The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848Doheny, Michael
History
The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848
Doheny, Michael
Ireland -- History -- Rising of 1848; Young Ireland Party -- History; Young Ireland movement
Where wrapt by evening's crimson flush,
We hoped, and felt, and breathed together,
Beside the broad Suir's silent gush,
Or resting on yon mountain heather;
And dared to look beyond the narrow span,
That circumscribed the hope of man.
How sweet, if from the blessed spheres,
Thou didst bestow one look of love,
To cheer the hearts and dry the tears
Of those whose only hope's above;
And win, beloved one, from the throne of light,
One saving ray for our long slavery's night.
Or if this may not be, and yet
Her old doom clings unto the land;
If on her brow the brand be set,
And she must bear the chastening hand
For longer years, O grant, sweet saint, to me,
To die as if my arm had made her free.
GLENN, _August 3, 1848._
I left Glenn next morning, with still some hope remaining, and sought
out my friend to learn his success and prospects. He came, according to
appointment, to a farmer's house in the direction of Rathgormack,
bringing with him James Stephens, who was destined to be thenceforth the
companion of my wanderings, privations and dangers. He detailed to us,
nearly as I have repeated it, the affair at Ballingarry. When he
reached the village of Urlingford, he found some difficulty in escaping
from the very men he hoped to lead back to the conflict. After vainly
making every effort first to urge them on, and secondly to satisfy them
of his own identity, he travelled a distance of thirty miles, and took
shelter in the house of a private friend, where he hoped he could remain
until something definite would be known of his comrades' fate. That his
stay was not of long duration, his appearance with us on Thursday, forty
miles from the place of his concealment, amply testifies. That distance
he travelled on foot on the preceding day, after having slept a night
with a drunken man in a brake. He was even more averse than we were to
giving up the struggle, and it was agreed on finally that he should be
allowed to rest in a place of safety; that the messenger who had come
from Mr. Meagher's friend should be despatched with my proposal, and
meantime, that I should betake me to the Comeragh mountains in search of
Mr. Meagher, while our other comrade should make a final effort to rally
the remaining strength of the people. We would then be in a position to
determine finally what we should do. Stephens and myself proceeded
together as far as my former host's in the mountains, where I left him,
and continued my route as far as the Comeraghs, I rested that evening at
a place called Sradavalla, and early next day recommenced my search
around and over the mountains. After crossing several minor hills, I
ascended the summit of the Comeragh, called Cuimshinane, which commands
a prospect of nearly the whole counties of Waterford and Kilkenny, with
a great part of Tipperary. That prospect was at once grand, beautiful
and mournful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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