Therefore, my lord, looking straight before me now, I say I was
determined and was quite ready to sacrifice my life if necessary to
acquire that liberty; and I am not now going to be so mean-spirited,
so cowardly, or so contemptible as to shrink from my portion of the
general suffering. I am ready, then, for the sentence of the court,
satisfied that I have acted right, confident that I have committed no
wrong, outrage, or crime whatever, and that I have cast no disgrace
upon my parents, my friends, upon my devoted wife, or upon myself. I
am, with God's assistance, ready to meet my fate. I rest in the calm
resignation of a man whose only ambition through life has been to
benefit and free, not to injure, his fellow-men; and whose only
desire this moment is to obtain their prayers and blessings. With the
approval of my own conscience, above all hoping for the forgiveness
of God for anything I may have done to displease Him, and relying
upon His self-sustaining grace to enable me to bear any punishment,
no matter how severe, so long as it is for glorious old Ireland. I
had intended, my lord, to refer to my notes which I took at the
trial; but I feel that was so ably done by my counsel, it would be a
mere waste of time for me to do so, but I just wish to make an
explanation.
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