hat night he
secretly sent messengers across the hills to the dwelling of Lir.

When the messengers came there, and told their errand, great was the
grief of the father. And in the morning with a heavy heart he summoned a
company of the Dedannans, and together they set out for the palace of
Bove Derg. And it was not until sunset as they reached the lone shore of
Lake Darvra, that they slackened speed.

Lir alighted from his chariot and stood spellbound. What was that
plaintive sound? The Gaelic words, his dear daughter's voice more
enchanting even than of old, and yet, before and around, only the lone
blue lake. The haunting music rang clearer, and as the last words died
away, four snow-white swans glided from behind the sedges, and with a
wild flap of wings flew toward the eastern shore. There, stricken with
wonder, stood Lir.

"Know, O Lir," said Finola, "that we are thy children, changed by the
wicked magic of our stepmother into four white swans." When Lir and the
Dedannan people heard these words, they wept aloud.

Still spake the swan-maiden: "Three hundred years must we float on this
lone lake, three hundred years shall we be storm-tossed on the waters
between Erin and Alba, and three hundred years on the wild Western Sea.
Not until Decca be the Queen of Largnen, not until the good saint come
to Erin and the chime of the Christ-bell be heard in the land, not until
then shall we be saved from our doom."

Then great cries of sorrow went up from the Dedannans, and again Lir
sobbed aloud. But at the last silence fell upon his grief, and Finola
told how she and her brothers would keep forever their own sweet Gaelic
speech, how they would sing songs so haunting that their music would
bring peace to the souls of all who heard. She told how, beneath their
snowy plumage, the human hearts of Finola, Aed, Fiacra, and Conn should
still beat--the hearts of the children of Lir. "Stay with us to-night by
the lone lake," she ended, "and our music will steal to you across its
moonlit waters and lull you into peaceful slumber. Stay, stay with us."

And Lir and his people stayed on the shore that night and until the
morning glimmered. Then, with the dim dawn, silence stole over the lake.

Speedily did Lir rise, and in haste did he bid farewell to his children,
that he might seek Eva and see her tremble before him.

Swiftly did he drive and straight, until he came to the palace of Bove
Derg, and there by the waters of the Gr