The Life Story of an Old Rebel by John Denvir
page 79 of 281 (28%)
page 79 of 281 (28%)
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recollection is not without its humorous side--McCafferty had a
memorandum to spare no pains in finding what were the favourite amusements of the Prince, so that he might have a "real good time" on board. CHAPTER VII. THE RISING OF 1867--ARREST AND RESCUE OF KELLY AND DEASY--THE MANCHESTER MARTYRDOM. Although the Rising of 1867 had somewhat the character of "a flash in the pan," there were some heroic incidents in connexion with it. With one of the Fenian leaders, James Francis Xavier O'Brien, I was brought into intimate connection many years after the Rising, when we were both officials, he as General Secretary and I as Chief Organiser, of the Home Rule organisation in Great Britain. When put upon his trial there was evidence against him in connection with the taking of a police barrack, he being in command of the insurgents. It was proved that he not only acted with courage, but with a humanity that was commended by the judge, in seeing that the women and children were got out safely before the place was set on fire. This, however, did not save him from being condemned to death--he was the last man sentenced in the old barbarous fashion to be hanged, drawn and quartered--this sentence being afterwards commuted to penal servitude. Certainly, whether on the field or facing the scaffold for |
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