November 7th, 1798: A Derry source claims on the 3rd that Wolfe Tone is one of the French officers taken into Lough Swilly with the stricken Hoche. Sir George Hill MP, captain of the Derry city cavalry, recognises his old acquaintance as he disembarks from the Robust in Buncrana. This is not altogether unexpected as it has been speculated for two weeks that "Tone, Lewins and Turner" were "among the Irish traitors, who have been taken prisoners in the captured French vessels". Such men are vulnerable to charges of high treason whereas the Franco-Irish officer, Col Lee, whose parents were born in Ireland, is treated as a prisoner-of-war.
An inspection of the captured Immortalite uncovers 800 cavalry saddles intended for the abortive Irish campaign. Freeman's Journal reveals that a French "general" had his head shot off during the October battle "some of whose teeth struck and wounded another officer in the face, lodged there, and were taken out after the engagement". The French soldiers on board the Immortalite "appeared to be veterans, many of them having the marks of wounds in their faces".
Informant Samuel Sproule warns the Castle on the 4th that `this is the great night of meeting and deliberation among all the disaffected in Dublin . . . McMahon's party at O'Hara's and Shaw's party collect at the Elephant in Eustace Street . . . Holt's party some street off Thomas Street . . . Holt slept last night but one in the back house of a widow poor woman who lets beds in Dirty Lane . . . To come nearer them is impossible as they now conduct things with such secrecy as none but two men of themselves know of the meeting till they are brought to one spot'.
Hibernian Journal reminds its readers the 4th is "the anniversary of the birth and landing of King William III, of glorious memory, the same will be celebrated by a grand gala procession of the Lord Lieutenant, Chief Magistrate of Dublin, Great Officers of State, Nobility, etc., round Stephen's Green". The city garrison will fire a triple discharges of muskets before parading "round King William's statue in College Green, which has, together with its pedestal, been newly painted for the occasion".
Sir Laurence Parsons, writing to his friend Lord Charlemont on the 5th, expresses his opposition to the proposed "detested union" with Britain. Of more immediate concern to him is the circumstance of Birr being "crammed with troops" even though the area is "perfectly quiet, and the people seem to be as peaceably disposed as I ever remember". The unwelcome garrison includes English artillerymen and the brutal German Hompesch dragoons and Wicklow militia.
Well-founded rumours that Holt is attempting to negotiate terms of surrender do not sit well with the Hibernian Telegraph. The paper comments on the 7th that "it would be disgraceful as unjust for the ruling power to stipulate any terms with such a murderous ruffian". In Dublin, the eloquent Judge Day, when passing sentence on three convicted killers, decries "that abominable and deadly source which has poisoned the morals of this county and debased its character to the association of United Irishmen; that combination of treason and crime, which has made the good old name of Ireland a by-word and a reproach among the nations of Europe, and converted the appellation of Irishman, which was once another word for every thing was humane, generous and gallant, into a subject of loathing, contempt, and horror".