no cause for excitement or flurry," he added; "you may find
our men firing over your heads as you pass into the street, but take no
notice.

"These are partly our own signallers giving us warning, and also they
are intended to clear the streets of loiterers. You will have safe
conduct out of the city by the north, where our guards have orders to
allow all citizens to pass--I can only counsel you to move as far from
the city as possible, as it is more than probable that our positions
will be shelled from the sea at any time, and gas bombs may be used in
order to save the buildings, which I need not say would be equally fatal
to civilians as to ourselves."

With that he asked the way to the fire-escape and the roof, which one of
us showed him, and then we hastily made parcels of anything we wished to
take with us.

I took occasion to get into conversation with one of the guards, a
rough-looking fellow, upon the aims of the revolution, but could elicit
nothing very intelligent, save that "England always hated Ireland, and
that now was the time to free her, or within a couple of years everyone
would be slaves and conscripts."

There seemed to be a rumour, too, that John Redmond had consented to
conscription for Ireland and that it was to be passed at the secret
session--but I could gather nothing definite, and before I could get
further details a superior officer came and severely reprimanded him for
allowing himself to be drawn into conversation at all.

There was nothing for it, therefore, but to march out, and as I could
not cross a bridge to get back to the south side of the city, I accepted
an offer of hospitality for the night with Mr. Marsh--provided I was
willing to walk to Howth for it, nine miles away.

The rain was drizzling as we made our way into Sackville Street.
Lawrence's was a blazing furnace, and on the roof we could see a woman
and child, caught by the fire, trying to reach the ladders of the fire
brigade, which were short; the side wall was tottering, there were
screams, but I turned my head: I felt too sick to look, save at the
gaping crowd, that even disgusted the rebels, who fired several blank
shots among them in the vain attempt to scatter them.

As soon as we reached the Parnell Monument, close to the Rotunda, we
turned to the right, and made our way through the long lines of
tenements--refugees.

There was quite a string of refugees, as one might have seen fleeing
from Ypres, for we knew