450 
Will- o’ -the- Wisp : a Confession . 
[August, 
their fire at night it first manifested itself. My friend Lieut. 
Morcillo, the officer in command, soon got to hear of it, and, 
scenting trickery, issued notice that he had given his soldiers 
orders to fire upon it whenever and wherever it became 
visible. The soldiers, as they became more accustomed to 
the Ignis fatuus, began to style it the “ Plazera.” Singular 
to relate, no sooner did the light burst forth than it was 
heralded throughout the town by a universal chorus of howls 
from all the mangy curs in Itapua. In order to elucidate 
the mystery Lieut. Morcillo and myself visited the plaza for 
several nights in succession, accompanied by three or four 
soldiers with loaded rifles and ourselves armed with revolvers. 
The military were posted round the square, and we waited 
from io o’clock till 12 or 1 in an atmosphere bathed in the 
brilliancy of a full moon. Only twice was it seen by me, but 
then very distinctly ; the first time some little distance off, 
but the second quite close. On the first occasion the light 
started up from the ground with the brightness and speed of 
a rocket, and then again descended to the earth with equal 
velocity but less splendour : on the second we caught sight 
of it as it direCtly, but gently, approached along the road, 
upon which, running to intercept it, and stumbling at every 
step over rough and swampy ground, we managed to arrive 
within 3 yards of the glowing vision as it slowly glided on 
at a level of about 5 feet from the earth. It presented a 
globular form of bluish light, so intense that we could 
scarcely look at it, but emitted no rays and cast no shadows ; 
and when about aCIually to grasp the incandescent nothing- 
ness, suddenly elongating into a pear-shape tapering to the 
ground, it instantly vanished ; but on looking round up it 
rose again within 50 yards, but this time we could not over- 
take it, as it bounded over a hedge, then over trees, and 
finally disappeared in an impenetrable swamp. According 
to the testimony of the soldiers, on another occasion, they 
beheld it rise from the swamp and perch for some minutes 
on the top of the roof of a neighbouring rancho without 
• walls, after which it pierced the roof and subsided in the 
ground beneath ; but in our case there was no deception, 
and moreover we noticed that it never appeared on a windy 
night nor after rain.” The author adds, in comment, “ Al- 
though the marsh-gas theory presented itself to my unwilling 
mind, it would have to be strained considerably to be able to 
account for all the attendant circumstances.” 
We will now attempt an examination of the various hypo- 
theses proposed for the explanation of the Wisp. 
Trickery may be at once set aside as out of the question. 
