brother of
Thomas Emmet also took part in the organization of "Ninety-Eight," but
the fate of Robert Emmet will have a place to itself in this chapter of
our history.

One fact has to be mentioned, and must be kept constantly in mind when
we are studying the grim story of "Ninety-Eight." Every step taken by
the rebel leaders {314} was almost instantly made known to the English
Government. The spy, the hired informer, was then, as he has always
been, in the very thick of the Irish national movement. Some of the
informers in "Ninety-Eight" were of a different class from that of the
ordinary police spy; and it has been made quite certain by subsequent
discoveries that Wolfe Tone and Fitzgerald, Arthur O'Connor and the
Emmets were in the closest friendly association with men whom they
believed to be as genuine Irish patriots as themselves, but who were
all the time in the pay of Pitt, and were keeping him well informed of
every plan and project and movement of their leaders. As political
morals were then and are perhaps even now, it would be absurd to find
fault with Pitt because he made use of the services of spies and
informers to get at the plans of a number of men who proposed to invite
a foreign enemy of England to invade the Irish shores, and were doing
all they could to secure by armed rebellion the independence of
Ireland. The wonder that will now occur to every reasonable mind is
that the Irish leaders should have failed to guess that whatever money
would do would be done by the English Government, as it would have been
done by any other Government under similar conditions, to get at a
knowledge of their designs and to counteract them. At all events, it
is quite certain that while Tone and Fitzgerald and their comrades were
playing their gallant, desperate game, the British Minister was quietly
looking over their shoulders and studying their cards.

[Sidenote: 1797--A French fleet in Bantry Bay]

Napoleon Bonaparte, meanwhile, seems to have been but half-hearted
about the scheme for the invasion of Ireland. He had many other
schemes in his mind, some of which probably appeared more easy of
accomplishment, and at all events promised a more immediate result than
the proposed flank attack on the power of England. It is certain that
Wolfe Tone had long intervals of depression and despondency, against
which it needed all the buoyancy of his temperament to sustain him. At
last a naval expedition was resolved