In February 1803 Edward Despard was convicted of conspiring with the united network in London (disaffected soldiers and labourers, many of them Irish) to assassinate the King and seize the Tower of London and to spark insurrection in the mill towns of the north. The trial brought forth little evidence, and none that the intent was to proceed in the absence of the French. In Ireland, Emmet and Russell followed Despard to the gallows for an attempted rising in July. Emmet, having consulted widely with United Irishmen from Hamburg to Cadiz, had decided to accept Napoleon's assurances. However, the final the trigger had been accidental: an explosion of a rebels arms depot in Dublin that made the plot public. In the absence of a French landing, the best efforts of Russell and of Jemmy Hope had failed to rally any promise of support in the north.