went through me as hardly
anything else I witnessed, for they showed in such a terrible light the
contrast between the dream that had inspired these men and the reality
that they had brought forth.

Meantime, however, things were maturing, and as they matured the
ridiculous element faded and the tragic element began to come into the
picture.

Every few minutes dispatch riders would come up on motor-cycles to the
Post Office, and emerge a few minutes later with sealed orders. A long
line of motor-cars "held up" at the point of the revolver was also
requisitioned and placed at the disposal of the rebels in a queue before
the Post Office side-entrance. Then came the supplies of food and
ammunition on huge lorries from the country districts, each with its
escort of six young farmers fully armed, with double bandoliers filled
to bursting-point with cartridges; and as I stood outside the _Freeman_
offices, just at the side-gate of the "fortress," I was amazed at the
regularity of the whole proceeding: password, cheques, guards, orders,
everything, in fact, went off without the slightest hitch. And no
wonder--as I found out later--for during the past few weeks nearly every
manoeuvre had been rehearsed in mufti by the Volunteers, acting under
the orders of their chiefs, and each man knew his position, his work,
and the exact minute at which he was to perform it.

In this way, at a given signal it had been possible to hold up the whole
city of Dublin with the ease of a highwayman holding up a coach on a
lonely common in Georgian days.

I shall never forget the awful growing stillness of that afternoon as
the hours flew by, for all traffic was at an end. Now and again in the
general silence one heard the crack of a rifle, the hoot of a captured
motor and the cry "Stop, in the name of the Irish Republic!" from the
Volunteers, and the ghastly howling of the mob as more shop-fronts gave
way--but all these sounds came spasmodically and only intensified the
surrounding stillness. And all the while everyone was expecting the
arrival of the military, and saying, "When will the soldiers come?"
Then, "Will the soldiers come?" and later, "Will the soldiers never
come?"

Soon dusk began to come on more rapidly, and we conjectured that the
authorities must have determined to wait till dark. The Volunteers, too,
felt this, and took up positions on the roof and strengthened their
outposts, every hour or so a dozen or two Volunteers fully