s.

As Captain Condon had anticipated and provided for, some of the warders
from Belle Vue quickly came upon the scene, as it was but a short
distance across what were then brickfields from the prison to the scene
of action. But, when they saw the determined men who were guarding the
leaders' retreat, they, too, like the police, kept at a safe distance
from the Fenian revolvers, and devoted themselves to picking up any
stragglers who had got separated from the main body of Irishmen.

In this way a number of arrests were made, and, later on, Condon himself
was taken, but the main object had been accomplished, and Kelly and
Deasy got safely away, and, ultimately, as we shall see, out of the
country.

Following the rescue, there was a perfect reign of terror, the police
authorities striking out wildly in all directions to gather into their
net enough Irish victims to satisfy their baffled vengeance. There were
numerous arrests and no lack of witnesses to swear anything to secure
convictions. Every detail of the attack on the van while on the way from
the courthouse to the prison, and of the release of the prisoners was
sworn to with the utmost minuteness, as the witnesses professed to
identify one after another of the men in the dock, some of whom had no
connection or sympathy with the rescue at all.

In Liverpool, men whom I knew were arrested who were at work all that
day at the docks, and yet were sworn to by numerous witnesses as having
assisted in the attack on the van in Hyde Road, Manchester, the most
minute details being given.

I have mentioned a case of the kind in my "Irish in Britain." William
Murphy, of Manchester, a man whom I knew well, was convicted and sent
into penal servitude as having taken part in the rescue. On his
liberation I was surprised to learn from his own lips that, although he
would gladly have borne his part if detailed for the duty, he was not
present at the rescue of the Fenian leaders. With the authorities in
such a panic, it can readily be understood that it behoved any of us in
Lancashire who were in any way regarded as "suspects" to be ready with
very solid testimony as to where we were on the day in question.

In a recent letter I have had from Captain Condon--from whom
communications reach me from all parts of America, for he is constantly
travelling, holding as he does the post of Inspector of Public Buildings
in connection with the Treasury Department of the U.S.A.--he tells