farther out of the soil, appeared the dark and
bearded visages of warriors, struggling to free
themselves from the imprisoning earth. The first
look that they gave at the upper world was a
glare of wrath and defiance. Next were seen their
bright breastplates; in every right hand there
was a sword or a spear, and on each left arm a
shield; and when this strange crop of warriors
had but half grown out of the earth, they strug-
gled, such was their impatience of restraint,
and, as it were, tore themselves up by the roots.
Wherever a dragon's tooth had fallen, there
stood a man armed for battle. They made a
clangor with their swords against their shields,
and eyed one another fiercely; for they had
come into this beautiful world, and into the
peaceful moonlight, full of rage and stormy pas-
sions, and ready to take the life of every human
brother, in recompense of the boon of their own
existence.

There have been many other armies in the
world that seemed to possess the same fierce na-
ture with the one which had now sprouted from
the dragon's teeth; but these, in the moonlit
field, were the more excusable, because they

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p322 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p323w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p324

v?