. I passed a house, the windows of
which were smashed in. As I went by a man in civilian clothes slipped
through the Park gates, which instantly closed behind him. He ran
towards me, and I halted. He was carrying two small packets in his hand.
He passed me hurriedly, and, placing his leg inside the broken window
of the house behind me, he disappeared. Almost immediately another man
in civilian clothes appeared from the broken window of another house. He
also had something (I don't know what) in his hand. He ran urgently
towards the gates, which opened, admitted him, and closed again.

In the centre of this side of the Park a rough barricade of carts and
motor cars had been sketched. It was still full of gaps. Behind it was a
halted tram, and along the vistas of the Green one saw other trams
derelict, untenanted.

I came to the barricade. As I reached it and stood by the Shelbourne
Hotel, which it faced, a loud cry came from the Park. The gates opened
and three men ran out. Two of them held rifles with fixed bayonets. The
third gripped a heavy revolver in his fist. They ran towards a motor car
which had just turned the corner, and halted it. The men with bayonets
took position instantly on either side of the car. The man with the
revolver saluted, and I heard him begging the occupants to pardon him,
and directing them to dismount. A man and woman got down. They were
again saluted and requested to go to the sidewalk. They did so.

NOTE--As I pen these words rifle shot is cracking from three
different directions and continually. Three minutes ago there was two
discharges from heavy guns. These are the first heavy guns used in
the Insurrection, 25th April.

The man crossed and stood by me. He was very tall and thin, middle-aged,
with a shaven, wasted face. "I want to get down to Armagh to-day," he
said to no one in particular. The loose bluish skin under his eyes was
twitching. The Volunteers directed the chauffeur to drive to the
barricade and lodge his car in a particular position there. He did it
awkwardly, and after three attempts he succeeded in pleasing them. He
was a big, brown-faced man, whose knees were rather high for the seat he
was in, and they jerked with the speed and persistence of something
moved with a powerful spring. His face was composed and fully under
command, although his legs were not. He locked the car into the
barricade, and then, being a man accustomed to be commanded, he awaited
a