d a little while, I stooped forward and seized the flag with one
hand; and putting forth my strength, I flung it seven perches from its
place, and relieved the little men. But with the great strain the
golden saddle-girth broke, and bounding forward to keep myself from
falling, I suddenly came to the ground on my two feet.

The moment the white steed felt himself free, he shook himself and
neighed. Then, starting off with the speed of a cloud-shadow on a
March day, he left me standing helpless and sorrowful. Instantly a
woeful change came over me: the sight of my eyes began to fade, the
ruddy beauty of my face fled, I lost all my strength, and I fell to
the earth, a poor withered old man, blind and wrinkled and feeble.

The white steed was never seen again. I never recovered my sight, my
youth, or my strength; and I have lived in this manner, sorrowing
without ceasing for my gentle golden-haired wife Niam, and thinking
ever of my father Finn, and of the lost companions of my youth.

* * * * *

Between these romances and the first definite Christian writings the
numerous Ossianic colloquies and narrative poems, and the Irish
Annals, form the connecting links. The Ossianic poetry, even where it
is specially Irish in character, we have elected to leave aside for
the present, for reasons already given; but it must be remembered that
they form a very important section in themselves, and amount in Irish
alone to some fifty thousand lines, even on a fairly moderate
computation.

Turning to the Annals, we are confronted at once by that extraordinary
repository of Irish lore, history, and legend known as 'The Annals of
the Four Masters.' This remarkable testament of the Irish genius was
due primarily to the zeal and energy of Michael O'Clery, born at
Donegal about 1580--the last of a long line of scholars. Having become
a Franciscan, in his conventual calling he was living far away from
his native soil, at St. Anthony's monastery in Louvain. But there he
had another Donegal man, AEdh the son of Bhaird (Ward), for fellow
worker; and the two together formed the idea of collecting and putting
into permanent form the valuable MS. flotsam of old Irish literature
which in earlier days, wandering in their own land, they had found
drifting insecurely hither and thither. The plan they proposed was for
O'Clery to get leave of absence and return to Ireland, there to roam
up and down the land, collecting