trying to the courage and faith of undisciplined men.  In this instance it produced fatal results.  The weakness of the timid increased, and the courage of the boldest was quelled.  Suspicion was aroused, and desertion was the inevitable consequence.  O’Mahony found it impossible to withstand the clamorous urgency of the men, and all his preparations were necessarily of a hasty and imperfect character.  The arrival of the party from Kilkenny was the utmost limit of inaction that would be endured; and the leaders saw with regret that they had yielded too soon to the demands of those who precipitated the rising.  The true guarantee of success would consist in perfect preparation under cover of secrecy, so as that the assembling could be followed by an immediate blow.

Scouring parties from each rendezvous, proceeded through the country in search of arms.  Provisions were liberally supplied by the neighbouring farmers, and numbers were hourly arriving from distant parts of the country.  But those who were engaged in the search for arms attacked police barracks and private houses.  In general, these enterprises were rash, ill-advised and ill-arranged.  In some instances they were successful, and in some they were repulsed with loss of life, while the police were able to effect a safe retreat.  At the Tipperary side, two men were killed in the attack on the Glenbour barracks; and at the Waterford side, one man was shot at Portlaw in the assault on the police-barrack, and two in the attack on the Reverend Mr. Hill’s house.  These repulses checked the ardour of the boldest, and gave rise to disunion and distrust.  Meantime, the promised reinforcements from Kilkenny failed to redeem the pledge that was given in their name.  A whole day and night passed, and no tidings of them arrived.  Several of those who were loudest and most urgent left the camp.  A very large force, however, remained; but after delaying two days without hearing of the Kilkenny men, they determined to disperse.  The party at Portlaw adopted the same resolution, and O’Mahony and Savage had to shift for themselves.  A reward was offered for O’Mahony, but he eluded his pursuers, and in a few days was beyond their reach.  He embarked at Bonmahon in the county of Waterford and crossed to Wales, where he was concealed for some time until he found an opportunity of escaping to France.  Savage, whose person was not much known, made his way to Dublin, whence he sailed for America direct.

The Kilkenny men arrived at Aheny on the morning after those under O’Mahony had dispersed and finding the place deserted, they immediately returned.  This accident once more baffled all hope of a struggle.  From beginning to end, some mischance marred every propitious circumstance that presented itself.  It seemed as if the failure had been predestined.  But to yield to such a fate, to abjure the great and true faith which the attempt of the last unhappy year quickened in the hearts of all men, would be distrust