ot where the prison van was
to be stopped, assigning to every man his post, and providing for every
contingency, including the possibility of the rescuing party being taken
in the rear from Belle Vue prison, he wired for the assistance of
Captain Murphy and Colonel Burke, the message being that "his uncle was
dying."

Murphy was from home, but Burke came on to Manchester, and with Michael
O'Brien accompanied Condon on September 17th, the night before the
rescue, to meet the men chosen for the daring enterprise, when the arms
were distributed, each man's post on the following day allotted to him,
and the final arrangements made.

The two Fenian chiefs stayed with Condon that night, fighting their old
campaigns over again, e'er they retired to rest, not to meet again till
eleven years after the Manchester Rescue, when Condon and Burke came
across each other in New York, each having suffered in the interval a
long term of imprisonment, and it was the last night that Burke and
Condon passed on earth with Michael O'Brien, whose memory Irishmen, the
world over, honour as one of the "noble-hearted three"--the Manchester
Martyrs--who died for Ireland on the scaffold.

The secret of the intended rescue was closely guarded, and though the
Mayor of Manchester did get a warning wire from Dublin Castle, it
reached too late, and the birds had flown. When Kelly and Deasy were
brought before the city magistrates they were remanded. "They were,"
said the "Daily News," "placed in a cell with a view to removal to the
city jail at Belle Vue. At this time the police noticed outside the
court house two men hanging about whom they suspected to be Fenians, and
a policeman made a rush at one of them to arrest him, in which he
succeeded, but not until the man had drawn a dagger and attempted to
stab him, the blow being warded off. The other made his escape."

As to the incident just related, it seems that a patriotic but imprudent
man belonging to one of the Manchester circles had got to hear of the
intended rescue, and was indignant at being left out. His suspicious
conduct outside the court house drew the attention of the police--as we
have seen--with the result, as the paper said, that the authorities
became alarmed. Kelly and Deasy were put in irons on their removal, and
a strong body of police were sent with the van intended to take them to
Belle Vue Prison.

It was the custom for a policeman to ride outside the van, on the step
behin