a debate which could not be kept in the tone on which he
started it must be unfavourable to the meetings of the Nine which were
about to take place. He was to go in to negotiate a settlement for his
country while the voices of faction were yelping at his heels all over
Ireland, and all the forces of reconciliation which he had brought into
play were neutralized and sterilized.

A debate of these days gave him a happier occasion to intervene than the
domestic bickerings in which he had been forced to take part; yet even
in this the note of sadness predominated. On October 29th, when a vote
of thanks was proposed to the Navy, Army and Mercantile Marine, he
joined his voice to that of other leaders of parties, to emphasize, as
he said, that they spoke from an absolutely unanimous House of Commons.
He recalled the exploits of Irish troops and dwelt again on the presence
of a large Irish element in the Canadian and Anzac Divisions. But his
reference was chiefly to those Nationalist Irish Brigades, who had
remained true, he said, to the old motto of the Brigade of Fontenoy,
_Semper et ubique fidelis_. These men had known in the midst of their
privations and sufferings a new and poignant feeling of anguish: they
had seen "a section at any rate of their countrymen" repudiate the view
that in serving as they served they were fighting for Ireland, for her
happiness, for her prosperity and her liberty.

"I wish it were possible for me to speak a word to every one of those
men. If my words could reach them, I would say to every one of them that
they need have no misgiving, that they were right from the first, that
time will vindicate them, that time will show that while fighting for
liberty and civilization in Europe they are also fighting for
civilization and liberty in their own land. I would like to say to every
one of them, in addition, that even at this moment, when ephemeral
causes have confused and disturbed Irish opinion, they are regarded with
feelings of the deepest pride and gratitude by the great bulk of the
Irish race and by all that is best in every creed and class in Ireland."

The Irish Divisions had once and again been engaged shoulder to
shoulder, but this time with very different fortune, in the third battle
of Ypres; yet, win or lose, they won or lost together. In that same
fighting Redmond's own son had earned special honour; the Distinguished
Service Order was bestowed on him for holding up a broken line with