the length of the
procession, that an hour had elapsed from the time its head entered
James's-street before the first hearse turned the corner of
Stevens'-lane. In the neighbourhood of St. Catherine's church a vast
crowd of spectators had settled down, and every available elevation
was taken possession of. At this point a large portion of the
streetway was broken up for the purpose of laying down water-pipes,
and on the lifting-crane and the heaps of earth the people wedged and
packed themselves, which showed at once that this was a great centre
of attraction--and it was, for here was executed the young and
enthusiastic Robert Emmet sixty-four years ago. When Allen, O'Brien,
and Larkin were condemned to death as political offenders, some of
the highest and the noblest in the land warned the government to
pause before the extreme penalty pronounced on the condemned men
would be carried into effect, but all remonstrance was in vain, and
on last Saturday fortnight, three comparatively unknown men in their
death passed into the ranks of heroes and martyrs, because it was
believed, and believed generally, that their lives were sacrificed to
expediency, and not to satisfy justice. The spot where Robert Emmet
closed his young life on a bloody scaffold was yesterday regarded by
thousands upon thousands of his countrymen and women as a holy place,
and all looked upon his fate as similar to that of the three men
whose memory they had assembled to honour, and whose death they
pronounced to be unjust. It would be hard to give a just conception
of the scene here, as the procession advanced and divided, as it
were, into two great channels, owing to the breaking up of the
streetway. On the advance of the _cortege_ reaching the top of
Bridgefoot-street every head was uncovered, and nothing was to be
heard but the measured tread of the vast mass, but as if by some
secret and uncontrollable impulse a mighty, ringing, and enthusiastic
cheer, broke from the moving throng as the angle of the footway at
the eastern end of St. Catherine's church, where the scaffold on
which Emmet was executed stood, was passed. In that cheer there
appeared to be no fiction, as it evidently came straight from the
hearts of thousands, who waved their hats and handkerchiefs, as did
also the groups that clustered in the windows of the houses in the
neighbour