Part 21 (2/2)

”Let the Government,” they said, all three of them, ”proclaim the meeting to be held in Belfast on Monday next, and allow the public to watch with contempt the deflation of the wind-distended bladder of Ulster opposition to Home Rule. We venture to say that the little group of selfish wire-pullers at whose bidding the meeting has been summoned, will sneak away before the batons of half a dozen policemen, and their followers will be found to be non-existent.”

The Government, apparently, believed the Nationalist orators, or half believed them. Sir Samuel c.l.i.thering was sent over to Belfast, to report, confidentially, on the temper of the people. He must have sent off his despatch before the Dean's army marched in, before any of the armies then converging on the city arrived, before the Belfast people had got out their rifles. The Government in the most solemn and impressive manner, proclaimed the meeting. That was the news with which we were greeted when our train drew up at the platform in Belfast.

The proclamation of meeting is one of the regular resources of governments when Irish affairs get into a particularly annoying tangle. There have been during my time hundreds of meetings proclaimed in different parts of the country. The Lord Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary never get any thanks for their action. The people who want to hold the meeting always accuse the Government of violating the right of free speech and subst.i.tuting a military tyranny for the Magna Charta. The other people who do not want the meeting to be held always say that the Government ought to have proclaimed it much sooner than it did, and ought to have imprisoned, perhaps beheaded, the men who intended to speak at the meeting.

Bob Power met us on the platform, which was horribly crowded, and immediately conducted Marion to a motor car which he had in waiting outside the station. Then he came back to me and we went together in search of Marion's luggage. It was while we were pus.h.i.+ng our way through the crowd that he told me the great news. I said that the failure of the demonstration would be a disappointment to the Dean and his riflemen who would have to walk all the way home again without hearing Babberly's speech.

”I'm not so sure about that,” said Bob. ”We may have the meeting in spite of their teeth.”

”You can't possibly,” I said, ”hold a meeting when--dear me! Who are those?”

There was a crowd round the luggage van where we were trying to discover Marion's trunk. An unmannerly porter shoved me back, and I b.u.mped into a man who had something hard and k.n.o.bby in his hand. I looked round. He was a soldier in the regular khaki uniform with a rifle in his hand. The bayonet was fixed. I felt deeply thankful that it was pointing upwards and not in a horizontal direction when the porter charged me. It might quite easily have gone through my back.

This man appeared to be a kind of outpost sentry. Behind him, all similarly armed, were twenty or thirty more men drawn up with their backs to the wall of the station. A youth, who looked bored and disgusted, was in command of them and stood at the end of the line.

His sword struck me as being far too big for him.

”Who on earth are those?” I said.

”Those,” said Bob, ”are the troops who are overawing us. Some of them.

There are lots more. You'll see them at every street corner as we go along. By jove! I believe that's Nosey Henderson in command of this detachment. Excuse me one moment, Lord Kilmore. Henderson was with me at Harrow. I'll just shake hands with him.”

He turned to the young officer as he spoke.

”Hullo Nosey,” he said, ”I didn't know you were in these parts.”

”Ordered up from the Curragh,” said Henderson. ”d.a.m.ned nuisance this sort of police duty. We oughtn't to be asked to do it.”

”Your particular job,” said Bob, ”is to overawe the railway porters, I suppose.”

”Been here since nine o'clock this morning,” said Henderson, ”and haven't had a blessed thing to eat except two water biscuits. What's the row all about? That's what I can't make out.”

”Oh! It's quite simple,” said Bob. ”Our side wants to hold a meeting--”

”You are on a side then, are you?”

”Of course I am,” said Bob. ”I'm in command of a company of volunteers. We don't run to khaki uniforms and bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, but we've got guns all right.”

”I say,” said Henderson, ”tell me this now. Any chance of a sc.r.a.p?

Real fighting, you know? I've been asking all sorts of fellows, and n.o.body seems to be able to say for certain.”

”We shan't begin it,” said Bob; ”but, of course, if you get prodding at us with those spikes you have at the end of your guns--”

”There are a lot of fellows in this town that would be all the better of being prodded. Every porter that walks along the platform spits when he pa.s.ses us in a d.a.m.ned offensive way. You would think they were looking for trouble.”

The crowd round the luggage van cleared away a little and we found Marion's trunk. Bob handed it over to a porter and we joined Marion in the motor car.

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