now on their way through Liverpool to their homes in various parts of
Lancashire and Yorkshire. It seemed that the information of the project
being abandoned had not reached them in time to prevent many of the men
leaving their homes for Chester.

I heard from John Ryan, whom I saw a few days afterwards, that the word
had been sent round to a certain number of circles in the North of
England and the Midlands to move a number of picked men, some on the
Sunday night and some early on the Monday morning, and that the
promptness and cheerfulness with which the order was obeyed was
astonishing; so that, probably, not less than two thousand men were, by
different routes, quietly converging on Chester. Among these was Michael
Davitt and others, from Haslingden as well as from several other
Lancashire towns.

But it was promptly discovered that information had been given to the
police authorities almost at the last moment. Those, therefore, who had
already reached Chester were sent back, and men were placed at the
railway stations and on the roads leading to Chester to stop those who
were coming. In this way the whole of the men forming the expedition
dispersed as silently as they had come.

Corydon had given the information to Major Greig, the Liverpool Head
Constable, who at once communicated with Chester, where prompt measures
were taken to meet the threatened invasion.

According to his own evidence in the subsequent trial, Corydon had been
giving information to the police since the previous September. There had
been some suspicious circumstances in connection with him. A man
resembling him in appearance, and evidently disguised, had been seen in