discharge of cannon, the rattle of musketry; the tramp of heavy-aimed
foot soldiers, the rush of cavalry, being distinctly heard. The
firmament trembled with the shock of the contending hosts, and was lurid
with the rapid discharges of their artillery. After a short, fierce
engagement, the north-western army was beaten back in disorder, but
rallied again, after a breathing-time, formed again into solid column,
and again advanced. Their foes, arrayed, as the witnesses affirmed, in a
square and closely serried grove of spears' and muskets, again awaited
the attack. Once more the aerial cohorts closed upon each other, all the
signs and sounds of a desperate encounter being distinctly recognised by
the eager witnesses. The struggle seemed but short. The lances of the
south-eastern army seemed to snap "like hemp-stalks," while their firm
columns all went down together in mass, beneath the onset of their
enemies. The overthrow was complete, victors and vanquished had faded,
the clear blue space, surrounded by black clouds, was empty, when
suddenly its whole extent, where the conflict had so lately raged, was
streaked with blood, flowing athwart the sky in broad crimson streams;
nor was it till the five witnesses had fully watched and pondered over
these portents that the vision entirely vanished.

So impressed were the grave magistrates of Utrecht with the account given
next day by the sentinels, that a formal examination of the circumstances
was made, the deposition of each witness, under oath, duly recorded, and
a vast deal of consultation of soothsayers' books and other auguries
employed to elucidate the mystery. It was universally considered typical
of the anticipated battle between Count Louis and the Spaniards. When,
therefore, it was known that the patriots, moving from the south-east,
had arrived at Mookerheyde, and that their adversaries, crossing the
Meuse at Grave, had advanced upon them from the north-west, the result of
the battle was considered inevitable; the phantom battle of Utrecht its