Devoy’s confidences were in fact most exhaustive, and enabled me to send quite an interesting budget by the next mail to Mr. Anderson. I learnt, as a further item of news, that much trouble was being experienced in keeping the I.R.B. (the sister society) men in some parts of Ireland, notably in Mayo, where they had the best organisation and most arms, from making what Devoy described as “fools of themselves.” He, it appeared, feared attacks on the military when the latter were attending evictions. This striking interview between the Clan-na-Gael leader and the Secret Service agent concluded with the important announcement on the part of the former that he had received a letter from Mr. Parnell, through a friend, in which Mr. Parnell stated he was exasperated and was willing to do anything. He (Mr. Parnell) had agreed to the calling of the 1882 Convention, and to its being a National Movement Convention; and, in conclusion, Devoy said Mr. Parnell’s personal attitude towards the National (i.e., Revolutionary) party was well and satisfactorily understood.
This was, indeed, a time of confidences with me. I had communications with Alexander Sullivan and Meledy within a very short period from this, and from them—Sullivan being one of the Executive, and Meledy a leading member of the Clan-na-Gael—I learnt, though at different times, that a new plan of campaign was coming into force, nothing more or less indeed than one of cold-blooded murder and destruction. It appeared that a man called Wheeler had invented a new hand-grenade, and had offered a supply to the organisation. They were of such a portable character as to be easily carried in a satchel, and were especially adapted for the purpose in view. Meledy told me he had offered to take part in the work of placing them in Ireland and England.
The significance of the matter was lost upon me at the time, but was fully appreciated by me later on, when I learnt of the informer Carey’s evidence in connection with the Phœnix Park murders and the Invincible conspiracy, in the course of which he confessed that he and his confederates had arranged to kill Earl Cowper, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, by a hand bomb just perfected in the organisation, which could be easily thrown from a window in a house in Cork Hill, Dublin, which they had selected for the purpose.
XXXII.
My private affairs permitted of my taking a holiday in the early part of the year 1881, and so I determined to make a trip to Europe. Happening to communicate my intention to my old friend, Colonel Clingen, now the commander of the Clan-na-Gael guards in Chicago, and a very prominent member of the organisation, he gave me to understand that the Executive would avail themselves of my journey to send by me documents which could not be trusted to the mails. Nothing could have suited me better, and I willingly consented to be of any service I possibly could. Devoy, it subsequently transpired, was the correspondent whose communications I was to convey, and by an arrangement of Clingen’s a meeting took place between Devoy and myself at the Palmer House, Chicago, in the month of March 1881. Devoy on this occasion handed me sealed packets addressed to John O’Leary and Patrick Egan in Paris. O’Leary was then regarded as the representative agent and official means of communication between the Clan-na-Gael and the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Ireland; Egan was the treasurer and accredited representative of the Irish Land League.
Journeying by way of Liverpool, I reached England on the 12th of April 1881, and stopping in London in order to see Mr. Anderson and show him the packets, as well as to receive instructions, I eventually travelled to Paris. On arrival there I drove to the Hotel Brighton, where I had learned Egan was located, and where I determined to take up my abode. The first person I met with in the hotel was Egan himself. He was coming down the stairs in view of me, as I asked for him, in company with Mrs. A. M. Sullivan (wife of the late M.P.), both being bound for the opera, where, on their invitation, I subsequently joined them. I made myself known to Egan at once, only to find of course that he had received some hint of my coming, and was quite expecting me.
PATRICK EGAN
As I washed and prepared to take myself to the opera, to see some more of this strange man, I endeavoured to recall his appearance, and to see how far he fitted in with the idea I already held regarding him. A man of bright cheery presence, stout build, and jovial look and voice, the latter very marked in its Irish accent, with bright laughing eyes and warm handshake and a closely cut head of tawny hair, he was the last person in the world you would take for a deep conspirator, and a constructor of murder. I was puzzled and bewildered—I could not make it out; and so giving up all thought of trying to read the man’s character on the outward view, I determined I should leave my further studies in this direction to a later date and go and enjoy the opera, which I did.
The next morning saw me en route for the residence of John O’Leary, to whom I wished to deliver my second packet without delay. I discovered him without much difficulty in his abode at the Hotel de la Couronne, in the Quartier Latin. I found the old man surrounded by his books and manuscripts, and from his appearance more fit for the patient secluded life of the student than the troublous career of the rebel. Seated in his room, and gazing affectionately on his different treasures of old and rare editions, he seemed to have little in common with my friends of the Clan. Yet I found him fully posted, and as keen to talk with me as possible. At first somewhat suspicious and uncertain in his manner, he gradually lost his appearance of distrust, and in the end gossiped with me quite freely. As he opened Devoy’s packet in my presence, I was enabled to discover that I had been the bearer of a very long document, with an enclosure, to which he paid great heed.