PRESIDENT--"That seems to have nothing to say to the charge against
you, to which you are only to speak. If you have anything to offer in
defence or extenuation of the charge, the court will hear you, but
they beg you will confine yourself to that subject."

TONE--"I shall, then, confine myself to some points relative to my
connection with the French army. Attached to no party in the French
Republic--without interest, without money, without intrigue--the
openness and integrity of my views raised me to a high and
confidential rank in its armies. I obtained the confidence of the
Executive Directory, the approbation of my generals, and I will
venture to add, the esteem and affection of my brave comrades. When I
review these circumstances, I feel a secret and internal consolation
which no reverse of fortune, no sentence in the power of this court
to inflict, can deprive me of, or weaken in any degree. Under the
flag of the French Republic I originally engaged with a view to save
and liberate my own country. For that purpose I have encountered the
chances of war amongst strangers; for that purpose I repeatedly
braved the terrors of the ocean, covered, as I knew it to be, with
the triumphant fleets of that power which it was my glory and my
duty to oppose. I have sacrificed all my views in life; I have
courted poverty; I have left a beloved wife unprotected, and children
whom I adored fatherless. After such a sacrifice, in a cause which I
have always considered--conscientiously considered--as the cause of
justice and freedom, it is no great effort, at this day, to add the
sacrifice of my life. But I hear it said that this unfortunate
country has been a prey to all sorts of horrors. I sincerely lament
it. I beg, however, it may be remembered that I have been absent four
years from Ireland. To me these sufferings can never be attributed. I
designed by fair and open war to procure the separation of the two