Taken from The Life And Adventures of Theobald Wolfe Tone, edited by his son William Tone.
From Provost’s Prison, Dublin
20th Brumaire, 7th Year of the Republic,
(10th November, 1798).
CITIZEN DIRECTORS, – The English government having determined not to respect my rights as a French citizen and officer, and summoned me before a court martial, I have been sentenced to death. In those circumstances I request you to accept my thanks for the confidence with which you have honoured me, and which, in a moment like this, I venture to say I well deserved. I have served the republic faithfully, and my death, as well as that of my brother, a victim like myself, and condemned in the same manner about a month ago, will sufficiently prove it. I hope the circumstances in which I stand will warrant me, citizen directors, in applicating you to consider the fate of a virtuous wife and of three infant children, who had no other support, and, in losing me will be reduced to the extreme of misery. I venture, on such an occasion, to recall to your remembrance, that I was expelled from my own country in consequence of my attempts to serve the republic; that, on the invitation of the French government, I came to France; that ever since I had the honour to enter the French service, I have faithfully, and with the approbation of all my chiefs, performed my duty; finally, that I have sacrificed for the republic all that man holds dearest – my wife, my children, my liberty, my life. In these circumstances, I confidently call on your justice and humanity in favour of my family, assured that you will not abandon them. It is the greatest consolation which remains to me in dying.
Health and respect,
T. W. TONE (called Smith),
Adjutant-General