her an unexpected and plucky little speech, and long before it
closed Ned saw that Father Murphy's triumph was not complete. Father
Murphy's face told the same tale.

The curate's argument was taken up by other curates, and Ned began to
see he had the youth of the country on his side.

He was speaking at the end of the week at another great meeting, and
received even better support at this meeting than he had done at the
first, and he returned home wondering what his wife was thinking of his
success. But what matter? Ireland was waking from her sleep.... The
agitation was running from parish to parish, it seemed as if the
impossible were going to happen, and that the Gael was going to be free.

The curates had grievances, and he applied himself to setting the
inferior clergy against their superiors, and as the agitation developed
he told the curates that they were no better than ecclesiastical serfs,
that although the parish priests dozed in comfortable arm-chairs and
drank champagne, the curates lived by the wayside and ate and drank
very little and did all the work.

But one day at Maynooth it was decided that curates had legitimate
grievances, and that the people had grievances that were likewise
legitimate. And at this great council it was decided that the heavy
marriage fees and the baptismal fees demanded by the priests should be
reduced. Concessions were accompanied by threats. Even so it required
all the power of the Church to put down the agitation. Everyone stood
agape, saying the bishops must win in the end. An indiscretion on Ned's
part gave them the victory. In a moment of excitement he was unwise
enough to quote John Mitchel's words "that the Irish would be free long
ago only for their damned souls." A priest wrote to the newspapers
pointing out that after these words there could be no further doubt
that it was the doctrine of the French Revolution that Mr. Carmady was
trying to force upon a Christian people. A bishop wrote saying that the
words quoted were fit words for Anti-Christ. After that it was
difficult for a priest to appear on the same platform, and the curates
whose grievances had been redressed deserted, and the fight became an
impossible one.

Very soon Ned's meetings were interrupted, disagreeable scenes began to
happen, and his letters were not admitted to the newspapers. A great
solitude formed about him.

"Well," he said one morning, "I suppose you have read the account in
the paper