The case was particularly striking, as it was only because he happened
to be a well-known public man that any attention was paid to it, and it
tended to give credence to the horrible rumours which now began to
spread through Dublin of the secret carnage which was supposed to have
taken place during what was euphemistically called "the rounding-up of
the rebels" and "house-to-house visitation," while the citizens of
Dublin were confined to their own houses under penalty of death if they
stirred out without a permit after certain hours: and one has only to
walk through the slums to hear the colossal proportions which these
rumours have already attained, and which nothing but public civil
investigation will stay.

I had noticed Sheehy Skeffington myself upon the Tuesday, looking very
anxious and perplexed, and walking by himself without arms, and the
point struck me at the time because of the remark of my companion that
it was rather strange that he did not seem to be in any way officially
connected with the rebels.

It was in Sackville Street--just at the time when the looting was being
carried on in North Earl Street, where they had been making a
barricade--and with a paper in his hand, possibly the very notice he was
contemplating, he went in the direction of the Post Office porch, as if
to go in and consult about something that was on his mind: again I
presume to try to stop the looting, for a couple of hours later I saw
the crowd of looters scattered several times by the firing of shots in
their direction; and when the Imperial Hotel was raided, a Sinn Feiner
told me not to be alarmed at this when leaving the city, as they were
only blanks and intended to prevent the wholesale robbery that was going
on.

As a matter of fact, as his wife afterwards explained, Skeffington, far
from taking any part in the rising, was actually helping to look after
the innocent victims of the affray, such as the Dublin Castle officer
who was bleeding to death in the street, and this at imminent personal
danger to himself; and at the time of his arrest near Portobello Bridge
was actually engaged in the work of trying to stop the looting, having
just come back from a meeting called to that effect, and had been
putting up the following poster:--

"When there are no regular police in the streets it becomes the duty of
the citizens to police the streets themselves, to prevent such spasmodic
looting as has taken place.

"Civilians (both