At the eastern angle of the enemy’s camp burned a fire larger and brighter than the rest, and as he gazed, its blaze was suddenly obscured—then left clear again—then obscured once more; and thus it kept vanishing and reappearing by turns for several minutes together, as if a long train of shadows were passing between it and himself.
At that unearthly hour, and in that superstitious age, such an apparition would have unnerved the boldest man; but even this was not all. Though these ghostly riders were numerous enough to have made their hoof-tramp on this rough and rocky ground plainly heard, even at that distance, amid the tomb-like silence of night, not a sound reached the strained ear of the sentry, who crossed himself tremulously, convinced that what he saw was not of this world.
But the next moment brought him some encouragement; for, as the shadowy train drew nearer, an English sentinel’s hoarse voice was heard challenging it, and another voice replying with the counter-sign.
This did not sound very ghostly, and the bold Breton, reflecting that a spirit would have no need of pass-words, was beginning to feel more composed, when a new and disturbing idea came to trouble him. As these strange riders were not ghosts, they must be English reinforcements coming up for the final assault; and this would make the case of the defenders more hopeless than ever.
Hardly had the thought struck him, when it was put to flight, and his superstitious terrors revived in full force, by a new and startling turn of this strange adventure.
The shadowy horsemen, dimly seen by the faint light of the dying fires, had all this while been gliding nearer and nearer to the town, noiselessly as ever. The sentry, watching them keenly, was just beginning to wonder if there could be a traitor within the fortress, and if these night-prowlers were advancing on it in the hope of having its gate opened to them, when, all at once, the foremost rider sank into the earth before the very eyes of the astounded watcher; and all the rest vanished in the same way, man by man, till not one was left—and all this without the slightest sound.
The sturdy Breton trembled like a leaf; but the man who just then came up to take his place hardly noticed how silently he slunk away, supposing him merely tired and sleepy, as was quite natural.
The new-comer, however, was fated to be as much startled in his turn.
Hardly had he begun to pace up and down, when a shadowy rider seemed to issue from the ground, silently as a dream, a little to his left; and then, one by one, the ghostly horsemen rose through the earth again as noiselessly as they had vanished into it!
For a moment, the new sentry was as much scared as his comrade; but he was a more experienced soldier, and the true explanation of this prodigy soon suggested itself to him. He called to mind that this part of the English camp was traversed by a deep and narrow ravine, through which the seeming phantoms must have made their way; and as for their silent movements, the veteran knew that horse-hoofs may sometimes be muffled!