I •



SECRET SERVICE UNDER PITT



CHAPTER I

A MYSTERIOUS VISItdR

It is now some years since Mr. Proude invest^jd tvith new
interest the Bomance of Rebellion. Perhaps the most curi-
ous of the episodes disclosed by him is that where, after
describing the plans and organisation of the United Irishmen,
he proceeds to notice a sensational case of betrayal.*

Ati instatice has now to be related [he writes] remarkable for the
ingenious perfidy with which it was attended, for the mystery which
still attaches to the principal performer, and for his connection with
the fortunes and fate of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
Lord Edward's movements had for some time been observed
with anxiety, as much from general uneasiness as from regret that
a brother of the Duke of Leinster' should be connecting himself
with conspiracy and treason. His proceedings in Paris in 1792 liad
cost bim his commission in the army. In the Irish Parhameut he
had been undistinguished by talent, but conspicuous for the violence
of his language. His meeting with Hoche on the S^nss frontier
was a secret known only to a very few persons ; Boche himself had
not revealed it even to Tone ; but Lord Edward was known to be
intimate with McNevin. He had been watched in London, and
had been traced to the lodgings of a suspected agent of the French
Directory ; and among other papers which had been forwarded by
spies to the Government, there was one in French, containing an
allusion to some female friend of Lady Edward, through whom a
correspondence was maintained between Ireland and Paris. Lady
Edward's house at Hamburg was notoriously tlio resort of Irish

» The English in Ireland (Nov. 1797). iii. 278.
