resign under the circumstances; and so pained was he that
he even went to the length of what was called a confession of guilt: but
his weakness had really been great strength--for any weakling can be
strong enough to sign an order for wholesale slaughter if he "damns the
consequences."

True, there could be no minimizing of the event either in the matter of
casualties or damage done.

A fortnight previous and Ireland was still the "one bright spot" and
Sackville Street one of the finest thoroughfares in the kingdom, but
during those momentous days the capital had been for the greater part of
a week almost entirely in the hands of the rebels; a Republican flag had
taken the place of the English Jack, which had floated over it for seven
continuous centuries, and now Dublin lay a heap of crumbling buildings,
whose smoking ruins looked like the track of the Huns--it might now be
called Ypres-on-the-Liffey.

The loss of life, too, had been tremendous, but the military casualties
were out of all proportion to those of the rebels, in some cases the
skirmishes representing a proportion of ten, and even twenty, to one.
The casualties, in fact, were as high as many a Boer War battle, and
amounted to three hundred killed and over a thousand wounded, of which
nearly two hundred were civilians. They included over sixty officers and
about four hundred rank and file. The Royal Irish Constabulary lost two
killed and thirty-five wounded; the Dublin Metropolitan Police six; the
Royal Navy three; and the Loyal Volunteers sixteen. With regard to the
Sinn Feiners no figures are available, but they must have been
considerably less than a quarter of these--perhaps even under.

The circumstances under which the troops and police suffered, however,
were such that the severest measures were adopted by General Sir John
Maxwell, who issued the following statement with regard to the action of
the courts martial:--

"In view of the gravity of the rebellion and its connection with German
intrigue propaganda, and in view of the great loss of life and
destruction of property resulting therefrom, the General Officer
Commanding-in-Chief has found it imperative to inflict the most severe
sentences on the known organizers of this detestable rising and on those
commanders who took an active part in the actual fighting which
occurred. It is hoped that these examples will be sufficient to act as a
deterrent to intriguers and to bring home to them that t