The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-26 00:00:00

An Adventure with Alleged Fenians.

The picturesque and romantic country under
shadow of the Slieve Bloom mountains was recently

the scene of au alarming adventure, and one which
was near entailing serious consequences to a party
who was the object of the " attentions" of a body

of armed " Fenians," who it would appear were

" out for the night" in that unfrequented district.
On Saturday night week, Mr. Warren, Cloghan-
more, Kennitty, a gentleman well known in this
country, was returning to his own house after spend-
ing the evening with a neighbouring gentleman.
The hour was eleven o'clock, and the night pitchy
dark—the gentleman's host wished him to remain

all night, but he would not, as he said he knew
every perch of the way as well by night as in the
broad day. He then bade his host good night, and
unsuspectingly went on his way. On reaching the
high road from the avenue his attention was at-
tracted by approaching footsteps, and his suspicion
somewhat aroused by the fact that people were out
on such a night and on such a lonesome road, but
he nevertheless pushed on, after having debated in
his own mind the chances of these people being the
police patrol. He soon, however, became aware
that the footsteps were those of a large body of men,

and while he was making up his mind as to a re-

treat to the hospitable mansion which he had just
left, the more advanced portion of the party came
up where he was standing, and he determined then
to push on towards his own house, which was not
very far distant. He said, " Good night, boys," to
the people, but received no answer, and the fact
then flashed on his mind that they were up to no good,

as they would not answer, fearful, as he supposed, of
being betrayed by their voices. When he came to the
end of the procession he again saluted them with
" Good night, boys," but as before got no answer.
Having passed them, he stopped, as did several
of the party who composed the procession. A
colloquy ensued among the party, and Mr. W.
Warren, heard one of them say, "By G—, he is a
detective," and immediately a whistle, long, loud.
and shrill, sounded, and the whole came to a halt,
and a party was told off to follow the retreating
stranger and bring him back. We should say that
the road at this particular point is very dark, a
grove of large timber and a wall being on one side,
with a heavy quickset hedge on the other. Mr.
Warren, hearing the directions given for his pur-
suit, kept on the grass edge of the road, making
no noise until he came to a gate on the side of the
road, which when tried was fortunately opened,
and he slipped into the field, which had been recently
ploughed, and made right into the middle, where he
lay down in the scrape of the plough. He there
heard the footsteps of his pursuers pass the gate and
proceed farther up the road, but they soon became
aware that they had overrun their game, who,
mindful of his sporting experience, had borrowed a
trick from puss, and had doubled on them. The
leader of the skirmishing party sounded a retreat,
and they came back to wards the gate, driving the
i long poles, or pikes, or pitchforks with which they
were armed into the hedges and gripes on each side
of the road until they came to the gate, finding
which open, the fugitive not having had time to
take theprecaution of closing it after him, the leader
swore an oath that the object of their pursuit had
gone into the field, and ordered his men to go in
and bring him out until they would " pike him to
death, to teach him not to be prowling about the
country at that hour." Some time was then occu-
pied in searching round the ditches and boundaries
of the field, during which time the fugitive lay in a
secure though unenviable position in the middle of
the field, screened from their observation by
the plough scrape and the darkness of the
night. Having exhausted their patience, how-
ever, the leader drew off his men, and re-
joined the main body, which was at such a short
distance that the fugitive could hear the denuncia-
tions on the " detective" which were uttered by the
crowd of people. Having lain in his concealment
for some time, until the sounds of the people died
away, Mr. Warren emerged from his hiding place,
and stumbled as best he could out of the field and
across another to the house of a relative of his
own, which lay on the same side of the road as the
as the friendly fallow field, he not daring to cross
road again, fearing to fall in with the patrols or
skirmishers of the body he had just seen, and as his
own house lay on the opposite side. When, after a
good deal of difficulty, he reached his relative'shouse,
he knocked them up and presented himself to them
in a very sorry pickle. He asked for a horse and
arms to proceed to the police barracks and give the
alarm, but he was over-persuaded by the entreaties
of his nieces, who bad arisen from their beds, to re-
main all night in the house, and not again trust
himself to the tender mercies of the Fenians. In the
morning the little town of Kennitty was all alive
with the report of a regiment of armed Fenians that
had been out drilling the night before, and the at
tack which had been made on Mr. Warren. The
authorities having heard of the matter, policemen
were despatched for Mr. Warren, and he related the
adventures of the previous night. Communications
were made to the Castle,. Dublin, and he was re-
quested to made an information upon his oath,
which he did before Mr. H. G. Curran, R.M., Par-
sonstown, to the effect as described above. Since
'then the county inspector of police, Mr. Carr, and
Mr. Valancy, S.L. of the district, are engaged in
investigating the circumstances, and in patrolling
the place, but up to the present without any effect.
Mr. Warren described the men as marching with a
heavy measured tramp, and that some of them
were armed with long poles or pikes, and the
leader in front had a longer pole than the rest,
on the top of which was something which, from
the darkness of the night, he could not
distinctly recognise, but thought it was some-
thing like a fishing net or a tent. The affair has
created a good deal of talk in the neighbourhood,
which is remarkably well conducted at all times. It
is but fair to the people of the district to state that
common rumour has attached a rather ludicrous
solution to this " march of the Fenian men." It is
stated, and very generally believed, that the regi-
ment was composed of the workpeople, men and
women of the neighbouring farms, and that the
performance was a premeditated practical joke,
good-humouredly played. We will not offer an
opinion on the matter further than to hint at the
improbability of the Fenians selecting a pitchy dark
night for practising their evolutions, and to express
doubt that in the King's County a body of 60 or 80
could be got together for any such purpose as that
of Fenianism, hile we know that many more could
be got together to enjoy a joke.—King's County
Chronicle.

Colonel R. M. Hoe, the inventor of the cylinler
printing press, is spending the winter with his family in
Paris. lie intends to return to America in the spring.