Dram. Pers.: Grace Bassett; Donal Don O’Byrne; Ned Traynor; Kitty Cassidy; Father John Murphy; Mary Doyle, the heroine of Ross; Col. Needham; Biddy Dolan (also Gen. John Holt, insurgent; Capt. Hoursley, Myles Gallagher, Widow Gallagher, his mother. The maximum of melodramatic farcing takes place at The Old Mill of Carnew, III.3.

GRACE: How beautiful the sun is setting! The clouds are piled up like palaces of fairy-land and the golden beams come shooting out thro’ bright chinks as if the hall were illuminated for the merry-making. But it is the King of the storm who will hold his feast among them ... for tonight donal the great struggle is to commence - oh! how I envy you men who shall be in the midst of it.
 DONAL: You too, dearest, shall find work to do in a sphere of action more suited to your strength; for in the struggle for life and home the women of Ireland must aid their struggling brothers. ... Fear not, darling, the dark clouds of care are about to break a a glorious and resplendent dawn. tonight you must come with me to Father John, who will receive you with open arms. ... and my arm shall be doubly strengthened ... when I remember that the best little woman in Ireland is waiting and preying for me and my cause. [268]
 NED: Sure that’s Biddy Dolan, bad luck to her! She’s arm in arm with the Government in Wexford [...] if there’s any man about the place that she has anything against, she’ll have them called out of their beds and shot or hanged, or maybe burned in their beds to save expense. Sure only she’s a woman she’d be shot long ago. [265]
 DONAL: Do you really mean to tell me that she is as bad as all that? Great God! Such a viper in human form! [265]
 FOOTE: I have received an important despatch from Lord Mountjoy. “Proceed at once with all your available forces and may God aid you in holding the right of our King to rule in Ireland.” What do you think of that? [273]
 [An account of the arrest of Lord Edward at Murphy’s in Thomas St. in spoken by Ned, [276].
 NED [relating how he kissed Kitty Cassidy as a boy]: ‘Well, his Reverence got to hear of if he it & didn’t lash me with his whip! that’s the sort of a man Father John is.
 MARY: Well, you got off safe. If I was Father John I’d have made an example of you before all the parishioners, dor darin’ to do such a thing & you with no sinse at the time. An’ Kitty was worse to let you. [278]
 FR. MURPHY: I am glad to see you all merry and let us go forward with our hearts light to meet the foe. Too long have I preaced peace to one and all of you, but peace shall never again be restored until an Irish Republic is declared. [279]
 DONAL [giving long account of the taking and re-taking of New Ross]: [T]raining and discipline must eventually triumph over mob bravery and for that reason the English are now in possession of New Ross. When we organise, drill, and inculcate a spirit of discipline into our men, the beating of the English soldiery will be a mere bagatelle. [283; cf. 303].
 GRACE, The lack of military discipline and military punishment among the Insurgents is powerful incentive to the traitor. Holt is one of the few leaders who has given his men a military training. [303; ...]
 FRENCH OFFICER:, There you have the weak spot in your movement. The mob is willing, but organising ability is wofully lacking.
 FRENCH OFFICER: You, Miss Dolan, have been found in arms against your countrymen. (To Needham:) As for you sir, your Government has executed two French officers who were prisoners of war - Matthew Tone and Bartholomew Teeling, at Arbour Hill, Dublin, and in return for these brave mens’ deaths we shall execute you both. [305]
 DONAL: I refuse to hold any words with a traitress. [306]
 BIDDY: O how wretched a woman I am now. Not a friend to say goodbye. [...] I hope my death will be a warning to all who in the future may depend on the generosity of the English Government [...] I die the death of a traitor; no one will ever breathe a prayer for my soul’s repose, nor shed a tear; all that will be known is that I shall live in the memory of my countrymen [who will] say ‘Here lie the remains of the notorious informer, Curse her - curse her!’ [306]
 GRACE (to Needham): Go coward, and meet you fate. [307]
 DONAL [departing for France]: ‘and I can never know true happiness, General, until I take my place once morewith the men of Wicklow and Wexford in the struggle for Independence