From John Ryan I heard of the mode of living of many of the Fenian organisers and of the Irish-American officers,—­very different from the slanderous statements of their “living in luxury upon the wages of Irish servant girls in America.”  John was of a cheery disposition, never complaining, but always sanguine, and loving to look at the bright side of things.  Yet I could see for myself, each time I saw him, how the life of hardship he was leading was telling upon his once splendid constitution, and, I felt sure, shortening his days.  John Ryan, I have often said, is dead for Ireland, for though he did not perish on the battlefield or on the scaffold, as would have been his glory, I most certainly believe he would have been alive to-day but for the hardships suffered in doing his unostentatious work for Ireland.

There is one other friend I mentioned as having been present that night at Owen McGrady’s—­the school master.  You will ask what became of him?  Almost the last time I spoke to him—­not very long before these lines were written—­was in the inner lobby of the British House of Commons, for he has been for many years a member of Parliament.  Now some of my most cherished friends are or have been members of Parliament, and I would be sorry to think any of them worse Irishmen than myself on that account.  Their taking the oath of allegiance to the British sovereign was a matter for their own consciences, but I never could bring myself to do it.  Mr. Parnell would, I know, have been pleased to see me in Parliament, but he knew that I never would take the oath, and respected my conscientious objections to swear allegiance to any but my own country.

With the exception of a few, whose names I forget, I have accounted for the whole of the company comprising the Council of War at McGrady’s public house.  Summed up as follows, nothing in the pages of romance could be more startling than the after fate of these men:—­

     CAPTAIN MICHAEL O’BRIEN.—­Hanged at Manchester.  R.I.P.

     COLONEL RICKARD BURKE.—­Sent to Penal Servitude—­Returned to
     America.

     COLONEL THOMAS KELLY, CAPTAIN TIMOTHY DEASY.—­Rescued from Prison
     Van in Manchester.

     CAPTAIN EDWARD O’MEAGHER-CONDON.—­Sentenced to death for the
     Manchester Rescues, but reprieved and sent to Penal
     Servitude—­Returned to America.

     CAPTAIN MURPHY.—­Returned to America.  Died a few years since.

     THE SCHOOLMASTER.—­A Member of Parliament.

     JOHN RYAN.—­Dead—­God rest his soul.

CHAPTER VIII.

A DIGRESSION—­T.D.  SULLIVAN—­A NATIONAL ANTHEM—­THE EMERALD MINSTRELS—­“THE SPIRIT OF THE NATION.”

If it were for nothing else, it will be sufficient fame for T.D.  Sullivan for all time that he is the author of “God Save Ireland.”  He had no idea himself, as he used to tell me, that the anthem would have been taken up so instantaneously and enthusiastically as it was.