gh; then turning round, he stretched his arms out passionately.

"Eileen! Eileen!" he cried aloud; and as though that word had broken the
spell, all at once--oh, wonderful sight!--the enchanted castle began to
rise. Higher it rose and higher; one little turret first; then
pinnacles and tower and roof; then strong stone walls; until, complete,
it stood upon the surface of the lough like a strange floating ship. And
then slowly and gently it drifted to the shore and, rising at the
water's edge, glided a little through the air, and sank at last upon the
earth, fixing itself firmly down once more where it had stood of old, as
if its foundations never had been stirred through the whole of those
three hundred years.

With his heart beating fast, Dermot stood gazing as if he could never
cease to gaze. It was a lovely summer day, and all the landscape round
him was bathed in sunlight. The radiance shone all over the gray castle
walls and made each leaf on every tree a golden glory. It shone on
bright flowers blooming in the castle garden; it shone on human figures
that began to live and move. Breathless and motionless, Dermot watched
them. He was not close to them, but near enough to see them in their
strange quaint dresses, passing to and fro, like figures that had
started from some painted picture of a by-gone age. The place grew full
of them. They poured out from the castle gates; they gathered into
groups; they spread themselves abroad; they streamed out from the castle
right and left. Did they know that they had been asleep? Apparently not,
for each man went on with his natural occupation, as if he had but
paused over it a minute to take breath. A hum of voices filled the air;
Dermot heard strange accents, almost like those of an unknown tongue,
mingled with the sound of laughter. Three hundred years had passed away,
and yet they did not seem to know it; busily they went about their
sports or labors--as calmly and unconsciously as if they never had been
interrupted for an hour.

And, in the midst of all, where was Eileen? The young chieftain stood
looking at the strange scene before him, with his heart beating high and
fast. He had killed the cat, he had broken the enchantment, he had
awakened the castle from its sleep, but what was to come next? Did the
prophecy, which said that a M'Swyne should do this, say also that, for
doing it, he should be given a reward?

Nay, it said nothing more. The rest was all a blank. But