"
"Oh! that Power assures me the soldiers will fraternize. He says there are
three regiments at least have promised solemnly to shoot their officers,
and give up their arms to the mob."
"Very important, if true--and very scoundrelly, too, I'd sooner be shot
myself by fair fighting, than see officers shot by cowardly treason."
"Well, it's ugly. I like fair play as well as any man. But it can't be
done. There must be a surprise, a _coup de main_, as the French say" (poor
Crossthwaite was always quoting French in those days). "Once show our
strength--burst upon the tyrants like a thunderclap; and then!--
"Men of England, heirs of glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Rise, shake off the chains like dew
Which in sleep have fallen on you!
Ye are many, they are few!"
"That's just what I am afraid they are not. Let's go and find out this man
Power, and hear his authority for the soldier-story. Who knows him?"
"Why, Mike Kelly and he had been a deal together of late, Kelly's a true
heart now--a true Irishman ready for anything. Those Irish are the boys,
after all--though I don't deny they do bluster and have their way a little
too much in the Convention.
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