"The Phantom Battle."

There is a famous picture in Utrecht, Holland, called "The Phantom Battle," illustrative of the following tradition.

Five soldiers of the burgher guard at Utrecht, being on midnight watch early in February, 1515, beheld in the midnight sky above them a furious battle. The sky was extremely dark except immediately overhead, where in a subdued light, extending the length of the city, two armies in full battle array were seen to be advancing upon each other. One approached from the northwest, moving rapidly, with banners waving, spears flashing, trumpets sounding, accompanied by heavy artillery and squadrons of cavalry. From the south came slowly up another army, as though from an entrenched camp, to encounter their assailants. There was fierce action for a few minutes; the shouts of the combatants, the heavy discharge of artillery and musketry, the tramp of foot-soldiers heavily armed and the rush of cavalry being distinctly heard. After a short, fierce engagement the northern army was beaten back, but it soon rallied, and all the sounds of a desperate encounter were repeated. The struggle was brief; the southern army went down beneath the resistless onset of their northern enemies. The victors and the vanquished faded away, the clear blue sky, surrounded on the horizon by black clouds, was empty, save where streaks as of blood told that men had fought and men had fallen; then these, too, faded away, while the five Utrecht burgher-soldiers gazed in silent awe.

The depositions of these five men were taken separately before the magistrates of the town of Utrecht. Whether it was native superstition, or whether it was a prophecy, "the heavenly vision of the five soldiers" was pronounced a portent that, in the great unequal struggle of the Netherlands with Spain, the "northern army" would in the end prevail,--and the decision strengthened many an arm to battle for the right. The northern army was victorious.