He was, therefore, free in honour to have taken no part in the insurrection, since it was begun by men from whom he had withdrawn.

But when the voice in the night whispered through his window that his former colleagues had crossed the Rubicon, Doheny, like the man he was, rose and rode forth to make the fatal passage and stand or fall with them.
From this point, Doheny's narrative may be supplemented and corrected by information that was not at the time he wrote available to him.

Meagher, Leyne, M'Gee, O'Mahony and MacManus, have left in newspaper articles and in MS.

accounts of what happened in the light of which Doheny's narrative must be read.
On Thursday, July 20th, 1848, the British Government issued a proclamation ordering the people of Ireland to surrender their arms.
Thomas Francis Meagher, who was at the time in Waterford, issued a counter-proclamation to the people of that city bidding them to hold them fast.

He then hurried to Dublin to consult with his colleagues and he arrived in the metropolis the next day.