The _Vehmgericht_ could be summoned at any time and place, in private buildings, in the forests, in caves, or in the open fields; they were occasionally held publicly, but usually they were closed against all but the initiated and the accused person. The Emperor, or, in his absence, the count or noble of highest dignity presided, and if any uninitiated person intruded, he was immediately put to death. The secret tribunal met when necessary and received complaints, to answer which they assumed the right to summon any one in Germany. Ordinarily, the accused was arrested and held by his captors for the secret trial, but if he had not been arrested, he was summoned to appear by fastening on his door or gateway the summons of the dreaded court, which usually had enclosed in it a small coin. If he failed to appear or send a messenger, he was condemned, as despising the jurisdiction of the Holy _Vehmgericht_, and once condemned there was little chance of his life while he remained in Germany. The condemnation of an offender by a Vehmic Court was known to the whole brotherhood in a short time; and even if it were the father, brother, or son of one of the initiated who was condemned, he not only might not warn him of his danger, but was bound to aid in putting him to death under penalty of losing his own life. The death penalty, the usual decree of the court, was generally inflicted by hanging. When executed the victim was hanged to the nearest tree, nothing of value which he might have about him being removed, and a knife was thrust into the ground as a token that the deed had been committed by order of the brotherhood. The _Vehmgericht_, although an irresponsible tribunal possessing this extensive and dreadful authority, became a power so formidable that Charles IV, in 1371, stipulated for its official recognition. Exercising its despotic dominion under such obligations of severity, the brotherhood, however, in 1461, incurred the hostility of those who feared to become its victims, as well as those who saw in it an engine capable of terrible oppression, and an association was formed to resist it. The result was that, in 1495, Maximilian I established a new criminal code, materially weakening the secret tribunals. Secret trials are said to have been held as late as 1811, although the brotherhood ceased to excite terror or exert any considerable influence before the close of the seventeenth century. In the year 1914 the prosaic American people, self-satisfied in a national peace and prosperity that superficially appeared to be a permanent condition, were suddenly awakened to find themselves spectators of the great drama staged by Emperor William Hohenzollern, who suddenly plunged all Europe into the throes of a Napoleonic war.