’"Singular time of night, John, to try chemical experiments without our permission, is it not?” said my father.

’Then John and my mother went downstairs to inspect the premises; of the back windows, thirty-four in number, there was not a bit of glass as big as a threepenny piece left.  Our brougham was in the yard; the window next the explosion was intact, but the one on the further side was blown to smithereens.

’The servants were very scared, and one maid having rushed straight to a sitting-room, was there found hysterically embracing a sofa cushion.

’We received one odd claim for compensation.  An old woman living half a mile off complained that the force of the explosion had knocked some of the plaster off the wall, and that it had fallen into a pan full of milk, spoiling it.

’Whilst we were all chattering about the outrage, father said:—­

’"Don’t be uneasy about a mere dynamite explosion; it’s like an Irishman’s pig, you want it to go one way and it invariably goes in the other.”

’And with that he went off to bed again, with the remark about having a quiet night which he has mentioned earlier in this chapter.

’The only other thing which I now recall is, that a detachment of the Buffs in the neighbourhood had found us the only people to entertain them.

’On being told that Edenburn had been blown up, one of them said:—­

’"They were the only neighbours we had to talk to, and the brutes would not leave us them as a convenience."’

The Cork correspondent of the Times wrote:—­

’Among the general body of the people of Kerry, the news of the attempt to blow up Mr. Hussey’s house at Edenburn caused comparatively little excitement.  In the County Club at Tralee, the announcement was received with something like a panic.  Hitherto, persons who considered themselves in danger were careful to be within their homes before darkness had set in, and when going abroad had a following of police for their protection.  Now it is shown that their houses may prove but a sorry shelter, even when a protective force of police is about, and it is no wonder that, with the terrible example furnished in this instance of the daring of those who commit foul crimes, the class against whom the outrages are directed should be filled with fears for the future.  The people generally show but small interest in the occurrence.

’The attempt to blow up Mr. Hussey’s dwelling is the first of its kind in Kerry, and the third that has been made in Ireland.  Within the past few years the districts of Castleisland and Tralee have been distinguished for the number and ferocity of the outrages that were committed there.’

I am also tempted to quote from the ‘Leader’ in the Times on the outrage:—­

’Mr. Hussey has a reputation, not confined to Ireland, as an able, fearless, and vigorous land agent, the best type of a much abused class of men who have endured contumely and faced dangers, by day and night, in order to protect the rights of property intrusted to them.