“The Redmonites had a procession in the evening & I, not being sure at first that they were Redmonites, hung a flag out of the drawing room window, which infuriated them so that a lot of them came and hurled themselves against the door, & yelled & shouted, and put up a torch to burn the flag, I pulled it in just in time & they threw a torch in after it, but it went out as soon as it fell.”
“The officers’ class was all about a rifle. Paddy – , the bold officer, had one drawn, & all its pasts named, but he didn’t show the inside of it. I learned that an oak is the best tree to shelter from bullets behind, being hardest for them to get through, & how a cartridge is made – he had a cartridge which he took to pieces for us, & showed us the cap & the little holes the spark comes through to the powder…. Paddy – says that in an execution squad only one rifle is loaded, which seems to me a ridiculous arrangement.”
