into it as we could if we thought our work
would do any good. And another thing--we knew Balfour, so long as we
were acting with integrity, would back us up. Now we never know what
we're going to get--whether we shall be praised or kicked behind. This
Government is not only weak but also slippery. Outrages are
increasing. News of three more reached the Newcastlewest Barracks this
very day. We had a man on horseback scouring the mountains for
information. The outraged people sometimes keep it close. What's the
good, they say. We hear of the affair from other people, and the
principals, so to speak, ask us to make no fuss about it, as they
don't want to be murdered. The country is getting worse every day.
We'll have such a bloody winter as Ireland never saw."

Another small moonlighting incident, now appearing for the first time
on this or any other stage. Some tenants years ago were evicted on the
Langford estates. Negotiations were proceeding for their proximate
restoration, but nothing could be settled. A few days ago a small
farmer named Benjamin Brosna, aged 55, agreed with the proper
authorities to graze some cattle on the land in question pending the
arrangement of the matter. A meeting at Haye's Cross was immediately
convened by two holy men of the district, to wit, Father Keefe, P.P.,
and Father Brew, C.C., both of Meelin, and under the guidance of these
good easy men, it was resolved that any man grazing cattle on the
Langford land was as bad as the landlord, and must be treated
accordingly. On the same day, April 18, or rather in the night
succeeding the day of the meeting, eleven masked and armed men entered
Brosna's house, and one of them, presenting a gun, said, "We have you
now, you grass-grabber." Brosna seized the gun, and being hale and
active, despite his 55 years, showed such vigorous fight that he fell
through the doorway into the yard along with two others, where he was
brutally beaten, and must have been killed--it was their clear
intention--but for the pitchy darkness of the yard and the number of
his assailants, who in their fury fell over each other, enabling
Brosna, who being on his own ground knew the ropes better than they,
in the darkness to glide under a cart and escape over an adjacent
wall, where he hid himself. They lost him, and returned to the house,
firing shots at whatever they could damage, and smashing everything
breakable, from the windows upwards. Brosna will lose the sight of one