According to the published account of the trial, Law in his questions to Sheridan tried to obtain the admission that in his opinion Thanet and Fergusson meant to favour O’Connor’s escape. This Sheridan refused to answer, and he was justified in doing so. He stated, however, most clearly that he saw nothing which would lead him to that conclusion, though perhaps they may have ‘wished,’ for the escape.
The fracas took place after judgment was delivered, which was not until 1.30 A.M. Sheridan, in a letter to his wife, written at the time, says that O’Connor had no thought of escaping himself, but that ‘three or four injudicious friends’ were responsible for the attempt to hustle him away. He also mentions that he himself was the means of preventing ‘some serious mischief’ after ‘the soldiers got in,’ for which conduct he was thanked by the Judge.
[286] The French fleet lying in Brest was able to escape from the rigid blockade maintained by the Allies, and appeared in the Mediterranean. There they remained until the beginning of June, when they returned to Brest with the Spanish fleet, which had joined them off Cadiz.
[287] Claire Hippolyte Legris de Latude, better known as Mlle. Clairon, the celebrated French actress. Born in 1723; died in 1802.
[288] Benjamin Flower, of Cambridge, a printer.
[289] Lady Anne Fitzpatrick, Lord Upper Ossory’s daughter.
[290] A political association founded under the guidance of Major Cartwright to promote reform.
[291] The French plenipotentiaries were assassinated on April 19 just outside the town of Rastadt by some drunken hussars of the Austrian regiment of Szeckler, only one of them escaping with his life.
[292] Sir Francis Burdett married, in 1793, Sophia, daughter of Thomas Coutts (1735–1822), founder with his brother James of the banking-house, and banker to George III. Sir Francis’ advanced and independent views on all the political questions of the day are well known.
[293] Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832), the celebrated writer and conversationalist. It was a visit to Burke in 1797 which cooled his revolutionary ardour, and led him to change his views so completely upon the course of events in France.