mentary leaders foremost. The shops of the main streets along which they passed were shut; the horses were taken from the carriage, and the outgoing viceroy drawn to the water's edge by gentlemen of high position and character.

A very different scene was enacted five days subsequently, when Earl Camden arrived to fill the vacant office. A guard of cavalry, with drawn swords, protected his landing, and escorted him through densely crowded streets to the castle. But none in all the throng which surged over the footpaths and lined the windows had a word of welcome for the stranger; scowling looks of hate were bent upon the viceregal equipage as it passed slowly along, even the armed guards and outriders being unable to clear the way as rapidly as its occupant could have wished. The glittering sabres could scarcely keep his Excellency from personal insult at the hands of the mob; and as to the Lord Chancellor and the Archbishop of Armagh, they were saluted not only with hard words, but with hard paving-stones, one of which cut the brow of the former dignitary.

"Three groans for the Beresfords!" And the living masses, jammed together up the steep ascent of Cork Hill, returned a yell of execration from a thousand throats. "Three groans for Fitzgibbon!" and an equally ferocious shout was the response. But at the castle gates was the nucleus of the mob: a strong body of dragoons could scarcely keep them back from bursting through into the courtyard, and were, of course, wholly inadequate to the duty of keeping their tongues in order. Indeed, the forbearance of the soldiers under the copious abuse showered upon them was worthy of all wonder and praise. Volleys of hisses and howls burst forth at intervals like an explosion; and as the viceroy's state-carriage gradually worked its way through, his lordship was received with the stormiest demonstrations of dislike, here, at his own stronghold, as elsewhere.

business to be sittin' where

"An' it's yer father's son hasn't any yez are this blessed day!" Whatever voice uttered this allusion it reached the lord-lieutenant's ears out of the tangled mass of yells; for he glanced forth to try and see the speaker; but he might as well have endeavoured to individualize a blade in a field of tossing corn. He could discern nothing but scores of wild screeching faces, under all sorts of ragged head-coverings, heaped against the dark arch of the castle gate and the quaint houses about its entry. The last Earl Camden had been in great repute with the volunteers, who, in his time, were looked upon as the conservators of the liberties of Ireland; and the populace deemed his son a renegade for accepting office in an executive that had put down these volunteers by main force. His Excellency's slumbers that night, in his state apartments were ruffled by the distant rumours of riots; and he learned by experience how "uneasy lies the head that wears even a delegated "crown." It was an ill omen, perhaps, that his first official act was a proclamation offering rewards for the conviction of the rioters—an abortive measure, inasmuch as the guilty parties included about two-thirds of the commonalty of Dublin.

"Saunders' News-letter " lay damp on Colonel Butler's breakfast-table next morning, informing him how the mob had on the previous night attacked the houses of the Speaker of the Commons and of John Claudius Beresford, who was believed to be chiefly instrumental in the recall of Earl Fitzwilliam; likewise how the Lord Chancellor had had an exciting run from the castle gates to the shelter of his own mansion in Ely Place, and reached the latter amid a shower of stones; likewise that in sundry country regions the Protestant gentry were beginning to keep armed men in their houses, as the only security against outrage. And there were rumours that a new organization of Romish insurgents had appeared in the north, bearing the

name of Masons, and were very active in robbing Protestants of their weapons; while the Defenders had by no means diminished in numbers or in evil deeds.

"I learned yesterday," said the colonel, addressing his son, as he lounged in with his favourite and most hideous dog Esop at his heels, "that young Kavanagh has at last openly joined the United Irishmen, and is seen with their leaders everywhere; so I hope you are now satisfied respecting the wisdom of my decision, that his further intimacy with my family, loyal as it is, is wholly inadmissible under the circumstances."

"I don't wonder at his doing so, sir," answered Captain Gerald, settling himself in a comfortable arm-chair to his breakfast: "with his predilections the only marvel is that he did not take that step long since. I would, were I in his place."

"It would be preferable that you did not make impossible suppositions," his father observed haughtily, swinging his gold eyeglass from his finger. “You have the traditions of your ancestors to keep up: the far-reaching loyalty of generations has descended A Butler could never be a rebel."

to you.

Captain Gerald's memory went back too faithfully to sundry occasions when the sept had given their liege sovereigns no little trouble; but he made no remark of the kind.

"I dare say the United Irishmen will prosper more than ever,” he said; “and it must be acknowledged that the Catholics have cause to grumble in the sudden quenching of all their hopes and plans. They were fully persuaded that the day was won at the change of policy inaugurated by Lord Fitzwilliam; and the disappointment was cruel.”

But the colonel could not agree with him in thinking that the party to which he was opposed had a right to have any expectations whatsoever; and as to their disappointment, he gloried in it.

"I see that the traitor Jackson's trial is fixed for the 23rd," he said, reverting to his newspapers. "I expect that treasonable revelations will be made on that occasion, which will astonish the loyalists of the empire."

"He was a wretched fool for his pains," observed the captain, shrugging his shoulders. "How a sane man could have brought himself within the statute of treason, I cannot imagine."

“The first trial for high treason these hundred years in Ireland," said the colonel, with a certain satisfaction. "I am curious to know what his Majesty's law officers will do about a second witness."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

WOLFE TONE'S PLANS.

THAT little matter of the second witness was puzzling more heads than Colonel Butler's. On it seemed to hinge the successful prosecution of treason trials in Ireland for the future; and the establishment of a precedent of the sort was of great consequence to the Government. It was the earliest point debated in the trial of William Jackson, April 23rd, 1795; and, despite the utmost exertions of his counsel, Mr. Curran, who denounced what he called "the injustice of convicting for high treason in Ireland on the evidence of one witness, while two are requisite in England” (under 7 William III), the matter was decided against the prisoner by the judges. At a later period, the law was assimilated in both sections of the United Kingdom, by an Act introduced by Lord

Holland.

There was documentary evidence in abundance against the unfortunate man, who had so far forgotten the dignity of his profession (he was a clergyman) as to become a mover of sedition. But the single witness was the attorney Cockayne, who had betrayed all Jackson's letters to the Government, and was deep in his confidence. The universal detestation for this man and his treachery found ample voice in Curran's invective. "Gentlemen of the jury," quoth he, "did you ever hear of a man sacrificing his life to the law of the country upon the testimony of a single witness, and that single witness, by his own confession, an accomplice in the crime? Take his own vile evidence for his character: he was traitor to his client. He was the spy that hovered round his friend, and coveted the price that was to be given him for shedding that friend's blood. He was the man who yielded to the tie of three oaths of allegiance, to watch and be the setter of his client, to earn the bribe of Government, secure with his pardon already in his pocket. He was to put letters in the post office, to do what he himself stated pressed on his mind the conviction that he was liable to the penalties of treason; and this very act did he do from the obligation of three oaths of allegiance. Was he aware of his crime? His pardon tells it. He came over to be a spy and to be a traitor, to get a pardon, to earn a reward; although, if you believe him, it was to be all common agreeable work, to be paid for, like his other ordinary business, by the day, or by the sheet. He was to be paid so much a day for ensnaring and murdering his client and his friend. Do you think the man deserving of credit who can do such things ?"

But the evidence was too clear to be rebutted, and the jury had in reality no choice but to declare the Rev. William Jackson guilty of high treason. He was remanded for a week, before sentence should be passed-a week of terror for his fellow-conspirators. Although for a year he had held out against all threats