by the authorities was evidence to show a connection with the Fenian
conspiracy. They really had no such evidence, but as Davitt was a marked
man, and as it was necessary to have him removed, Corydon was brought to
identify him, and, of course, had no difficulty, when a number of men
were brought into the corridor, in picking out the one-armed man from
among them.

At the trial Corydon swore, among other things, that Davitt took part in
the Chester raid. Now, Michael himself told me afterwards that Corydon
had never seen him before he "identified" him in prison; and that though
he really was at Chester, Corydon could not have known this. Michael
Davitt and John Wilson were convicted of treason-felony. As showing the
man's noble character, it should not be forgotten that the Irishman made
an earnest appeal for the Englishman, declaring that Wilson knew
nothing of the object for which the weapons were wanted, and asking that
whatever sentence was to be passed on the gunsmith might be added to his
own. This was quite worthy of Davitt's chivalrous and unselfish nature,
and I can well imagine his tall and commanding figure in the dock, with
his strongly marked features and dark, bright eyes--while utterly
defiant of what the law might do to himself--making this appeal for the
man who stood beside him. Davitt was, on July 11th, 1870, sentenced to
fifteen years, and Wilson to seven years penal servitude.

Michael Davitt will appear in these pages as the founder of another
organisation, the results of which seem likely to make the Irish people
more the real possessors of their own soil than they have ever been
since the Norman invasion.

About this time I had started a printing and publishing business in
Liverpool, and commenced to realise what I had long projected as a