on him as protected by
heaven, asked for his friendship, and offered him presents, amongst which
was a magnificent set of chessmen, in crystal, ornamented with gold and
amber.

The successors of Hassan, simultaneously attacked by the Moguls under
Houlayon, and by the Egyptians commanded by the Sultan Bibars, were
conquered and dispossessed of their States towards the middle of the
thirteenth century; but, long after, the Ishmaelians, either because their
chiefs sought to recover their power, or because they had placed their
daggers at the disposal of some foreign foe, continued notorious in
history. At last the sect became extinct, or, at least, retired into
obscurity, and renounced its murderous profession, which had for so long
made its members such objects of terror.

We have thus seen how a legion of fanatics in the East made themselves the
blind and formidable tools of a religious and political chieftain, who was
no less ambitious than revengeful. If we now turn our attention to
Germany, we shall here find, almost at the same period, a local
institution which, although very different from the sanguinary court of
the Old Man of the Mountain, was of an equally terrible and mysterious
character. We must not, however, look at it from the same point of view,
for, having been founded with the object of furthering and defending the
establishment of a regular social state, which had been approved and
sanctioned by the sovereigns, and recognised by the Church, it at times
rendered great service to the cause of justice and humanity at a period
when might usurped right, and when the excesses and the crimes of
shameless evil-doers, and of petty tyrants, entrenched in their
impregnable strongholds, were but too often made lawful from the simple
fact that there was no power to oppose them.

The secret tribunal of Westphalia, which held its sittings and passed
sentence in private, and which carried out its decrees on the spot, and
whose rules, laws, and actions were enveloped in deep mystery, must
unquestionably be looked upon as one of the most remarkable institutions
of the Middle Ages.

[Illustration: Figs. 319 and 320.--Hermensul or Irmensul and Crodon, Idols
of the Ancient Saxons.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the "Annales Circuli
Westphaliae," by Herman Stangefol: in 4to, 1656.--The Idol Hermensul
appears to have presided over Executive Justice, the attributes of which
it holds in its hands.]

It would be difficult to s