illala--where the
Government were completely off their guard (all their anxieties being
centred on the south), an important movement might follow in Sligo,
Leitrim, Roscommon and Mayo. It would be like hitting the enemy in the
back of the head. It would necessarily draw off some of the forces from
Munster, through the valley of the Upper Shannon, which, with its
continuous chain of lake, bog and mountain frontier, would be difficult
ground for the movements of a regular army.

It was necessary, as our informant said, that "someone with a name"
should go over and concert with the Irishmen in Scotland the mode and
time of action, and I was the only person at hand willing for that
service. For my encouragement, Meagher assured me I would be "as famous
as Paul Jones" if I got the men out of the Clyde, and Mr. Dillon
suggested as a landing-place "the old ground, Killala."

That afternoon I left Dublin, and on Tuesday morning I was in Scotland.

I cannot give the exact particulars of my movements while there. All who
were in my confidence are still in Scotland, with the exception of Mr.
Peter M'Cabe of Glasgow, now in the United States. I will only say that
I visited and consulted our friends in four of the principal
towns--Edinburgh included. I attended meetings of the clubs and in each
instance instituted committees. I obtained in a few days a list of
nearly 400 men, pretty well equipped, ready for the risk. A
sub-committee surveyed the Broomielaw and the Clyde, and although their
report was unfavourable to the attempt of getting out in one body, a
gentleman, now in America, gained over the crew and officers of an Irish
steamer to take us as passengers from Greenock where the tides in a few
days would answer for departure about ten o'clock at night. The arms
were to be previously shipped as merchandise or luggage, and the
destination was to be Sligo.

These arrangements occupied from Tuesday till Friday of the last week of
July. In the meanwhile, the London Journals arrived with news that
O'Brien and his friends had been received with open arms in the south,
and great excitement and suspicion of strangers arose in Scotland. In
the Reading Room at Paisley I read myself in _The Hue and Cry_. One
paper stated I was in Waterford, another said I was "revelling among the
clubs in the Co. Dublin." The _Times_ did me the honour to couple me
with Meagher, calling us "the two most dangerous men now abroad." No one
suspected my re