VIOLENT MEASURES OF GOVERNMENT. 217

The agitation excited in Dublin by this event was intense. The arrest took place just at evening. Word was carried to the Lord Lieutenant, who had gone to the theater. A female relative of Lord Edward was sitting in the next box, and heard it all. She was so overcome, that Lady Castlereagh had to leave the house with her. As soon as the news got abroad, the people were seen collected in groups in the streets, with anxious countenances, and conversing with great earnestness, so that it was strongly apprehended that an attempt at rescue would be made that night. Three or four days after, Neilson, a noted United Irishman, and a man of powerful frame, was discovered reconnoitring the prison, and was arrested.*

There remained no alternative but an appeal to arms. Lord Moira had brought forward in February a motion for conciliation, but it had utterly failed. There was no longer the least hope of a peaceable reform. Seeing how things were going, and wearied out by finding all warnings neglected, the opposition, with Grattan at their head, formally seceded from the House of Commons. Instead of redress, the measures of the government seemed perseveringly designed to goad the people into insurrection. Lord Castlereagh afterward acknowledged that they had taken measures "to make the rebellion explode."

Events now follow each other fast, as the tragedy rushes to its catastrophe. The stream of political events, which sometimes moves sluggishly along-sometimes whirls about in eddies, now began to dart forward with a rapid current. Its motion soon became fearfully swift.

* Life of Fitzgerald, vol. ii. p. 65.
K

The

ship of state was fairly in the rapids, and men trembled as they heard distinctly the roar of the cataract.

On the 30th of March martial law was proclaimed throughout Ireland. This was the signal of preparations for war.

The arrest of the leaders precipitated the rebellion. When such grave councillors as Emmet were taken away, the direction of affairs fell into rasher hands. It was then that John Sheares was chosen to fill a vacancy in the Directory. His brother Henry was also a United Irishman, and entered into preparations for the rebellion. The ardor of these fresh soldiers of liberty led them into danger, and to the sacrifice of their lives.

The whole history of the rebellion furnishes nothing more melancholy than the fate of these brothers. Of five sons they were all who survived to support the old age of their mother. They were devotedly attached to each other, and were now threatened by the same fate. They were arraigned and tried together. The intense excitement of the case prolonged the trial to a late hour. It was after midnight when the examination of witnesses closed, and Mr. Curran rose to address the jury. The court had then sat fifteen hours, with but a recess of a few minutes. But still the trial must go on. The court-room was near Newgate, and the prisoners in their beds could hear the voice of Curran at five o'clock the next morning still addressing the jury. It was daybreak before the judge rose to sum up the case. The jury retired for a few minutes, and returned with a verdict of Guilty. As soon as it was announced, the brothers fell into each other's

THE EVE OF BATTLE.

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arms. At three o'clock that afternoon they received sentence, and the next day they were executed. Their love was strong in death. They came on the scaffold holding each other by the hand. Their bodies were laid side by side in their place of rest.

These arrests were but just in time to save the government. Lord Edward Fitzgerald had been apprehended on Saturday, and the Shearses on Monday. The rebellion was to begin on Wednesday. Their arrest brought to light the fearful mine on which the government was standing.

Poor Lord Edward's career was ended. Stone walls and iron bars were now the sight which met his eye. No friend was permitted to visit him. Alone he watched the long, long day, too happy when the light of heaven was about to close around him forever.

The other state-prisoners were forced to pace their cells in silence when most they wished to be abroad. The. sound of war was on the gale. Let us leave here the impatient spirits of the leaders confined within prison walls, to glance at the fortunes of their countrymen in the field.

*

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE REBELLION OF 1798.-PLOT TO TAKE DUBLIN.-RISING IN KILDARE.ENGAGEMENTS.

THE plot was out. The conspirators were in prison. Their papers had been seized. The fatal secret was known, that the night of the 23d of May was fixed for the insurrection. On the 22d, Lord Castlereagh came into the Parliament House with the appalling message, that the next day the storm of war would burst upon the island. The spirit of the Commons rose with danger. They threw back the threat of insurrection with defiance. To show their loyalty, they marched in a body to the Castle to pledge the Lord Lieutenant that they would stand by him to the last.

No words can describe the state of Dublin at this period. There was treason in the capital. "Committees were frequently discovered in deliberation; blacksmiths were detected in the act of making pikes; and sentinels were frequently fired at, or knocked down at their posts. Immense quantities of pikes and other arms were seized in different parts of the city."* It was said that the houses of obnoxious persons had been marked. No man was * Sir Richard Musgrave's History of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 355.

ALARM IN THE CAPITAĻ.

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safe. Neighbors shunned each other. Masters were afraid of their servants. It was known that a great number had taken the oath. Even the servant of the lord mayor was found to be implicated in the conspiracy. He had engaged to admit his confederates into the house at dead of night The most loyal citizen knew not but there were conspirators under his own roof. He might be betrayed by one who waited at his table, or piked by his porter at his own door.

Every means was employed to guard against surprise. On the day of the 23d, the streets of Dublin were filled with troops, marching to points of defense. Long columns of infantry filed out through the avenues. Officers galloped through the streets. The cavalry rattled over the pavement. Cannon were dragged to the outposts of the city. Dublin is defended on its north and south sides by broad and deep canals. The troops were posted in strong force on all the bridges. A day or two after, they were fortified by gates and palisades. The troops lay down on their arms. The night was passed in anxious suspense. The capital breathed heavily. But its tranquillity was not disturbed. The vigorous measures of repression preserved Dublin from an outbreak at this time and throughout the war.

While these fearful preparations were going on, the face of nature seemed strangely in contrast with the human passions that raged above it. The beautiful month of May was melting into the warm, blue Summer. The earth had come forth in blossoms and in flowers. The island had put on its robe of spring, unconscious that its