he believed that he had been allured
from Mass by the cunning wiles of the demons, and he feared that the
dangerous time had come foretold by the monk. He started up and set
out for his home, hoping to reach it before night. But before he had
got half-way night fell and a storm came on, great wind and rain and
bursts of thunder and lightning. Fergus was strong and active,
however, and knew every turn of the mountain, and he made his way
through the storm till he approached the Demons' Rock.

Suddenly there burst on his ears the very same sounds that he had
heard on losing sight of the chase--shouts and shrieks and laughter. A
great black ragged cloud, whirling round and round with furious gusts
of wind, burst from the rock and came sweeping and tearing towards
him. Crossing himself in terror and uttering a short prayer, he rushed
for home. But the whirlwind swept nearer, till at last, in a sort of
dim, shadowy light, he saw the black cloud full of frightful faces,
all glaring straight at him and coming closer and closer. At this
moment a bright light dropped down from the sky and rested in front of
the cloud; and when he looked up, he saw his little child floating in
the air between him and the demons, holding a lighted candle in her
hand. And although the storm was raging and roaring all round, she
was quite calm--not a breath of air stirred her long yellow hair--and
the candle burned quietly. Even in the midst of all his terror he
could observe her pale gentle face and blue eyes just as when she was
alive, not showing traces of sickness or sadness now, but lighted up
with joy. The demons seemed to start back from the light, and with
great uproar rushed round to the other side of Fergus, the black cloud
still moving with them and wrapping them up in its ragged folds; but
the little angel floated softly round, still keeping between them and
her father. Fergus ran on for home, and the cloud of demons still kept
furiously whirling round and round him, bringing with them a whirlwind
that roared among the trees and bushes and tore them from the roots;
but still the child, always holding the candle towards them, kept
floating calmly round and shielded him.

At length he arrived at his house; the door lay half-open, for the
family were inside expecting him home, listening with wonder and
affright to the approaching noises; and he bounded in through the
doorway and fell flat on his face. That instant the door--though no
one