Madam was not so fortunate. She was too tired and excited to sleep.
Instead, she walked about, looking for some sheltered place and, to get
out of the wind, tried lying down in one of the trenches. But the ground
was much too chilly, so she walked about until she noticed the
motor-car of her friend, Dr. Katherine Lynn, seized that morning for the
barricade. She climbed in, found a rug, and went to sleep in comparative
comfort. When morning came she could not forgive herself for having
slept there all night while the rest of us remained outdoors. She had
intended to get up after an hour or two of it and make one of us take
her place. She did not waken, however, till she heard the hailing of
machine-gun bullets on the roof of the car. The girls in the
summer-house, with the exception of myself, were awakened at the same
moment in the same way, and ran for safety behind one of the
embankments. It seems the British had taken possession of a hotel at one
side of the Green--the Hotel Shelbourne--and had placed a machine-gun on
the roof. At four o'clock in the morning they began firing.
The chill I was having woke me, but I quickly followed the others to
their hiding-place. From the first we were aware that had we taken
possession of all buildings around the Green, according to our original
plan, this morning salute of the British would have been impossible. As
it was, our intrenchments and barricades proved of no avail. We realized
at once we should have to evacuate the Green and retire into the College
of Surgeons.
Commandant Mallin sent me with a despatch to headquarters. He recognized
immediately that a regiment could not hold the Green against a
machine-gun on a tall building that could rake our position easily.
As soon as I returned, I was sent away again to bring in sixteen men
guarding the Leeson Street bridge. If we abandoned the Green before
they could join us, they would be cut off and in great danger. As I rode
along on my bicycle, I had my first taste of the risks of
street-fighting. Soldiers on top of the Hotel Shelbourne aimed their
machine-gun directly at me. Bullets struck the wooden rim of my bicycle
wheels, puncturing it; others rattled on the metal rim or among the
spokes. I knew one might strike me at any moment, so I rode as fast as I
could. My speed saved my life, and I was soon out of range around a
corner. I was not exactly frightened nor did I feel aware of having
shown any special courage. My anxiety for the men I was to bring in
filled my mind, for though I was out of range, unless we could find a
roundabout way to the College of Surgeons seventeen of us would be under
fire. To make matters worse, the men were on foot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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