was
impossible. So far, therefore, all might be said to have gone most
favorably with us. We had safely escaped the often-menaced dangers of
the channel fleet; we had gained a secure and well-sheltered harbor; and
we had landed our force not only without opposition, but in perfect
secrecy. There were, I will not deny, certain little counterbalancing
circumstances on the other side of the account, not exactly so
satisfactory. The patriot forces upon which we had calculated had no
existence. There were neither money, nor stores, nor means of conveyance
to be had; even accurate information as to the strength and position of
the English was unattainable; and as to generals and leaders, the
effective staff had but a most sorry representative in the person of
Neal Kerrigan. This man's influence over our general increased with
every hour, and one of the first orders issued after our landing
contained his appointment as an extra aid-de-camp on General Humbert's
staff.

In one capacity Neal was most useful. All the available sources of
pillage for a wide circuit of country he knew by heart, and it was
plain, from the accurate character of his information, varying, as it
did, from the chattels of the rich landed proprietor to the cocks and
hens of the cottier, that he had taken great pains to master his
subject. At his suggestion it was decided that we should march that
evening on Killala, where little, or, more likely, no resistance would
be met with, and General Humbert should take up his quarters in the
"Castle," as the palace of the bishop was styled. There, he said, we
should not only find ample accommodation for the staff, but good
stabling, well filled, and plenty of forage, while the bishop himself
might be a most useful hostage to have in our keeping. From thence, too,
as a place of some note, general orders and proclamations would issue,
with a kind of notoriety and importance necessary at the outset of an
undertaking like ours; and truly never was an expedition more loaded
with this species of missive than ours--whole cart-loads of printed
papers, decrees, placards, and such like, followed us. If our object had
been to drive out the English by big type and a flaming letter-press, we
could not have gone more vigorously to work. Fifty thousand broad-sheet
announcements of Irish independence were backed by as many proud
declarations of victory, some dated from Limerick, Cashel, or Dublin
itself.

Here, a great placard