of letters. All the shops in the City were shut. There was no traffic of
any kind in the streets. There was no way of gathering any kind of
information, and rumour gave all the news.

It seemed that the Military and the Government had been taken unawares.
It was Bank Holiday, and many military officers had gone to the races,
or were away on leave, and prominent members of the Irish Government had
gone to England on Sunday.

It appeared that everything claimed on the previous day was true, and
that the City of Dublin was entirely in the hands of the Volunteers.
They had taken and sacked Jacob's Biscuit Factory, and had converted it
into a fort which they held. They had the Post Office, and were building
baricades around it ten feet high of sandbags, cases, wire
entanglements. They had pushed out all the windows and sandbagged them
to half their height, while cart-loads of food, vegetables and
ammunition were going in continually. They had dug trenches and were
laying siege to one of the city barracks.

It was current that intercourse between Germany and Ireland had been
frequent chiefly by means of submarines, which came up near the coast
and landed machine guns, rifles and ammunition. It was believed also
that the whole country had risen, and that many strong places and cities
were in the hands of the Volunteers. Cork Barracks was said to be taken
while the officers were away at the Curragh races, that the men without
officers were disorganised, and the place easily captured.

It was said that Germans, thousands strong, had landed, and that many
Irish Americans with German officers had arrived also with full military
equipment.