What is death?  The act of passing from this life into the next.  I trust that God will pardon me my sins, and that I will have no cause to fear entering into the presence of the ever-living and Most Merciful Father.  I don’t recollect in my life ever having done anything with a deliberately bad intention.  In my late conduct I do not see anything for regret.  Why then, I say, should I feel regret?  I leave the dread of death to such wretches as Corridon and Massey—­Corridon, a name once so suggestive of sweetness and peace, now the representative of a loathsome monster.  If there be anything that can sink that man, Corridon, lower in the scales of degradation, it is—­”

The Chief Justice—­“We cannot listen to any imputation on persons who were examined as witnesses.  Strictly speaking, you are only to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon you; at the same time we are very unwilling to hold a very strict hand, but we cannot allow imputations to be made on third persons, witnesses or others, who have come forward in this trial.”

Prisoner—­“Well, my lord, I will answer as well as I can the question put to me.  The Irish people through every generation ever since England has obtained a footing in Ireland, have protested against the occupation of our native soil by the English.  Surely that is answer enough why sentence of death should not be passed upon me.  In the part I have taken in the late insurrection, I feel conscious that I was doing right.  Next to serving his Creator, I believe it is a man’s solemn duty to serve his country. [Here the prisoner paused to suppress his emotion, which rendered his utterance very feeble, and continued]—­my lords, I have nothing more to say, except to quote the words of the sacred psalmist, in which you will understand that I speak of my country as he speaks of his:—­’If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten, let my tongue cleave to my jaws if I do not remember thee:  if I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.  Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem:  who say, raze, raze it, even to the foundation thereof.  O daughter of Babylon, miserable:  blessed be he who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us.’  In conclusion, my lords, I wish to give my thanks to my attorney, Mr. Collins, for his untiring exertions, and also to my counsel, Mr. Heron, for his able defence, and to Mr. Waters.”

* * * * *

CAPTAIN WILLIAM MACKAY.