[203] Consolation à Monsieur du Périer sur la mort de sa fille.
[204] Arthur O’Connor (1763–1852), born in co. Cork. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1788, and entered the Irish Parliament three years later. He became deeply imbued with the spirit of the French Revolution, and resigned his seat in 1795. The year after, he joined the United Irishmen and became chief editor of their organ, The Press. After his release from prison he went to France, and was appointed a general of division by Napoleon, but never saw active service. He married, in 1807, Élize de Condorcet, and became a naturalised Frenchman.
He was tried at Maidstone, before Mr. Justice Buller, on a charge of high treason, with O’Coigly and others, but was acquitted. Bow Street runners were, however, in attendance to rearrest him on a second charge, and in the confusion which arose in court after judgment had been delivered, certain of his friends and one of his counsel, Robert Fergusson, were said, rightly or wrongly, to be implicated in an attempt to contrive his escape. Lord Thanet, Fergusson, and Denis O’Brien were arraigned on this count some months later, and the two first named were sentenced to imprisonment and fine.
[205] James O’Coigly, son of a Roman Catholic farmer in Armagh. He was partly educated in Paris, and later took orders. He was found at Margate in 1797 with papers in his possession implicating him in correspondence with the French regarding a proposed invasion of England, and in other treasonable practices.
[206] Thomas Hardy, Horne Tooke, and others had been tried in October 1794, before a special commission, for nine specified acts of high treason. They were acquitted on each count.
[207] Lady Holland’s account of the arrest is not accurate. From the account of eye-witnesses Lord Edward was the first to use weapons. Lady Louisa Conolly, in a letter to Mr. Ogilvie, states that his wounds were attended to at once by Mr. Stewart, the surgeon-general at Dublin Castle, and that Lord Camden had ordered him a room, but owing to the acts of violence he was removed to Newgate. No mention is elsewhere made of the attempts at rescue, and Murphy, in whose house he was taken, was not hanged, but was imprisoned, without any trial, for over a year before he was released.
[208] The Lord-Lieutenant.
[209] For Lady Louisa Conolly’s account of this visit, see her letter to Mr. Ogilvie (Moore’s Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, ii. 135).
[210] Lord Henry Fitzgerald.
[211] The insurrection broke out on the appointed day, May 23.