Note 81 — Chapter IX · ARYAN RELIGIONS.

One of the last appearances of such a phantom army is graphically described by Mr. Motley in his History of the Dutch Republic. The occasion was a short time before the battle of Mookerhyde, in which the army of Prince Louis of Nassau was defeated, and himself slain:—‘Early in February five soldiers of the burgher guard at Utrecht, being on their midnight watch, beheld in the sky above them the representation of a furious battle. The sky was extremely dark except directly over their heads, where for a space equal in extent to the length of the city, and in breadth to that of an ordinary chamber, two armies in battle array were seen advancing upon each other. The one moved rapidly up from the north-west, with banners waving, spears flashing, trumpets sounding, accompanied by heavy artillery and by squadrons of cavalry. The other came slowly forward from the south-east, as if from an entrenched camp, to encounter their assailants. There was a fierce action for a few moments, the shouts of the combatants, the heavy discharge of cannon, the rattle of musketry, the tramp of heavy-armed foot-soldiers, and 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.... The struggle seemed but short. The lances of the south-eastern army seemed to snap ‘like hempstalks,’ 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 streaks; nor was it till the five witnesses had fully watched and pondered over these portents that the vision entirely vanished.’ (Vol. ii., p. 526.)