Before joining the I.R.B.  Peter had been a member of the “Brotherhood of St. Patrick,” an organisation which furnished many members to the “Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood.”

Most of the Fenian prisoners were amnestied before the completion of their full terms.  I have a letter in my possession from John McCafferty to our mutual friend, William Hogan, written from Millbank Prison, 6th June, 1871.  In this he regrets that the terms of his release will not allow of his paying Hogan a visit.  He says:—­

I know there are many who would like to shake my hand and bid me a kind farewell.  God bless you before my departure.  My route will afford me no opportunity of seeing the iron-bound coast of the home of my forefathers.  Still God may allow me to see that isle again—­Yes, and then perhaps I may meet somebody on the hills.

He concludes with love to William Hogan’s family and “Kind regard to each and every friend.”

McCafferty did, I know, see the “iron-bound” coast of Ireland again, for a few years after this an extremely mild and inoffensive-looking, dark-complexioned person, with black side whiskers, came into my place—­I was carrying on a printing and newsagency business—­in Byron Street, Liverpool, and, though I did not recognise him at first, I was pleased to find that this Mr. Patterson, as he called himself, was no other than my old friend John McCafferty.

The mission he was engaged on was one that can only be described by the word amazing.  So daring was it, so hedged around with apparent impossibilities, that to the ordinary man its very conception would be incredible.  But McCafferty was perfectly serious and determined about it, and to him it seemed practicable enough, provided only he could get a few more men like himself:  and indeed if the collection of just such a company of conspirators were practicable, no doubt the impossible might become possible enough.  But the hypothesis is fatal, for the McCafferty strain is a rare one indeed, so that his project never got further than an idea.  I think, however, that I cannot be accused of exaggeration in saying that if he had been successful in carrying out his idea, his achievement would have formed the most extraordinary chapter in English history—­for it was no less than the abduction of the then Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII., and the holding of him as a hostage for a purpose of the Fenian organisation.

The plan was to take him to sea in a sailing vessel, and to keep him there, until the Fenian prisoners still at that time unreleased were set at liberty.  He was to be treated with the utmost consideration and—­the recollection is not without its humorous side—­McCafferty had a memorandum to spare no pains in finding what were the favourite amusements of the Prince, so that he might have a “real good time” on board.

CHAPTER VII.