96 ENNIS NA SHIA. 



just as the sun's lower limb touched the ho- 

 rizon, shout after shout re-echoed through 

 the bog. The Enniskilleners closed in ; the 

 ORourkes pressed their horses to the very 

 edge of the soft ground ; while louder and 

 louder rung the shouts of the men of Annagh 

 Buie ; and the old chief himself dashed into 

 the golden willows, as he caught sight of the 

 fugitives emerging on that long projecting 

 tongue of land just opposite to us, which is, 

 as you see, so nearly isolated, that at this 

 distance it looks like an island. 



" 'We have them now!' he shouted. 'Close 

 in ! close in ! it is impossible they can escape 

 us now.' 



" But the sun had now sunk and twilight 

 had already begun, and the time of fairy 

 power had commenced. From the end of 

 that point of land, and terminating at Grove 

 Island opposite, there arose a soft blue mist 

 from the lake, which, as it opened, disclosed 

 a magnificent bridge of white marble, sup- 

 ported on a hundred arches, and lighted by 

 a thousand pale flames, which, only that they 

 were stationary, resembled those with which 

 the wandering will-o'-the-wisp beguiles un- 

 wary travellers. 



