Page:Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher- his political and military career; (IA brigadiergeneral00lyon 0).pdf/11



was a soldier before he girded on the sword. He was a soldier in tho cause of liberty from the time when he stood upon the battlements of Antwerp, as he describod in that famous speach, delivered in Dublin, July 28, 1846, when he stigimatize the sword, because "at its blow a giant nation started from tho waters of the Atlantic, and by its redeeming magie, and in the quivering of its crimson light, the crippled Colopy sprang into the attitude of a proud Republic-prosperous, limit- less, and invincible!" The fortunes and the honour of the brayo nion of his race who took up arms all the world over, "in any good cause at all," were always dear and near to his heart.

In sympathy with this feelins, therefore, I dedicate this volume to

W. F. LYONS.

New York, December, 1869.