Peg O' My Heart

sob of misery in their voices. Dragging themselves up after them came the women-some pressing babies to their breasts, others leadi

rt YOU!" and they press

ascended the hill and sto

greetin

s hand in ac

ugh him as he looked at the men and women whom, only a little while ago, it seemed, he had known as children. THEN he bent to their will. The so

'Connell himself

as a baby,"

l! Hooray for him!

and straight to get us freedom and comf

ads," said ano

-jail himself, mebbe, th

with him," cr

d they reverently

ed his hand, this ti

murmurs

imits of the crowd-the music of his Irish brogue making cadences of entreat

ld it be the lot of our people-men and women born to a birthright of freedom? Why? Are ye men of Ireland so craven that aliens can rule ye as they once ruled the negro?" ("No, no!") "The African slave has been emancipated and his emancipation was through the blood and tears of the people who wronged him. Let OUR emancipation, then, be through the blood and tears of our oppressors. In other nations it is the Irishman who rules. It is only in his own counthry that he is ruled. And the debt of hathred and misery and blasted liv

s once fair land in hundhreds of thousands to become wage-earners across the seas, with their hearts aching for their homes and their loved ones. The fault is at our own door. The solution is in our own hands. Isn't it betther to die, pike in

eir eyes. All their misery fell from them as a shroud. They only thought of vengeance. They

ike through Ireland from epoch to epoc

they pressed forward, screaming their pa

of humanity. It seemed to think with one brai

ew into an

amongst them. "Go back to your h

ou are," shou

Catholic Church, g

odden and suffering people,

him. Listen to

ose who help themselves

de his last and

ulary are coming to break up t

ny while we've strength to shouldher a gun or handle a pike. I appeal to you, O Irishmen, in the name of yer broken homes; in the name of all that makes life glorious and death divine! In the name of yer maimed and yer dead! Of yer brothers in prison and in exile! By the listenin' earth and the watching sky

the sorrow for yer women and children who have died of hunger and heart-break: stretch forth yer hands an

t hand held high above his head, his left-palm up

as pleading with them to take the oath th

ing, as if impelled by one common thought, the

sw

hem to the "CAUSE,"-the Cause that meant the lifting of oppression and tyranny: immunity from "buckshot" and the prison-cell: f

n through it. The sounds of marching troops: the

st them. "The constabulary," h

ou are," shou

u! Don't have bloodshed here to-day!" Father Cahill

people! Tell them to go back to

the priest, O'Conn

adge of tyranny. The glint of their muskets is the message from their illustrious sovereign of her feeling to this part of her kingdom. We ask for JUSTICE and they send u

children so that they were protected fr

l, armed with huge stones and st

ident-magistrate,

" he cried, point

wl went up f

hill hurr

. For the love of heaven, don't. Ther

Cahill, and it's sorry I am to

fault," pleaded the pri

urt them. We want t

up. Wait till to-night

ountry. He won't to-day." The magistrate pushed forward on his horse through th

Queen's name for inciting peaceable citizen

Mr. Magistrate Roche

r Roche motioned him

orward he was felled by

nd the fi

ate read th

o the mob to stop. They shouted to O'Conn

la

nto open formation an

as won many a battle for England against a common foe-the men of Ireland hurled themselves upon the soldiers.

iven as the soldiers fell

ned in the agony of shattered limbs. The women threw themselves moaning on the bodies. Silence fel

urrounded his

rd to rescue him. O'Conne

ded and dying: "Live to avenge them. Wait until 'Th

l, barely twenty years old. Beside her was a terrified groom. She guided her horse straight

e said imperatively, pointing to

rest," replied

ng and maiming those unfortunate people?" She looked with pity on the moan

roud of your work

t my orders," repl

l for him until he has been attended to. First let us SAVE him." The girl d

of your men

in her tone that awed both t

ody on the litter. The girl remounted

heir soldiers shot down these unarmed pe

d: "THEY have died or been maimed for their Cause. Do as HE

valley, followed by the litte

and, with some of the ringleaders in t

their dead, all the ferocity l

onless bodies. For the time being the

in the year of civilisation 18-, and in the reign of her late Grac