and Western Railway line near the town. Stephens, O'Donoghue and Kavanagh headed to Cashel and arrived there between ten and eleven o'clock on 26 July and proceeded to the home of Michael Doheny. There they found with some difficulty, O'Brien, John Blake Dillon and James Cantwell. It was here that Kavanagh decided that insurrection was hopeless and left, and according to Ramón, Stephens "took the most fateful decision of his life and resolved to stay." Stephens and O'Donoghue said they would follow O'Brien to the end according to Ryan. Stephens was appointed aide de camp to William Smith O'Brien on the spot, later Doheny would write, "when they expected that every man would make a fortress in his heart, they were almost abandoned, but their resolution remained unchanged." From Cashel they then headed towards Killenaule before making for Mullinahone where for the first time Stephens would meet Charles J. Kickham who would become a future leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. It was in Mullinahone that they had their first confrontation with the authorities, a somewhat "tragicomic" affair displaying both "moral integrity and revolutionary naivety." On Thursday 27 July they moved towards Ballingarry where they were joined by Terence Bellew MacManus who had come from Liverpool. On Friday 28 July, while in Killenaule, news reached them that a party of dragoons were on their way to arrest O'Brien, which resulted in two barricades being erected in the main street which Stephens armed with a rifle manned along with thirty men mostly armed with pikes, pitch-forks and a couple of muskets. As the dragoons approached the barricade Stephens levelled his rifle at their commander a Captain Longmore, as Dillon mounted the barricade and asked if they were there to arrest O'Brien. When Captain Longmore answered that they had no warrant for O'Brien, they were led thorough the barricade and allowed to go through the town. Leaving Killenaule, they carried on towards Ballingarry, conducting drilling exercises at the collieries before moving on to Boulagh Commons two miles outside town. During the night they were joined by a number of the Young Ireland leaders who had been trying to co-ordinate their efforts unsuccessfully. They held a council of war at the local inn, with fourteen members present, including Stephens and joined by both John O'Mahony and Thomas Francis Meagher. Discussing the situation, the majority of leaders favoured going into hiding until the harvests