They left their horses and their chariots
and stood on the shore of the lake and listened to the enchanting
music, and never thought of food, or of drink, or of sleep. Even the
horses listened to the song as the people did. Day and night they
stood there, and many days and nights, and no hunger came upon them,
and they felt no cold and no heat, and no wind and no wet.
"But the time came when the enchantment that was upon them compelled
the four white swans to leave the place. They rose up into the air and
flew away and out of sight into the sky. Then the King and his people,
and Lir and his people, went back to their castles, and they never saw
the four white swans again.
"The four white swans flew to Loch Derg, and there for many years they
swam on the lake, and fed and slept among the rushes along the shores.
In the summer the lake was pleasant and cool, the air was clear and
mild, the sky was blue, and the sun was bright and beautiful. Then
Fair-shoulder and her brothers forgot that they were unhappy. They
sang songs to one another and scarcely remembered that they had ever
been anything but swans, swimming on this peaceful water.
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