Note 4 — DANIEL O’CONNELL. IN DEFENCE OF JOHN MAGEE: COURT OF KING’S BENCH, DUBLIN, JULY 27, 1813.

Note 4, p. 29.—His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Lennox—fourth of that title, and descendant of Charles II. by the French mistress, La Kerouaille—was a personage more picturesque than the majority of the great in name who fill the pages of “Burke’s Peerage.” Throughout, his life (1764–1819) was romantically different from that of the average nobleman. As a youth he was a notable duelist, and in 1789 had an encounter with the Duke of York wherein half-royal blood came near to shedding royal. So impetuous a temperament obviously led the Duke to the profession of arms, in which he attained some prominence. The Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland was his during the period 1807–1813; and in these years he had for chief secretary the then plain Colonel Wellesley. He left Ireland for the wars; and thus it was that on the eve of Waterloo the Duke and Duchess of Richmond gave at Brussels the historic ball before the battle—an event which has permanently linked the name of Richmond with history. For chance, doubly gracious, commemorated the occasion in the famous verses of Byron, and the enduring prose of “Vanity Fair.” The next day the Duke was glad to serve on the battlefield under his former secretary. The end of this nobleman was no less striking than his life. Removed to Canada, he died a pitiful death of hydrophobia, induced by a fox-bite.