the barracks," said McNeice. "He's been there all morning
trying to get the General to arrest him."

"It would be far better," I said, "if he went to London and handed
himself over to the Prime Minister."

"European convention," said Conroy, "makes it necessary, so I am
informed, that this particular kind of job should be done by a member
of your aristocracy."

I was, I think, with the exception of Moyne, the only member of the
House of Lords in Belfast at the moment. The committee had evidently
fixed on me as an ambassador.

"There is," I said, "a tradition that the Diplomatic Service should
be--but our circumstances are so very peculiar--I am not sure that we
ought to feel bound--"

"Will you go?" said Conroy.

"Of course, I'll go," I said. "There's nothing I should like better."

"The _Finola_ is lying off Bangor," said Conroy. "I'll run you and
Power down there in my motor. He'll land you wherever you like."

"Good," I said. "I suppose I'll go in my shirt with a rope round my
neck, like the burghers of Calais."

"If that's the regular costume," said Conroy.

He spoke so severely that I thought I had better drop the subject of
clothes.

"Now, as to the terms which you are prepared to offer the Government,"
I said.

"We will not have Home Rule," said the Dean and Malcolmson together.

"Of course not," I said. "That will be understood at once. Shall I
demand Mr. Redmond's head on a charger? I don't suppose you want it,
but it's always well to ask for more than you mean to take. It gives
the other side a chance of negotiating."

"All we ask," said McNeice, "is that the English clear out of this
country, bag and baggage, soldiers, policemen, tax collectors, the
whole infernal crew, and leave us free hand to clean up the mess
they've been making for the last hundred years."

"Either that," said Malcolmson, "or fight us in earnest."

"They'll clear out, of course," I said. "If it's a choice between that
and fighting. But what about governing the country afterwards?"

"We'll do that," said Conroy, "and if we can't do it better than they
did--"

"Oh, you will," I said. "Anyhow, you can't do it worse. But--there's
just one point more. What about the Lord Lieutenant?"

"I don't know that he matters any," said Conroy.

"He doesn't," I said, "not a bit. But he's there at present, and some
arrangement will have to be made about him."

"If the Dublin people like airing their best clothes before an
imita