never conquer Ireland so long as any Geraldines breathed in the country." Six of the family, therefore, suffered together at Tyburn, affording signal contradiction to the proud old boast, to the effect that Death himself, in unassisted sovereignty and by means of no human instrument, would alone venture to lay hands upon a Geraldine : Who killed Kildare? Who dared Kildare to kill? Who dares kill who he will. But the work of extermination had, after all, been incomplete. Gerald FitzGerald, a young half-brother of the chief culprit, Lord Thomas, only twelve years old at the time, as well as a still younger child, escaped the general massacre, and lived to perpetuate the race, one more chapter having been added to the record of Ireland's wrongs. The history of the Kildare branch of the FitzGeralds from this date becomes less noteworthy. The King's advisers had possibly been wise in their generation, and the old fighting spirit of the Geraldines in a measure broken by that sixfold execution at Tyburn. The family, indeed, had been left by it so popular that Robert Cowley, writing to the Secretary Cromwell in 1539, declared the English Pale, except the towns and very few of the "possessioners," to be "so affectionate to the Geraldines that they covet more to see a Geraldine to reign and triumph than to see ; God come among them"; but a long minority, passed by the young earl chiefly abroad, and followed by a reconciliation with King Edward VI. and an English marriage, paved the way for a more peaceful future ; and his successors, unlike their Desmond cousins, are for the most part found ranged upon the English side in the periodical rebellions by which Irish history was marked. Thus Gerald, fourteenth earl, fought for Elizabeth against Tyrone, and was pensioned by the English Queen; George, called the Fairy Earl, by reason of his low stature, took part with the English against the Catholics, banded together under Owen Roe O'Neill; while, though supporters of the Restoration, the FitzGeralds became partisans of William of Orange against the Stewart King and his Irish adherents. When Lord Edward was born, however, more than two centuries after Thomas FitzGerald had paid, at Tyburn, the penalty of his rashness, the Geraldines, though times and methods had changed, were counted amongst the upholders of the rights of the people; Lord Edward's own father, "loved Kildare "-so called by reason of the affection borne him by the nation—having come forward some years earlier to protest, though in more peaceful fashion than his ancestors, against the abuses incident to English rule. Guarding himself against the imputation of interested motives by the explicit declaration that for himself and his friends he had nothing to solicit, that he sought neither place, employment, nor prefer ment, he had addressed a memorial to the King touching the proceedings of that "greedy Churchman, Archbishop Stone." The remonstrance, though coldly received, was effectual, and some months later Stone's name was removed from the list of Privy Councillors. That Lord Kildare did not suffer, even in the estimation of those in power, by the boldness of his protest would seem to be proved by the honours subsequently conferred upon him; while at home his popularity rose to such a height that it is recorded that he was an hour making his way through the crowd which filled the streets between Parliament House and his own, and a medal was struck to commemorate the presentation of his memorial. The great popularity enjoyed by Lord Edward's father was probably due to other causes besides those of a political nature. He resided almost altogether in Ireland, spending his money either in Dublinwhere he built himself Leinster House and exercised a princely hospitality-or on his estate at Carton; and the distinction of his manners was such, in their noble and attractive courtesy, that it was said that when in the presence of the Viceroys he gave the impression of being more Viceroy than they. In the year 1747, two years previous to the presentation of his memorial to the King, he had married Lady Emilia Lennox, second daughter of the Duke of Richmond, a connection which exercised no little influence upon his son's subsequent career, bringing him, as it naturally did, into intimate relationship with |