Page:Alerielorvoyaget00lach.djvu/72

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
50
A Voyage to Other Worlds.

Though few people passed at night by this desolate moor, yet so large a proportion of these saw these lights that it would be difficult to believe that they all suffered from delusion. The lights seemed to come and go, to appear and disappear, but never to be seen again of the same form. It could not all be a delusion, for the number of witnesses was so great, and yet, curious to say, no two persons agreed in their accounts of what they saw; all saw something, but each one gave a different account.

"The subject occupied my mind, and at last I resolved, unknown to Posela, to go myself one night to investigate the matter, which I doubted not was connected with this mystery or my strange guest.

"I went out one evening on the moors with a companion, who, however, deserted me as soon as the lights appeared. They were very extraordinary, and suited the descriptions of the peasantry, in being exceedingly varied in form and colour. Several acres of moorland and swamp suddenly changed colour. The cause must have been very powerful, as the twilight was scarcely out of the heavens, and the planet Venus was shining brightly amid the stars, giving a pale light over the country. Still neither