THE CURSE OF THE FIRES AND OF THE SHADOWS

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    One summer night, when there eace, a score of Puritan troopers uhe pious Sir Frederick Hamilton, broke through the door of the Abbey of the White Friars which stood over the Gara Lough at Sligo. As the door fell with a crash they saw a little knot of friars, gathered about the altar, their white habits glimmering ieady light of the holy dles. All the monks were kneeling except the abbot, who stood upoar steps with a great brazen crucifix in his hand. Shoot them! cried Sir Frederick Hamilton, but irred, for all were new verts, and feared the crucifix and the holy dles. The white lights from the altar threw the shadows of the troopers up on to roof and wall. As the troopers moved about, the shadows began a fantastice among the corbels and the memorial tablets. For a little while all was silent, and then five troopers who were the body?guard of Sir Frederick Hamilton lifted their muskets, and shot down five of the friars. The noise and the smoke drove away the mystery of the pale altar lights, and the other troopers took ce and began to strike. In a moment the friars lay about the altar steps, their white habits stained with blood. Set fire to the house! cried Sir Frederick Hamilton, and at his word o out, and came in again carrying a heap of dry strailed it against the western wall, and, having dohis, fell back, for the fear of the crucifix and of the holy dles was still in his heart. Seeing this, the five troopers who were Sir Frederick Hamiltons body?guard darted forward, and taking each a holy dle set the straw in a blaze. The red tongues of fire rushed up and flickered from corbel to corbel and from tablet to tablet, and crept along the floor, setting in a blaze the seats and behe dance of the shadows passed away, and the dance of the fires began. The troopers fell back towards the door in the southern wall, and watched those yellow dancers springing hither and thither.

    For a time the altar stood safe and apart in the midst of its white light; the eyes of the troopers turned upon it.

    The abbot whom they had thought dead had risen to his feet and now stood before it with the crucifix lifted in both hands high above his head. Suddenly he cried with a loud voice, Woe unto all who smite those who dwell within the Light of the Lord, for they shall wander among the ungovernable shadows, and follow the ungovernable fires! And having so cried he fell on his face dead, and the brazen crucifix rolled doweps of the altar. The smoke had now growhick, so that it drove the troopers out into the open air.

    Before them were burning houses. Behind them shohe painted windows of the Abbey filled with saints and martyrs, awakened, as from a sacred trance, into an angry and animated life. The eyes of the troopers were dazzled, and for a while could see nothing but the flaming faces of saints and martyrs. Presently, however, they saw a man covered with dust who came running towards them. Two messengers, he cried, have bee by the defeated Irish to raise against you the whole try about Manor Hamilton, and if you do not stop them you will be overpowered in the woods before you reae again! They ride north?east between Ben Bulben and Cashel?na?Gael.

    Sir Frederick Hamilton called to him the five troopers who had first fired upon the monks and said, Mount quickly, and ride through the woods towards the mountain, a before these men, and kill them.

    In a moment the troopers were gone, and before many moments they had splashed across the river at what is now called Buckleys Ford, and plunged into the woods. They followed a beaten track that wound along the northern bank of the river. The boughs of the bird qui trees mingled above, and hid the cloudy moonlight, leaving the pathway in almost plete darkness. They rode at a rapid trot, now chatting toget<cite>..</cite>her, now watg some stray weasel or rabbit scuttling away in the darkness. Gradually, as the gloom and silence of the woods oppressed them, they drew clether, and began to talk rapidly; they were old rades and knew each others lives. One was married, and told how glad his wife would be to see him return safe from this harebrained expedition against the White Friars, and to hear how fortune had made amends for rashness. The oldest of the five, whose wife was dead, spoke of a flagon of wine which awaited him upon an upper shelf; while a third, who was the you, had a sweetheart watg for his return, and he rode a little way before the others, not talking at all. Suddenly the young man stopped, and they saw that his horse was trembling. I saw something, he said, a I do not know but it may have been one of the shadows. It looked like a great worm with a silver  upon his head. One of the five put his hand up to his forehead as if about to cross himself, but remembering that he had ged his religio it down, and said: I am certain it was but a shadow, for there are a great many about us, and of very strange kinds. Then they rode on in sile had been raining in the earlier part of the day, and the drops fell from the branches, wetting their hair and their shoulders. In a little they began to talk again. They had been in many battles against many a rebel together, and now told each other aiory of their wounds, and so awakened in their hearts the stro of all fellowships, the fellowship of the sword, and half fot the terrible solitude of the woods.

    Suddenly the first two horses neighed, and then stood still, and would go no further. Before them was a glint of water, and they knew by the rushing sound that it was a river. They dismounted, and after much tugging and coaxing brought the horses to the river?side. In the midst of the water stood a tall old woman with grey hair flowing rey dress. She stood up to her knees ier, and stooped from time to time as though washing. Presently they could see that she was washing something that half floated. The moon cast a flickering light upon it, and they saw that it was the dead body of a man, and, while they were looking at it, an eddy of the river turhe face towards them, and each of the five troopers reised at the same moment his own face. While they stood dumb and motionless with horror, the woman began to speak, saying slowly and loudly: Did you see my son? He has a  of silver on his head, and there are rubies in the .

    Then the oldest of the troopers, he who had been mo<q>藏书网</q>st often wounded, drew his sword and cried: I have fought for the truth of my God, and need not fear the shadows of Satan, and with that rushed into the water. In a momeurhe woman had vanished, and though he had thrust his sword into air and water he had found nothing.

    The five troopers remounted, aheir horses at the ford, but all to no purpose. They tried again and again, a plunging hither and thither, the horses foaming and rearing. Let us, said the old trooper, ride back a little into <dfn>藏书网</dfn>the wood, and strike the river higher up. They rode in uhe boughs, the ground?ivy crag uhe hoofs, and the brariking against their steel caps. After about twenty minutes riding they came out again upon the river, and after aen minutes found a place where it ossible to cross without sinking below the stirrups. The wood upoher side was very thin, and broke the moonlight into long streams. The wind had arisen, and had begun to drive the clouds rapidly across the face of the moon, so that thin streams of light seemed to be dang a grotesque dance among the scattered bushes and small fir?trees. The tops of the trees began also to moan, and the sound of it was like the voice of the dead in the wind; and the troopers remembered the belief that tells how the dead in purgatory are spitted upon the points of the trees and upon the points of the rocks. They turned a little to the south, in the hope that they might strike the beaten path again, but they could find no trace of it.

    Meanwhile, the moaning grew louder and louder, and the dance of the white moon?fires more and more rapid. Gradually they began to be aware of a sound of distant music. It was the sound of a bagpipe, and they  rode towards it with great joy. It came from the bottom of a deep, cup?like hollow. In the midst of the hollow was an old man with a red cap and withered face. He sat beside a fire of sticks, and had a burning torch thrust into the earth at his feet, and played an old bagpipe furiously. His red hair dripped over his face like the iron rust upon a rock. Did you see my wife? he cried, looking up a moment; she was washing! she was washing!

    I am afraid of him, said the young trooper, I fear he is one of the Sidhe. No, said the old trooper, he is a man, for I  see the sun?freckles upon his face. We will pel him to be uide; and at that he drew his sword, and the others did the same. They stood in a ring round the piper, and poiheir swords at him, and the old trooper then told him that they must kill two rebels, who had taken the road between Ben Bulben and the great mountain spur that is called Cashel? na?Gael, and that he must get up before one of them aheir guide, for they had lost their way. The piper turned, and poio a neighb tree, and they saw an old white horse ready bitted, bridled, and saddled. He slung the pipe across his back, and, taking the tor his hand, got upon the horse, and started off before them, as hard as he could go.

    The wood grew thinner and thinner, and the ground began to slope up toward the mountain. The moon had already set, and the little white flames of the stars had e out everywhere. The ground sloped more and more until at last they rode far above the woods upon the wide top of the mountain. The woods lay spread out mile after mile below, and away to the south shot up the red glare of the burning town. But before and above them were the little white flames. The guide drew rein suddenly, and pointing upwards with the hand that did not hold the torch, shrieked out, Look; look at the holy dles! and then plunged forward at a gallop, waving the torch hither and thither. Do you hear the hoofs of the messengers? cried the guide. Quick, quick! or they will be go of your hands! and he laughed <tt>９９lｉｂ?t>as with delight of the chase. The troopers thought they could hear far off, and as if below them, rattle of hoofs; but now the ground began to slope more and more, and the speed grew more headlong moment by moment. They tried to pull up, but in vain, for the horses seemed to have gone mad. The guide had thrown the reins on to the neck of the old white horse, and was waving his arms and singing a wild Gaelig. Suddenly they saw the thin gleam of a river, at an immense distance below, and khat they were upon the brink of the abyss that is now called Lug?na?Gael, or in English the Strangers Leap. The six horses sprang forward, and five screams went up into the air, a moment later five men and horses fell with a dull crash upon the green slopes at the foot of the rocks.

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