Maurice Tiernay

The tale begins with tumbrils and Robespierre. Tiernay, part-French, part-Irish, does well, but against orders, at the passage of the Rhine, and is led out to be shot for indiscipline, though he is spared. Next he shares in the invasion of Ireland, and ends up in Austria as one of Napoleon's colonels. tide rolled fullest. There were certain spots which held a kind of supernatural influence over me--one of these was the Temple, another was the Place de Grève. The window at which my father used to sit, from which, as a kind of signal, I have so often seen his red kerchief floating, I never could pass now, without stopping to gaze at--now, thinking of him who had been its inmate; now, wondering who might be its present occupant. It needed not the onward current of population that each Saturday bore along, to carry me to the Place de Grève. It was the great day of the guillotine, and as many as two hundred were often led out to execution. Although the spectacle had now lost every charm of excitement to the population, from its frequency, it had become a kind of necessity to their existence, and the sight of blood alone seemed to slake that feverish thirst for vengeance which no sufferings appeared capable of satiating. It was rare, however, when some great and distinguished criminal did no