I have mentioned a case of the kind in my “Irish in Britain.”  William Murphy, of Manchester, a man whom I knew well, was convicted and sent into penal servitude as having taken part in the rescue.  On his liberation I was surprised to learn from his own lips that, although he would gladly have borne his part if detailed for the duty, he was not present at the rescue of the Fenian leaders.  With the authorities in such a panic, it can readily be understood that it behoved any of us in Lancashire who were in any way regarded as “suspects” to be ready with very solid testimony as to where we were on the day in question.

In a recent letter I have had from Captain Condon—­from whom communications reach me from all parts of America, for he is constantly travelling, holding as he does the post of Inspector of Public Buildings in connection with the Treasury Department of the U.S.A.—­he tells me something about William Murphy that I never heard before.  He says:  “When Allen, Larkin, O’Brien, myself, and the other men were sentenced, Digby Seymour (one of the counsel for the prisoners) went down to a large cell in the court house basement where all the others were kept together.  He urged them all to plead ‘guilty’ and throw themselves upon the mercy of the court, declaring that, if they refused to do this all would be convicted and executed.

“There was an instant’s hesitation among the prisoners, but William Murphy, who was later sentenced to seven years penal servitude, addressed his comrades, urging them to stand fast together, imitate our example, and die like men, rather than live like dogs, for as such they would be regarded by all true Irishmen if they pleaded ‘guilty.’

“To a man the whole twenty-two shouted out—­’We will never plead guilty!’

“And Seymour, baffled and irritated, went away without accomplishing his purpose.”

Of the men convicted for taking part in the rescue, five—­Allen, Larkin, O’Brien, Condon and Maguire—­were sentenced to death.  Condon was reprieved, really on account of his American citizenship, and Maguire, who was a marine, because the authorities discovered in time that the evidence against him was false.  A number of others were sent to penal servitude for various terms.

The execution of Allen, Larkin and O’Brien, so far from striking terror, but gave new life to the cause of Irish Freedom, and to-day, over the world, no names in the long roll of those who have suffered and died for Ireland are more honoured than those of the “Manchester Martyrs,” while the determination has become all the stronger that, in the words of our National Anthem—­founded on Condon’s defiant shout in the dock of “God Save Ireland!":—­

     On the cause must go
     Amidst joy or weal or woe,
  Till we’ve made our isle a Nation free and grand.

It is not generally known how Colonel Kelly got out of the country after the rescue.  He lay concealed in the house of an Irish professional man for some weeks, and then, all the railway stations being closely and constantly watched night and day, he was driven in a conveyance by road all the way from Manchester to Liverpool.