e, relying
on his engagement to lead off an insurrection in Ireland, those
circles had made certain preparations for the event, and a number of
their members, brave Irishmen who had had actual experience of war in
the armies of America, had crossed the Atlantic, and landed in England
and Ireland, to give the movement the benefit of their services. To
these men the break-down of James Stephens was a stunning blow, an
event full of shame and horror; they felt their honour compromised
by his conduct; they considered that they could not return to America
with their mission unattempted, and they resolved to establish their
own honesty and sincerity at all events, as well as the courage
and earnestness of the Fenian Brotherhood in Ireland, by taking the
desperate course of engaging forthwith in open insurrection. It was
in conformity with their arrangements, and in obedience to their
directions, that the rising took place on the night of the 5th of
March, 1867.

The ill success which attended the attempted insurrection was reported
in America almost as soon as it was known in Ireland, by the agency
of the Atlantic telegraph. But, whoever believed the statements of its
speedy and utter collapse, which were forwarded through the cable, the
Fenian circles certainly did not. They felt certain that the truth was
being withheld from them, that the cable, which was an instrument in
the hands of the British Government, was being employed to mislead
them, and that when it reported all quiet in Ireland, and no movement
afoot save that of the British troops employed in "scouring" the
mountains of Cork and Tipperary, there was, in reality, a guerilla
warfare being waged over a great extent of the country, and many
a tough fight being fought in pass, and glen, and wood, amidst the
picturesque scenery of the Munster counties. Their incredulity was but
natural. They had no reason whatever to rely on the truthfulness of
the cable messages. If there had been Fenian successes to report, it
is very likely that no fair account of them would have been allowed
to pass by that route. Still, as day after day went by, and brought
no news of battles lost or won by any party, the conviction began to
force itself on the minds of the American Fenians that the movement
in Ireland was hanging fire, and that it was going hard with the brave
men who had committed themselves to it at the outset. It was necessary
that something should be done, if those men we