FENIANISM AND IRISH DISAFFECTION. 71 



seven miles off, between them and Tipperary, so 

 somehow the report arose that these troops were 

 coming to attack them. Whereupon a panic ensued, 

 and they dispersed in every direction across the 

 country, leaving the five policemen they had captured 

 to go where they pleased, every man of the mob only 

 thinking how to get safe back to Cork by some 

 roundabout or bye -way. Most succeeded in this, 

 but the weather was unusually severe, and, not daring 

 to go by the direct roads, many had to lie out for a 

 night or two with little or no food, and arrived back 

 in Cork the most pitiable objects imaginable. Many 

 were taken, but were so absurdly harmless that they 

 were not thought worth prosecuting. A magistrate, 

 whose country place is a few miles from Cork in an 

 unfrequented direction, walking about his grounds, 

 captured three or four lying hid in his shrubbery. 

 When he had got them he did not know what to do 

 with them, for all the police of the next station were 

 away on special service elsewhere, so finally he re- 

 solved to let them go, as in no way dangerous to any 

 one, and so he did. They went down on their knees 

 and blessed him as their greatest benefactor. 



When the shock of the failure of the outbreak 

 had passed off, it was thought needful to do some- 

 thing for the revival of the Fenian spirits in Cork. 



There was an old Martello tower on Cork Harbour, 

 under the care of two superannuated artillerymen, 

 with their wives and families. On an evening when 



