weeping, and, noticing continued convulsive sobs as she spoke, I
ventured to ask her the reason.

"It was then that she revealed the terrible tragedy she was about to
suffer.

"'I am poor Joe Plunkett's--the rebel's--fiancee,' she said, 'and we are
to be married in prison to-morrow morning, an hour before his
execution.'

"I tell you it was the most pathetic thing I had ever heard in my life,"
continued the jeweller; "and I felt inclined to break down myself when
she added: 'Oh! I can't tell you how I love him and how he loves me; we
belong to each other, and even if we are only to be together for a
single hour I mean to marry him in spite of everybody, in order to bear
his name through life.'"

The young woman at once stepped into the same category as Sarah Curran,
poor Robert Emmet's sweetheart, in the heart of everyone in Dublin as
the story went round like lightning, but no one knew who she was until
the next day, when we heard that she was Grace Gifford, the beautiful
and gifted young art student whose portrait by William Orpen, entitled
"Young Ireland," had won the admiration of all London a few years
before.

Not all the character and talent and romance of these leaders, however,
would have been sufficient to launch Ireland into open rebellion had
there not been some concrete grievance as well which gave their words
objective worth.

Style alone makes no martyrs, and the best way to understand the
influence these men had upon their followers is to study the concrete
grievances which they preached in season and out of season, making
revolution not only sound plausible but actually practicable; and for
this we must turn to the literature, which explains the remoter home
causes of the rebellion.

CHAPTER THE EIGHTH

REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION

Those who think they can explain away the Sinn Fein rising of 1916 by
the factor of German gold make much the same mistake as those who were
so anxious to explain away the Home Rule movement by American dollars.
The fact of the matter is, great movements and national uprisings should
not be explained away: they should be, on the contrary, amplified,
emphasized, and deeply studied.

I remember on one occasion the late W. T. Stead, when he was helping me
with the biography of my uncle, Mr. John Redmond, emphasizing upon me
the tremendous importance of the study of Irish problems to an Empire
like ours, where nearly every one of its component nations is