Fully
convinced and satisfied of the righteousness of my every act in
connection with the late revolutionary movement in Ireland, I have
nothing to recall--nothing that I would not do again, nothing for
which I should feel the blush of shame mantling my brow; my conduct
and career, both here as a private citizen, and in America--if you
like--as a soldier, are before you; and even in this, my hour of
trial, I feel the consciousness of having lived an honest man, and I
will die proudly, believing that if I have given my life to give
freedom and liberty to the land of my birth, I have done only that
which every Irishman and every man whose soul throbs with a feeling
of liberty should do. I, my lords, shall scarcely--I feel I should
not at all--mention the name of Massey. I feel I should not pollute
my lips with the name of that traitor, whose illegitimacy has been
proved here--a man whose name even is not known, and who, I deny
point blank, ever wore the star of a colonel in the Confederate army.
Him I shall let rest. I shall pass him, wishing him, in the words of
the poet:--
"'May the grass wither from his feet;
The woods deny him shelter; earth a home;
The dust a grave; the sun his light:
And heaven its God!'
"Let Massey remember from this day forth that he carries with him, as
my able and eloquent counsel (Mr.
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