of the
lake. Never had the snowy whiteness of their plumage so dazzled the
beholders, never had music so sweet and sorrowful floated to Lake
Darvra's sunlit shores. As the swans reached the water's edge, silent
were the three brothers, and alone Finola chanted a farewell song.

With bowed white heads did the Dedannan host listen to Finola's chant,
and when the music ceased and only sobs broke the stillness, the four
swans spread their wings, and, soaring high, paused but for one short
moment to gaze on the kneeling forms of Lir and Bove Derg. Then,
stretching their graceful necks toward the north, they winged their
flight to the waters of the stormy sea that separates the blue Alba from
the Green Island of Erin.

And when it was known throughout the Green Isle that the four white
swans had flown, so great was the sorrow of the people that they made a
law that no swan should be killed in Erin from that day forth.

With hearts that burned with longing for their father and their friends,
did Finola and her brothers reach the sea of Moyle. Cold were its wintry
waters, black and fearful were the steep rocks overhanging Alba's
far-stretching coasts. From hunger, too, the swans suffered. Dark indeed
was all, and darker yet as the children of Lir remembered the still
waters of Lake Darvra and the fond Dedannan host on its peaceful shores.
Here the sighing of the wind among the reeds no longer soothed their
sorrow, but the roar of the breaking surf struck fresh terror in their
souls. In misery and terror did their days pass, until one night the
black, lowering clouds overhead told that a great tempest was nigh. Then
did Finola call to her Aed, Fiacra, and Conn. "Beloved brothers, a great
fear is at my heart, for, in the fury of the coming gale, we may be
driven the one from the other. Therefore, let us say where we may hope
to meet when the storm is spent."

And Aed answered: "Wise art thou, dear, gentle sister. If we be driven
apart, may it be to meet again on the rocky isle that has ofttimes been
our haven, for well known is it to us all, and from far can it be seen."

Darker grew the night, louder raged the wind, as the four swans dived
and rose again on the giant billows. Yet fiercer blew the gale, until at
midnight loud bursts of thunder mingled with the roaring wind, but, in
the glare of the blue lightning's flashes, the children of Lir beheld
each the snowy form of the other. The mad fury of the hurricane yet
increa