put upon the soil of the
county by the Northern invaders. Against the soldiers no animosity is
felt, but the hatred against the cause of their presence is bitter and
profound. Mayo has its back up, and only waits for an opportunity of
vengeance.

At eleven o'clock the march from the barracks to Lough Mask commenced.
First came a strong detachment of constabulary, then a squadron of the
19th Hussars, commanded by Captain Webster, and next two hundred men
of the 84th and 76th Regiments, who completely surrounded and enclosed
the so-called "workmen" and their leaders, Mr. Somerset Maxwell, who
contested Cavan at the last election in the Conservative interest,
and Mr. Goddard, a solicitor of Monaghan, who led the men of that
county, with whom was the Mr. Manning to whose letters in the _Daily
Express_, a Dublin newspaper, the Orange movement is attributed in
this part of the country. In the rear came the men and waggons of the
Army Service Corps.

To the astonishment of most of those who formed part of the procession
the number of persons assembled to witness it was almost ridiculously
small, and popular indignation roared as gently as a sucking-dove. In
their own opinion the most law-abiding of Her Majesty's subjects, the
Ballinrobe folk indulged but very slightly in groaning or hissing, and
when the little army got clear of the town its sole followers were a
couple of cars, a market cart, and a private gig driven by a lady, the
tag-rag and bobtail being made up of a dozen bare-legged girls, whose
scoffs and jeers never went beyond the inquiry, "Wad ye dig auld
Boycott's pitaties, thin?" There was no wit or humour racy of the
soil, no flashes of bitter sarcasm, no pungent observations: everybody
felt that the thing was going off like a damp firework, and that,
bating the "Dead March" from _Saul_, it was very like a funeral.
Still, those who ought to know declared that the absence of any
demonstration was in itself a bad sign. Hardly any men were seen on
the line of march, but it was said that scouts were on every hill, and
that pains were being taken to identify the Orangemen. It was also
heard on the best authority that Mr. Ruttledge's herds had been
threatened and ordered to quit his service by the mysterious agency
which rules the rural mind of Mayo.

Silently, except for an occasional laugh or two from a colleen
standing by the wayside, we kept the line of march towards Lough Mask.
At the village, standing on two t