ght
watchman, actually set Stephens free. Byrne was arrested and put upon
his trial for aiding the escape of Stephens, but nothing could be
brought home to him, and, after two successive juries had disagreed on
his case, he was released. Breslin, the chief instrument in the rescue,
was not suspected. He simply bided his time until he took his annual
holiday, from which he never returned, leaving the country before there
was any suspicion of him. Michael Breslin, his brother, held a
responsible position in the Dublin police, and was the means of
frustrating many a well-laid scheme of the Castle, so that if the
Government had its creatures in the revolutionary camp, the I.R.B. had
agents in theirs.

Another, as I have already mentioned, who took part in the Stephens
rescue was my friend John Ryan, better known in the Brotherhood as
Captain O'Doherty. At our interview in Liverpool on the occasion of my
initiation, he gave me a full account of this among other incidents. He
was, like Peter Maughan, an old schoolfellow of mine with the Christian
Brothers in Liverpool. He was one of the men picked out by Colonel Kelly
to be on guard when the "old man"--one of Stephens' pet nick-names--came
over the prison wall. Ryan was a fine type of an Irishman, morally,
intellectually and physically. As Stephens slipped down from the wall,
holding on to the rope, he came with such force on my friend's
shoulders as almost to bear him to the ground. In my "Irish in Britain"
I have described in detail how Breslin got a key made for Stephens'
cell, and how he and Byrne helped the C.O.I.R. over the prison wall to
where his friends awaited him, and also the adventures of the Fenian
leader after his escape from Richmond.

The man who made the key for Stephens' cell, from a mould taken by John
Breslin, was Michael Lambert, a trusted member of the I.R.B. Though his
name was well known to the initiated at the time, it never was mentioned
until later years, he being always referred to previously as "the
optician."

After remaining in concealment several months Stephens got away from
Ireland. The craft in which he escaped was one of a fleet of fishing
hookers which sailed from Howth and Kinsale when engaged in their
regular work. The owner, who was delighted to have a hand in such an
enterprise, was a warm-hearted and patriotic Irishman, Patrick De Lacy
Garton, for whom I acted as conducting agent, when he was returned by
the votes of his fellow-c