constitution, and, I felt sure, shortening his days. John Ryan, I have
often said, is dead for Ireland, for though he did not perish on the
battlefield or on the scaffold, as would have been his glory, I most
certainly believe he would have been alive to-day but for the hardships
suffered in doing his unostentatious work for Ireland.

There is one other friend I mentioned as having been present that night
at Owen McGrady's--the school master. You will ask what became of him?
Almost the last time I spoke to him--not very long before these lines
were written--was in the inner lobby of the British House of Commons,
for he has been for many years a member of Parliament. Now some of my
most cherished friends are or have been members of Parliament, and I
would be sorry to think any of them worse Irishmen than myself on that
account. Their taking the oath of allegiance to the British sovereign
was a matter for their own consciences, but I never could bring myself
to do it. Mr. Parnell would, I know, have been pleased to see me in
Parliament, but he knew that I never would take the oath, and respected
my conscientious objections to swear allegiance to any but my own
country.

With the exception of a few, whose names I forget, I have accounted for
the whole of the company comprising the Council of War at McGrady's
public house. Summed up as follows, nothing in the pages of romance
could be more startling than the after fate of these men:--

CAPTAIN MICHAEL O'BRIEN.--Hanged at Manchester. R.I.P.

COLONEL RICKARD BURKE.--Sent to Penal Servitude--Returned to
America.