While Martin spoke the strangeness of the thing came home to Foy.  Here were four of them, two of whom knew a secret and two who did not, while those who did not implored those who did to impart to them nothing of the knowledge which, if they had it, might serve to save them from a fearful doom.  Then for the first time in his young and inexperienced life he understood how great erring men and women can be and what patient majesty dwells in the human heart, that for the sake of a trust it does not seek can yet defy the most hideous terrors of the body and the soul.  Indeed, that scene stamped itself upon his mind in such fashion that throughout his long existence he never quite forgot it for a single day.  His mother, clad in her frilled white cap and grey gown, seated cold-faced and resolute in the oaken chair.  His father, to whom, although he knew it not, he was now speaking for the last time, standing by her, his hand resting upon her shoulder and addressing them in his quiet, honest voice.  Martin standing also but a little to one side and behind, the light of the morning playing upon his great red beard; his round, pale eyes glittering as was their fashion when wrathful, and himself, Foy, leaning forward to listen, every nerve in his body strung tight with excitement, love, and fear.

Oh! he never forgot it, which is not strange, for so great was the strain upon him, so well did he know that this scene was but the prelude to terrible events, that for a moment, only for a moment, his steady reason was shaken and he saw a vision.  Martin, the huge, patient, ox-like Martin, was changed into a red Vengeance; he saw him, great sword aloft, he heard the roar of his battle cry, and lo! before him men went down to death, and about him the floor seemed purple with their blood.  His father and his mother, too; they were no longer human, they were saints—­see the glory which shone over them, and look, too, the dead Hendrik Brant was whispering in their ears.  And he, Foy, he was beside Martin playing his part in those red frays as best he might, and playing it not in vain.

Then all passed, and a wave of peace rolled over him, a great sense of duty done, of honour satisfied, of reward attained.  Lo! the play was finished, and its ultimate meaning clear, but before he could read and understand—­it had gone.

He gasped and shook himself, gripping his hands together.

“What have you seen, son?” asked Lysbeth, watching his face.

“Strange things, mother,” Foy answered.  “A vision of war for Martin and me, of glory for my father and you, and of eternal peace for us all.”

“It is a good omen, Foy,” she said.  “Fight your fight and leave us to fight ours.  ’Through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God,’ where at last there is a rest remaining for us all.  It is a good omen.  Your father was right and I was wrong.  Now I have no more to fear; I am satisfied.”

None of them seemed to be amazed or to find these words wonderful and out of the common.  For them the hand of approaching Doom had opened the gates of Distance, and they knew everyone that through these some light had broken on their souls, a faint flicker of dawn from beyond the clouds.  They accepted it in thankfulness.