ostly women and
children, and an attempt was therefore made to murder them all in the
effort to take the life of one individual they were afraid to meet in
the open.

The house was repaired and I received compensation in due course from
the County, but my family did not think after what had occurred that
Edenburn was a desirable place of residence. So I henceforth resided
much in London, and therefore spent a great deal less money in Kerry.

Perhaps, however, I had better be a little more diffuse about what was
known all over the British Isles as the Edenburn Outrage, but the bulk
of this chapter will be drawn from observations by members of my family
and newspaper accounts, for the episode left considerably less
impression on my mind than it did on that of my womenfolk, and indeed on
the public, at the time.

To show how matters stood, one of my daughters reminds me that I gave
her a very neat revolver as a present, and that whenever she came back
from school she always slept with it under her pillow. Moreover, she
recollects that the customary Sunday afternoon pursuit was to have
revolver practice at the garden gate.

There had been several episodes of an ugly nature; for example, one of
my sons competing in some sports at Tralee was advised to make an excuse
and to go home separately from the womenfolk.

He took the hint, and my wife with the governess and several children
went back without him in the waggonette. About a mile and a half from
the town, just where the horses had to walk up a steep hill, a number of
men with bludgeons and sticks came out of a ditch, peered into the trap,
and seeing it contained nothing but women and children let it pass on
with a grunt of disgust, whilst they trudged back to Tralee.

One of my daughters, years after, on being taken in to dinner in London,
was asked by her companion if she was any relation of mine.

She having confessed the fact--one I hope in no way detrimental, though
I say so, perhaps, who should not--he mentioned that he had been to a
most cheery dance at Edenburn, which had made a great impression on his
mind, because for seven miles along the road by which he and his friends
drove there were pickets of constabulary, and the hall table was piled
so full with the revolvers brought by the guests, that all the hats and
coats had to be taken to the smoking-room.

It may be as well to again mention that my wife during the very worst
periods had never any difficu