LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD AND '98.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 68, 15 August 1874, Page 12

LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD AND '98.

Nicholas Mttphy received his noble guest with a cead mille failte ; hut next morning both were thrown into a state of alarm by observing a detachment of militnry pass down the street, and halt before Moore's door. The source from which the espionago proceeded has hitherto remained a dark and pninful mystery. Murphy hurried Lord Edward to the roof of the warehouse, and with some difficulty persuaded him to lie in the valley. To return to Mr Franuis Magan. On the day following his interview with Miss Moore, he proceeded to her residence in Thomas street, and with a somewhat careworn expression, vhich then seemed the result of anxiety for Lord Edward's safety, though it was probably uccasioned by bitter chugrin at; beius baulked in a profitable Job, said : " I have been most uneasy ; did anything happen ? I waited up till one o'clock, and Lord Edward did not come." Miss Moore, who, although a woman of gwat strength of mind, did not then suspect Magan, replied : — " We were stopped by Major Sirr in Watling street ; we ran back to Thotr.as street, where we most providentially succeeded in getting Lord Edward shelter at Murphy's." The following has been communicated by Edward Macready, Esq., son of Miss Moore, Mny 17, 1865. Miss Moore, afterwards Mrs Macready, died in 1844. One of her last remarks was : " Charity forbade me to express a suspicion which I have long entertained, that Magan was the betrayer ; but when I see Moore, in his Life of Lord Edward, insinuating that Neilsou was a Judas, I can no longer remain silent. Major Sirr got timely information that we were going to Usher's Island. Now this intention was known only to Magan and me ; even Lord Edward did not know our destination until just before starting. If Magan is innocent, then lam the iuformer." Mr Magan was consoled by the explanation, and withdrew. The friends who best knew Magan describe him as a queer combination of pride and bashfuluess, dignity and decorum, nervousness and inflexibility. lie obviously did not like to go straight to the Castle and sell Lord Edward's blood openly. There is good evidence to believe that he confided all the information to Francis Higgins, with whom it will be shown he was particularly intimate, and deputed him, under a pledge of strict secrecy, to make a good bargain with Mr Under-Seeretary Cooke. After Lord Edward had spent a few hours lying in the valley of the roof of Murphey's house, he ventured to come down. The unfortunate nobleman had been suffering from a sore throat and general debility, and his appearance was sadly altered for the worse. He was half dressed, upon a bed, about to drink some whey which Murphy had prepared for him, when Major Swan, followed by Captain Hyan, peeped in at the door. " You know me, my lord, and I know you," exclaimed Swan ; "it will be vain to resist." This logic did not convince Lord Edward. He sprang from the bed like a tiger from its lair, and with a wave-bladed dagger, which he had concealed under the pillow, mude come stabs at the intruder, but without as yet inflicting mortal injury. An authorised version of the arrest, evidently supplied by Swan himself, appears in the ' Express "of May 26, 1798 :—": — " His lordship then closed upon Mr Swan, shortened the dagger, and gave him a stab in the side, under the left arm and breast, having first changed it from one hand to the other over his shoulder, (as Mr Swan thinks). Finding the blood running from him, and the impossibility to restrain him he was compelled, in defence of his life," adds Swan's justification, " to discharge a double-barrelled pistol at his lordship, which wounded him in the shoulder. He fell on the bed, but recovering himself, ran at him with the dagger, which Mr Swan, caught by the blade with one hand, and endevoured to trip him up." Captain Ryan, with considerable animation, then proceeded to attacl: Lord Edward with a swordcane, wbicli bent on his ribs. Sitr, who had two and three men with him, was engaged in placing pickets round the house, when the report of Swan's pistol made him hurry up-stairs. "On my arrival in view of Lord Edward, Ryan, and Swan," writes Major Sirr, in a letter addressed to Captain Ryan's son, on December 29, 1838, " I beheld his lordship standing, with a dagger in his hand, ready to plunge it into my friends, while dear Ryan, seated on the bottom step of the flight of the upper stairs, had Lord Edward grasped with both his arms by the legs or thighs, and Swaa in a somewhat similar situation, both laboring under the torment cf their wounds, when, without hesitation, I fired at Lord Edward's dagger arm, [lodging several slugs in his shoulder], and the instrument of death fell to the ground. Having secured tho titled prisoner, my first concern was for your dear father's safety. I viewed his intestines with grief and sorrow." Not until a strong guard of soldiery pressed Lord Edward violently to the ground by laying their heavy muskets across his persoa, could he be bound iv such a way as prevented further effective resistance. When they had brought the noble prisoner, however, as far as the ball, he made a renewed effort at escape, when a dastardly drummer inflicted a wound in the back of Ins neck, which contributed to embitter the remaining days of his existence. He was then removed iv a sedan to the Castle. The whole struggle occupied so short an interval, that Rattigan, who, the moment he received intimation of the arrest, rushed forth to muster the populace, in order to rescue Lord Edward, had not time to complete his arrangement. ' The Comet,' (newspaper), September 11, 1831, says :— " The original proclamation is now before us, offering a reward of £300 for the ' discovery ' of Rattigan, Lawless, and others. Kattigan escaped, entered the French service, and was killed at the battle of Marengo. Lawless, tho attached friend and agent of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, after undergoing a series of romantic adventures, also succeeded in eluding the grasp of his pursuers, ana rose to the rank of general under Napoleon " Rattigan was a respectable timberBierchant, residing with his widow mother, in Bridgefoot street. In Jiiggins' ' Journal ' of tho day, we read : — " A number of pikes were yesterdxy discovered at one Rattigan'a timUer-yjird in Dirty Lane ; as a punishment for which his furniture was brought out into the street, and set fire to and consumed." It dott OOt seem to have been the wish of the higher members

of the Government that Lord Edwi.rd should fall into thei? hands." " Will no one urge Lord Edward to fly ?" exclaimed Lord Clare. " I pledge myself that every port in the kingdom shall be left open to him." It is not possible to overrate the fatal severity of the blow which Lord Edward's arrest at that critical moment imparted to the popular movement. Had he lived to guid-3 the insurrection which he had organised, his prestige and eminent military talents would probably have carried it to a successful issue. Four days after his arrest three out of thirty-two countries rose ; and to extinguish even that partial revolt cost the Government twenty-two millions of pounds, and twenty thousand men. The late Lord Holland furnishes, in. his " Memoirs," many interesting illustrations of Lord Edward's sweet and gentle dia position :—: — " With the moat unaffected simplicity and good nature he would palliate, from the force of circumstance* or the accident of situation, perpetrators of the very enormities which had raised his high spirit and compassionate nature to conspire and resist. It was this kindness of heart that led him, on his deathbed, to acquit the officer who inflicted his wounda of all malice, and even to commend him for an honest discharge of- his duty. It was this sweetness of disposition that enabled him to dismiss with good humour one of his bitterest persecutors, who had visited him in his mangled condition, if not to insult his misfortunes, with the idle hope of extorting his secret. 'I would shake hands willingly with you,' said he, ' but mine are cut to pieces. However, I'll shake a toe, and wish you good-bye.' " " Gentle when stroked, but fierce when provoked," has been applied to Ireland. The phrase is also applicable in some degree to her chivalrous son, who had already bled for his king. To his wounds received in active service, and his ability as a military officer, C. J. Fox bore testimony in the House of Commons on the 21st December, 1792. Cobbett said that Lord Edward was the only officer of untarnished personal honor whom he had ever known. Even that notoriously systematic traducer of the Irish popular party, Sir Richard Musgrave, was constrained to praise Lord Edward's " great valour, and considerate abilities," "honour and humanity," " frankness, courage, and good nature." Murphy's narrative, supplied to Dr. Madden, says : — "It was supposed, the evening of the day before he died, he was delirious, as we could hear him with a very strong voice crying out, ' Come on ! come on ! come on ! ' He spoke so loud that the people in the street gathered to listen to it." Two surgeons attended daily on Lord Edward Fitzgerald. One of the surgeons was Mr Garnett, who, iv a diary devoted to his noble patient, noted several interesting facts. Lord Edward manifested groat religious feeling, and asked Mr Garnett to read the Holy Scriptures to him. We are informed by Mr Colles, Librarian of the Royal Dublin Society, that this MS. is now in his possession. This delirium is said to have been induced by the grossly indecent neglect to wbieh his feelings were subjected by the Irish Government. Lord Henry Fitzgerald, addressing the heartless viceroy, Lord Camden, " complains that his relations were excluded, and old attached servants withheld from attending on him." Epistolary entreaty was followed by personal supplication. " Lady Louisa Conolly," writes Mr Grattan, " in vain implored him, and stated that whilst they were talking her nephew might expire ; at last she threw herself on her knees, and, in a flood of tears, suj/plicated at his feet, and prayed that he would relect ; but Lord Camden remained inexorable." Lord Henry Fitzgerald's feelings found a vent in a letter, addressed to Lord Oamden, of which the strongest passages have been suppressed by that peer's considerate friend, Thomas Moore : — "On Saturday, my poor, forsaken brother, who had but that night and the next day to live, was disturbed ; he heard the noise of the execution of Clinch at the prison door. He asked eagerly, • What noise is that ? ' And, certainly, in some manner or other, he knew it j for — O God ! what am I to write ?— from that time he lost his senses : most part of the night he was raving mad ; a keeper from a madhouse was necessary." Lord Edward Fitzgerald died in great agony, mental and bodily, on the 4th of June, 1798, and was deposited in the vaults of St. Werburgh's Church.