[Illustration:  A Street in Ballingarry, 1848]

Some of his companions exulted in the morning scene at Killenaule.  To seem able to capture a troop of her majesty’s dragoons, they regarded as a victory.  But others, more thoughtful and correct, mourned over the escape of the military, which was only to be justified on the ground that the incongruous force around the feeble barricades, would be unequal to the task.  It is a singular thing that while Captain Longmore utterly despaired of forcing his way, Mr. Dillon was fully conscious of his inability to resist him.  The latter assumed a superiority he was unable to sustain, the former abjured a design which it was criminal according to the civil, and cowardly according to the military code, not to attempt the execution of Mr. Dillon, who led his horse, was a proclaimed “traitor.”  So was Mr. O’Brien, whose presence was avowed; by virtue of his allegiance, and still more, by virtue of his commission he was bound to arrest them.  To neglect it was cowardice, cognisable by a court-martial and punishable by death.  There could be but one justification—­utter inability to effect the service.  The evidence, then, that could alone satisfy a court-martial must directly contradict that which Captain Longmore offered at the trial in Clonmel.  But while Mr. O’Brien viewed the conduct of Captain Longmore as cowardly submission, it would be unjust to conclude that it imparted a single shade of inflexibility to his principles or purpose.  On the contrary, they assumed their attributes of most rigid sternness as his fortunes became clouded by a deeper gloom.  He was averse to everything which bore the stamp of desperation, or could possibly imply a shrinking from fate.

Of those who took part in the deliberations of that evening, Messrs. Dillon, Stephens, MacManus and O’Donohoe resolved to continue with Mr. O’Brien.  There seemed a possibility, though a desperate one, that they could baffle the enemy for the time the country required, and maintain their position of open defiance, whilst we, in different parts of the country, should keep up an appearance of force, so as to distract attention and check any attempt to despatch a force from the garrison of Clonmel.  Meantime we were to endeavour to organise a force, and, if strong enough, act on our own responsibilities and according to our own principles.  We left him about nine o’clock in the evening, after the best dispositions available out of the number with us were made to prevent surprise during the night.  Soon after our departure he strongly advised Mr. Dillon to leave for another part of the country.  I proposed to take up my post on Slievenamon, where I would be in the best position to fulfil Mr. O’Brien’s wishes; where, at all events, I could escape arrest, in spite of any efforts to capture me, and where I expected, in a few days, to rally a considerable force.  Mr. Meagher said he would take his stand on the Comeragh mountains, in the county of Waterford, with similar