one, you
see, has none. Neither murders nor visions interest him. See what a big
vacant Saph he looks at this moment."

"Saph! Who was Saph, sir?"

"I thought you would not know. You may find it out. It is biblical. I
know nothing more of him than his name and race; but from a boy upwards
I have always attached a personality to Saph. Depend on it he was
honest, heavy, and luckless. He met his end at Gob by the hand of
Sibbechai."

"But the vision, sir?"

"Davy, thou shalt hear. Donne is biting his nails, and Malone yawning,
so I will tell it but to thee. Mike is out of work, like many others,
unfortunately. Mr. Grame, Sir Philip Nunnely's steward, gave him a job
about the priory. According to his account, Mike was busy hedging rather
late in the afternoon, but before dark, when he heard what he thought
was a band at a distance--bugles, fifes, and the sound of a trumpet; it
came from the forest, and he wondered that there should be music there.
He looked up. All amongst the trees he saw moving objects, red, like
poppies, or white, like may-blossom. The wood was full of them; they
poured out and filled the park. He then perceived they were
soldiers--thousands and tens of thousands; but they made no more noise
than a swarm of midges on a summer evening. They formed in order, he
affirmed, and marched, regiment after regiment, across the park. He
followed them to Nunnely Common; the music still played soft and
distant. On the common he watched them go through a number of
evolutions. A man clothed in scarlet stood in the centre and directed
them. They extended, he declared, over fifty acres. They were in sight
half an hour; then they marched away quite silently. The whole time he
heard neither voice nor tread--nothing but the faint music playing a
solemn march."

"Where did they go, sir?"

"Towards Briarfield. Mike followed them. They seemed passing Fieldhead,
when a column of smoke, such as might be vomited by a park of artillery,
spread noiseless over the fields, the road, the common, and rolled, he
said, blue and dim, to his very feet. As it cleared away he looked again
for the soldiers, but they were vanished; he saw them no more. Mike,
like a wise Daniel as he is, not only rehearsed the vision but gave the
interpretation thereof. It signifies, he intimated, bloodshed and civil
conflict."

"Do you credit it, sir?" asked Sweeting.

"Do you, Davy?--But come, Malone; why are you not off?"

"I am rather surprised