d to, of course every attack that
reflected in any way upon the character of the fighters was resented by
the whole nation as a matter of honour, and that was what led John
Dillon, provoked by countless insinuations and accusations to his
onslaught upon the principle underlying the wholesale executions and
deportations.

Had these penalties been inflicted upon those who had perpetrated the
"cold-blooded murders" of the first few days, whose cry for vengeance
had been voiced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it would have been equally a
matter of national pride to see the culprits were yielded up to justice;
but "it was not these murderers that were being pursued," as Dillon
pointed out; it was the rank and file of the insurgents, and these had,
by almost universal admission, behaved in a manner absolutely beyond
reproach as fighting men. He admitted they were wrong, but they fought a
clean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no act
of savagery or act against the usual customs of war, that he knew of,
had been brought home to any leader or any organized body of insurgents.

The House was inclined to resent the tribute--as much as to say that
they were nothing but a pack of cowards--and this brought out a
characteristically telling taunt, namely, "that it would be a damned
good thing for England if her soldiers had been able to put up as good
a fight as did these men in Dublin--three thousand men against twenty
thousand with machine guns and artillery"--which, coming at the very
moment of the announcement of the fall of Kut, must have been
particularly galling.

Now, it was doubly a pity that such a controversy had been aroused, for,
as most intelligent people in Dublin had begun to admit, it had been a
heroic if tragically mad combat from the beginning.

Not that there had not been the most cold-blooded murders, I repeat,
upon the part of some of the rank and file within the first few hours,
when every representative of the law was suddenly attacked unawares, as
if there had been a formal declaration of war; but from the first moment
that they had felt their position nothing can be attributed to the rebel
leaders which was not in the most complete accord with military
precedent.

Indeed, not a few of the soldiers were struck by the self-control of the
Volunteers, and the sense of discipline that pervaded their ranks; nor
was it surprising, considering that while some of the Derby boys had
only been i