Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/365

 CHAPTER IV

SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE

at Brindisi on a dazzling spring day, and the landscape through which we passed, making in an express train for the French frontier, looked like glimpses of Paradise. I stopped in the South of France promising myself a long holiday of absolute idleness before going to London or Dublin. The newspapers announced the death of John Martin, hastened by his attendance at the funeral of his brother-in-law John Mitchel. Martin's death created a vacancy in the representation of the County Meath in the beginning of March, and I immediately received the following telegram from the Reverend Peter O'Reilly and the Reverend Michael Tormey, inviting me to stand for the seat:—

I replied that I did not desire a seat in Parliament, and could not go home, as I was about to be subjected to treatment for the recovery of my voice; but if I were elected I would feel it my duty to act. 347