scene of action, while others were calling out for arms, and led in crowds to the grand depôt."

*

"It was during the height of the insurrection that the venerable magistrate, accompanied by his daughter, Miss Wolfe, and his nephew, a clergyman, arrived in Thomas-street, in his way from his countryhouse to the castle. Lord Kilwarden, and Mr. Wolfe, his nephew, were inhumanly dragged from the carriage, and pierced with innumerable mortal wounds by the pikemen.* Before he expired he was rescued by a party of the military and of the police; and hearing some violent expression employed as to the punishment of the rebels, he had only time, before he breathed his last, to prefer a petition that no man might suffer but by the laws of his country.' Such a death was more honourable than that of a commander who dies in the arms of Victory, and who possibly acts a part to secure a posthumous reputation. Miss Wolfe, by the humanity (if such wretches can be suspected of it) or the heedlessness of the mob, effected her escape, and, on foot and unattended, was one of the first who arrived at the castle to give notice of the horrors of the night. Colonel Browne, a gentleman greatly respected, was another victim of the multitude, and was aseassinated in the same brutal and cowardly manner. On the first alarm he repaired to join his regiment, but, uninformed of the precise station which was occupied by the rebels, he unfortunately, in the darkness of the night, fell in with the main body; he received a shot from a blunderbuss, and was almost immediately hewn to pieces.

"Every casual passenger, who was not murdered, was forced to join

*The following story in connection with this action was also for some time subsequently current among the "lower orders" of Dublin :

6

"In the year 1795, when Kilwarden was attorney-general, a number of young men (all of whom were between the age of fifteen and twenty) were indicted for high treason. Upon the day appointed for their trial they appeared in the dock, wearing shirts with tuckers and open collars, in the manner usual with boys. When the chief justice of the Queen's Bench, before whom they were to be tried, came into court and observed them, he called out, Well, Mr. Attorney, I suppose you are ready to go on with the trials of these truckered traitors?' The attorney-general was ready and had attended for the purpose; but indignant and disgusted at hearing such language from the judgment-seat, he rose and replied, 'No, my lord, I am not ready; and,' added he, in a low tone, to one of the prisoners' counsel who was near him, if I have any power to save the lives of these boys, whose extreme youth I did not before observe, that man shall never have the gratification of passing sentence upon a single one of these truckered traitors.' He performed his promise, and soon after procured pardons for them all, upon condition of their expatriating themselves for ever; but one of them obstinately refusing to accept the pardon upon that condition, he was tried, convicted, and executed." Thus far the fact upon creditable authorities: what follows is given as an authenticated report. After the death of this young man, his relatives, it is said, readily listening to every misrepresentation which flattered their resentment, became persuaded that the attorney-general had selected him alone to suffer the utmost severity of the law. One of these, a person named Shannon, was an insurgent on the 23rd of July; and when Lord Kilwarden, hearing the popular cry of vengeance, exclaimed from his carriage, "It is I, Kilwarden, chief justice of the King's Bench!" "Then," cried out Shannon, "you're the man that I want!" and plunged a pike into his lordship's body.

the insurgents, and armed with a pike. This happened even to some gentlemen of rank and character. The first check which the rebels experienced was from Mr. Edward Wilson, a police magistrate, who, at the head of only eleven men, had the courage to approach the scene of insurrection. He had hardly arrived at the spot, before he found his little party surrounded by a body of nearly three hundred pikemen. Undismayed by their hostile appearance, he called upon them to lay down their arms, or he would fire. The rebels appeared somewhat confused, but one of them, bolder than the rest, advanced, and with his pike wounded Mr. Wilson in the belly, but was instantly shot dead by the wounded magistrate. The fire from his men threw the rest of the body of assailants into some confusion, but they presently opened to the right and left, to make way for such of their party as had firearms, when Mr. Wilson thought it prudent to retreat towards the Coombe. The rebels soon after met with a more formidable assailant in Lieutenant Brady, of the 21st Fusileers; who, at the head of only forty men, had the gallantry to advance to the attack. He subdivided his little force into smaller parties, and, though assailed by bottles and stones from the houses, and with shot from the alleys and entries, kept up so warm and well-directed a fire that the insurgents, numerous as they were, soon fled in different directions. Lieutenant Coltman, of the 9th regiment of foot, also, at the head of only four men of his own regiment, and some yeomanry of the Barrack division in coloured clothes, in all but twenty-eight, hastened to the scene of action, and was successful in dispersing the mob, and securing some of the most despa of the offenders.

The military now poured in from all quarters; the rebels were routed with considerable slaughter, and, before twelve, the insurrection was completely quelled."

The brief and sanguinary affray, which was detailed fully in the evidence given on the trial of the chief conspirator, we think will bear us out in opinions already freely expressed, regarding the incompetency of the leaders, and the general inefficiency of an Irish mob.* More was in Emmet's favour than he was entitled to have expected. The government, although rumour was rife with alarm, had turned a deaf ear to every attempt to awake it from its culpable security. The detective police of that day-a crew of mercenary bloodhounds-shewed, that within the very heart of a city treasonable plans could be matured, and not a functionary suspect it. To stimulate Sirr and his myrmidons to exertion, crime was not to be prevented, but committed, and a regular price must first be placed upon the offender. The apathy

*"In general, the Irish are rather impetuously brave than steadily persevering; their onsets are furious and their retreats precipitate, but even death has for them no terrors, when they firmly believe that their cause is meritorious. Though exquisitely artful in the stratagems of warfare, yet, when actually in battle, their discretion vanishes before their impetuosity; and, the most gregarious people under heaven, they rush forward in a crowd with tumultuous ardour, and without foresight or reflection, whether they are advancing to destruction or to victory.”—Barrington.

of the government and the imbecility of the conspiracy were worthy of each other. On the night of the 23rd of July, one hundred determined men, by a well-arranged coup-de-main, might have easily obtained possession of the castle.

Even with that success, twelve hours would have ended the treasonable triumph. More blood might have been shed-but the end would have been the same, and by noon next day the insurrection would have terminated as it had commenced-in slaughter.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

TRIAL, CONVICTION, AND EXECUTION OF ROBERT EMMET.

FAVOURED by the darkness of the night, Emmet, and a few followers, contrived to escape from the city, and headed to that haunt of outlawed and desperate malefactors, the mountain range of Wicklow. For better security, the party separated, each adopting the best means within his power to evade the now uplifted hand of outraged justice. Emmet, it was said, might possibly have quitted the country in a fishing boat, but his wild attachment to a daughter of the celebrated Curran induced him to return to the metropolis, and seek a parting interview with his mistress. None but a madman would have risked the dangerous experiment-but Emmet appears to have been influenced in all his actions by the wildest impulse, and, accordingly, he regained the city safely, and again took up his quarters in his old concealment, Harold's cross. On the 25th of August, he was arrested by Major Sirr, and a special commission immediately issued-Lord Norbury, with Barons George and Daly, presiding.

"It opened, on the 31st of August, with the trial of Edward Kearney, a calenderer, who was proved, on the testimony of M'Cabe, an accomplice, and others, not only to have been active in organizing the conspiracy, but to have been actively engaged in the insurrection of the 23rd July; having been one of the first who was apprehended by the party commanded by Lieutenant Brady. His trial was followed, on the 1st of September, by that of Thomas Maxwell Roche, an old man of about seventy. Both were found guilty, and were executed in Thomas-street, the scene of their criminality-Kearney on the first, and Roche on the following day: both acknowledged the justice of their sentence. Several other prisoners of inferior note were afterwards tried and executed, all of whom died penitent. In particular, Henry Howley, who had shot one of the police-officers who attempted to apprehend him, addressed the multitude in a pathetic exhortation, exclaiming— 'Good people, pray for me: and pray that I may be forgiven my sins, which I heartily repent of. Good people, you see to what a situation I am brought by my own folly, and by bad advisers. Good people, love each other, and forget all animosities; relinquish your foolish pursuits, which, if you continue to follow, will, in the end, bring you to the situation in which I now stand!' He confessed that he had, with his own hand, murdered Colonel Browne, on the night of the rebellion. He appeared fully sensible of the enormity of the crime, as well as of that of the murder of John Hanlon, the Tower-keeper, and exhibited an appearance of the deepest remorse. His whole conduct, indeed,

excited a degree of compassion which it required the full recollection of his crimes to overcome.'

On Monday, the 19th Sept., Emmet was formally arraigned. The Attorney-General opened the indictment, charging him with compassing the deposition and death of the king, and conspiring to levy war against the king, within the said king's realm. Emmet pleaded, in a firm, manly tone, "Not guilty."

"Mr. Rawlings deposed to a knowledge of the prisoner, with whom he had held political conversations; and Mr. Tyrrel proved the purchase of the house in Butterfield-lane by Emmet, under an assumed

name.

"John Fleming deposed, that on the 23rd of July, and for the year previous, he had been hostler at the White Bull Inn, Thomas-street, kept by a person named Dillon. The house was convenient to Masslane, where the rebel depôt was, and to which the witness had free and constant access; having been in the confidence of the conspirators, and employed to bring them ammunition and other things. He saw the persons there making pike-handles, and heading them with the iron part; he also saw the blunderbusses, firelocks, and pistols in the depôt, and saw ball-cartridges making there. Here the witness identified the prisoner at the bar, whom he saw in the depôt for the first time, on the Tuesday morning after the explosion in Patrick-street. The witness had opened the gate of the inn yard, which opened into Mass-lane, to let out Quigley, when he saw the prisoner, accompanied by a person of the name of Palmer; the latter got some sacks from the witness to convey ammunition to the stores; and the prisoner went into the depôt, where he continued almost constantly until the evening of the 23rd July, directing the preparations for the insurrection, and having the chief authority. He heard the prisoner read a little sketch, as the witness called it, purporting, that every officer, non-commissioned officer, and private, should have equally every thing they got, and have the same laws as in France. Being asked what it was they were to share, the prisoner replied, what they got when they were to take Ireland or Dublin.' He saw green uniform jackets making in the depôt by different tailors, one of whom was named Colgan. He saw one uniform in particular, a green coat, laced on the sleeves and skirts, &c., and with gold epaulettes, like a gentleman's dress. He saw the prisoner take it out of a desk one day, and shew it to all present. Here the witness identified the desk, which was in the court. He also saw the prisoner, at different times, take out papers, and put papers into the desk. There was none other in the store. Quigley also used sometimes to go to the desk. On the evening of the 23rd July, witness saw the prisoner dressed in the uniform above described, with white waistcoat and pantaloons, new boots, and cocked hat and white feather. He had also a sash on him, and was armed with a sword and case of pistols. The prisoner called for a big coat (but did not get it) to disguise his uniform, as he said, until he went to the party that was to attack the castle. Quigley, and a person named Stafford, had uniforms like that of Emmet, but they had only one