blow least
suspected. Discovery or retaliation was impossible. Not a single disguise
was ever penetrated. All was planned and ordered as by destiny. The
accused was tried by secret tribunal, sentenced without a hearing,
executed in the dead of night without warning, mercy, or appeal. The
movements of the Klan were like clockwork, without a word, save the
whistle of the Night Hawk, the crack of his revolver, and the hoofbeat of
swift horses moving like figures in a dream, and vanishing in mists and
shadows.

The old club-footed Puritan, in his mad scheme of vengeance and party
power, had overlooked the Covenanter, the backbone of the South. This man
had just begun to fight! His race had defied the Crown of Great Britain a
hundred years from the caves and wilds of Scotland and Ireland, taught the
English people how to slay a king and build a commonwealth, and, driven
into exile into the wilderness of America, led our Revolution, peopled the
hills of the South, and conquered the West.

As the young German patriots of 1812 had organized the great struggle for
their liberties under the noses of the garrisons of Napoleon, so Ben
Cameron had met the leaders of his race in Nashville, Tennessee, within
the picket lines of thirty-five thousand hostile troops, and in the ruins
of an old homestead discussed and adopted the ritual of the Invisible
Empire.

Within a few months this Empire overspread a territory larger than modern
Europe. In the approaching election it was reaching out its daring white
hands to tear the fruits of victory from twenty million victorious
conquerors.

The triumph at which they aimed was one of incredible grandeur. They had
risen to snatch power out of defeat and death. Under their clan leadership
the Southern people had suddenly developed the courage of the lion, the
cunning of the fox, and the deathless faith of religious enthusiasts.

Society was fused in the white heat of one sublime thought and beat with
the pulse of the single will of the Grand Wizard of the Klan of Memphis.

Women and children had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not. Over four
thousand disguises for men and horses were made by the women of the South,
and not one secret ever passed their lips!

With magnificent audacity, infinite patience, and remorseless zeal, a
conquered people were struggling to turn his own weapon against their
conqueror, and beat his brains out with the bludgeon he had placed in the
hands of their forme