The mysterious lights which for several nights past have been seen dancing over the fen, to the great uneasiness of sundry superstitious persons, were traced yesterday afternoon to a very earthly origin. Constable Wilfred Truncheon, accompanied by Mr. Jeremiah Reed, whose knowledge of the deeper channels of the mere is reckoned unequalled, came upon a party of eel-poachers out of Saltfleet, engaged in working the north traps by dark-lantern.
The strangers, two in number, took to their heels on the constable's hail, and were lost in the gathering dusk before pursuit could be offered. They left behind them a considerable quantity of nets, a punt of the sort used by eel-catchers, and a fine parcel of eels, all of which now lie in the charge of the authorities. The light, it appears, was nothing more than the lantern of these gentry as they went about their unlawful business.
Constable Truncheon, who had bought himself a new pair of sea-boots at the market only that morning, is said to have observed that the chase had proven harder on his boots than on the poachers. Mr. Reed, for his part, expressed a quiet satisfaction that the town's nerves may be restored, and that the fen may be walked again without the dread of spectres. The eels, it is understood, will be sold for the benefit of the parish. The mystery, we trust, is now put to rest.