long a
time must pass until we can take our own forms again."

[Illustration: ONE TOUCH FOR EACH, WITH A MAGICAL WAND OF THE DRUIDS]

And, relentlessly, Eva made answer: "Better had it been for thy peace
hadst thou left unsought that knowledge. Yet will I tell thee thy
doom. Three hundred years shall ye live in the smooth waters of Lake
Darvra; three hundred years on the Sea of Moyle,[11] which is
between Erin and Alba; three hundred years more at Ivros Domnann[12]
and at Inis Glora,[13] on the Western Sea. Until a prince from the
north shall marry a princess from the south; until the Tailleken (St.
Patrick) shall come to Erin, and until ye shall hear the sound of the
Christian bell, neither my power nor thy power, nor the power of any
Druid's runes can set ye free until that weird is dreed."

As she spoke, a strange softening came into the evil woman's heart.
They were so still, those white creatures who gazed up at her with
eager, beseeching eyes, through which looked the souls of the little
children that once she had loved. They were so silent and piteous, the
little Ficra and Conn, whose dimpled baby faces she often used to
kiss. And she said, that her burden of guilt might be the lighter:

"This relief shall ye have in your troubles. Though ye keep your human
reason and your human speech, yet shall ye suffer no grief because
your form is the form of swans, and you shall sing songs more sweet
than any music that the earth has ever known."

Then Eva went back to her chariot and drove to the palace of her
foster-father at the Great Lake, and the four white swans were left on
the lonely waters of Darvra.

When she reached the palace without the children, the king asked in
disappointment why she had not brought them with her.

"Lir loves thee no longer," she made answer. "He will not trust his
children to thee, lest thou shouldst work them some ill."

But her father did not believe her lying words. Speedily he sent
messengers to Shee Finnaha that they might bring back the children who
ever carried joy with them. Amazed, Lir received the message, and when
he learned that Eva had reached the palace alone, a terrible dread
arose in his heart. In great haste he set out, and as he passed by
Lake Darvra he heard voices singing melodies so sweet and moving that
he was fain, in spite of his fears, to stop and listen. And lo, as he
listened, he found that the singers were four swans, that swam close
up to where he stoo