Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone: Memoirs, journals and political writings, compiled and arranged by William T.W. Tone, 1826 by Theobald Wolfe Tone

Author:Theobald Wolfe Tone [Tone, Theobald Wolfe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: tyranny, Irish, letters, memoirs, journal, Troubles, collection, Rebellion, Ireland, Wolfe Tone, Empire, Biography, History
ISBN: 9781843515067
Publisher: The Lilliput Press
Published: 1998-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

March 1796

March 1. This day I got an English newspaper from Madgett, dated the 2nd of last month, in which there is a paragraph alluding to the death of the late unfortunate Major Sweetman in a duel. I do not think I ever received such a shock in my life! Good God! if it should be my friend! The only chance I have is that there may be another person of that name, but I fear the worst. I had the sincerest and most affectionate regard for him; a better and a braver heart blood never warmed; I have passed some of the pleasantest hours of my life in his society. If he be gone, my loss is unspeakable, but his country will have a much severer one; he was a sincere Irishman, and if ever an exertion was to be made for our emancipation, he would have been in the very foremost rank; I had counted upon his military talents, and had amused myself often in making him a general; poor fellow! If he be gone, there is a chasm in my short list of friends that I will not find it easy to fill. After all, it may be another, but I fear, I fear. I cannot bear to think of it.

March 6. I have not had spirits since the news of poor Sweetman’s death to go on with my memorandums. As it happens, I have no serious business, and I am glad of it, for my mind has been a good deal engaged on that subject. It seems the quarrel arose about treading on a lady’s gown in coming out of the opera; a worthy cause for two brave men to fight about! They fought at four yards’ distance, which was Sweetman’s choice; they were both desperately wounded, but Capt. Watson (an Irishman also) is likely to recover; my poor friend is gone. When he received the shot, which went through his body, he cried out to Watson, ‘Are you wounded?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the other, ‘I believe mortally’; ‘And so am I,’ replied Sweetman; he fell instantly. I certainly did not think I could have been so much affected on his account as I have been. Independently of my personal regard for him, I reckoned much upon his assistance in the case of the French government affording us any aid. His courage, his eloquence, his popular talents, his sincere affection for his country, would have made him eminently serviceable; all that is now lost; we must supply his place as we can. I will write no more about him, but shall ever remember him with the most sincere regret.

Madgett has not yet finished the translation; hell! hell! However, he tells me he has written to the minister on the subject of Bournonville’s being appointed to the command, in case the expedition takes place. I have been reading the report of Camus, and it has satisfied me that I could not have wished for a general fitter for the station; I hope we may get him.

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