The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-03-30

covery and arrest, he, with character
istic simplicity, entrusted letter ad-
dressed to Sarah, to a person employed
about the Jail. This unknown messen-
ger pocketed the money, given by En-
met, and promptly delivered the letter
to the authorities. On hearing this, the
unhappy young conspirator, in despair
lest he should have still further COM
mitted her in the eyes Of the law, ad
dressed letter to the government in
which he engaged himself to submit
to his fate without one word in his own
defense, provided the letter was sup
pressed.
Curran's refusal to defend Emmett
can hardly be wondered at, in view of
the circumstances and of the fact that
he himself stood on delicate ground in
Irish matters. His fellow-lawyers,
however, stood by him to a man, with
the exception, of course, of Fitzgib
bon, afterwards Lord Glare, long bit
ter rival of the brilliant advocate.
The trial and sentence, however,
We're but foregone conclusion. pray,
do not attempt to defend me-" Emmett
said to his counsel, Barrowes; "it is all
in vain.'
Whatever faults the misguided
young patriot may be accused of, his
last letter to Richard Curran, written
just before his execution, exhibits
resignation, tenderness and deep
remorse for the miseries of which he
had been the unwilling cause, that
would go far to excuse them. This
letter and long tress of Sarah's hair,
were brought after the execution to
Miss Lambart by man, who, though
his face was concealed, was supposed
to have been the warden who had
guarded Emmett, and, like all who had
known him, had fallen under the spell
of his personal magnetism.
Sarah Curran failed, slowly but sure
~, after the tragic death of her lover.
She left her fathers house, not, as
some have said, because ordered by
him (Curran was not a hard-hearted
man, and had been very fond Of this
delicate, timid child, but for various
reasons-change Of air, and separation
from the scenes Of so much sorrow.
She stayed at Cork, with some Quaker
PHO n
ted and consoled by all who knew her,
and the memory of the gallows and the
nameless grave Of her beloved seemed
always before her mind. She moved
like shadow among the gayest
scenes.
Washington Irving says: "She did
pleasure but she was rs much alone
there as in the depths Of solitude. She
walked about in Il sad revcric, appar-
entity unconscious of the world about
her.
The story of one so true and tender
could not but excite interest in a
completely won the heart of brave
officer, who paid his addresses to her,
and thought that one so true to the
dead could not but prove atfectionate
to the living. She declined his atten-
lions, for her thoughts were irreyoc-
ably engrossed by the memory of her
former lover. He, however, persisted
i'll his suit. He solicited, not her ten
derness, but her esteem He was as
sisted by her conviction Of his worth,
and her sense of her own destitute and
dependent situation, for she was exist
ing on the kindness of friends. In Il
word, he succeeded in gaining her
hand, though with Il solemn assurance
that her heart was unalterably an
others.
The marriage was thus recorded in
the Hibernian Magazine: February,
1906, at Cork. Captain II. II. Sturgeon,
of the Royal Staff Corps, and nephew
to the late Marquis of Rockingham, to
Miss Sarah Curran, daughter of John
P. Curran."
The fact that the marriage took
place at Cork instead of ut her fathers
house, as we'll as Irving's conviction
that she was living on the charity OF
friends, seems to indicate that her fa-
ther had really east her Off. Her hus-
band took her to Italy, in the vain hope
of repairing her wasted strength and
reviving her broken heart, but nothing
could cure her silent and devouring
melancholy. "She tried to be an eX-
cmplary wife, but was never happy
one" a little incident which hap
pened some months after her marriage
showed how deeply her thoughts We're
rooted in the past.
A portrait of Emmett, as he appeared
at his trial, had been painted by
George Petrie, from sketches which he
had taken at the time.
The artists little son, alone in the
studio one day, saw Il closely yelled
lady enter, who did not notice the boy,
but walked up to- the easel, and after
gazing long in silence on the pictured
face, broke into a passion of grief,
which seemed to the frightened child,
cro,1chinp in his corner. to last an