."

"Laugh at me an' thou wilt," said Harrington: "when Master Lilly cast
my horoscope he bade me ever to eschew travel when Mars comes to his
southing, conjunct with the Pleiades, at midnight--the hour of my
birth. Last night, as I looked out from where I lay at Preston,
methought the red warrior shot his spear athwart their soft
scintillating light; and as I gazed, his ray seemed to ride half-way
across the heavens. Again he is rising yonder."

"And his meridian will happen at midnight?"

"Even so," replied Harrington.

"Then gallop on. I'd rather make my supper with the fair dames at
Lydiate than in a mermaid's hall."

But their progress was a work of no slight difficulty, and even
danger. Occasionally plunging to the knees in a deep bog, then wading
to the girth in a hillock of sand and prickly bent grass (the _Arundo
arenaria_, so plentiful on these coasts), the horses were scarcely
able to keep their footing--yet were they still urged on. Every step
was expected to bring them within sight of some habitation.

"What is yonder glimmer to the left?" said Molyneux. "If it be that
hideous water again, it is verily pursuing us. I think I shall be
afraid of water as long as I live."

"As sure as Mahomet was a liar, and the Pope has excommunicated him
from Paradise, 'tis the same still, torpid, dead-like sea we ought to
have long since passed."

"Then have our demonstrations been in a circle, in place of a right
line, and we are fairly on our way back again."

Sure enough there was the same broad, still surface of the Meer,
though on the contrary side, mocking day's last glimmer in the west.
The bewildered travellers came to a full pause. They took counsel
together while they rested their beasts and their spur-rowels; but the
result was by no means satisfactory. One by one came out the glorious
throng above them, until the heavens grew light with living hosts, and
the stars seemed to pierce the sight, so vivid was their brightness.

"Yonder is a light, thank Heaven!" cried Harrington.

"And it is approaching, thank your stars!" said his companion. "I
durst not stir to meet it, through these perilous paths, if our
night's lodging depended on it."

The bearer of this welcome discovery was a kind-hearted fisherman, who
carried a blazing splinter of antediluvian firewood dug from the
neighbouring bog; a useful substitute for more expensive materials.

It appeared they were at a considerable distance from the r