With Cornwallis hungry for a quick trial and execution, Tone knew he was doomed. His greatest fear was to be hung like a traitor instead of being shot like an officer. He had reason to fear. Here was the charge against him:

...to try whether he had or had not acted traitorously and hostility (sic) against his Majesty, to whom, as a natural born subject, he owed all allegiance, from the very fact of his birth in that Kingdom.

Tone - who had been denied legal counsel - was asked to plead guilty or not guilty. We have a good record of what actually happened at the court martial. Taken directly from Tone's book, Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone...Written by Himself and Continued by His Son (now on-line), here are some of the most memorable parts of Tone's trial speech.

...From my earliest youth, I have regarded the connection between Ireland and Great Britain, as the curse of the Irish nation; and felt convinced, that, whilst it lasted, this country could never be free nor happy...

That Ireland was not able, of herself, to throw off the yoke, I knew. I therefore sought for aid, wherever it was to be found...I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country, and sought in the French Republic an ally, to rescue three million of my countrymen...

The court stopped Tone to tell him his comments were not relevant to the charge against him. The remarks, of course, were precisely relevant. It was the trial itself that bore no relevance to justice.

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