uccess
attended the suggested proposals, they would receive the world's
unqualified approval; while failure, explained through the medium of a
malicious law, and a warped and cowardly public opinion, would brand
them as iniquitous. But Mr. O'Brien's scrupulous sense of honour escaped
the hazards of such feeble probabilities; and in the hour of deepest
gloom his own unsullied conscience shed peace, light and glory on his
fate.

[Illustration: A Street in Ballingarry, 1848]

Some of his companions exulted in the morning scene at Killenaule. To
_seem_ able to capture a troop of her majesty's dragoons, they regarded
as a victory. But others, more thoughtful and correct, mourned over the
escape of the military, which was only to be justified on the ground
that the incongruous force around the feeble barricades, would be
unequal to the task. It is a singular thing that while Captain Longmore
utterly despaired of forcing his way, Mr. Dillon was fully conscious of
his inability to resist him. The latter assumed a superiority he was
unable to sustain, the former abjured a design which it was criminal
according to the civil, and cowardly according to the military code, not
to attempt the execution of Mr. Dillon, who led his horse, was a
proclaimed "traitor." So was Mr. O'Brien, whose presence was avowed; by
virtue of his allegiance, and still more, by virtue of his commission he
was bound to arrest them. To neglect it was cowardice, cognisable by a
court-martial and punishable by death. There could be but one
justification--utter inability to effect the service. The evidence,
then, that could alone satisfy a court-martial must directly contradict
that which Captain Longmore offered at the trial in Clonmel. But while
Mr. O'Brien viewed the conduct of Captain Longmore as cowardly
submission, it would be unjust to conclude that it imparted a single
shade of inflexibility to his principles or purpose. On the contrary,
they assumed their attributes of most rigid sternness as his fortunes
became clouded by a deeper gloom. He was averse to everything which bore
the stamp of desperation, or could possibly imply a shrinking from fate.

Of those who took part in the deliberations of that evening, Messrs.
Dillon, Stephens, MacManus and O'Donohoe resolved to continue with Mr.
O'Brien. There seemed a possibility, though a desperate one, that they
could baffle the enemy for the time the country required, and maintain
their position of open