In the presence of enthusiasm like his father's or like Augusta Goold's, Hyacinth caught fire.

His mind flamed with the idea of an Independent Ireland resplendent with her ancient glories.

He embraced no less eagerly the thought of his father's battle and his own part in it.

Groping for points of contact between the two enthusiasms, he caught at the conception of the Roman Church as the Antichrist and her power in Ireland as the point round which the fight must rage.

Then with a sudden flash he saw, not Rome, but the British Empire, as the embodiment of the power of darkness.