Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/135

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123
RELEASED.
123

RELEASED— JANUARY, 1878.[1]


THEY are free at last! They can face the sun;
Their hearts now throb with the world's pulsation;
Their prisons are open—their night is done;
'Tis England's mercy and reparation!

The years of their doom have slowly sped—
Their limbs are withered—their ties are riven;
Their children are scattered, their friends are dead—
But the prisons are open—the "crime" forgiven.

  1. On the 5th of January, 1878, three of the Irish political prisoners, who had been confined since 1866, were set at liberty. The released men were received by their fellow-country-men in London. "They are well," said the report, " but they look prematurely old."