from the sudden invasion of a foreign foe,--for any more terrific
termination of events did not just then suggest itself to his
imagination.

Absorbed in thought, he walked some paces along the embankment,
before he perceived that a number of people were already assembled
there,--men, women, and children, who, crowding eagerly together
to the very edge of the parapet, appeared to be anxiously watching
the waters below.

What unusual sight attracted them? ... and why were they all so
silent as though struck dumb by some unutterable dismay? One or
two, raising their heads, turned their pale, alarmed faces toward
Theos as he approached, their eyes seeming to mutely inquire his
opinion, concerning the alarming phenomenon which held them thus
spellbound and fear-stricken.

He made his way quickly to where they stood, and looking where
they looked, uttered a sharp, involuntary exclamation, ... the
river, the clear, rippling river was RED AS BLOOD. Beneath the
slowly breaking light of dawn, that streaked the heavens with
delicate lines of silver-gray and daffodil, the whole visible
length and breadth of the heaving waters shone with a darkly
flickering crimson hue, deeper than the lustre of the deepest
ruby, flowing sluggishly the while as though clogged with some
thick and weedy slime.

As the sky brightened gradually into a pale, ethereal blue, so the
tide became ruddier and more pronounced in color,--and presently,
as though seized by a resistless panic, the group of staring,