The man with the gun walked by my side.

The others, who as we went along were joined by some half-score of confederates at various points, who all gave a watchword on joining, talked among themselves eagerly.
Presently we came to a hill--one I knew well--and here the stragglers began to muster in larger numbers, till as we came to the hollow basin below the top I counted nearly fifty.

A few of them I recognised as old gossips of my father's, but for the most part they were strangers who seemed to have come from a distance.
About ten of the number carried guns, the rest were all armed with either clubs or sticks, while one or two carried rude pikes.
I noticed that one of my captors, not he who guarded me, was looked up to as the leader of the gathering; and when by common consent a circle was formed, and sentinels posted, one on either side of the hollow, it was he who stepped forward and spoke.
If he was an Irishman, his voice did not betray him.

Indeed, he spoke more like an Englishman, with a touch of the foreigner at the tip of his tongue.
The first part of his speech was about matters I little understood-- about some Bill before the Irish Parliament at Dublin, and the efforts of the friends of the people to defeat it.

Then he went on to talk of the great events taking place in Paris:--How the whole people were up in arms for liberty; how the king there had been beheaded, and the streets were flowing with the blood of the friends of tyranny.