Ossian Collection > Poems of Oisin, bard of Erin

158 DIALOGUE,
When they came out of their swoons, and re-
covered their shapes, with form, colour, and ap-
pearance, they beheld, near unto them, a beautiful
golden mansion of power and mastery.
" Dost thou observe that golden mansion O
Fionn son of Cumhalr" said melodious Daire.
" Quite clearly do 1 see it O Daire." " O Fionn,
I see it myself," said the young woman.
They also saw encircling them a vast blue-
w^aved, powerful sea :* swdmming over it there
came a bulky hero and an amiable woman.
Froissart relates that in 1381, when the Duke of Anjou
lay before a strong castle upon the coast of Naples, a necro-
mancer offered to " make the ayre so thycke, that they with
in shal thynke that there is a great bridge on the see (by
wliich the castle was surrounded) for ten men to go a front ;
and when they within the castell see tliis bridge, they will
be so afrayed that they shall yelde them to your mercy !
The duke demanded ' Fayre master, on this bridge that ye
speak of, may our people assuredly go thereon to the castell
to assayle it ?' * Syr,' quod the enchantour, ' I dare not as-
sure you that ; for if any that passeth on the bridge make
the signe of the crosse on him, all shall go to noughte, and
they that be on the bridge shall fall into the see.' * * * -t
The Earl of Savoy shortly afterwards entered tlie tent,
and recognised in the enchanter the same person who
had put the castle into the power of Sn Ch. de la Payx,
who then held it, by persuading the garrison of the