The Life Story of an Old Rebel Part 10

consisting chiefly of penny books of biographies, stories, songs, and stirring episodes of Irish history.

In their production and afterwards, when I continued the issue of these booklets in London, I had valuable a.s.sistance from various friends, including Rev. Father Ambrose, Rev. Father O'Laverty, Michael Davitt, Daniel Crilly, T.D. Sullivan, Timothy McSweeney, Hugh Heinrick, William J. Ryan, Francis Fahy, William P. Ryan, Alfred Perceval Graves, Michael O'Mahony, John J. Sheehan, Thomas Boyd, Thomas Flannery, John Hand, James Lysaght Finigan, and other well-known writers on Irish subjects.

Some of the penny books were from my own pen, in addition to which I wrote "The Brandons," a story of Irish life in England, and other books, of which my most ambitious work was "The Irish in Britain."

CHAPTER X.

RESCUE OF THE MILITARY FENIANS.

Before concluding the section of my Recollections connected with Fenianism, I must re-introduce John Breslin, the rescuer of James Stephens.

Though the episode I am about to describe took place some six years after the commencement of the const.i.tutional Home Rule agitation, I think it well, as it was connected with Fenianism, for the sake of compactness, to introduce it here.

My excuse for introducing it as part of _my_ recollections will be seen further on.

It will be remembered that John Breslin, when a warder in Richmond Prison, was the man who actually opened the door of James Stephens's cell, and, with the aid of Byrne, another warder, helped the Head Centre over the prison wall, and left him in charge of John Ryan and other friends outside.

It was no wonder, then, that, when a similar perilous and even more arduous undertaking was projected, John Breslin should be the man chosen as the chief instrument to carry it out.

This was the rescue of six military Fenians from Freemantle, in Western Australia, which was ultimately effected on Easter Monday, 17th April, 1876.

The enterprise was projected in America, among its most active promoters being John Devoy. a.s.sociated with him were John Boyle O'Reilly (himself an escaped Fenian convict) and Captain Hathaway, City Marshal of New Bedford. An American barque, of 202 tons, the _Catalpa_, was bought, and converted into a whaler, but was intended to be used in carrying off the convicts. She was ready for sea in March, 1875. It was more than a year before she took the prisoners away from Australia, and a further four months before she reached New York with the rescued men.

The ship was taken out by Captain S. Anthony, an American, to whom was confided the object of the mission. The only Irishman on board among the crew was Denis Duggan, the carpenter, a sterling Nationalist, to whom also was made known the mission on which they were bound.

As John Breslin was now in America, obviously he was the man of all others to entrust with the command of the daring project of carrying off the prisoners. Happily he was available for the work, and entered into it heartily. He sent me the narrative of the rescue himself--through his brother Michael--on his return to America, after having successfully accomplished his mission.

He and Captain Desmond sailed from San Francisco on the 13th of September, 1875, and reached Freemantle on 16th of November. They were not long in opening up communications with the prisoners, so as to be in readiness for the arrival of the _Catalpa_. In the meantime two more men joined the expedition--John King, who brought a supply of money from New Zealand, which was most useful, and Thomas Brennan, who arrived at the last moment, just as the _Catalpa_ appeared off the coast, and had got into communication with Breslin.

Everything being arranged, it was determined to carry off the following prisoners--Martin Harrington, Thomas Darragh, James Wilson, Martin Joseph Hogan, Robert Cranston, and Thomas Henry Ha.s.sett. They were at work outside the prison walls, or at other employment equally accessible, when they were taken away in two traps from Freemantle, about nine o'clock in the morning of the 17th of April, 1876. By the time the news of their flight, and of the direction they had taken, was known in the prison, the party had reached Rockingham, and were on the sea in the whale-boat which was to take them to the _Catalpa_.

The gunboat _Conflict_, which was usually stationed at King George's Sound, was telegraphed for by the authorities, but it was found that the wires had been cut the previous night, and by the time they were repaired the vessel had gone on a cruise.

After some hours' delay, the governor engaged the pa.s.senger steamer _Georgette_ to go in pursuit. It was nine o'clock that evening before she left Freemantle. The police boat was cruising about also, looking for the whaler and her boat. The _Georgette_ came up with the _Catalpa_ about 8 o'clock on the following (Tuesday) morning. A demand to go on board and search the barque was refused. As it was found there was a short supply aboard the _Georgette_, she returned to Freemantle to coal, leaving the police boat to watch the _Catalpa_, and to look out for the whale boat containing the rescued men, which had not yet appeared, although, as it turned out, not far off at the time. The boat had been vainly searching for the _Catalpa_ all night, and had only now discovered her. The party in the boat had actually seen the _Georgette_ overhauling the _Catalpa_, and had yet themselves remained undiscovered.

In order to keep clear of falling into the hands of the _Georgette_ they stood off from the ship, and it was about half-past two o'clock in the afternoon before the boat containing the rescued men approached the _Catalpa_ again. They then saw the police boat making for the ship at about the same distance from her on the land side as the whale boat was to the seaward. The men scrambled aboard just as the police boat was coming up on the other side.

Breslin says:--"As soon as my feet struck the deck over the quarter rail, Mr. Smith, the first mate, called out to me, 'What shall I do now, Mr. Collins (this was the name Breslin went by); what shall I do?' I replied, 'Hoist the flag, and stand out to sea;' and never was a manoeuvre executed in a more prompt and seamanlike manner."

The police boat did not attempt to board the vessel, but made its way back to Freemantle to report. There the _Georgette_ had been fully coaled and provisioned, and had taken aboard, in addition to the pensioners and police, a twelve-pounder field-piece. At 11 o'clock the same night (Tuesday) she steamed out once more. At daylight on the following morning she came up with the _Catalpa_ again, and fired a round shot across her bows. After some parleying, Captain Anthony being prompted by Breslin, the _Georgette_ hailed that if the _Catalpa_ did not heave to, the masts would be blown out of her.

"Tell them," said Breslin to the captain, "that's the American flag; you are on the high seas; and if he fires on the ship, he fires on the American flag."

Preparations were made to give the armed party on the _Georgette_ a warm reception should they attempt to board the whaler. But the pursuers had a wholesome fear of coming into conflict with a vessel sailing under the Stars and Stripes, and, after some further parleying, left the _Catalpa_ to pursue her homeward voyage unmolested.

I was fortunate enough to get the account of _both_ expeditions--for there were two--for the rescue of the military Fenians in each case direct from the man having the command.

I have already given John Breslin's account, which, it will, perhaps, be remembered I published at the time as a number of my penny "Irish Library."

I had the pleasure of hearing John Walsh, who had charge of the expedition from this country, relating the part he and his friend bore in a.s.sisting the Irish-American rescuers. He told the story at a very select gathering in Liverpool, at which I was present. On the 13th of January, he said, two men, of whom he was one, left this country with money and clothing to carry out the rescue. They landed on the 28th of February at King George's Sound, whence a sailing vessel took them to Freemantle.

They soon got into communication with the two men who had come from America, and had been on the spot since November, 1875--John Breslin and J. Desmond, the latter of whom worked as a coach-builder at Perth. Walsh and his friend offered their co-operation to the men from America in any capacity, and arrangements were made accordingly. They lent the Americans arms, and they cut the telegraph wires from Perth to King George's Sound, where a man-of-war was stationed.

It will be seen from Breslin's account that this was why the man-of-war was not available to deal with the _Catalpa_; for when the telegraphic communication was restored, it was found that the gunboat _Conflict_ had left on a cruise.

Walsh and his friend were on the ground on the morning when the prisoners started to escape, and if a fight took place, they were to fight and fly with their friends. If there was no fight, they were to remain behind. If the _Catalpa_ failed, they were to fly to the bush, with the exception of some who were to remain behind to succour those in the bush.

John Walsh described how, when the rescued men were being driven in two traps from Freemantle to Rockingham, to be taken on the whale-boat to the _Catalpa_, which was lying off the coast awaiting them, he and his friend started with them, and remained behind to stop pursuit. He also described the attempt to recapture the escaped men, as told in Breslin's narrative, and how the attempt failed.

My own connection with this incident was that the funds, or some part of them, for John Walsh's expedition pa.s.sed through my hands between their collection and their distribution.

On Monday, August 21st, 1876, while we were holding the Annual Convention of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, in the Rotunda, Dublin, the joyful news reached us that the _Catalpa_, having on board the rescued men and their rescuers, had safely reached New York. The news was received with the wildest enthusiasm. The terrible strain of the last four months had pa.s.sed, and we were relieved from the constant dread that, after the gallant rescue, the men might again fall into the hands of the enemy.

A few more words about the Breslins before finishing this chapter.

Michael went back to America after his escape from arrest in Birmingham.

I have corresponded with him from time to time ever since. A letter of mine to Michael, written after he finally went to America, came back to me in a very curious manner. A gentleman came into my place of business in Liverpool one day, and presented to me, as an introduction, a letter I had sent to my friend about a month previously. I was somewhat suspicious about this. I told him there was nothing to show that my letter had ever been in Breslin's hands at all. The gentleman agreed that I was right, and said he would merely ask to be allowed to leave his luggage for a short time.

I got a careful watch kept on his movements in Liverpool, but nothing more suspicious was reported than that he had been seen to enter a Catholic church, where he had gone to Confession.

My friend William Hogan was in my place when my messenger returned, and when he heard this, exclaimed, in his usual impetuous style--"He's a spy!"

The deduction might not seem obvious, but, doubtless Hogan had in his mind one or two of the worst cases of the anti-Fenian informers, who made a parade of great piety a cloak for their treachery.

The gentleman returned and reclaimed his luggage, and I heard nothing further of him for about a month afterwards, when I had a letter from Michael Breslin, saying that his friend, whom I had treated with such suspicion and such scant hospitality, was Mr. John B. Holland, the famous submarine inventor. He was, I believe, in this country in connection with his invention.

It may be asked, after all, what did Fenianism do for Ireland? To those who ask the question I would answer that no honest effort for liberty has ever been made in vain. If Fenianism did nothing else, it kept alive the tradition and the spirit of freedom among Irishmen, and handed them on to the next generation. In so far as the men who took part in it were unselfish, were whole-souled lovers of their country, and prepared to risk life and liberty for their country's sake--and I think with pride of the thousands of such men I knew or knew of--then the whole Irish race was enn.o.bled and lifted up from the mire of serfdom.

But it did more than merely make martyrs. Its strength, its spontaneity, and the devotion of its adherents were such that they undoubtedly awakened not merely some alarm, but also some sense of justice in England.

Gladstone admitted that what first prompted him to set in motion the movement for the disestablishment of the Irish Church was "the intensity of Fenianism." But the result did not end there. For many an Englishman was moved to the belief that surely there must be something wrong with a system which provoked such a movement, something not wholly bad about a cause for which men went with calm, proud confidence to the felon's cell or the scaffold. And, even to-day, England--with all her secret service facilities--does not know one-half of the danger from which she escaped; nor can I repeat much of what I myself could say of Fenianism in England.

There are men who have made large fortunes in business; there are eminent men in many of the professions, whose former connection with Fenianism is unsuspected, who, at the time, if the call had been made upon them, would cheerfully have thrown aside their careers and taken their places in the ranks.

Once again "a soul came into Ireland," and men were capable then of high enterprises which to-day seem to belong to another age.

Even for myself, I have many times marvelled how light-heartedly in those days I took the risks of conspiracy--how little it troubled me that there were dozens of men who bore my liberty, and perhaps my life, in their hands. But I never doubted them--and I was right!

CHAPTER XI.

THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT.

It now becomes my business to record the formation and progress of another organisation--one which appealed to me precisely on the same grounds as Fenianism, namely, first, that it was based on justice; and, secondly, that it was practicable.

This was the const.i.tutional movement for what was known as Home Rule. My principles have never altered, and I can see nothing inconsistent in my adapting myself to changed conditions. I and those who thought like me were driven into Fenianism because it seemed likely to achieve success, and what was call "const.i.tutional agitation" seemed hopeless. Now the position was reversed. On the one hand Fenianism had collapsed, and on the other there seemed a prospect, partly owing to the change wrought by Fenianism, that a const.i.tutional movement might succeed.