ANS WITH ME IN THE TOILS.

I had, of course, for many years heard much of the Fenian prisoners in
the English prisons, particularly Sergeant McCarty and William O'Brien.
Soon after my arrival at Chatham I was placed in the same party with
them. We were all three strongly drawn together, but were shy of being
the first to speak. Of course, it was strictly against the rules to
talk, but as a matter of fact the prisoners find many opportunities for
talking, particularly if they do their work. The officers are reported
and fined if their men fall behind in their task, so if a man is any way
backward in working the officer keeps his weather eye open, and reports
him for any infraction of the rules.

One day, soon after they were put in my party, I gave O'Brien a hand in
fixing his run. We spoke a few words. The ice was broken; we soon became
fast friends, and our friendship remained unbroken until their happy
release some years after. They were fine, manly fellows, and I in time
came to have a warm affection for them.

McCarty had for nearly twenty years been a sergeant in the English army.
He had come out of the Indian mutiny with a splendid record, and had
been recommended for a commission. But while wearing the British
uniform, his heart was warm for Ireland and her cause, so when, in 1867,
his battery being then stationed in Dublin, he was informed many devoted
adherents to the Fenian cause had determined to try and seize Dublin,
with a view of starting a wide revolt against English domination,
perilous as it was, he cast his lot in with them, and speedily found
sufficient adherents in his own field battery to seize it and bring it
into action against the English. The plan miscarried. Sergeant McCarty,
along with many others, was arrested and tried for treason; as a matter
of course was speedily convicted, and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and
quartered. This sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life.

O'Brien was an enthusiastic youngster of 17, and an ardent patriot. He
had enlisted in a regiment then stationed in Ireland for no other reason
than to familiarize himself in military affairs, also to win over
recruits to the Fenian cause, and when the revolt began to be in a
position to seize arms. The result of it all, so far as my two friends
were concerned--they found themselves by my side in the great Chatham
ship basin loading trucks with mud and clay, and that upon a diet of
black bread and potatoes. Th