"I have replied as I was bound," said the other, shaking his head and smiling.
"Whence come you, then?" questioned the chief.
"From the quarter whence cometh the Light," was the response.
"That is the East, and we are informed that you come from Sweden."
"I may have passed through there from the Orient," said the stranger.
"Still we know you not. A second time, who are you?"
"I will tell you in a while, since you pretend not to know me; but, meantime, I will tell you who you are."
The spectres shuddered and their swords clanked as they shifted them from the left to the right hands again to point them at his breast.
"To begin with you," said the stranger, pointing to the chief, "one who fancies himself a god and is but a forerunner—the representative of the Swedish Circles—I will name you, though I need not name the others. Swedenborg, have not the angels, who speak familiarly with you, revealed that the Man you expect was on the way?"
"True, they told me so," answered the principal, parting his shroud the better to look out.