fifteen members of the Committee were arrested at the place of meeting itself, while four others, absent from Bond's house when the raid was made, were taken into custody almost simultaneously. All papers were likewise seized. CHAPTER XVII 1798 Frottement in Dublin-Pamela-Lord Edward's Family- THAT March Monday m HAT March Monday must have been a day of excitement in Dublin. The Government and the Castle had their own cause of exultation, and the populace its own opinions upon that cause. When Lord Clare, hastily sent for on the arrest of the conspirators to attend the meeting of the Council, was hurrying to obey the summons, the mob greeted him with abuse, returned by him with interest, "cursing and swearing like a madman." Then, falling in with Lord Westmeath, the two entered a shop, procured pistols, and, thus armed, the Chancellor proceeded on foot to the Council. Many there will have been, throughout the length and breadth of Dublin, who, as the intelligence spread of the wholesale arrests which had taken place at Bond's house, will have asked themselves and one another the question, "Who next?" And where was Lord Edward meanwhile, the leader whose escape, should it be effected, would leave the triumph of the Government still incomplete; and in whom the hopes of the people, those others they had trusted removed, would centre themselves more and more exclusively? This was the question asked by all, with varying degrees of anxiety, ranging from that felt by Pamela as she sat, sick and alone, in the great house in Kildare Street which had seemed to the country housemaid like a prison, to the malevolent interest of the Government officials, or the idle curiosity of the lounger in the street. It was clear that he had not attended the doomed meeting. It was also certain or seemed to be sothat he was not at Leinster House; though, in point of fact, he had been only prevented from entering it at the very moment when search was being made for him there by the warning of the faithful Tony. According to a report in circulation, he was said to have been present at the arrest of McNevin, one of the absent members of the Committee who had been separately apprehended, and it was added that he had only escaped out of the clutches of the Sheriff's officers by virtue of the fact that his name was included in no warrant at hand. But whether or not this rumour was to be credited, he had disappeared, and had, for the moment, given his enemies the slip. At Leinster House a mishap had occurred which might have seriously affected the issue had the case against Lord Edward ever come to be tried in court. Although timely warning had been sent to Pamela, and she had been specially cautioned to effect the destruction of all incriminating documents, her presence of mind in face of the crisis appears to have deserted her, unless indeed the scarcely credible hypothesis is accepted which would make her ignorant of the existence of any necessity for such precautions. At all events, she appears to have taken no steps to obey the directions given to her; with the result that, on the arrival of a search party commissioned to demand the surrender of all papers belonging to herself or to Lord Edward, she had no alternative but to deliver them up. She accordingly did so, though not without signs of such evident distress that Major O'Kelly, the officer in command of the detachment, is said to have performed his duty in tears. Though such a display of her sentiments might not be altogether judicious upon upon Pamela's part, it was natural enough that, if she had had time to examine into the nature of the documents she had so unaccountably allowed to fall into the hands of the authorities, she should have experienced some uneasiness. Amongst them was one-found in Lord Edward's desk-dealing with the fashion after which, in case of a conflict taking place in Dublin itself, the fight should be conducted; as well as a map of the town annotated for military purposes by a gunmaker. The story goes that, information having reached this faithful follower of the fact that his handiwork had fallen into the possession of the Government, he presented himself at once to the authorities, claimed the map boldly as his own, making answer, when asked for what purpose he had drawn it out, that it had been "for his amusement," and so did his best to shield his chief. The papers secured, the tearful O'Kelly, with his men, had retired, only to return shortly afterwards to Kildare Street in order to institute a fresh search, this time for Lord Edward himself, now ascertained beyond doubt to be not of the number of the arrested leaders. The quest, thanks to Tony's watchfulness, proved vain-a fact of which Pamela was thoughtfully apprised by O'Kelly, to whom she afterwards addressed a letter in grateful acknowledgment of the consideration with which his duty had been performed. Others, besides Lord Edward's wife, were in sore distress and anxiety on his account. The Duchess was, perhaps fortunately, in England at the time; neither was Mr. Ogilvie, though visiting Dublin at a later date, as yet upon the spot. His wife's two sisters, however, Lady Sarah Napier and Lady Louisa Conolly, were both at hand; and their rebel nephew was scarcely less dear to the one than to the other, although the affection of the childless Lady Louisa was naturally of a more absorbing type than that of the sister surrounded by a band of sons and |