This decided Mr. O’Brien and his friends.  He had been joined at Cashel by P.J.  Smyth, and James Cantwell, now in the United States, by James Stephens, now at Paris, and by Patrick O’Donohoe, now sharing the doom of his chief.  As an episode in this history, the fate of Mr. O’Donohoe is singular and startling.  He was much relied on by his friends in the Confederation, and was entrusted with the dispatches to Mr. O’Brien.  He proceeded on his mission to Kilkenny, and there applied to one of the clubs.  He was known to none of the members, and became at once the object of suspicion.  It was, accordingly, determined to send him for the rest of the journey, under arrest, and Stephens and another member were appointed to that duty.  They proceeded in execution of their mission to Cashel, where Mr. O’Donohoe was warmly welcomed by Mr. O’Brien, whose fate he thenceforth determined to share.  Mr. Stephens came to the same resolution; but the other guard of Mr. O’Donohoe, refused to commit himself to fortunes which appeared so desperate.  With Messrs. Stephens and O’Donohoe, their very desperation acted as the most ennobling and irresistible inducement.  They clung to him to the last with a fidelity the more untiring in proportion as his circumstances portended imminent disaster and ruin.

Their departure from Cashel compelled a feeling of gloomier forebodings and deeper despair than they had yet experienced.  The darkest consciousness that ever clouded the hopes of man began to darken upon them.  Where they expected that every man would make a fortress for them in his very heart, they were almost abandoned.  But their resolution remained unchanged.  They, therefore, resolved as a final resource to take up their position in the most inaccessible part of the country.  As they proceeded through the hilly grounds, skirting the Tipperary collieries, a crowd began to gather around them, and they saw what they hoped would form the nucleus of an army.  Braver hearts never beat beneath a cuirass, but they were not armed, disciplined or even taught.  On that day they took the road to the village of Mullinahone, situate about seventeen miles south-east of Cashel.  As they entered Mullinahone, the chapel bell was rung, and a crowd of some thousands collected.

Mr. O’Brien addressed them with the same brevity and force as at Carrick-on-Suir, where his hopes were far brighter.  The two clergymen, Rev. Mr. Corcoran and Rev. Mr. Cahill, appeared by his side, and openly resisted his advice.  But, with the people, their influence totally failed.  Three thousand persons at least formed their bivouac that night.  Mr. O’Brien remained up with them most of the night.  Notwithstanding the disappointments of former trials, he once more entertained most sanguine hopes of his country’s resurrection.  But, ere morning, the counsels of the clergymen prevailed so far as to introduce discussion and disunion; and next day he was abandoned by more than half his followers.