that in days of darkness and disaster perished for the sacred cause
of Ireland. Great men, learned men, prominent men they were not--they
were poor, they were humble, they were unknown; they had no claim to
the reputation of the warrior, the scholar, or the statesman; but they
laboured, as they believed, for the redemption of their country from
bondage; they risked their lives in a chivalrous attempt to rescue
from captivity two men whom they regarded as innocent patriots, and
when the forfeit was claimed, they bore themselves with the unwavering
courage and single-heartedness of Christian heroes. Their short and
simple annals are easily written, but their names are graven on the
Irish heart, and their names and actions will be cherished in Ireland
when the monumental piles that mark the resting-places of the wealthy
and the proud have returned, like the bodies laid beneath them, to
dust.

William Philip Allen was born near the town of Tipperary, in April,
1848. Before he was quite three years old his parents removed to
Bandon, County Cork, where the father, who professed the Protestant
religion, received the appointment of bridewell-keeper. As young
Allen grew up, he evinced a remarkable aptitude for the acquirement
of knowledge, and his studious habits were well known to his
playmates and companions. He was a regular attendant at the local
training-school for the education of teachers for the Protestant
schools of the parish, but he also received instruction at the morning
and evening schools conducted under Catholic auspices, in the same
town. He was not a wild boy, but he was quick and impulsive,--ready
to resent a wrong, but equally ready to forgive one; and his natural
independence of spirit and manly disposition rendered him a favourite
with all his acquaintances. The influence and example of his father
did not prevent him from casting a wistful eye towards the ancient