as if they had occurred last week, and were a factor to be taken into
account in the conduct of to-day. The demonstration was in the open air,
and the sunshine was gleaming on the grass of a hill close at hand. "It
'ud be a quare thing," said a peasant to his neighbour in the crowd, "if
the rebels would come out and hould a meetin' agin us on yon hill."
"What matter if they would," was the reply, "wouldn't we let on that we
won't have it? an' if that wouldn't do them, isn't there hundreds o'
King James's men at the bottom o' the lough, an' there's plenty o' room
yet." It was not spoken in jest, but in grim conviction that the issue
of 1689 was the issue of 1912, and that another Newtown Butler might
have to be fought.

This series of meetings in preparation for the Covenant brought Carson
much more closely in touch with the Loyalists in outlying districts than
he had been hitherto, and when it was over their wild devotion to him
personally equalled what it was in Belfast itself. The appeal made to
the hearts of men as quick as any living to detect and resent humbug or
boastfulness, by the simplicity, uncompromising directness, and courage
of his character was irresistible. He never spoke better than during
this tour of the Province. The Special Correspondent of _The Times_, who
sent to his paper vivid descriptive articles on each meeting, said in
his account of the meeting at Coleraine that "Sir Edward Carson was
vigorous, fresh, and picturesque. His command over the feelings of his
Ulster audiences is unquestionable, and never a phrase passes his lips
which does not tell." And when the proceedings of the meeting were over,
the same observer "was at the station to witness the 'send-off' of the
leaders, and for ten minutes before the train for Belfast came in the
tumult of the cheers, the thanks, and the farewells never faltered for
an instant."[33] Two days later another English commentator declared