had outlined it.

"Don't think me a fool," he said. "I'm eager to get away. I have no
relish for English prison life. But I am not going to promote
Livingstone's trickery. I am an American citizen. I have had no part,
direct or indirect, in this futile insurrection. I can prove it in a
fair trial. It must be either trial or honorable release to do as any
American citizen would do under the circumstances. If I go to prison I
shall rely on my friends to expose Livingstone, and to warm up the
officials at home who connive with him."

Nor would he be moved from this position, and the trial came off with a
speed more than creditable when justice deals with pirates, but
otherwise scandalous.

It ended in a morning, in spite of counsel, quibbles, and other
ornamental obstacles, with a sentence of twenty years at hard labor in
an English prison. To this prison Ledwith went the next day at noon.
There had not been much time for work, but Arthur had played his part to
his own satisfaction; the Irish and American journals buzzed with the
items which he provided, and the denunciations of the American Minister
were vivid, biting, and widespread; yet how puerile it all seemed before
the brief, half contemptuous sentence of the hired judge, who thus
roughly shoved another irritating patriot out of the way. The farewell
to Ledwith was not without hope. Arthur had declared his purpose to go
straight to New York and set every influence to work that could reach
the President. Honora was to live near the prison, support herself by
her singing, and use her great friends to secure a mitigation of his
sentence, and access to him at intervals.

"I am going in joy," he said to her and Arthur. "Death is the lightest
suffering of the true patriot. Nora and I long ago offered our lives for
Ireland. Perhaps they are the only useful things we could offer, for we
haven't done much. Poor old country! I wish our record of service had
some brighter spots in it."

"At the expense of my modesty," said Arthur, "can't I mention myself as
one of the brighter spots? But for you I would never have raised a
finger for my mother's land. Now, I am enlisted, not only in the cause
of Erin, but pledged to do what I can for any race that withers like
yours under the rule of the slave-master. And that means my money, my
time and thought and labor, and my life."

"It is the right spirit," said Ledwith, trembling. "I knew it was in
you. Not only for Ireland, but