any.

As regards details, however, the inhabitants had to content themselves
with the simple statement that "yesterday morning an insurrectionary
rising took place in the City of Dublin"; that "the authorities had
taken active and energetic measures to cope with the situation, which
measures were proceeding favourably"; but this official condolence in
their plight was rather discomforting, as the whole city was still in
the possession of the insurgents.

Next, another proclamation was issued declaring the county of Dublin
under martial law, warning all peaceable and law-abiding subjects within
the area of the danger of frequenting or being in any place in the
vicinity of which His Majesty's forces were engaged in the suppression
of disorder, and enjoining upon them the duty and necessity of remaining
so far as practicable within their own homes so long as such dangerous
conditions prevailed, and proclaiming that all persons found carrying
arms without lawful authority were liable to be dealt with severely by
virtue of such proclamation.

All this, of course, was anything but reassuring, especially in view of
the danger everybody felt of a provincial rising and the whispers of a
German invasion; but towards the evening another statement was issued to
the effect that the trouble was confined to Dublin and one or two other
districts only in a minor way.

Yet the trouble was by no means even at its height.

All Tuesday the Sinn Feiners had been preparing for the inevitable
battle, but these preparations merely took the shape of consolidating
the positions already occupied.

At O'Connell Bridge, for example, Kelly's shop at the corner of
Bachelors' Walk was garrisoned, and Hopkins's jewellery establishment at
the opposite corner was similarly occupied.

In Lower Abbey Street, opposite Wynn's Hotel, a formidable barricade was
erected, composed partly of paper taken from the _Irish Times_ store.

The wireless station was also seized, and all day long messages were
flashed to the four corners of the world announcing the establishment of
an Irish Republic, which messages were picked up at sea by special
envoys who had been forewarned, and sent on till they finally reached
New York and Petrograd.

The amazement of Russia and America must have been
considerable--especially Russia's.

Yet it was not all preparation, for already the troops, or such as
could be brought up in time, had come into contact with the Sinn Feine