arrested and placed in the Tower, and brought before the Privy Council on a charge of high treason. These so-called reformers were eight weeks in the fortress. At length the trials took place, Hardy being acquitted, to the great delight of the populace, the reformer shoemaker becoming the hero of the hour. Tooke was tried at the Old Bailey, and he also was acquitted, as were the rest of the prisoners. In 1798, Arthur O’Connor, the editor of the _Press_, an Irish Nationalist newspaper, with John Alley, John Burns, and James O’Coighley were placed in the fortress on a charge of maintaining a traitorous correspondence with the French Directory. O’Connor and his companions, it seems, had been entrusted by the Society of the United Irishmen with a mission to the French Directory in the month of March 1798, but on their way to Paris they were arrested at Margate by Bow Street runners, although they had bribed a fisherman with £150 to take them across the Channel. On their luggage being searched, uniforms, arms, and a large sum of money were found. They were immediately brought back to London, and lodged in separate prisons in the Tower, but the trial was held at Margate, and James O’Coighley, who seems to have been made the scapegoat, was hanged on Pennenden Heath. Lord Thanet, who was a friend of O’Connor’s, was present at the latter’s trial at Maidstone, and with him were Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Sir Francis Burdett, and Samuel Whitbread. During the trial O’Connor made a bolt for freedom, springing out of the dock, and forcing his way through the court; he almost succeeded in escaping. A free fight ensued, and in the _melée_ Lord Thanet was arrested, and on the charge of aiding and abetting the prisoner O’Connor to escape, and with resisting the officers of the law, was sent off to the Tower. At his trial Lord Thanet remarked that, “he thought it only fair that O’Connor should have a run for it.” Lord Thanet was tried at the Court of King’s Bench in May 1799, and with him a barrister named Ferguson, who had also shown his sympathy with O’Connor during his trial. Both were found guilty. Lord Thanet was fined £1000, and sentenced to be imprisoned in the Tower for twelve months; Ferguson had to pay a fine of £500, and was ordered to be imprisoned in the King’s Bench prison. Sackville Tufton, Earl of Thanet, was the last peer who was imprisoned in the Tower. [Illustration: _Entrance to the Tower Menagerie in the time of George III._]