"The Commissariat!" some one said. "Begod they'll be tired of cauliflower before they're through with that lot!"
It was comical to see those loads of cauliflower being driven past. Ireland was to fight for freedom with her stomach full of cauliflower....
There was a Proclamation of the Republic on a wall near by, and he hurried to read it.
"What's the thing at the head of it?" a woman asked, gazing at the Gaelic inscription on top of the Proclamation.
"That's Irish," the man beside her replied.
"I know that. What does it mean?"
"Begod, I don't know...."
Henry read the Proclamation through, and then re-read the finely-phrased end of it!
We place the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose Blessing we invoke on our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.
"That's John," he said to himself, "or MacDonagh! And they began the thing by killing an unarmed man! Their fine phrases won't cover that mean deed!..."