remembered the days of the Famine and boys born since the
Boer War; and as they stood there, their hands aloft, between the lines
of khaki, not one face flinched. Here and there, however, one could see
the older men shaking hands with the younger, muttering, "It isn't the
first time we've suffered. But it's all for dear old Ireland," or
wishing each other good-bye. That was pathetic to a degree that, I know
for a fact, moved some of the English officers themselves.

Suddenly a car came dashing up at full speed. Some turned their heads
instinctively, and as they did so noticed that in addition to four khaki
uniforms there were two green figures with eyes bandaged.

In an instant the captives had recognized their leaders, themselves also
going--God only knew to what punishment, and at once such a cheer went
up that the whole street echoed again.

It only needed "God save Ireland" to have completed the drama, but they
knew they would be stopped if they began, and, instead, one of them
cried out "Are we downhearted?" and immediately every voice, clear and
resonant, answered in one ringing "No!"

"If it had not been for the women and children, we should be fighting
you still," was the reply of one Sinn Feiner to a soldier; and when
asked why they were fighting, another man answered, "We have our orders
as well as you--we're both soldiers and fight when our country demands";
while yet a third ventured defiantly, "You've won this time, but next
time when you're fighting, our children will win."

Dramatic was no word for the situation, and as I gazed at them
there--now no more than a dread convict roll--I pictured the wretched
tenements from which most must have come--the worst slums in Europe, by
common consent of all Commissions--and asked myself the question what
chance or reason they had ever had in life to love either their country
or the Empire; and then the picture of the long years of penal
servitude, such as John Mitchel had endured for Ireland, arose before my
mind, but I consoled myself with the thought, "At least England will
understand what caused these men to turn despairingly to revolution,"
and the words of Mr. Asquith consoled me as I thought of the terrible
wholesale vengeance a Prussian officer would take--for had he not said
that England had sent the General in whose discretion she had more
complete confidence than any other?--but I stopped thinking: it was all
too sad: after all, England was surely not