THE

SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.




CHAPTER I.


In perusing the following pages, the reader will learn the history of a
class of men, who, for talent, cannot be excelled. He may startle at the
horrid features which naked truth will depict--at deeds of darkness
which, though presented to an enlightened people, may require a stretch
of credulity to believe were ever perpetrated in the glorious nineteenth
century.

It will, no doubt, elicit many a curious thought, especially with honest
men, and the "whys and wherefores" will pass from mouth to mouth in
every hamlet, village, and town, where the following recital may find a
reader or hearer. All will declare it mysterious. It is a mystery to
myself in some particulars, but in others it is not. It is strange,
passing strange, to think that such a black-hearted, treacherous band of
men, as I am about to describe, could have existed so long in a
civilized and Christian country.

With a trembling hand do I attempt to bring to light their ruling
principles, to develop a system of organized and accomplished villany.
My reasons for assuming so daring a position may seem to require an