[Illustration:  GENERAL THOMAS F. BURKE.]

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GENERAL THOMAS F. BURKE.

The year of grace, 1867, dawned upon a cloudy and troublous period in Irish politics.  There was danger brewing throughout the land; under the crust of society the long confined lava of Fenianism effervesced and glowed.  There were strange rumours in the air; strange sounds were heard at the death of night on the hill-sides and in the meadows; and through the dim moonlight masses of men were seen in secluded spots moving in regular bodies and practising military evolutions.  From castle and mansion and country seat the spectre of alarm glided to and fro, whispering with bloodless lips of coming convulsions and slaughter, of the opening of the crater of revolution, and of a war against property and class.  Symptoms of danger were everywhere seen and felt; the spirit of disaffection had not been crushed; it rode on the night wind and glistened against the rising sun; it filled rath and fort and crumbling ruin with mysterious sounds; it was seen in the brightening eyes and the bold demeanour of the peasantry; in the signals passing amongst the people; in their secret gatherings and closely guarded conclaves.  For years and years Fenianism had been threatening, boasting, and promising, and now the fury of the storm, long pent-up, was about to burst forth over the land—­the hour for action was at hand.

Between the conviction of Luby, O’Leary, and Kickham, and the period at which we are now arrived, many changes of importance had taken place in the Fenian organization.  In America, the society had been revolutionized—­it had found new leaders, new principles, new plans of action; it had passed through the ordeal of war, and held its ground amidst flashing swords and the smoke of battle; it had survived the shocks of division, disappointment, and failure; treachery, incapacity and open hostility had failed to shatter it; and it grew apace in strength, influence, and resources.  At home Fenianism, while losing little in numerical strength, had declined in effectiveness, in prestige, in discipline, and in organization.  Its leaders had been swept into the prisons, and though men perhaps as resolute stepped forward to fill the vacant places, there was a loss in point of capacity and intelligence, and to the keen observer it became apparent that the Fenian Society in Ireland had attained to the zenith of its power on the day that the Irish People office was sacked by the police.  Never again did the prospects of Fenianism, whatever they might then have been, look equally bright; and when the brotherhood at length sprang to action, they fought with a sword already broken to the hilt, and under circumstances the most ominous and inauspicious.