As they were about to sit down to dinner on that day, a telegram, re-directed from Kilgobbin, reached Kearney’s hand. It bore the date of that morning from Plmnuddm Castle, and was signed ‘Atlee.’ Its contents were these: ‘H. E. wants to mark the Kilgobbin defence with some sign of approval. What shall it be? Reply by wire.’ ‘Read that, and tell us what you think of it.’ ‘Joe Atlee at the Viceroy’s castle in Wales!’ cried the other. ‘We’re going up the ladder hand over head, Mr. Kearney! A week ago his ambition was bounded on the south by Ship Street, and on the east by the Lower Castle Yard.’ ‘How do you understand the despatch?’ asked Kearney quickly. ‘Easily enough. His Excellency wants to know what you’ll have for shooting down three--I think they were three--Irishmen.’ ‘The fellows came to demand arms, and with loaded guns in their hands.’ ‘And if they did! Is not the first right of a man the weapon that defends him? He that cannot use it or does not possess it, is a slave. By what prerogative has Kilgobbin Castle within its walls what can take the life of any, the meanest, tenant on the estate?’ ‘I am not going to discuss this with you; I think I have heard most of it before, and was not impressed when I did so. What I asked was, what sort of a recognition one might safely ask for and reasonably expect?’ ‘That’s not long to look for. Let them support you in the county. Telegraph back, “I’m going to stand, and, if I get in, will be a Whig whenever I am not a Nationalist. Will the party stand by me?”’ ‘Scarcely with that programme.’ ‘And do you think that the priests’ nominees, who are three-fourths of the Irish members, offer better terms? Do you imagine that the men that crowd the Whig lobby have not reserved their freedom of action about the Pope, and the Fenian prisoners, and the Orange processionists? If they were not free so far, I’d ask you with the old Duke, How is Her Majesty’s Government to be carried on?’ Kearney shook his head in dissent. ‘And that’s not all,’ continued the other; ‘but you must write to the papers a flat contradiction of that shooting story. You must either declare that it never occurred at all, or was done by that young scamp from the Castle, who happily got as much as he gave.’ ‘That I could not do,’ said Kearney firmly. ‘And it is that precisely that you must do,’ rejoined the other. ‘If you go into the House to represent the popular feeling of Irishmen, the hand that signs the roll must not be stained with Irish blood.’ ‘You forget; I was not within fifty miles of the place.’