Emancipation Bill; conceiving himself in consequence bound in honour to relinquish the seat he owed to Lord Longueville, and forfeiting besides a property he had expected to inherit. An able man, and not devoid of personal attraction, he does not appear, in spite of his sacrifices to the cause he had adopted, to have been wholly liked, or altogether trusted, by his new comrades; while he, for his part, is said to have surveyed with supercilious dislike almost every Irish patriot with whom he was brought into contact. Educated to be a clergyman, he had gone so far as to receive deacon's orders; but had then thrown up the ecclesiastical career, bringing away from his apprenticeship nothing but a bitter hostility towards all Churches alike. A story is told of a dinner at the FitzGeralds', when the violence of the invectives directed by him against hypocrisy, superstition, and finally Christianity itself, unrestrained by the presence of his hostess, was such as to call forth the indignant protest of a noted preacher, who chanced to be his fellow-guest. Waiting, with better taste than the layman, till Pamela should have left the room, the priest turned to Lord Edward, who had listened to O'Connor in dissenting silence. "My lord," he began, "I have sat in silence as long as I could remain silent"; and it is added that in the denunciation which followed he so maintained his reputation for eloquence that the delinquent was reduced, if not to penitence, at least to speechlessness. On political matters O'Connor's opinions were moving in a parallel direction to Lord Edward's own, with the result that, at a slightly earlier date than his friend, he also became a member of the United Association. The two were in constant intercourse, and it was in the company of his new companion that an occurrence took place to which the undue and disproportionate importance accorded by Lord Edward's biographers affords a signal illustration of their determination to view any incident connected with him, of no matter how slight a nature, in a serious light. The story is well known which recounts how, riding with O'Connor across the Curragh, where races were going on, the two were encountered by some ten or twelve mounted dragoon officers. Taking exception to the colour of the green neckcloth worn by Lord Edward, they barred his passage with the demand-no doubt violently enough expressed—that he should remove the obnoxious article of dress. "But," proceeds the well-meaning but ponderous Madden, "the poor, would-be hero little knew the stuff of which the man was made whom he had unfortunately singled out for his experimental exploit." Remaining calm and cool, and "in that peculiarly quiet tone in which he was wont to speak whenever his mind was made up that a thing of importance was to be done," Lord Edward replied by inviting the critic to come and remove his neckcloth if he dared; while O'Connor, smoothly interposing, suggested the alternative of a more regular trial of strength, undertaking that he and his companion would await at Kildare any message which might reach them there. The young officers, however, seem to have thought better of the expediency of pushing matters to extremities, and nothing further came of the incident, except that it is said that, whether because it appeared to the feminine mind that they had gone too far, or possibly not far enough, the aggressors found themselves, at a ball which shortly afterwards took place, left by common consent partnerless. It would have been interesting, had Lord Edward's light-hearted account of the occurrence been forthcoming, to have contrasted it with that of his historian. Whatever might be his errors of judgment, they did not lie in the direction of manufacturing a tragedy out of a farce. CHAPTER XIII 1796 Dangerous State of the Country-Protestants and Catholics— WHE HEN Parliament reassembled in January, 1796, the condition of the country was such as might well cause the Government uneasiness. The natural results had followed upon Lord Fitzwilliam's recall, and the consequent reversal of the policy he had inaugurated. The patience of the people, together with their hopes, were exhausted; repeated disappointment had done its work, and they were ripe for insurrection. The story has been told too often to need detailed repetition here outrages followed by retaliation where retaliation was possible, the one as brutal as the other ; the Protestants of the north leagued together with the object of ridding the country of its Catholic population, and offering to the latter the sole alternatives |