thought they would recognise me. They did
not, however, and at 8 o'clock (after leaving a note for a dear and
trusted friend of Mr. Duffy's, to mark my whereabouts) I was safely
embarked on the Ulster railway for Armagh. At Aughnacloy a detective
gave me a light, and before I went to bed (in Enniskillen) had read the
proclamations against the leaders of the Southern movement, on the gates
of the Barrack. The next morning I reached Sligo by the Leitrim road.

This was Wednesday morning, August 2nd.

At the Hibernia Hotel, where I stopped as Mr. Kelly (my travelling
baptism), I saw for the first time in ten days the Irish papers. The
Dublin _Freeman_ and _Saunder's News Letter_ were on the table. I read
the list of the places where, and the clergymen by whom, the Southern
movement had been "denounced," on Sunday, July 23rd and Sunday, July
30th. The same papers contained Lord Clarendon's wily letter to
Archbishop Murray, offering to alter the statutes of the new colleges
and to remodel the Bequests Bill so as to content the Catholic clergy,
and artfully complimenting Pius IX. The game of the Government was
clear--it was to separate the clergy from the people in the coming
struggle.

The evening of my arrival in Sligo, I conferred with a few friends. The
place chosen was "a shell house" in the demesne of Hazelwood on the
shores of Lough Gill. Of those[D] who formed that conference one at
least, Mr. William M'Garahan, is now in America. We ascertained the
garrison of Sligo to be but ninety men--the barrack to be surrounded by
a common eight-foot wall, and the local authorities to be completely
lulled to sleep. The circumstances were as favourable as could be
expected.

But there never had been in Sligo or Leitrim any local Confederate or
even "Repeal" organisation. The only local societies were secret--Molly
Maguires and Ribbonmen. It was necessary to get into communication with
them and late the next night Dr. ----, a Confederate, introduced me to
one of their leaders, on a road which crosses a hill to the south of the
town. This gentleman I found wary, resolute, and intelligent. He said:
"I have no doubt of what you say, but I must have certain facts to lay
before our district chiefs. At present we don't know what to believe.
One day we hear one thing--another, another. Bring us by this day week
assurances that the South is going to rise or has risen, and we will
raise two thousand before the week is out." I agreed to