vain. For when he placed its control in my hands on
his departure for America, I found it with a very small circulation, and
anything but a paying concern; whereas, when I yielded up the trust into
his hands, I had the satisfaction of handing over to him a substantial
amount of cash in hand, a statement of assets and liabilities showing a
satisfactory balance on the right side, and a paper with a largely
increased and paying circulation.

For many years previous to his death, I did not come into contact with
him. Indeed it was only the year before he died that I had the
pleasure--and it was all the more a pleasure as we had differed strongly
during previous years on some points--of meeting him at his house in
Formby. This was before his last visit to America, where he contracted
the illness which terminated in his death soon after his return to
England.

CHAPTER XII.

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR--AN IRISH AMBULANCE CORPS--THE FRENCH FOREIGN
LEGION.

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, the sympathy of Ireland was
naturally, for historic reasons, on the side of France. It was not
surprising, then, that many young Irishmen who had served in America, or
in the ranks of the Papal Volunteers, or had borne a share in the Fenian
movement, were anxious to show their sympathy in a practical way, and at
the same time to gratify the national propensity for a fight

--in any good cause at all.

I happened to number among my friends some of these young Irishmen, of
whom I may mention Captain Martin Kirwan, James Lysaght Finigan, Edmond
O'Donovan, Arthur Forrester, Frank Byrne, and James O'Kelly. There was a
strong feeling in Ireland to send a considerable body of men to France,
but the law stood in the way. It was evaded by the formation of an
Ambulance Corps, and for this generous subscriptions flowed in, along
with numerous applications from volunteers. These were all medically
examined, as if for a regular army, and in this way as fine a body of
young men as ever left Ireland was picked from those who had
volunteered. The ambulance service was equipped in the most perfect
manner, and presented to the French nation. On arriving in France, there
were (as was, of course, intended) more men than were required for the
ambulance duties, and these at once volunteered for service as soldiers.
They were formed into a company under the command of Captain Kirwan, one
of the sergeants being Frank Byrne, who was