and this digression-scarcely irrelevant when we take into account the part played by the subject of it, though behind the scenes, in the closing chapter of Lord Edward's life-may fitly be terminated by a quotation from the speech in which, like a fly in amber, the memory of the traitor is preserved. It was in connection with the Bill of Attainder brought, after his death, against Lord Edward, that this speech was made. "I have been asked," said the great orator, "whether I have any defensive evidence. Where am I to seek it? I have often of late gone to the dungeons of the captive, but never have I gone to the grave of the dead; nor, in truth, have I ever before been at the trial of a dead man. I offer, therefore, no evidence upon this enquiry, against the perilous example of which I do protest in the name of the dead father whose memory is sought to be dishonoured, and of his infant orphans whose bread is sought to be taken away. Some observations, but a few, upon the evidence of the informer I will make. I do believe all he has admitted against himself. I do verily believe him in that instance, even though I heard him assert it on his oath-by his own confession an informer and a bribed informer-a man whom respectable witnesses had sworn in a court of justice upon their oath not to be credible on his oath. . . . See, therefore, if there be any one assertion to which credit can be given, except this—that he has sworn and forsworn that he is a traitor, that he has received five hundred guineas to be an informer, and that his general reputation is, to be utterly unworthy of credit." With which denunciation Mr. Thomas Reynolds may be for the present dismissed. CHAPTER XVI 1798 Lord Edward's Doom Approaching-His Portrait at this Date SEV EVENTEEN hundred and ninety-eight-that year of disaster—was come. The crisis was at hand, Lord Edward's doom close upon him. The winding-sheet, to the eyes of the seer, would have passed his heart and risen around his throat. And when I meet thee again, O King, It was not in Lord Edward's nature, even had he foreseen the fate that was awaiting him, to turn aside from it. He might be a weak man-in many respects he was undoubtedly not a strong one; but honour and loyalty were not weak within him, nor was his the want of strength which leads to the betrayal of a comrade or a cause. Evidence has already been quoted to show that, almost to the last, the Government, though troubled by no scruples with regard to his confederates, would gladly have seen themselves relieved from the odium attaching to whomsoever should lay hands upon a FitzGerald, and would willingly have afforded him every loophole for escape. But no dream of the possibility of availing himself of such chances of evasion would have crossed Lord Edward's mind. He loved life, indeed, and would fain have seen good days, but not at the cost of what was in his eyes a more important matter than life. As he had told his stepfather, he was pledged to the cause and he was pledged to the men; and to both he was unfalteringly true. Yet there must have been anxious moments at Kildare Lodge. Another baby was expected with the spring; and Pamela, in spite of the determination she had expressed to Madame de Genlis to remain in ignorance of her husband's political designs, cannot but have been aware to some degree of what was doing. Lady Sarah, indeed, writing shortly after Lord Edward's death, expressly states that his wife had never ceased attempting to use her influence for the purpose of persuading him of the ill effects of a revolution-" which she, poor soul, dreaded beyond all earthly evils"; and however imperfect was her information as to the extent and scope of the conspiracy, she must have known enough to have caused her to look back with vain regret to those happy earlier days when theory had not yet been reduced to |