hould not see him.

News reached Belfast that the United Irishmen in Wexford were in arms
and had taken the field against the English forces. The northern leaders
became eager to move at once and to strike vigorously. Everything seemed
to depend on their obtaining the command of Antrim and Down, and opening
communications with the south. James Hope arrived in Belfast. Henry Joy
M'Cracken was there. Henry Monro rode in every day from Lisburn.
Meeting after meeting was held in M'Cracken's house in Rosemary Lane, in
Bigger's house in the High Street, in Felix Matier's shattered inn, or
in Peggy Barclay's. Robert Simms, the general of the northern United
Irishmen, resigned his position. His heart failed him at the critical
moment, and when pressed by braver men to take the field at once he hung
back and gave up his command. He forgot his oath on MacArt's Fort, where
he stood side by side with Wolfe Tone. Henry Joy M'Cracken, a man of
another spirit, was appointed in his place. With extreme rapidity and an
insight into the conditions of the struggle, marvellous in a man with
no military training, he laid his plans for simultaneous attacks upon a
number of places in Down and Antrim.

The Government was not idle. The northern United Irishmen were the best
organised and most formidable body to be dealt with. During the pause
before the outbreak of hostilities spies went busily to and fro. Reports
were carried to the authorities of every movement made, of almost every
meeting held. Men were arrested, imprisoned, flogged in the streets of
Belfast. Information was forced from prisoners under the lash. Parties
of yeomen rode through the country burning, ravishing, and hanging as
they went.

James Finlay earned his pay with the best of his kind, denouncing men
whom he knew to be United Irishmen, and giving information about their
whereabouts. He was settled in Bridge Street, and, strangely blind to
the fact that he was no longer trusted, invited the leaders to confer
with him, and allowed his house to be used as a store for ammunition.
Donald Ward, grimly determined that this man should get his deserts,
insisted that nothing should be said or done to alarm him.

"We can't deal with him here," he said. "Wait, wait till we get him down
to Donegore next week. If we frighten him now he won't go."

Of all these doings Neal heard only vague rumours. Sometimes Peg
Macllrea, crimson with horror and rage, came to him and told him of a
f