Yes! I loved thee and thine, though thou wert not my land; I have known noble hearts and brave souls in thy sons, And I wept with delight on the patriot band Who are gone, but I weep them no longer as once ! For happy are they now reposing afar Thy Curran, thy Grattan, thy Sheridan,―all, Who for years were the chiefs in this eloquent war, And redeem'd, if they have not retarded thy fall! Yes! happy are they in their cold English graves! Their shades cannot start at thy shouts of to day; Nor the steps of enslavers and slave-kissing slaves Be damp'd in the turf o'er their fetterless clay! Z Till now I had envied thy sons and thy shore! Though their virtues are blunted, their liberties fled, There is something so warm and sublime in the core Of an Irishman's heart, that I envy-their dead! Or if aught in my bosom can quench for an hour My contempt of a nation so servile, though sore, Which, though trod like the worm, will not turn upon power, 'Tis the glory of Grattan--the genius of Moore ! 66 "What a noble fellow," said Lord Byron, after I had finished reading, was "Lord Edward Fitzgerald !-and what a "romantic and singular history was his! "If it were not too near our times, it "would make the finest subject in the "world for an historical novel." "What was there so singular in his life and adventures ?" I asked. 66 "Lord Edward Fitzgerald," said he, was a soldier from a boy. He served in America, and was left for dead in one "of the pitched battles, (I forget which,) "and returned in the list of killed. Hav ing been found in the field after the re"moval of the wounded, he was recovered by the kindness and compassion of a "native, and restored to his family as one 66 from the grave. On coming back to "England, he employed himself entirely "in the duties of his corps and the study of military tactics, and got a regiment. "The French Revolution now broke out, "and with it a flame of liberty burnt in "the breast of the young Irishman. He paid this year a visit to Paris, where he "formed an intimacy with Tom Paine, and came over with him to England. 66 66 66 "There matters rested, till, dining one day at his regimental mess, he ordered "the band to play Ça ira,' the great revolutionary air. A few days afterwards he received a letter from head-quarters, "to say that the King dispensed with his "services. "He now paid a second visit to America, "where he lived for two years among the "native Indians; and once again crossing "the Atlantic, settled on his family estate "in Ireland, where he fulfilled all the du "ties of a country-gentleman and magis "trate. 66 66 Here it was that he became ac quainted with the O'Connors, and in conjunction with them zealously exerted "himself for the emancipation of their 66 66 country. On their imprisonment he was proscribed, and secreted for six weeks "in what are called the liberties of Dub"lin; but was at length betrayed by a 66 Major Sirr and a party of the military "entered his bed-room, which he always kept unlocked. At the voices he started "up in bed and seized his pistols, when 66 66 66 66 66 Major Sirr fired and wounded him. Taken to prison, he soon after died of his wound, before he could be brought to trial. Such was the fate of one who "had all the qualifications of a hero and |