Page:Life of John Boyle O'Reilly.djvu/47

Rh mainly, or even largely, made up of such truculent ruffians as these, or that even the milder villainies chronicled by Kipling are fairly characteristic of them. It is nevertheless true that few men of good character enter the ranks, unless impelled by stern necessity, or by such a higher motive as that which sent O'Reilly and scores of other incipient rebels thither. Thirty years ago, the British private soldier was looked upon as a moral outcast by even the humblest of honest folk in civil life. Characteristically enough, the same people, as well as their "betters," had nothing but envious admiration for the commissioned officer, whose morals were not a whit choicer than those of the enlisted man. But that inconsistency of human nature is as old as the noble trade of war itself.

There were good men as well as good soldiers, thousands of them, in the rank and tile. It was always the good men and good soldiers among the Irishmen who were most easily converted to the doctrines of Fenianism. This is one of the commonest fruits of misgovernment.

O'Reilly was a model soldier, quick to learn and punctual to obey the rules of military discipline. He was the life of the barracks, infecting his comrades with something of his own gay and cheery nature. He was foremost in every amusement, lightening the dullness of life in quarters with concerts and dramatic performances, sometimes of his own composition, a strong Nationalist tone pervading all his work. Treasonable songs and ballads were chanted in the quarters of troop D, and spread among the other companies. With boyish recklessness he embroidered rebel devices on the under side of his saddle-cloth, and in the lining of his military overcoat.

Yet when the Government, alarmed at the spread of disaffection, sent its secret agents to investigate, the conspirators hoodwinked and baffled all the minor spies, and laughed in their sleeves at the dullness of Scotland Yard. Treason continued to flourish, and, but for counter-treason, might have flourished indefinitely. Talbot, the arch-informer, was detailed to work up the case. He was a