members of the Order were wont to receive trembling
initiates, commune together about affairs of government, and plan midnight
raids against mortal enemies. Frequently these conferences were brief, but
the fires were always lighted, in order that the still inspiration of the
scene might not be wanting to the business of the evening--the
ever-recurring raid on jail, or state-house, or Forest League. Gowned and
helmeted, and mounted on strong chargers, invested, as far as possible,
with the character of their riders, the ghostly phalanx galloped forth to
predestined conquest, for an invisible host fought at its side, and each
man bore a talisman in his outer garb which might have affrighted the
armies of an empire from the field.

The government of the Klan proceeded under a rigid constitutional system
that was rarely or never amended. Its chief officer, or ruler of what was
known as the _Empire_, was elected to an unlimited term of office, and
entrusted with the means of despotic rule. His official title was Grand
Wizard, and he was, by virtue of his first appointment,
commander-in-chief of the army or military force constituted under the
Empire. The officers under the latter held their appointment from him, and
composed his counsel, or cabinet. The Grand Division, or Empire, was
subdivided into Realms, Provinces, and Dens. The geographical boundaries
of t