wait a
little.

I said what there was to be said for Parnell's point of view;
that, in his words to me of Nov. 25, he "must look to the future";
that he was only five and forty; that he might well fear that
factions would spring up in Ireland if he were to go; that he
might have made up his mind, that whether he went or stayed, we
should lose the general election when it came. The last notion
seemed quite outrageous to Mr. G., and he could not suppose that
it had ever entered Parnell's head.

_Mr. G._--You have no regrets at the course we took?

_J. M._--None--none. It was inevitable. I have never doubted. That
does not prevent lamentation that it was inevitable. It is the old
story. English interference is always at the root of mischief in
Ireland. But how could we help what we did? We had a right to
count on Parnell's sanity and his sincerity....

Mr. G. then got up and fished out of a drawer the memorandum of
his talk with Parnell at Hawarden on Dec. 18, 1889, and also a
memorandum written for his own use on the general political
position at the time of the divorce trial. The former contained
not a word as to the constabulary, and in other matters only put a
number of points, alternative courses, etc., without a single
final or definite decision. While he was fishing in his drawer, he
said, as if speaking to himself, "It looks as if I should get my
release even sooner than I had expected."

"That," I said, "is a momentous matter which will need immense
deliberation." So it will, indeed.

_Mr. G._--Do you recall anything in history like the present
distracted scenes in Ireland?

_J. M._--Florence, Pisa, or some other Italian city, with the
French or the Emperor at the gates?

_Mr. G._--I'll tell you what is the only thing that I can think of
as at all like it. Do you remember how it was at the siege of
Jerusalem--the internecine fury of the Jewish factions, the
{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ZETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}, and the rest--while Titus and the legions were marching on
the city!

We went in to luncheon. Something was said of our friend ----, and
the new found malady, Renault's disease.

_J. M._--Joseph de Ma