During Sean’s first term of imprisonment I had been elected company captain; and now during his second term I was further promoted to be Commandant of the Battalion, and later still I became Brigade Commandant. At that period each company elected its own captain, each man having a vote, and each man being eligible. The various company officers in a battalion area then met, and in their turn elected the officers for the battalion, and so with the brigade. Truly, it was a democratic army. This was the time when things were going badly with England in the war. In March, 1918, began the great German offensive, when the British lines were broken through. In their despair the English cried, “Conscript the Irish.” Within a few weeks the necessary Act was passed in the British Parliament, and all preparations made to force Irishmen to fight England’s battle. Sir John French, later Lord French, himself an Irishman by birth, was British Viceroy in Dublin. The Irish people were roused to action. Never before was there such a fierce determination to resist the British plans. Bishops, priests and political leaders of all shades of opinion met together to face the threat. In the moment of common danger all turned instinctively to the Irish Volunteers. If resistance was to come it would only come from their ranks; for England and Ireland well knew that the Irish Volunteers would be wiped out to the last man before they would allow a single Irishman to be forced into the British Army. Our trouble was the shortage of arms; of men we now had too many. At that time I was Brigade Commandant, and we decided to make raids for arms. We knew there were plenty of shot-guns, revolvers, bayonets, swords, and an occasional rifle here and there in private houses, especially in the houses of the element loyal to England. We had very little trouble in collecting the arms. Our men in every district had compiled exact information regarding every house in which there was a weapon. We generally went at night and asked for the arms. Those who would have liked to refuse knew they dare not. Many others gave them willingly, and some even sent us word to call for them. In no case had we to fire a shot during the few weeks we were on this job. We had to do the thing as quickly as possible, for as soon as the British got wind of it they immediately issued an order that all arms should be handed to them for safe keeping. We generally got there first, and more than once our visit to a house was only a few minutes before that of the peelers. [Illustration: SEAN TREACY.] CHAPTER III. OUR FIRST MUNITION FACTORY.