On the 15th December 1886, when seated in Freeman's house waiting to receive the rents, four priests, a reporter of the _Freeman's Journal_, some local reporters, and four of the tenants rushed into the room; and the priests in the rudest possible manner (the Rev.P.Farrelly, one of them, calling me "Francy Hyne's hangman," and other terms of abuse) informed me that unless I re-instated a former Roman Catholic tenant in a farm which he had previously held, and which was then let to a Protestant, and gave an abatement of 30 per cent., no rent would be paid _me_ that day.

Dr.Dillon, C.C., was not present on this occasion, or, if so, I do not remember seeing him.
On my asking if I had no alternative but to concede to their demand, the Rev.Mr.Dunphy, parish priest, replied, "None other; do not think, sir, we have come here to-day to do honour to you." The Rev.P.O'Neill spoke as he always does, in a more gentlemanly and conciliatory manner, and I therefore, as the confusion in the room was great, offered to discuss the matter with him, the Rev.O'Donel, C.C., and the tenants, if the other priests, who were strangers to me, and the reporters would leave the room.

This the Rev.Mr.Dunphy declared they would not do, and I accordingly refused further to discuss the matter.
After they left the house, one of the tenants, Mick Darcy, stepped forward and said, "Settle with us, Captain." I replied, "Certainly, if you come back with me into the house." The Rev.Mr.Dunphy took him by the collar of his coat and threw him against the wall of the house, then turning to me with his hand raised said, "You shall not do so; we, who claim the temporal as well as spiritual power over _you_ as well as these poor creatures, will settle this matter with you." The tenants were then taken down to the League rooms, where two M.P.s, Sir Thomas Esmonde and Mr.Mayne, were waiting to receive the rents, which, one by one, they were ordered in to pay into the war-chest of the "Plan of Campaign." I have I fear written too much of this commencement of the war on the estate which has since led to over seventy of the tenants and their families being ejected, and has brought ruin on nearly all who joined it.

I have considerable experience as a land agent, but I know of no estate where the tenants were more respectable, better housed, or, as a body, in better circumstances than on the Brooke estate.

They had a kind, indulgent landlord, and they knew it; and nothing but the belief that, led by their clergy, they were foremost in a battle fighting for their country and religion, would have induced them to put up with the great hardships and loss they have undoubtedly had to suffer.
NOTE L.
A DUCAL SUPPER IN IRELAND IN 1711.
(Vol.ii.p.