by talk
and tip to entertain an unworthy thought of "that pleasant-spoken
gentleman."

Soon the story of these raids had been forgotten in the far more
exhilarating occurrences at Manchester and Clerkenwell which closed
the year; and the execution of Michael Barrett on the 26th of May,
1868 (the last public execution, by the way), brought the history
of Fenianism in England to an end.

As I looked back on my journey from Scotland, and my walk round
Harrow with Mr. Aulif, I thought that the reason why he did not
arrange for our School-armoury to be attacked was that he would
not abuse the confidence of a boy who had trusted him. Perhaps it
really was that the rifles were too few and the risks too many.

* * * * *

The year 1870 found me still a Harrow boy, though a tall one; and
I spent the Easter holidays with my cousins, the Brentfords, in
Paris. They were a remarkable couple, and if I were to mention
their real name, they would be immediately recognized. They had
social position and abundant means and hosts of friends; but, acting
under irresistible impulse, they had severed themselves from their
natural surroundings, and had plunged into democratic politics.
It was commonly believed that Brentford would not have committed
himself so deeply if it had not been for his wife's influence;
and, indeed, she was one of those women whom it is difficult to
withstand. Her enthusiasm was contagious; and when one was in her
company one felt that "the Cause," as she always called it without
qualifying epithet, was the one thing worth thinking of and living
for. As a girl, she had caught from Mrs. Browning, and Swinburne, and
Jessie White-Mario, and the authoress of _Aspromonte_, a passionate
zeal for Italian unity and freedom; and, when she married, her
enthusiasm fired her husband. They became sworn allies both of
Garibaldi and of Mazzini, and through them were brought into close,
though mysterious, relations with the revolutionary party in Italy
and also in France. They witnessed the last great act of the Papacy
at the Vatican Council; and then, early in 1870, they established
themselves in Paris. French society was at that moment in a strange
state of tension and unrest. The impending calamity of the Franco-German
War was not foreseen; but everyone knew that the Imperial throne was
rocking; that the soil was primed by Secret Societies; and that
all the elements of revolution were at hand, an