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diff --git a/old/67845-0.txt b/old/67845-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 55bf460..0000000 --- a/old/67845-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13590 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of World's Best Histories: Ireland, -Volume I (of 2), by John F. Finerty - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: World's Best Histories: Ireland, Volume I (of 2) - -Author: John F. Finerty - -Release Date: April 15, 2022 [eBook #67845] - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander, Barry Abrahamsen, Natrona County Library, - Casper, Wyoming and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S BEST HISTORIES: -IRELAND, VOLUME I (OF 2) *** - - - - - -[Illustration: - - DANIEL O’CONNELL -] - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - - THE WORLD’S BEST HISTORIES - - ❧ - - IRELAND - - THE PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF IRELAND - - IN TWO VOLUMES - - - - BY - JOHN F. FINERTY - PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE OF AMERICA - - - - ILLUSTRATED - - -[Illustration] - - - VOLUME I - - - - - THE CO-OPERATIVE PUBLICATION SOCIETY - NEW YORK AND LONDON - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - COPYRIGHT 1904 - BY P. F. COLLIER & SON - - Ireland - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - HISTORY OF IRELAND - - VOLUME ONE - - - - -Ireland—1 - - Vol. I - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - _CONTENTS_ - - - BOOK I - - DEALING WITH THE STORY OF THE IRISH PEOPLE FROM 1 - THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE ADVENT OF THE - REFORMATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY - - - CHAPTER I - - Prefatory—Territorial Divisions of 3 - Ireland—Physical Features of the - Country—Peculiarities of Soil, Climate, and - Scenery - - - CHAPTER II - - Further of the Characteristics and Resources of 12 - the Island—Present Form of Government - - - CHAPTER III - - The Original Inhabitants of Ireland 19 - - - CHAPTER IV - - The Religion of Ancient Ireland—Many Writers say 24 - it was Worship of the Sun, Moon, and Elements - - - CHAPTER V - - Advent of St. Patrick—His Wonderful Apostolic 29 - Career in Ireland—A Captive and a Swineherd for - Years, he Escapes and becomes the Regenerator of - the Irish Nation - - - CHAPTER VI - - Ancient Laws and Government of the Irish 35 - - - CHAPTER VII - - Period of Danish Invasion 47 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Battle of Clontarf, A.D. 1014—Total Overthrow of 52 - the Danish Army and Power in Ireland - - - CHAPTER IX - - Desolating Civil Wars Among the Irish 58 - - - CHAPTER X - - The Norman-Welsh Invasion of Ireland—Their Landing 63 - in Wexford - - - CHAPTER XI - - Superior Armament of the Normans—Arrival of Henry 72 - II - - - CHAPTER XII - - Prince John “Lackland” Created “Lord” of 79 - Ireland—Splendid Heroism of Sir Armoricus - Tristram - - - CHAPTER XIII - - Ireland Under the Earlier Edwards—The Younger 86 - Bruce Elected King by the Irish—Battle of - Athenry—Death of Bruce at Faughart Hill - - - CHAPTER XIV - - Prince Lionel Viceroy for Edward III—The Statute 91 - of Kilkenny - - - CHAPTER XV - - Richard II’s Invasions—Heroic Art MacMurrough 95 - - - CHAPTER XVI - - Ireland During the Wars of the Roses 101 - - - - BOOK II - - TREATING OF IRISH AFFAIRS FROM THE PERIOD OF THE 109 - REFORMATION TO THE EXILE AND DEATH OF THE ULSTER - PRINCES IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I - - - CHAPTER I - - The “Reformation”—New Cause of Discord in Ireland 111 - - - CHAPTER II - - The Reformation Period Continued—Edward VI, Mary 117 - I, Elizabeth, and “John the Proud” - - - CHAPTER III - - The Geraldine War—Hugh O’Neill and “Red Hugh” 123 - O’Donnell - - - CHAPTER IV - - Confiscation of Desmond’s Domains—English 130 - Plantation of Munster - - - CHAPTER V - - Conditions in Ulster Before the Revolt of O’Neill 133 - - - CHAPTER VI - - O’Neill Draws the Sword—Victories of Clontibret 136 - and Armagh - - - CHAPTER VII - - Ireland Still Victorious—Battles of Tyrrell’s Pass 141 - and Drumfluich - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Irish Victory of the Yellow Ford, Called the 145 - Bannockburn of Ireland - - - CHAPTER IX - - How O’Neill Baffled Essex—O’Donnell’s Victory of 149 - the Curlew Mountains - - - CHAPTER X - - King Philip Sends Envoys to O’Neill—The Earl of 153 - Mountjoy Lord Deputy - - - CHAPTER XI - - Ireland’s Fortunes Take a Bad Turn—Defeat of 158 - O’Neill and O’Donnell at Kinsale - - - CHAPTER XII - - Sad Death of O’Donnell in Spain—Heroic Defence of 166 - Dunboy - - - CHAPTER XIII - - Wane of Irish Resistance—O’Neill Surrenders to 170 - Mountjoy at Mellifont - - - CHAPTER XIV - - Treachery of James I to the Irish Chiefs—“The 174 - Flight of the Earls” - - - - BOOK III - - RECORDING THE DOINGS OF THE ENGLISH AND IRISH, IN 183 - IRELAND, FROM THE TIME OF JAMES I TO THE - JACOBITE WARS IN THE DAYS OF JAMES II AND - WILLIAM III - - - CHAPTER I - - Confiscations and Penal Laws—The Iron Rule of Lord 185 - Strafford - - - CHAPTER II - - Irish Military Exiles—Rory O’More Organizes a 192 - Great Insurrection - - - CHAPTER III - - Horrors of Civil War in Ulster—Battle of 200 - Kilrush—Rory O’More Disappears from History - - - CHAPTER IV - - Proceedings of the Confederation of 208 - Kilkenny—Arrival of Owen Roe O’Neill and - Rinuccini - - - CHAPTER V - - Treason of Ormond to the Catholic Cause—Owen Roe 218 - O’Neill, Aided by the Nuncio, Prepares to Fight - - - CHAPTER VI - - The Famous Irish Victory of Benburb—Cruel Murder 221 - of the Catholic Bishop of Ross - - - CHAPTER VII - - Ormond’s Treacherous Surrender of Dublin—Ireland’s 226 - Choice of Two Evils - - - CHAPTER VIII - - “The Curse of Cromwell”—Massacres of Drogheda and 230 - Wexford—Death of Sir Phelim O’Neill - - - CHAPTER IX - - Sad Fate of the Vanquished—Cruel Executions and 236 - Wholesale Confiscations - - - CHAPTER X - - Ireland Further Scourged Under Charles II—Murder 240 - of Archbishop Plunket—Accession of James II - - - CHAPTER XI - - Well-Meant but Imprudent Policy of King 245 - James—England Invites William of Orange to - Assume the Throne - - - CHAPTER XII - - Irish Soldiers Ill-Treated in England—Policy of 253 - Tyrconnel—King James Chosen by the Irish Nation - - - - BOOK IV - - CHRONICLING IMPORTANT EVENTS IN IRELAND FROM THE 259 - ARRIVAL OF JAMES II IN THAT COUNTRY UNTIL THE - DEPARTURE OF THE DUKE OF BERWICK TO FRANCE AFTER - THE FIRST SIEGE OF LIMERICK, IN 1690 - - - CHAPTER I - - King James in Ireland—Enthusiastic Reception of 261 - Him by the Irish People—Military Operations - - - CHAPTER II - - Jacobites Foiled at Londonderry—Mountcashel 264 - Defeated at Newtown Butler—King James’s Irish - Parliament - - - CHAPTER III - - King James’s Imprudent Acts—Witty Retort of a 268 - Protestant Peer—Architectural Features of Dublin - - - CHAPTER IV - - Composition of the Hostile Armies—King William 271 - Arrives in Ireland—Narrowly Escapes Death on Eve - of Battle - - - CHAPTER V - - Battle of the Boyne—Death of Marshal 277 - Schomberg—Valor of Irish Cavalry—Inexcusable - Flight of King James - - - CHAPTER VI - - Irish Army Retires on “The Line of the 286 - Shannon”—Douglas Repulsed at Athlone—King - William Begins Siege of Limerick—Sarsfield’s - Exploit - - - CHAPTER VII - - William’s Assault on Limerick Repulsed with 294 - Slaughter—Heroism of the Irish Women—Irish - Humanity to the English Wounded - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Fall of Cork and Kinsale—Lauzun, the French 302 - General, Accused by Irish Writers—Sarsfield’s - Popularity—Tyrconnel Returns to Ireland—Berwick - Departs - - - - BOOK V - - RECORDING IMPORTANT EVENTS FROM THE ARRIVAL OF 311 - GENERAL ST. RUTH IN LIMERICK TO HIS GLORIOUS - DEATH AT THE BATTLE OF AUGHRIM, IN JULY, 1691 - - - CHAPTER I - - General St Ruth Arrives at Limerick to Command the 313 - Irish Army—His Marvelous Activity—Brave and - Able, but Vain and Obstinate - - - CHAPTER II - - De Ginkel Besieges Athlone—Memorable Resistance of 318 - the Irish Garrison—The Battle at the Bridge—St. - Ruth’s Fatuous Obstinacy—Town Taken by Surprise - - - CHAPTER III - - The Irish Army Falls Back and Takes Post at 326 - Aughrim—Description of the Field—Disposition of - the Irish Forces—Baal Dearg O’Donnell’s Apathy - - - CHAPTER IV - - De Ginkel Marches After St. Ruth—The Latter 332 - Prepares to “Conquer or Die”—His Speech to the - Irish Army on the Eve of Fighting - - - CHAPTER V - - Decisive Battle of Aughrim—It Opens Favorably for 336 - the Irish—Desperate Fighting in the Centre and - at Urachree—Fortune or Treason Favors De Ginkel - - - CHAPTER VI - - Battle of Aughrim Continued—Its Crisis—The English 342 - Turn Irish Left—St. Ruth Killed by Cannon - Ball—Confusion and Final Defeat of Irish Army - - - CHAPTER VII - - Mortality Among Officers of Rank on Both 350 - Sides—Acknowledged English Loss at - Aughrim—English and Irish Comments on Conduct of - Battle - - - - BOOK VI - - TREATING OF THE PERIOD FROM THE SECOND SIEGE OF 361 - LIMERICK, IN 1691, TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE - EXILED FRANCO-IRISH BRIGADE A CENTURY LATER - - - CHAPTER I - - Second Siege of Limerick—Terrific Bombardment—The 363 - English, Aided by Treachery, Cross the - Shannon—Massacre of Thomond Bridge - - - CHAPTER II - - Capitulation of Limerick—Terms of the Famous 371 - “Violated Treaty”—Cork Harbor Tragedy - - - CHAPTER III - - The Irish Troops, as a Majority, Enter the French 383 - Service—King James Receives Them Cordially—His - Testimony of Their Devotion and Courage - - - CHAPTER IV - - Early Exploits of the Irish Brigade in the Service 388 - of France—At Landen, Cremona, and - Blenheim—Tribute Paid it by an English Historian - - - CHAPTER V - - The Irish Brigade in the Campaigns of North Italy 393 - and Flanders—Its Strength at Various - Periods—Count Dillon’s Reply to King Louis XV - - - CHAPTER VI - - The Austrian Succession—Campaign of 399 - 1745—Magnificent Achievement of the Irish - Brigade at Fontenoy—Prince Louis’s Adieu to the - Heroes - - - - BOOK VII - - NARRATING THE MANY PENAL STATUTES AGAINST THE 409 - CATHOLICS, AND CARRYING THE STORY DOWN TO THE - ACQUIREMENT OF A FREE COMMERCE BY THE IRISH - PARLIAMENT, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF GRATTAN, - A.D. 1780 - - - CHAPTER I - - Anti-Catholic Penal Laws—Their Drastic, Brutal and 411 - Absurd Provisions—Professional Informers, - Called “Priest-Hunters” - - - CHAPTER II - - Restrictions on Irish Trade and Manufactures—All 424 - Creeds Suffer—Presbyterian Exodus to - America—Death of Royal Personages—Accession of - George I - - - CHAPTER III - - Further Commercial Restrictions—Continued Exodus 431 - of Working People—Jonathan Swift—“The Patriot - Party”—Tyranny of Primate Boulter - - - CHAPTER IV - - Official Extravagance—Charles Lucas, Leader of 439 - Irish Opposition—Chesterfield Viceroy—His - Recall—Dorset’s Vile Administration - - - CHAPTER V - - More Persecution of Catholics Under George 447 - II—Secret Committee Formed—Snubbed by the - Speaker—Received by the Viceroy—Anti-Union Riot - in Dublin - - - CHAPTER VI - - Accession of George III—His Character—Boasts of 452 - Being “a Briton”—Death of Dr. Lucas—Lord - Townsend’s Novel Idea of Governing - Ireland—Septennial Parliament Refused - - - CHAPTER VII - - The Peace of Paris—Agrarian Warfare in 457 - Ireland—Judicial Murder of Father Sheehy—All who - Swore Against Him Die Violent Deaths—Secret - Societies - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Flood and Grattan—Sudden Rise of the Latter—Speaks 462 - for a Free Commerce—The Volunteer - Movement—England Yields to Irish Demand - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOK I - - -DEALING WITH THE STORY OF THE IRISH PEOPLE FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO -THE ADVENT OF THE REFORMATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - Prefatory—Territorial Divisions of Ireland—Physical Features of the - Country—Peculiarities of Soil, Climate, and Scenery - - -THAT famous English Republican, Thomas Paine—whose political pamphlets -have been admired quite as much as his theological works have been -censured—uttered in “Common Sense,” published in 1776, while he was -serving under Washington in the Continental Army, this striking -aphorism: “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America.” -His object was to stimulate the patriotic pride of such American -colonists—and they were many—as were not of English birth or descent, -and to proclaim that the other great branches of the human race, settled -in America, must, of necessity, have a vital interest in the successful -issue of the War for Independence. No other great country of the world -has a population made up of so many divers “previous nationalities,” all -combined into one gigantic political whole, as the United States of -America. Most of the notable nations of the Old World are here -represented not by hundreds or thousands, but by millions of citizens, -“racy of the soil,” and proud to call themselves Americans. A French -patriot once said, speaking in the Chamber of Deputies: “There is no -French race. France is a grand political entity which all true -Frenchmen, of whatever race, worship.” This fine sentiment can be even -more logically applied to America and Americans, for both are still in -the formative period. Several centuries hence, perhaps, a race of people -distinctively American in all respects may occupy this country, but -while the great stream of European immigration continues to flow toward -the setting sun there can not exist such a racial condition in this -Republic, except in those remote districts in which the immigrant rarely -seeks a home. - -Most Americans have read something of the political misfortunes of -Ireland, but very many among us have not made her history even a partial -study, and have often taken their views of it, at second hand, from -sources that could not fail to be partial and, therefore, prejudicial. -We do not need to apologize for seeking to throw more light, in a simple -yet comprehensive manner, on the history of that beautiful island the -blood of whose exiled children flows in the veins of not less than -20,000,000 of the American people. The Irish race owes much to America, -and America, in turn, owes much to it. Truly has it been said of the -American Irish that they were with the Republic at its birth, guarded -its infancy, rejoiced in its growth and prosperity, and will endure with -it until the end, which comes, in the fulness of time, to even the -greatest among nations. Thomas Francis Meagher (Mä’her or Marr)—the -young Irish patriot and orator of 1848, and afterward a famous Union -general of the Civil War—in one of the brilliant speeches he delivered -in this country, said: “When, in 1849, I was a political captive on -board an English battleship, I beheld, one bright morning, through the -porthole of my cabin, while we were anchored in an Australian harbor, -the Stars and Stripes floating from the mast of a stately American -frigate and hailed Liberty at my prison-gate!” And this is the sentiment -of every honest immigrant who seeks the shelter of our flag. - -Ireland, called poetically, because of its perennial verdure, the -Emerald Isle, lies in the Atlantic Ocean, immediately westward of the -larger island of Great Britain, from which it is separated by, in most -parts, a wide and deep strait, varying in width from 14 miles, where the -headlands of Antrim approach the western coast of Scotland, to about 125 -miles, which is the maximum distance from the coast of England. This -strait is called, running from north to south consecutively, the North -Channel, the Irish Sea, and St. George’s Channel. The high shore of -Scotland is always visible, in clear weather, from the northeast coast -of Ireland, and the mountains of Wales, about 65 miles distant, may be -seen, under similar conditions, from Bray Head and other points on the -Leinster coast, but no part of England can be seen at any time from the -Irish shore. Ireland, considered geographically, is of an irregular -rhomboidal shape, by some writers compared to an oblong shield, and is -situated between Latitude 51° 26´ and 55° 21´ North, and Longitude 5° -21´ and 10° 26´ West, projecting farther into the Atlantic Ocean, to the -westward, than any other portion of European soil. Its total area, -including many small islands close to the coast, is about 32,500 square -miles, or 19,000 less than England, 2,000 more than Scotland, 25,000 -more than Wales, and nearly 2,000 less than our inland State of Indiana. -Ireland would make, almost to a fraction, thirty-two States the size of -Rhode Island, which has a Legislature of its own—a privilege the Green -Isle does not, at present, enjoy. - -The island is divided into four provinces—in ancient times it had five; -namely, Leinster in the east, Ulster in the north, Connaught in the -west, and Munster in the south. These are, again, divided into -two-and-thirty counties—a system of Anglo-Norman, or English, invention, -and, according to the learned Doctor Joyce, savant and historian, they -generally represent the older native territories and sub-kingdoms. King -John, “Lord” of Ireland, formed twelve of them in the twelfth -century—Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Uriel (or Louth), Carlow, Kilkenny, -Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary. Henry VIII -divided Meath proper into two counties and called one Westmeath. King’s -and Queen’s Counties were formed in the reign of Mary I, who married -Philip II of Spain, out of the old districts of Leix and Offaly. Hence -their capitals are called, respectively, Philipstown and Maryborough. -The county Longford was formed out of the territory of Annaly, by Deputy -Sir Henry Sydney, about 1565. The same official divided Connaught into -six counties—Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim, and Clare. The -latter county, although situated on the Connaught bank of the river -Shannon, was subsequently given to Munster, because it had formed a part -of that province in ancient times. Antrim and Down were organized into -counties early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and Lord Deputy Perrott, -about 1584, formed seven others out of Ulster; namely, Armagh, Monaghan, -Tyrone, Coleraine (now Derry), Donegal, Fermanagh, and Cavan. Dublin -County, at first, included Wicklow, but, in 1605, during the reign of -James I, Sir Arthur Chichester made the latter a separate county. - -The existing division of the counties among the provinces is as follows: -Munster comprises Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and -Waterford; Ulster contains Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, -Fermanagh, Derry, Monaghan, and Tyrone; Connaught has Galway, Leitrim, -Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo; Leinster comprises Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, -Kilkenny, King’s County, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen’s County, -Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow. - -The reader ought to know, however, that a majority of the Ulster and -Connaught counties, and some in Leinster and Munster, did not recognize -their English designations, or yield to English law, in any shape, until -after the accession of James I to the British throne, in 1603. They were -governed by their own princes, chiefs, and judges, under the old Brehon -law, until “the Peace of Mellifont” in that year. - -While the Irish counties differ very materially in extent, the provinces -show the following proportions: Munster, 6,064,579 acres; Ulster, -5,475,458; Leinster, 4,871,118; Connaught, 4,392,043. The island is -further subdivided into 316 baronies, 2,532 parishes, and 60,760 -townlands, which average about 300 acres each. These are figures with -which every student of Irish history should be familiar. - -The country is, in general, very fertile, and grows cereals luxuriantly. -The green crops, such as turnips, parsnips, cabbages, and kindred -vegetables, are unexcelled. Its grazing capacity is very great, and -Irish horses, homed cattle, sheep, and swine are among the choicest in -Europe. Apples, pears, plums, and the smaller fruits grow abundantly in -the mild, moist climate, but the Irish sun will not ripen peaches, -grapes, or tomatoes, unless they are under glass. Poultry thrive -wondrously, and there is a large exportation of fowl and eggs to the -British markets. Irish butter ranks high also. Yet the country is poor, -chiefly because of the scarcity of manufactures, and for other reasons -that will be explained as we proceed. - -The Irish climate is equable, but, in general, damp, when compared with -that of America. Neither summer heat nor winter cold produces -discomfort, except at very rare intervals. Violent storms are -infrequent, except along the western coast, and electrical disturbances -are much rarer than in our atmosphere. Only one cyclonic storm, that of -January 6, 1839, visited Ireland during the nineteenth century, and it -is known to this day as “the Big Wind.” - -Irish scenery is peculiar in character—soft, yet bold of outline, as -regards its mountain regions. The cliffs on the Connaught, Ulster, and -Munster coasts are tall and beetling—those of Moher, in Clare, and those -that flank the Giants’ Causeway—a remarkable basaltic formation in -Antrim—being the most notable. All the elevations that rise above a -thousand feet are clothed with the heather, which is also peculiar to -Scotland, and this plant changes its hue with every season so that there -is a constant shifting of color, which adds much to the charm of the -landscape. The Irish sky, too, is changeful, so much so that an Irish -poet, in paying tribute to the beauty of his wife, wrote: - - “Eyes like the skies of dear Erin, our mother, - Where shadow and sunshine are chasing each other!” - -Snow generally disappears from the summits of the Irish mountains about -the second week of May. The mildness of the climate in a latitude so far -toward the north is due to the powerful influence of the warm Gulf -Stream, and this also explains the verdure of the country at almost all -periods of the year. A striking characteristic of the Irish mountains is -that they, in general, rise abruptly from the plain, which gives them an -appearance of greater altitude than they really possess; the highest -peak in the island—that of Carn Tual in Kerry—being only a trifle over -3,400 feet. There is still another peculiarity of the Irish mountain -system which strikes all tourists—the highland chains, for the most -part, rise near the coast, and follow its course, thus making it one of -the boldest and grandest in Europe, while some detached groups, such as -the Galtee and Slieve Bloom ranges in Munster and Leinster, the Curlews -in Connaught and Slieve Snacht (Snowy range) in Ulster, seem to be -independent formations. - -The Irish lakes are numerous and, in general, picturesque. Lough Neagh -(Nay) in the north, Lough Corrib in the west, and Lough Dearg—an expanse -of the Shannon—are the largest, but the most famed for scenery are those -of Killarney in Kerry, Lough Dan in Wicklow, and Lough Gill in Sligo. -The Irish rivers are many, and, in the main, beautiful streams. The -Shannon is the greatest river in the realm of Great Britain and Ireland, -while the Suir, the Barrow, the Nore, the Slaney, the Corrib, the Erne, -the Foyle, the Boyne, and the Liffey are also considerable rivers and -possess enough waterpower, were it scientifically utilized, to turn the -wheels of the world’s machinery. The Munster Blackwater, celebrated, -like its sister river, the Suir, in the charming poetry of Edmund -Spenser, is called, because of its peculiar loveliness, “the Irish -Rhine.” After a winding and picturesque course through the south of -Munster, it falls into the ocean at Youghal—a town of which the famous -Sir Walter Raleigh, of Queen Elizabeth’s Court, was once mayor. - -One-seventh of the surface of Ireland is computed to be under -bogs—semi-spongy formations, claimed by some naturalists to be the -decomposed relics of mighty forests with which Ireland was covered in -remote ages. The aspect of these “moors,” as they are called by the -British, is dreary enough in winter, but at other periods they have -their charms; the heather and mosses with which they are, in many -places, thickly clothed, changing hue, as on the mountains, with every -season. Nearly all of these bogs are capable of being reclaimed for -agricultural uses, but the people do not desire their reclamation, for -the reason that they furnish cheap fuel to most of the rural districts, -where there is neither coal nor timber supply. Owing to the mildness of -the climate, the cut and dried sods of “peat,” called “turf,” which -resemble brown bricks, take the place of coal and wood, and make quite a -comfortable fire. “Stone turf,” produced by artificial pressure, and an -extra drying process, makes almost as hot a fire as anthracite, but is -much dearer than the ordinary article, which is softer and lighter. -Indeed, the common Irish turf would be almost useless in our fierce -winter weather. These fuel “reservoirs” can not be exhausted for ages to -come. It is claimed that, by some mysterious process of nature, they -renew themselves from time to time, after they have been “given a rest” -by the turf-cutters. Many large bogs occupy the summits and sides of the -mountains, and seem to be of the same character as those on the level -land. Occasionally the high morasses shift their positions, like -glaciers, only with a much quicker movement, and overwhelm, like the -avalanche, everything in their path. These are called “the moving bogs.” -The last phenomenon of the kind occurred in the County Kerry a few years -ago, when much property was destroyed and several lives were lost. -Scientists claim that these bogs are undermined by bodies of water, -which, when flooded, lift the crust and carry it with them, in their -effort to find their natural level. It is well known in Ireland that -several small, but deep, lakes now occupy places that were formerly -covered by these strange formations. We will devote a separate chapter -to other features of this interesting country. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - Further of the Characteristics and Resources of the Island—Present Form - of Government - - -GOLD, silver, copper, lead, iron, and other malleable minerals are found -in Ireland. The gold is discovered in small quantities, at least in -modern times, but the beautiful ornaments, composed of that precious -metal, and much used by the ancient Irish nobility, preserved in the -Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, and elsewhere in Ireland and -Great Britain, would indicate that it was at one time plentiful in the -island. Silver is found in paying quantities in several districts, and -silver mines are now in operation in the northern portion of Munster. -The lead, copper, and iron deposits have never been seriously worked, -and, therefore, it is impossible to arrive at any satisfactory estimate -of their extent. Coal is found in many counties, but the most extensive -fields are in Ulster. Much light is thrown on this subject by Kane’s -“Resources of Ireland,” which can be found, most likely, in the public -libraries. It gives most interesting statistics, but they would be far -too heavy for our more condensed narrative. - -Ireland possesses over seventy harbors. Fourteen are of the first class -and can shelter the very largest sea-going vessels, whether naval or -mercantile. Unhappily, excepting those of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and -Belfast, they are comparatively little used for commerce, for reasons -that will present themselves in succeeding chapters. - -Although in olden times a thickly wooded country, Ireland of to-day is -rather bare of forests. There are numerous luxuriant groves and -woodlands, and many of the highroads are bordered with stately trees. -The “quick-set hedges,” planted with thorn shrubs, give, particularly in -summer, a well-furnished appearance to the country, except in a few -rather barren districts, where stone walls, as in portions of New -England, are quite common. Irish farms are nearly all divided and -subdivided by these formidable fences, quick-set or stone, so that, when -viewed from any considerable height, the surrounding country looks like -a huge, irregular checker-board—a much more picturesque arrangement of -the landscape than our American barbed-wire obstructions, but at the -cost of a vast amount of good land, in the aggregate. - -The island contains many populous, finely built cities, well governed -under local municipal rule. Dublin, the capital, contains, including -suburbs, about 300,000 people, and is considered a very handsome -metropolis. It is surrounded by enchanting hamlets, and the sea-bathing -resorts in the neighborhood are delightful. Belfast, the great -commercial city of Ulster, is almost as populous as Dublin, and has many -of the thrifty characteristics of an American municipality. Cork, -Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Londonderry, and Drogheda are still -places of much importance, although some of them have greatly declined, -both in wealth and population, during the last century. - -Owing to persistent agitation, and some fierce uprisings, which caused -the imperial government to listen to the voice of reason, the social and -political conditions of the Irish people have been somewhat improved of -late years. The Irish Church was disestablished by the Gladstone -Ministry, in 1869, and, under the leadership of Isaac Butt, Parnell, -Davitt, and other Irish patriots, Protestant as well as Catholic, the -harsh land laws have been greatly modified, and the Irish people have a -better “hold on their soil,” and are much less subject to the capricious -will of their landlords than formerly. They are, also, much better -lodged and fed than in the last generation, and education, of a -practical kind, has become almost universal. The national school system -has many features in common with our own, and is improving year by year. -In the higher branches of education, Ireland is well supplied. Trinity -College, Dublin, the Alma Mater of many celebrated men, has existed -since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but, until the end of the eighteenth -century, was not open to Catholics. Maynooth College, in Kildare, is the -great Catholic ecclesiastical seminary of Ireland, and there is also a -Catholic university in Dublin. Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, and other -cities have Catholic colleges, and there are Protestant seats of -learning in Ulster and other provinces. Cork, Belfast, and Galway have -each branch universities, called “Queen’s Colleges,” which are conducted -on a non-sectarian basis. These are only a few of Ireland’s educational -institutions, but they serve to illustrate the agreeable fact that a -dearth of opportunity for acquiring learning is no longer a reproach to -the Irish people, or, rather, to their English law-makers. The taxes -which support the institutions maintained by Government are paid by -Ireland into the Imperial Treasury, so that Great Britain is not -burdened by them, as many suppose. Recently, a commission appointed by -the British Parliament to inquire into the financial relations between -Great Britain and Ireland reported back that the latter country was -overtaxed annually to the amount of $15,000,000. This grievance, -although complained of by all classes, has not yet been redressed. -Dublin, Belfast, and other leading Irish cities possess very choice and -extensive libraries. That of Trinity College, in the first-mentioned -city, is considered one of the best in Europe, and it is particularly -rich in ancient Irish manuscripts, some of which have been translated -from the original Gaelic into English by the late Dr. John O’Donovan, -Professor Eugene O’Curry, and other Irish savants. There are many large -circulating libraries in all the principal municipalities, and most of -the smaller towns. These are patronized, in the main, by poor people of -literary taste, who can not afford satisfactory libraries of their own. -There is now a revival of Irish literature in Great Britain as well as -in Ireland itself. Many English and Scotch firms have taken to printing -Irish prose and poetry in the English tongue, so that Irish authors are -no longer confined, as they were, with a few exceptions, of old, to an -insular constituency. Irish literary work of merit, when not strongly -patriotic, sells readily in Great Britain to-day. This is due, partly, -to a growing appreciation of Irish talent among the more liberal classes -of the English people, and still more, perhaps, to the very large Irish -population that has developed itself on the soil of “the predominant -partner” within the last half of the nineteenth century. There is a -strong Chartist, or republican, element in England friendly to the Irish -claim of legislative independence, and this element, which we hear -comparatively little of in America, for reasons it is not necessary to -discuss in this history, is growing more powerful as time rolls by, and -some day, not very distant, perhaps, is bound to greatly modify the -existing governmental system of the British Empire, and render it more -popular. - -Ireland is very rich in monastic and martial ruins. The round towers -which sentinel the island are declared by many antiquaries to antedate -the Christian period, and are supposed to have been pagan temples -dedicated to the worship of the sun, which, some historians claim, was -Ireland’s chief form of the Druidic belief. - - “The names of their founders have vanished in the gloom, - Like the dry branch in the fire, or the body in the tomb, - But to-day, in the ray, their shadows still they cast— - These temples of forgotten gods, these relics of the past.” - -The grass-grown circular raths, or “forts,” as the peasantry call them, -varying greatly in diameter, are supposed to be remnants of the Danish -invasion, but many archæologists place them at a much earlier date, and -give them not a Danish but a Danaan origin—the latter tribe being -claimed as among the first settlers of Ireland. The largest “fort” or -“dun” in the island is that near Downpatrick, which is sixty feet high -and three-quarters of a mile in circumference. Much of the stately -architecture seen in the ruins of abbeys, churches, and chapels belongs -to the Anglo-Norman period, as does also the military architecture, -which survives in such types as the keeps of Limerick, Nenagh, and Trim; -but the Celtic type of church construction is preserved, after the lapse -of more than a thousand years, in its primitive purity, at Glendalough -in Wicklow, Clonmacnois in King’s County, and Cong in Galway. - -[Illustration: - - (_Click on the map to see a larger version._) -] - -Three hundred years of warfare with the pagan Danes, and five hundred -with the Anglo-Normans and Anglo-Saxons, made Ireland the Island of -Ruins, as well as the Island of Saints and Scholars. - -Before January 1, 1801, Ireland was a distinct and separate kingdom, -having a Parliament of her own and connected with Great Britain by what -has been called “the golden link of the crown.” How that Parliament was, -unfortunately for all concerned, abolished will appear in its proper -order. Since 1801 Ireland has been governed by the Imperial Parliament, -sitting in London, composed of representatives from England, Scotland, -Ireland, and Wales—670 in all, of whom 103 are Irish members. Of these -latter, 82 are Nationalists, or Repealers of the Act of Union, while 21 -are Unionists, or adherents of the present political connection. The -preponderating vote of Great Britain hopelessly overwhelms the Irish -representation, and hence the work of reform, as far as Ireland is -concerned, is slow and difficult. The executive functions are intrusted -to a Lord Lieutenant, who is appointed by each succeeding Ministry, to -represent the monarch of Great Britain. He is assisted in his duties by -a Chief Secretary, two Under Secretaries, a Lord Chancellor, a Lord -Chief Justice, a Master of the Rolls, a Chief Baron of the Exchequer, -many less prominent officers, and a Privy Council, which comprises -several of the officials mentioned, together with the leading supporters -of the crown in the capital and throughout the country. Some of the -official members of this Council are not natives of Ireland; and the -Lord Lieutenant himself is almost invariably an English or Scotch -aristocrat of high rank and liberal fortune. No Catholic can fill the -office of Viceroy of Ireland. The authority of the latter is, to all -intents and purposes, absolute. In seasons of political agitation, even -when there is no violence, he can suspend the ordinary law without -having recourse to Parliament. This power has been frequently exercised -even in this generation. The Lord Lieutenant’s official residence is -Dublin Castle, but he has also a commodious viceregal lodge in the -Phœnix Park. His salary is $100,000 per annum—just twice that of our -President—but, in general, he spends much more out of his private -fortune, as he is, nearly always, chosen for his wealth as much as for -his rank. When he goes among the people, he is, almost invariably, -attended by a strong cavalry escort and a dashing staff of -aides-de-camp, glittering in silver, steel, and gold. The military -garrison of Dublin is strong, not often under 10,000 men, and at the -Curragh Camp, about twenty miles distant, in Kildare, there is a much -larger force. Most of the large towns are also heavily garrisoned. Thus, -after an occupation, either nominal or actual, of seven and one-third -centuries, England still finds it expedient to govern Ireland as a -military district—a sad commentary on the chronic misgovernment of ages. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - The Original Inhabitants of Ireland - - -VAGUE poetical tradition flings a mystical veil over the origin of the -earliest inhabitants of Ireland. The historian, McGee, who would seem to -have made a serious study of the subject, says that the first account -given by the bards and the professional story-tellers attributes the -settlement of the island to Parthalon of the race of Japhet, who, with a -number of followers, reached it by way of the Mediterranean and -Atlantic, “about three hundred years after the Universal Deluge.” The -colonists, because of the unnatural crimes of their leader, were, we are -told, “cut off to the last man by a dreadful pestilence.” - -The second colony, also a creature of tradition, was said to have been -led by a chief called Nemedh from the shores of the Black Sea across -Muscovy to the Baltic, and from that sea they made their way to the -Irish shore. In Ireland, they encountered a stronger race, said to have -been of African origin, called Formorians, with whom they had many -severe battles and were by them finally defeated and either killed or -driven from the country, to which some of their descendants returned in -after years. - -After Nemedh came the Firbolgs, or Belgæ, under the five sons of their -king, Dela, who divided the island into five parts and held it -undisputedly until the Tuatha de Danaans, said to be descended from -Nemedh, and having magical power to quell storms, invaded the island, -carrying with them the “lia fail,” or “Stone of Destiny,” from which -Ireland derived its fanciful title of “Innis fail,” or the “Island of -Destiny.” The Danaans are said to have been of the Greek family. In any -case, it is claimed, they subdued the Belgæ and made them their serfs. -They ruled mightily, for a time, but, in turn, were compelled to give -way to a stronger tide of invasion. - -This was formed by a people who called themselves, according to most -Irish annalists, Gaels, from an ancient ancestor; Milesians, from the -appellation of their king, who ruled in distant Spain, and Scoti, or -Scots, from Scota, the warlike mother of King Milesius. These Milesians -are said to have come into Spain from the region of the Caucasus, and -all agree that they were formidable warriors. Tradition says that -Ireland was first discovered, as far as the Milesians were concerned, by -Ith, uncle of the Spanish king, who, while on a voyage of exploration, -sighted the island, and, attracted by its beauty, landed, but was -attacked by the Danaans and mortally wounded. His followers carried him -to his galley, and he died at sea, but the body was brought back to -Spain. His son, Loci, who had accompanied Ith, summoned all the Milesian -family to avenge their kinsman’s death and conquer the Promised Island -of their race. Milesius, or Miledh, had expired before Loci’s return, -but his sons, Heber the Fair, Amergin, Heber the Brown, Colpa, Ir, and -Heremon rallied to the call of vengeance and conquest, set sail for -Ireland, landed there, and, in spite of Danaan witchcraft and Firbolgian -valor, beat down all opposition and became masters of the beautiful -island. Thomas Moore, in his immortal Irish Melodies, thus deals with -this legendary event: - - “They came from a land beyond the sea, - And now o’er the Western main, - Set sail in their good ships gallantly - From the sunny land of Spain. - ‘Oh, where’s the isle we’ve seen in dreams, - Our destined home or grave?’ - Thus sang they as, by the morning’s beams, - They swept the Atlantic wave. - - “And, lo, where afar o’er ocean shines - A sparkle of radiant green, - As though in that deep lay emerald mines - Whose light through the wave was seen. - ‘’Tis Innisfail! ’tis Innisfail!’ - Rings o’er the echoing sea, - While bending to heaven the warriors hail - That home of the brave and free. - - “Then turned they unto the Eastern wave, - Where now their Day-God’s eye - A look of such sunny omen gave - As lighted up sea and sky, - Nor frown was seen through sky or sea, - Nor tear on leaf or sod, - When first on their Isle of Destiny - Our great forefathers trod.” - -The migration of those Celto-Iberians to Ireland is generally placed at -from 1500 to 2000 years before the birth of Christ; but there is not -much certainty about the date; it stands wholly on tradition. On one -point, at least, a majority of Irish annalists seem to be agreed—namely, -that the Milesians were of Celtic stock and Scythian origin, but the -route they took from Scythia to Spain, as well as the date of their -exodus, remains an undetermined question. Celtic characteristics, both -mental and physical, are still deeply stamped on the Irish people, -notwithstanding the large admixture of the blood of other races, -resulting from the numerous after invasions, both pagan and Christian. -Thomas Davis, the leading Irish national poet of the middle of the -nineteenth century, sums up the elements that constitute the present -Irish population, truly and tersely, thus: - - “Here came the brown Phœnician, - The man of trade and toil; - Here came the proud Milesian - A-hungering for spoil; - And the Firbolg, and the Kymry, - And the hard, enduring Dane, - And the iron lords of Normandy, - With the Saxons in their train. - - And, oh, it were a gallant deed - To show before mankind, - How every race, and every creed, - Might be by love combined; - Might be combined, yet not forget - The fountains whence they rose, - As filled by many a rivulet - The stately Shannon flows!” - -And the fine verses of the Irish poet may be applied with almost equal -propriety to the cosmopolitan population of the United States—more -varied in race than even that of Ireland. No good citizen is less of an -American simply because he scorns to forget, or to allow his children to -forget, “the fountains whence they rose.” Anglo-Americans never forget -it, nor do Franco-Americans, or Americans of Teutonic origin; or, in -fact, Americans of any noted race. Americans of Irish birth or origin -have quite as good a right to be proud of their cradle-land and their -ancient ancestry as any other element in this Republic; and the study of -impartial Irish history by pupils of all races would do much to soften -prejudices and remove unpleasant impressions that slanderous, partial -historians have been mainly instrumental in creating. - -The language—Gaelic, or Erse, as it is called in our day—spoken by the -Milesian conquerors of Ireland so many thousand years ago, is not yet -nearly extinct on Irish soil; and it is often used by Irish emigrants in -various parts of the world. More than thirty centuries have faded into -eternity since first its soft, yet powerful, accents were heard on -Ireland’s shore, but still nearly a million people out of four and a -half millions speak it, and hundreds of thousands have more or less -knowledge of the venerable tongue in its written form. Great efforts -have been put forth of late years to promote its propagation throughout -the island, and it is a labor of love in which all classes, creeds, and -parties in Ireland cordially work together. It is not intended, of -course, to supplant the English language, but to render Gaelic co-equal -with it, as in Wales—a thoroughly Celtic country, in which the native -language—Kymric—has been wondrously revived during the past and present -century. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - The Religion of Ancient Ireland—Many Writers say it was Worship of the - Sun, Moon, and Elements - - -WE have mentioned that sun-worship was one of the forms of ancient Irish -paganism. There is much difference of opinion on this point, and the -late learned Gaelic expert, Professor Eugene O’Curry, holds that there -is no reliable proof of either sun-worship or fire-worship in antique -Irish annals. On the other hand, we have the excellent historian, Abbé -McGeoghegan, chaplain of the famous Franco-Irish Brigade of the -seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, supported by other authorities, -instancing the sun as, at least, one of the objects of Irish pagan -adoration. Other writers, including the painstaking McGee, seem to -accept the startling assertion that human victims were occasionally -sacrificed on the pagan altars. This, however, is open to doubt, as the -Irish people, however intense in their religious convictions, have never -been deliberately cruel or murderously fanatical. We quote on these -sensitive subjects—particularly sensitive where churchmen are -concerned—from McGeoghegan and McGee, both strong, yet liberal, Catholic -historians. On page 63 of his elaborate and admirable “History of -Ireland,” McGeoghegan remarks: “Great honors were paid to the Druids and -Bards among the Milesians, as well as to those among the Britons and -Gauls. The first, called Draoi in their language, performed the duties -of priest, philosopher, legislator, and judge. Cæsar has given, in his -Commentaries, a well-detailed account of the order, office, -jurisdiction, and doctrine of the Druids among the Gauls. As priests, -they regulated religion and its worship; according to their will, the -objects of it were determined, and the ‘divinity’ often changed; to -them, likewise, the education of youth was intrusted. Guided by the -Druids, the Milesians generally adored Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Apollo, -the sun, moon, and wind; they had also their mountain, forest, and river -gods. These divinities were common to them and to other nations of the -world.... According to the Annals of Ulster, cited by Ware, the -antiquarian, the usual oath of Laegore (Leary) II, King of Ireland, in -the time of St. Patrick, was by the sun and wind.” - -McGee, writing of the same subject, on pages 5 and 9 of his “Popular -History of Ireland,” says: “The chief officers about the kings, in the -first ages, were all filled by the Druids or pagan priests; the Brehons, -or judges, were usually Druids, as were also the Bards, the historians -of their patrons. Then came the Physicians, the Chiefs who paid tribute -to or received annual gifts from the sovereign, the royal Stewards, and -the military leaders, or Champions.... Their religion in pagan times was -what the moderns call Druidism, but what they called it themselves we -now know not. It was probably the same religion anciently professed by -Tyre and Sidon, by Carthage and her colonies in Spain; the same religion -which the Romans have described as existing in great part of Gaul, and, -by their accounts, we learn the awful fact that it sanctioned, nay, -demanded, human sacrifices. From the few traces of its doctrines which -Christian zeal has permitted to survive in the old Irish language, we -see that Belus or Crom, the god of fire, typified by the sun, was its -chief divinity—that two great festivals were held in his honor on days -answering to the first of May and last of October. There were also -particular gods of poets, champions, artificers, and mariners, just as -among the Romans and Greeks. Sacred groves were dedicated to these gods; -priests and priestesses devoted their lives to their service; the arms -of the champion and the person of the king were charmed by them; neither -peace nor war was made without their sanction; their own persons and -their pupils were held sacred; the high place at the king’s right hand -and the best fruits of the earth and the water were theirs. Old age -revered them, women worshiped them, warriors paid court to them, youth -trembled before them, princes and chiefs regarded them as elder -brethren. So numerous were they in Erin, and so celebrated, that the -altars of Britain and Western Gaul, left desolate by the Roman legions, -were often served by hierophants from Ireland, which, even in those -pagan days, was known to all the Druidic countries as the Sacred -Island.” - -The two greatest battles fought in Ireland during the early Milesian -period were that near Tralee, in Kerry, where the Milesian queen-mother, -Scota, perished, and the conflict at Taltean, in Meath, where the three -Danaan kings, with their wives and warriors, were slain. After these -events, Heber and Heremon divided Ireland between them, but eventually -quarreled. A battle ensued, in which Heber fell, and Heremon was -thereafter, for many years, undisputed monarch of all Ireland. A large -majority of the Celtic families of the island are descended from the two -royal brothers and bitter rivals. Their most famous Milesian successors -in pagan times were Tuathal (Too-hal), the Legitimate, who formed the -royal province of Meath, which existed for many ages, and is now -represented, but on a much smaller scale, by the modern counties of -Meath and Westmeath. The province itself was dismembered centuries ago, -and, since then, Ireland has had but four provincial divisions instead -of five. Tuathal is also credited with having originated the Borumah -(Boru) or “Cow Tribute,” which he imposed on Leinster as a penalty for a -crime committed against two of his daughters by the king of that -province. This tribute was foredoomed to be a curse to the Irish nation -at large, and its forceful imposition by successive Ard-Righs caused -torrents of blood to be shed. It was abolished toward the end of the -seventh century by the Christian king of all Ireland, Finacta II, -surnamed the Hospitable. “Conn of the Hundred Battles” made a record as -a ruler and a warrior. Cormac MacArt, because of his great wisdom, was -called the Lycurgus of Ireland. Niall of the Nine Hostages—ancestor of -the O’Neills—was a formidable monarch, who carried the terror of his -arms far beyond the seas of Ireland. His nephew, King Dathi (Dahy) was -also a royal rover, and, while making war in northern Italy, was killed -by a thunderbolt in an alpine pass. Dathi was the last king of pagan -Ireland, but not the last pagan king. His successor, Leary, son of the -great Niall, received and protected St. Patrick, but never became a -Christian. After Leary’s death, no pagan monarch sat on the Irish -throne. - -Ancient Ireland was known by several names. The Greeks called it Iernis -and Ierni; said to have meant “Sacred Isle”; the Romans Hibernia, the -derivation and meaning of which are involved in doubt, and the Milesians -Innisfail, said to mean “the Island of Destiny,” and Eire, or Erinn, now -generally spelled Erin, said to signify “the Land of the West.” Many -learned writers dispute these translations, while others support them. -Within the last six centuries, the island has been known as Ireland, -said to signify West, or Western, land, but, as the savants differ about -this translation also, we will refrain from positive assertion. - -The Roman legions never trod on Irish soil, although they conquered and -occupied the neighboring island of Britain, except on the extreme north, -during four hundred years. Why the Romans did not attempt the conquest -of the island is a mystery. That they were able to conquer it can hardly -be doubted. Strange as the statement may seem to some, it was -unfortunate for Ireland that the Romans did not invade and subdue it. -Had they landed and prevailed, their great governing and organizing -genius would have destroyed the disintegrating Gaelic tribal system, -which ultimately proved the curse and bane of the Irish people. They -would also have trained a nation naturally warlike in the art of arms, -in which the Romans had no superiors and few peers. With Roman training -in war and government, the Irish would have become invincible on their -own soil, after the inevitable withdrawal of the Legions from the -island, and the Anglo-Normans, centuries afterward, could not have -achieved even their partial subjection. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - Advent of St. Patrick—His Wonderful Apostolic Career in Ireland—A - Captive and a Swineherd for Years, he Escapes and becomes the - Regenerator of the Irish Nation - - -A MAJORITY of learned historians claim that Christianity was introduced -into Ireland by Catholic missionaries from the continent of Europe long -before the advent of the accepted national apostle, St. Patrick, who, in -his boyhood, was captured on the northern coast of Ireland, while -engaged in a predatory expedition with the Gauls, or some other foreign -adventurers. In regard to this period of the future apostle’s career, we -are mainly guided by tradition, as the saint left no memoirs that would -throw light on his first Irish experience. Such expeditions were not -uncommon in the age in which he lived, nor were they for ages that -followed. It seems certain that his captors offered him no bodily harm, -and he was sent to herd swine amid the hills of Down. This inspired boy, -destined to be one of the greatest among men and the saints of God, -remained a prisoner in the hands of the pagan Irish—whom he found to be -a generous, and naturally devotional, people—for many years, and thus -acquired a thorough knowledge of their laws, language, and character. -Whether he was finally released by them, or managed to escape, is a -question of some dispute, but it is certain that he made his way back to -Gaul—now known as France—which, according to many accounts, was his -native land, although Scotland claims him also, and thence proceeded to -Rome, where, having been ordained a priest, he obtained audience of Pope -Celestine, and was by him encouraged and commissioned to convert the -distant Irish nation to Christianity. Filled with a holy zeal, Patrick -repaired as rapidly as possible to his field of labor, and, after -suffering many checks and rude repulses, at last, about the year 432, -found himself back in Ulster, where he fearlessly preached the Gospel to -those among whom he had formerly lived as a serf, with miraculous -success. Afterward, he proceeded to the royal province of Meath, and on -the storied hill of Slane, “over against” that of Tara, where the Irish -monarch, Leary, was holding court, lighted the sacred fire in defiance -of the edict of the Druid high-priest, who worshiped the fires of Baal -and forbade all others to be kindled, and, by its quenchless flame, -flung the sacred symbol of the Cross against the midnight skies of pagan -Ireland. The pagan king summoned the daring apostle to his presence, and -asked him concerning his sacred mission. Patrick explained it, and, -having obtained the royal consent, proceeded to preach with an eloquence -that dazzled king, princes, chiefs, and warriors. He even captivated -some of the Druid priests, but the high-priest, who dreaded the -apostle’s power of words, would have stopped him at the outset, had not -King Leary extended to him his favor and protection, although he himself -remained a pagan to the end of his life. The saint, having made a deep -impression and converted many of high and low degree, took to baptizing -the multitude, and tradition says that the beautiful river Boyne was the -Jordan of Ireland’s great apostle. It was while preaching at Tara that -St. Patrick’s presentation of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was -challenged by the Druid priests. He immediately stooped to the emerald -sod, plucked therefrom a small trefoil plant called the shamrock—some -say it was the wood sorrel—and, holding it up before the inquisitive and -interested pagans, proved how possible it was to an infinite Power to -combine three in one and one in three. Since that far-distant day, the -shamrock has been recognized as the premier national symbol of Ireland, -although the “sunburst” flag, emblematic of the Druidic worship, it is -presumed, precedes it in point of antiquity. The harp, which is another -of Ireland’s symbols, was adopted at a later period, in recognition of -her Bardic genius. - -St. Patrick, or rather Patricius, his Roman name, which signifies a -nobleman, lived and labored for many, many years after he preached at -Tara, and made many circuits of the island, adding tribe after tribe to -the great army of his converts. So deep was the impression he made in -the country that now, after the lapse of fourteen hundred years, which -were perioded by devastating wars and fearful religious and social -persecutions, his memory is as green and as hallowed as if he had died -but yesterday. Mountains, rivers, lakes, islands, and plains are -associated with his name, and thousands of churches, in Ireland and -throughout the world, are called after him, while millions of Ireland’s -sons are proud to answer to the glorious name of Patrick. He died at a -patriarchal age, in the abbey of Saul, County Down, founded by himself, -A.D. 493, and the anniversary of his departure from this life is -celebrated by Irishmen of all creeds, and in every land, on each 17th -day of March, which is called, in his honor, St. Patrick’s Day. - -It is no wonder that the Irish apostle is so well remembered and highly -honored. Since the disciples preached by the shores of the Galilee, -there has been no such conversion of almost an entire people from one -form of belief to another. The Druid priests, with some exceptions, -struggled long and bitterly against the rising tide of Christianity in -Ireland, but, within the century following the death of the great -missionary, the Druidic rites disappeared forever from the land, and -“Green Erin” became known thenceforth, for centuries, as the Island of -Saints. Romantic tradition attributes to St. Patrick the miracle of -driving all venomous reptiles out of Ireland. It is certain, however, -that neither snakes nor toads exist upon her soil, although both are -found in the neighboring island of Great Britain. - -According to Nennius, a British writer quoted by Dr. Geoffrey Keating, -St. Patrick founded in Ireland “three hundred and fifty-five churches, -and consecrated an equal number of bishops; and of priests, he ordained -three thousand.” “Let whomsoever may be surprised,” says Dr. Keating, -“at this great number of bishops in Ireland, contemporary with St. -Patrick, read what St. Bernard says in his Life of St. Malachias, as to -the practice in Ireland with regard to its bishops. He there says that -‘the bishops are changed and multiplied at the will of the metropolitan, -or archbishop, so that no single diocese is trusting to one, but almost -every church has its own proper bishop.’” After this statement of St. -Bernard no one can be astonished at the number of prelates mentioned -above, for the Church was then in its young bloom. The number of bishops -there mentioned will appear less wonderful on reading her domestic -records. In them we find that every deaconry in Ireland was, formerly, -presided over by a bishop. Irish annals show, also, that St. Patrick -consecrated in Ireland two archbishops, namely, an archbishop of Armagh, -as Primate of Ireland, and an archbishop of Cashel. After the great -apostle’s death, a long and illustrious line of native Irish -missionaries took up his sacred work and completed his moral conquest of -the Irish nation. Nor did their labors terminate with the needs of their -own country. They penetrated to the remotest corners of Britain, which -it is said they first converted to the Christian faith, and made holy -pilgrimages to the continent of Europe, founding in every district they -visited abbeys, monasteries, and universities. Ireland herself became -for a long period the centre of knowledge and piety in insular Europe, -and the ecclesiastical seminaries at Lismore, Bangor, Armagh, -Clonmacnois, and other places attracted thousands of students, both -native and alien, to her shores. Gaelic, the most ancient, it is claimed -by many savants, of the Aryan tongues, was the national language, and -continued so to be for more than a thousand years after the era of -Patrick; but Latin, Greek, and Hebrew formed important parts of the -collegiate curriculum, and the first-named tongue was the ordinary means -of communication with the learned men of other countries. - -The art of illuminated writing on vellum was carried to unrivaled -perfection in the Irish colleges and monasteries, and the manuscripts of -this class preserved in Dublin and London, facsimilies of which are now -placed in many American public libraries, as well as in those of -European universities, bear witness to the high state of civilization -attained by the Irish people during the peaceful and prosperous -centuries that followed the coming of St. Patrick and continued until -the demoralizing Danish invasion of the eighth century. - -The roll of the Irish saints of the early Christian period is a large -one, and contains, among others, the names of St. Columba, or -Columbkill, St. Finn Barr, St. Brendan, the Navigator; St. Kieran, of -Ossory; St. Kevin, of Glendalough; St. Colman, of Dromore; St. Canice, -of Kilkenny; St. Jarlath, of Tuam; St. Moling, of Ferns; St. Comgall, of -Bangor; St. Carthage, of Lismore; St. Finian, of Moville; St. Kieran, of -Clonmacnois; St. Laserian, of Leighlin; St. Fintan; St. Gall, the -Apostle of the Swiss; St. Columbanus, the Apostle of Burgundy; St. -Aidan, Apostle of Northumbria; St. Adamnan, Abbot of Iona; St. Rumold, -Apostle of Brabant; St. Feargal, Bishop of Salzburg. These are only a -few stars out of the almost countless galaxy of the holy men of ancient -Ireland. Of her holy women, also numerous, the chief were St. Bridget, -Brighid, or Bride, of Kildare; St. Monina, St. Ita, St. Syra, St. -Dympna, and St. Samthan. The premier female saint was, undoubtedly, St. -Bridget, which signifies, in old Gaelic, “a fiery dart.” Modern slang -often degrades the noble old name into “Biddy.” Although thought to be a -purely Irish appellation, it has been borne by, at least, two English -women of note. The Lady Bridget Plantagenet, youngest daughter of King -Edward IV, and “Mistress,” or Miss, Bridget Cromwell, daughter of the -Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth. Lady Plantagenet, who, in -addition to being the daughter of a monarch, was the sister of Edward V -and Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII; the niece of Richard III and the aunt -of Henry VIII, died a nun in the convent of Dartford, England, long -after the House of York had ceased to reign. “Mistress” Cromwell became -the wife of one of her father’s ablest partisans, and lived to see the -end of the Protectorate, from which her brother, Richard, was deposed, -and the restoration of the House of Stuart to the English throne. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - Ancient Laws and Government of the Irish - - -IRELAND, ages before she was Christianized, possessed a legal code of -great merit, generally called the Brehon Laws. These remained more or -less in force, from the earliest historic period down to the days of -James I, who, because of the wars and conquests of the armies of his -predecessor, Queen Elizabeth, was the first of the English monarchs that -succeeded in thoroughly breaking up the old system of Irish law and -government. The Brehon Laws were of Irish origin and contained many -provisions more in harmony with humanity and wisdom than some of the -boasted English enactments. In common with many other ancient countries -of Europe, Ireland did not impose the death penalty on a homicide, but, -instead, collected an eric, or blood fine, from him and his relatives, -for the benefit of the family of the man slain by his hand. The best and -briefest work on these interesting laws, which need more attention than -they can be given in a general history, was recently issued by an -English publishing house for the industrious author, Lawrence Ginnell, -lawyer, of the Middle Temple, London. In writing of the ancient form of -Irish monarchy, which, as we have already noted, was elective, Mr. -Ginnell says: “The Irish always had a man, not an assembly, at the head -of the state, and the system of electing a Tanist (heir-apparent) while -the holder of the office was living, in addition to its making for peace -on the demise of the Crown, made an interregnum of more rare occurrence -than in countries which had not provided a Tanist in advance.” The same -author divides the classes of Irish kings thus: The lowest was the -Righ-Inagh (Ree-eena), or king of one district, the people of which -formed an organic state. Sometimes two or three of these, nearly related -and having mutual interests, did not hesitate to combine for the public -good under one king. The next in rank was the Righ-Mor-Tuah -(Ree-More-Tooa), who ruled over a number of districts, and often had -sub-kings under him. The next class of monarch was the Righ-Cuicidh -(Ree-Cooga), a title which signified that he had five of the preceding -class within his jurisdiction. This was the rank of a provincial king. -And, highest of all, as his title implied, was the Ard-Righ (Ard-Ree), -meaning High, or Over, King, who had his seat of government for many -ages at the national palace and capital, established on the “royal hill -of Tara” in Meath. The king of each district owed allegiance and tribute -to the Righ-Mor-Tuah. The latter owed allegiance and tribute to the -Righ-Cuicidh; and he, in turn, owed allegiance and tribute to the -Ard-Righ. - -Although the ancient Irish monarchy was, except where forceful -usurpation occasionally prevailed, elective, the candidate for the -Tanistry, or heir-apparency, was required to be of the “blood royal.” -Minors were seldom or never recognized as being eligible. At rare -intervals one might win popular recognition by displaying a precocious -wisdom, or prowess. The ablest and bravest male member of the reigning -family was almost invariably chosen Ard-Righ, and the provincial and -district rulers were chosen on the same principle. Meath was the High -King’s own province, and the lesser monarchs swayed over Ulster, -Munster, Leinster, and Connaught, subsidiary to, yet in a measure -independent of, the Ard-Righ, who held his court at Tara until A.D. 554, -when St. Ruadan, because of sacrilege committed by the reigning monarch, -Dermid, in dragging a prisoner from the saint’s own sanctuary and -killing him, pronounced a malediction on the royal hill and palaces. -Thenceforth Tara ceased to be the residence of the Ard-Righs of Ireland, -and total ruin speedily fell upon it. All that now remains of its -legendary splendor is comprised in the fast vanishing mounds on which -once stood the palaces, assembly halls, and other public buildings of -Ireland’s ancient monarchs. No man or woman of Irish race can gaze -unmoved on the venerable eminence, rising proudly still above the rich -plains of Meath, which has beheld so many fast succeeding vicissitudes -of a nation’s rise, agony, and fall. - - “No more to chiefs and ladies bright - The harp of Tara swells; - The chord alone which breaks at night - Its tale of ruin tells: - Thus, Freedom now so seldom wakes, - The only throb she gives - Is when some heart indignant breaks - To show that still she lives.” - -The most famous and powerful of the royal families of Ireland were the -O’Neills of Ulster, who enjoyed the High Kingship longest of all; the -O’Briens of Munster, the O’Conors of Connaught, the MacMurroughs of -Leinster, and the McLaughlins of Meath. Their descendants are simply -legion, for all the Irish clansmen were kindred to their kings and -chiefs, and assumed, as was their blood right, their surnames when these -came into fashion. When the Irish septs, about the end of the tenth -century, by the direction of King Brian the Great, chose their family -designations, the prefix “Mac” was taken as indicating the son, or some -immediate descendant of the monarch, prince, or chief of that particular -tribe, while that of “Ui” or “O,” as it is now universally written in -English, signified a grandson or some more remote kinsman of the -original founder of the name. Thus, the families bearing the prefix -“Mac” generally hold that they descend from the elder lines of the royal -family, or the leading chiefs, while those who bear the “O” descend from -the younger lines. And so it has come to be a national proverb, founded -on more than mere fancy, that every Irishman is the descendant of a -king. The Irish prefixes, however, are a genuine certificate of -nobility, if by that term is meant long descent. An old rhyme puts the -matter in homely but logical manner thus: - - “By ‘Mac’ and ‘O’ you’ll surely know - True Irishmen, they say; - But if they lack both ‘O’ and ‘Mac’ - No Irishmen are they.” - -Many families of Irish origin in this and other countries have foolishly -dropped the Celtic prefixes from their names, and thus destroyed their -best title to respectability. They should remember that “Mac” and “O” -indicate a longer and nobler pedigree than either Capet, Plantagenet, -Tudor, Stuart, Guelph, or Wettin—all distinguished enough in their way, -but quite modern when compared with the Gaelic patronymics. The Scotch -Highlanders, who are of the junior branch of the Irish race, according -to the most reliable historians, use the “Mac” very generally, while the -“O” is rarely found among them. On this account, as well as others, some -of the Scottish savants have attempted to argue that Ireland was -originally peopled by immigrants from Scotland, but this argument is -fallacious on its face, because Ireland was known to the ancients as -“Scotia Major”—greater or older Scotland; while the latter country was -designated “Scotia Minor”—smaller or younger Scotland. The Irish and -Scotch were alike called “Scots” until long after the time of St. -Patrick, and the kindred nations were close friends and helpful allies, -from the earliest historical period down to the reign of Edward III of -England, and even later. It was in Ireland that Robert Bruce, his -brother Edward—afterward elected and crowned king of that country—and -their few faithful retainers sought and found friends and a refuge just -before their final great victory at Bannockburn, A.D. 1314. Sir Walter -Scott mentions this fact in his graphic “Tales of a Grandfather,” and -also in his stirring poem, “The Lord of the Isles.” Keating quotes Bede, -who lived about 700 hundred years after Christ, as saying in his -“History of the Saxons,” “Hibernia is the proper fatherland of the -Scoti” (Scots). So also Calgravius, another ancient historian, who, in -writing of St. Columba, says: “Hibernia (Ireland) was anciently called -Scotia, and from it sprang, and emigrated, the nation of the Scoti, -which inhabits the part of Albania (Scotland) that lies nearest to Great -Britain (meaning England), and that has been since called Scotia from -the fact.” - -“Marianus Scotus, an Alban (_i.e._ Scotch) writer,” says Keating, “bears -similar testimony in writing on the subject of St. Kilian. Here are his -words: ‘Although the part of Britannia which borders upon Anglia -(England) and stretches toward the north, is at present distinctively -called Scotia (Scotland), nevertheless, the Venerable Bede (already -quoted) shows that Hibernia was formerly known by that name; for he -informs us that the nation of the Picti (Picts) arrived in Hibernia from -Scythia, and that they found there the nation of the Scoti.’ - -“Serapus, in certain remarks which he makes in writing about St. -Bonifacius, is in perfect accord with the above cited writers. He says -that ‘Hibernia, likewise, claimed Scotia as one of her names, but, -however, because a certain part of the Scotic nation emigrated from this -same Hibernia and settled in those parts of Britannia in which the Picti -were then dwelling, and was there called the nation of the Dal-Riada, -from the name of its leader, as the Venerable Bede relates, and because -this tribe afterward drove the Picti from their homes, and seized upon -the entire northern region for themselves, and gave it the ancient name -of their own race, so that the nation might remain undivided; in this -manner has the name of Scotia become ambiguous—one, the elder, and -proper, Scotia being in Hibernia, while the other, the more recent, lies -in the northern part of Britannia.’ From the words of the author I draw -these conclusions: (1) that the Irish were, in strict truth, the real -Scoti; (2) that the Dal-Riada was the first race, dwelling in Scotland, -to which the name of Scoti was applied; (3) that Ireland was the true, -ancient Scotia, and that Alba (Scotland) was the New Scotia, and also -that it was the Kinéscuit, or Tribe of Scot, that first called it -Scotia.” - -There were numerous after invasions of Alba by the Milesian Irish, who -established new colonies—the most formidable of which was that founded -by the brothers Fergus, Andgus, and Lorne in the beginning of the sixth -century. For nearly a hundred years this colony paid tribute to Ireland, -but, in 574, the Scotch King Aedan, who was brother to the King of -Leinster, declined to pay further tribute. A conference of the monarchs -was held—all being close kindred of the Hy-Nial race—and St. Columba, -their immortal cousin, came from his monastery in Iona to take counsel -with them. The result was a wise and generous abrogation of the tribute -by the Irish nation, and Scotland became independent, but remained, for -long centuries, as before stated, the cordial friend and ally of her -sister country. The Scots then became paramount in Scotia Minor, and -brought under subjection all the tribes who were hostile to the royal -line, founded by Fergus, from whom descended the Stuarts and other -monarchical houses of Great Britain. This convention also lessened the -number and power of the Bards, who had become arrogant and exacting in -their demands upon the kings, princes, and chiefs, who feared their -sarcastic talent, and paid exorbitant levies, rather than endure their -abuse and ridicule. - -After the abandonment of Tara as a royal residence, in the sixth -century, the High Kings held court at Tailltenn, now Telltown, and -Tlachtga, now the Hill of Ward, in Meath, and at Ushnagh (Usna) in -Westmeath. The Ulster monarchs had seats at Emain, near Armagh (Ar’-ma’) -Greenan-Ely, on the hill of Ailech, in Donegal; and at Dun-Kiltair—still -a striking ruin—near Downpatrick. The kings of Leinster had their -palaces at Naas in Kildare, Dunlavin in Wicklow, Kells in Meath, and -Dinnree, near Leighlin Bridge, in Catherlough (Carlow). The Munster -rulers held high carnival, for ages, at Cashel of the Kings and Caher, -in Tipperary; at Bruree and Treda-na-Rhee—still a most picturesque -mound, showing the ancient Celtic method of fortification, in Limerick; -and at Kinkora, situated on the right bank of the Shannon, in Clare. The -O’Conors, kings of Connaught, had royal residences at Rathcroaghan -(Crohan) and Ballintober—the latter founded by “Cathal Mor of the Wine -Red Hand,” in the thirteenth century—in the present county of Roscommon; -and at Athunree, or Athenry—Anglice, “the Ford of the Kings,” in Galway. -Ballintober, according to tradition, was the finest royal residence in -all Ireland, and the remains of Cathal Mor’s castle are still pointed -out in the vicinity of the town. It was to it Clarence Mangan alluded in -his “Vision of Connaught in the Thirteenth Century,” thus: - - “Then saw I thrones and circling fires, - And a dome rose near me as by a spell, - Whence flowed the tone of silver lyres - And many voices in wreathèd swell. - And their thrilling chime - Fell on mine ears - Like the heavenly hymn of an angel band— - ‘It is now the time - We are in the years - Of Cathal Mor of the Wine Red Hand.’” - -One of the great institutions of ancient Ireland, vouched for by Dr. -Geoffrey Keating and many other learned historians, was the Fiann, or -National Guard, of the country, first commanded by Finn MacCumhail -(MacCool), “the Irish Cid” of pagan times. This force was popular and -lived by hunting, when not actively engaged in warfare, to preserve -internal government, or repel foreign aggression. When so engaged, they -were quartered upon and supported by the people of the localities in -which they rendered service. Their organization was simple, and bore -much resemblance to the regimental and company formations of the present -day. Their drill and discipline were excessively severe. Four -injunctions were laid upon every person who entered this military order. -The first was “to receive no portion with a wife, but to choose her for -good manners and virtue.” The second was “never to offer violence to any -woman.” The third enjoined on the member “never to give a refusal to any -mortal for anything of which one was possessed.” The fourth was “that no -single warrior of their body should ever flee before nine champions.” - -Other stipulations were of a more drastic character. No member of the -Fiann could allow his blood, if shed, to be avenged by any other person -than himself, if he should survive to avenge; and his father, mother, -relatives, and tribe had to renounce all claim for compensation for his -death. - -No member could be admitted until he became a Bard and had mastered the -Twelve Books of Poesy. - -No man could be allowed into the Fiann until a pit or trench deep enough -to reach to his knees had been dug in the earth, and he had been placed -therein, armed with his shield, and holding in his hand a hazel staff of -the length of a warrior’s arm. Nine warriors, armed with nine javelins, -were then set opposite him, at the distance of nine ridges; these had to -cast their nine weapons at him all at once, and then, if he chanced to -receive a single wound, in spite of his shield and staff, he was not -admitted to the Order. - -Another rule was that the candidate must run through a wood, at full -speed, with his hair plaited, and with only the grace of a single tree -between him and detailed pursuers. If they came up with him, or wounded -him, he was rejected. - -He was also rejected “if his arms trembled in his hands”; or if, in -running through the wood, “a single braid of his hair had been loosened -out of its plait.” - -He was not admitted if, in his flight, his foot had broken a single -withered branch. Neither could he pass muster “unless he could jump over -a branch of a tree as high as his forehead, and could stoop under one as -low as his knee, through the agility of his body.” He was rejected, -also, if he failed “to pluck a thorn out of his heel with his hand -without stopping in his course.” Each member, before being admitted to -the Order, was obliged to swear fidelity and homage to the Righ-Feinnedh -(Ree-Feena) or king of the Fenians, which is the English translation of -the title. - -There were also other military bodies—not forgetting the more ancient -“Red Branch Knights,” whom Moore has immortalized in one of his finest -lyrics, but the Fenians and their redoubtable chief hold the foremost -place of fame in Irish national annals. - -It would seem that a kind of loose federal compact existed, from time to -time, between the High King and the other monarchs, but, unfortunately, -there does not appear to have been a very strong or permanent bond of -union, and this fatal defect in the Irish Constitution of pre-Norman -times led to innumerable disputes about succession to the Ard-Righship -and endless civil wars, which eventually wrecked the national strength -and made the country the comparatively easy prey of adventurous and -ambitious foreigners. The monarchical system was, in itself, faulty. -Where a monarchy exists at all, the succession should be so regulated -that the lineal heir, according to primogeniture, whether a minor or -not, must succeed to the throne, except when the succession is, for some -good and sufficient reason, set aside by the legislative body of the -nation. This was done in England in the case of Henry IV, who, with the -consent of Parliament, usurped the crown of Richard II; and also in the -case of William and Mary, who were selected by the British Parliament of -their day to supplant James II, the father-in-law and uncle of the -former and father of the latter. The act of settlement and succession, -passed in 1701, ignored the male line of the Stuarts, chiefly because it -was Catholic, and placed the succession to the throne, failing issue of -William and Mary and Anne, another daughter of the deposed King James, -in a younger, Protestant branch of the female line of Stuart—the House -of Hanover-Brunswick—which now wears the British crown. But, in general, -as far as the question of monarchy is concerned, the direct system of -succession has proven most satisfactory, and has frequently prevented -confusion of title and consequent civil war. We can recall only one -highly important occasion when it provoked that evil—the sanguinary -thirty years’ feud between the kindred royal English, or, rather, -Norman-French, Houses of York and Lancaster. Even in that case the -quarrel arose from the original bad title of Henry IV, who was far from -being the lineal heir to the throne. Our own democratic system of -choosing a chief ruler is, no doubt, best of all. We elect from the body -of the people a President whose term of office is four years. In some -respects he has more executive power than most hereditary monarchs, but -if at the end of his official term he fails to suit a majority of the -delegates of his party to the National Convention, some other member of -it is nominated in his stead. The opposition party also nominates a -candidate, and very often succeeds in defeating the standard-bearer of -the party in power. Sometimes there are three or more Presidential -candidates in the field, as was the case in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln -was elected. Succession to the Presidency, therefore, is not confined to -any one family, or its branches, in a republic, and the office of -President of the United States may be competed for by any eligible male -citizen who can control his party nomination. The example of Washington, -who refused a third term, has become an unwritten law in America, and it -defeated General Grant’s aspiration to succeed Mr. Hayes in the -Republican National Convention of 1880. In France, under Napoleon, every -French soldier was supposed to carry a marshal’s baton in his knapsack. -In the United States, every native-born schoolboy carries the -Presidential portfolio in his satchel. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - Period of Danish Invasion - - -THE Irish people, having settled down to the Christian form of worship, -were enjoying “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” building -churches and colleges, and sending out a stream of saints and scholars -to the rest of Europe, when, about the end of the eighth century, the -restless Norsemen, universally called “Danes” in Ireland, swept down in -their galleys by thousands on the Irish coasts, and, after many fierce -conflicts, succeeded in establishing colonies at the mouths of many of -the great rivers of the island. There they built fortified towns, from -which they were able to sally forth by sea or land to change their base -of operations and establish new conquests. Dublin at the mouth of the -Liffey, Drogheda at the mouth of the Boyne, Wexford at the mouth of the -Slaney, Waterford at the mouth of the Suir, and Limerick at the estuary -of the Shannon, are all cities founded by the Danes, who were natural -traders and fierce warriors. They did not confine their attentions -exclusively to Ireland, but, about the same period, conquered Saxon -England, ruling completely over it; and they established a strong colony -on the north coast of France, which is called Normandy to this day, and -from which sprang, by a combination of Scandian with Gallic blood, the -greatest race of warriors—the Romans, perhaps, excepted—the world has -known. - -The native Irish met their fierce invaders with dauntless courage, but -they had been so long at peace that they were no longer expert in the -use of arms, and the Danes were all-powerful on the seas. Those Norsemen -were pagans, and had no respect for revealed religion, literature, works -of art, architecture, or, in, short, anything except land-grabbing and -plunder. It must be remembered that most of northern Europe, at the -period written of, was in a benighted state, and that Great Britain -itself was barely emerging from the intellectual and spiritual gloom of -the Dark Ages. The Norse invaders, whenever successful in their -enterprises against the Irish chiefs, invariably demolished the churches -and colleges, murdered the priests, monks, and nuns—often, however, -carrying the latter into captivity—and burned many of the priceless -manuscripts, the pride and the glory of the illustrious scholarship of -ancient Ireland. In the middle portion of the ninth century—about -840—when Nial III was Ard-Righ of Ireland, came the fierce Dane -Turgesius, at the head of an immense fleet and army. He at once -proceeded to ravage the exposed portions of the coast, and then forced -his way inland, laying the country under tribute of all kinds as he -advanced. He made prisoners of Irish virgins and married them, by main -force, to his barbarous chiefs. He even occupied the celebrated -monastery of Clonmacnois and its university as a headquarters, converted -the great altar into a throne, and issued his murderous edicts from that -holy spot. Clonmacnois, translated into English, means “the Retreat of -the Sons of the Noble,” and was the Alma Mater of the princes and -nobility of Ireland. This crowning outrage, coupled with insults offered -to Irish ladies, finally aroused the spirit of burning vengeance in the -breasts of the Irish people. Tradition says that thirty handsome young -men, disguised as maidens, attended a feast given at Clonmacnois by -Turgesius and his chiefs. When the barbarians were sated and had fallen -into a drunken stupor, the youths rose upon and slew them all. The body -of Turgesius, with a millstone tied around the neck, was thrown into a -neighboring lake. Then the nation, under the brave Nial III, rose and -drove the Norsemen back to the seacoast, where they rallied. Another -raid on the interior of the island was attempted, but repelled. Sad to -relate, the gallant King Nial, while attempting to save the life of a -retainer who fell into the Callan River, was himself drowned, to the -great grief of all Ireland. The name of the river in which he perished -was changed to the Ownarigh (Ownaree) or King’s River—a designation -which, after the lapse of ages, it still retains. - -A period of comparative repose followed. Many of the Danes became -converts to Christian doctrine, and there was, probably, more or less of -intermarriage among the higher classes of the rival races. But the -Norsemen retained much of their old-time ferocity, and, occasionally, -the ancient struggle for supremacy was renewed, with varying success. It -is humiliating for an Irish writer to be obliged to admit that some of -the Irish Christian princes, jealous of the incumbent Ard-Righ, did not -remain faithful to their country, and actually allied themselves with -the Danes, participating in their barbarous acts. This explains why, for -a period of about three hundred years, in spite of repeated Irish -victories, the Norsemen were able to hold for themselves a large portion -of Ireland, especially the districts lying close to the sea, where they -had no difficulty in receiving supplies and reinforcements from Denmark -and Norway. Many of those old Irish princes were, indeed, conscienceless -traitors, but the people, as a whole, never abandoned the national -cause. - -The feuds of the Munster chiefs, toward the end of the tenth century, -had the unlooked-for effect of bringing to the front the greatest ruler -and warrior produced by ancient Ireland. Because of a series of -tragedies in which the hero himself bore no blameful part, Brian of -Kinkora, son of Kennedy and brother of Mahon, both of whom had reigned -as kings of Thomond, or North Munster, ascended the throne of that -province. Mahon, progenitor of the southern MacMahons—from whom -descended the late President of the French Republic, Maurice Patrice -MacMahon, Marshal of France and Duke of Magenta—was murdered by Prince -Donovan, a faithless ally. His younger brother, Brian, afterward called -Borumah or “Boru”—literally, “Brian of the Cow Tribute”—fiercely avenged -his assassination on the treacherous Donovan, and on the Danish settlers -of Limerick, who were the confederates of that criminal in his evil -acts. Brian, young, powerful, and destitute of fear, after disposing of -Donovan, killed with his own brave hand Ivor, the Danish prince, -together with his two sons, although these fierce pagans had taken -refuge in the Christian sanctuary on Scattery Island, in the Shannon, -and then swept the remaining conspirators, both Irish and Danes, off the -face of the earth. Prince Murrough, Brian’s heir, then a mere boy, slew -in single combat the villanous chief, Molloy, who, as the base -instrument of Donovan and Ivor, actually killed his uncle, King Mahon. -Afterward, Brian reigned for a brief period, quietly, as King of -Thomond. He had a profound insight and well knew that only a strong, -centralized government could unite all Ireland against the foreigners, -and he designed to be the head of such a government. He had only one -rival in fame and ability on Irish soil—the reigning Ard-Righ, Malachy -II. This monarch had scourged the warrior Northmen in many bloody -campaigns. In one battle he slew two Danish princes, and took from one a -golden collar, and from the other a priceless sword. The poet Moore -commemorates the former exploit in the well-known melody, “Let Erin -Remember the Days of Old.” - -Brian of Kinkora, fiery of mood, enterprising, ambitious, and, we fear, -somewhat unscrupulous in pursuit of sovereignty, a born general and -diplomat, as either capacity might suit his purpose, burned to possess -himself of the supreme sceptre. His ambition led, as usual under such -conditions, to acts of aggression on his part, and, finally, to civil -war between Malachy and himself. A terrible struggle raged in Ireland -for twenty years, until, at last, Ard-Righ Malachy was forced to -capitulate, and his rival became High King of Ireland in his place. The -Danes, naturally, took advantage of the civil strife to re-establish -their sway in the island, and gained many advantages over the Irish -troops. Moved by the danger of his country, the noble Malachy allied -himself with Brian, and, together, they marched against the Norsemen and -drove them back to their seacoast forts. But those bold and restless -spirits did not, therefore, cease to war upon Ireland. Again and yet -again they placed new armies in the field, only to be again baffled and -routed by either the skilful Brian or the devoted Malachy. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Battle of Clontarf, A.D., 1014—Total Overthrow of the Danish Army and - Power in Ireland - - -MANY of the princes of Leinster, more especially the MacMurroughs -(MacMurro) were generally, in some measure, allied to the Danes, and -fought with them against their own countrymen. After several years of -warfare, a peace was, at length, patched up with the MacMurrough, and he -became a guest of King Brian at Kinkora. In those days chess was the -national game of the Irish princes and chiefs, and while engaged in it -with the Leinster guest, Prince Murrough (Murro), Brian’s eldest son, in -a fit of anger, hurled a taunt at the former in regard to his recent -alliance with the invaders of his country. This action was, of course, -rude, and even brutal, on the part of Prince Murrough, although -MacMurrough had been guilty of treasonable offences. The Leinster -potentate rose immediately from the table at which they were playing, -pale from rage, and, in a loud voice, called for his horse and -retainers. He was obeyed at once and left the palace. The wise King -Brian, on learning of the quarrel and departure, sent messengers after -the King of Leinster to bring him back, but his anger was so great that -he would not listen to their representations, so that they went back -without him to Kinkora. MacMurrough immediately re-allied himself with -the Danes, and so the flames of war were rekindled with a vengeance. -Many other princes and chiefs of Leinster made common cause with their -king and his foreign allies. Reinforcements for the latter poured into -Ireland from Scandinavia, from Britain, from the neighboring islands, -from every spot of earth on which an invader could be mustered—all -inflamed against Ireland, and all expecting to wipe King Brian and his -army from the Irish soil. But Brian had his allies, too; the armies of -Munster, Connaught, part of Ulster, and most of the heroic clans of -Leinster flocked to his standard, the latter led by the ever-faithful -Malachy and his tributary chiefs. All of the MacMurrough interest, as -already stated, sided with the Danes. A majority of the Ulster princes, -jealous of Brian’s fame and supreme power, held back from his support, -but did not join the common enemy. - -Brian was now an old man, and even his bold son, Murrough, the primary -cause of the new trouble, was beyond middle age. The hostile armies -hurried toward Dublin, the principal Danish stronghold, and on Good -Friday morning, April 23, 1014, were face to face on the sands of -Clontarf, which slope down to Dublin Bay. We have no correct account of -the numbers engaged, but there were, probably, not less than thirty -thousand men—large armies for those remote days—on each side. It was a -long and a terrible battle, for each army appeared determined to conquer -or die. Under King Brian commanded Prince Murrough and his five -brothers: Malachy, Kian, Prince of Desmond, or South Munster; Davoren, -of the same province; O’Kelly, Prince of Hy-Many, East Connaught; -O’Heyne, the Prince of Dalaradia, and the Stewards of Mar and Lennox in -Scotland. - -The Danes and their allies were commanded by Brodar, the chief admiral -of the Danish fleet; King Sitric, of Dublin;[1] the Danish captains, -Sigurd and Duvgall, and the warrior Norwegian chiefs, Carlos and Anrud. -The Lord of the Orkney Islands also led a contingent, in which Welsh and -Cornish auxiliaries figured. - -Footnote 1: - - Sitric, according to some writers, was not in the battle. - -Thus, it will seem, the cause was one of moment, as the fate of a -country was to be decided, and the ablest captains of Ireland and -Scandinavia led the van of the respective hosts. The struggle was long -and murderous, for the armies fought hand to hand. Brian, too feeble to -sit his war-horse and bear the weight of even his light armor, worn out, -moreover, by the long march and the marshaling of his forces, was -prevailed upon to retire to his pavilion and rest. He placed the active -command of the Irish army in the hands of King Malachy and his son, -Prince Murrough O’Brien. The conflict lasted from daylight until near -the setting of the sun. Every leader of note on the Danish side, except -Brodar, was killed—many by the strong hand of Prince Murrough and his -brave young son, Turlough O’Brien, after his father the person most -likely to be elected to the chief kingship of Ireland. On the Irish side -there fell Prince Murrough, his gallant son, the Scottish chiefs of Mar -and Lennox, who came, with their power, to fight for Ireland, and many -other leaders of renown. King Brian himself, while at prayer in his -tent, which stood apart and unguarded, was killed by Brodar, the flying -Danish admiral, who was pursued and put to death by a party of Irish -soldiers. - -The slaughter of the minor officers and private men, on both sides, was -immense, and the little river Tolka, on the banks of which the main -battle was fought, was choked with dead bodies and ran red with blood. -But the Danes and their allies were completely broken and routed, and -the raven of Denmark never again soared to victory in the Irish sky. -Many Danes remained in the Irish seaport towns, but they became Irish in -dress, language, and feeling, and thousands of their descendants are -among the best of Irishmen to-day. - -Ireland, although so signally victorious at Clontarf, sustained what -proved to be a deadly blow in the loss of her aged king and his two -immediate heirs. Brian, himself, unwittingly opened the door of discord -when he took the crown forcibly from the Hy-Niall family, which had worn -it so long. His aim was to establish a supreme and perpetual Dalcassian -dynasty in himself and his descendants—a wise idea for those times, but -one balked by destiny. Now all the provincial Irish monarchs aspired to -the supreme power, and this caused no end of jealousy and intrigue. -Brian, in his day of pride, had been hard on the Ossorians, and their -chief, Fitzpatrick, Prince of Ossory, basely visited his wrath, as an -ally of the Danes, on the Dalcassian contingent of the Irish army -returning from Clontarf encumbered by their wounded. But these dauntless -warriors did not for a moment flinch. The hale stood gallantly to their -arms, and the wounded, unable to stand upright, demanded to be tied to -stakes placed in the ground, and thus supported they fought with -magnificent desperation. The treacherous Ossorian prince was routed, as -he deserved to be, and has left behind a name of infamy. Many noble -patriots of the house of Fitzpatrick have since arisen and passed away, -but that particular traitor ranks with Iscariot, MacMurrough, Monteith, -and Arnold in the annals of treachery. Who that has read them has not -been thrilled by the noble lines of Moore which describe the sacrifice -of the wounded Dalcassians? - - “Forget not our wounded companions who stood - In the day of distress by our side; - When the moss of the valley grew red with their blood - They stirred not, but conquered and died! - That sun which now blesses our arms with his light,— - Saw them fall upon Ossory’s plain, - O! let him not blush when he leaves us to-night - To find that they fell there in vain.” - -The glorious King Malachy, although ever in the thickest of the battle, -survived the carnage of Clontarf. Unable to agree upon a candidate from -any of the provincial royal families because of their bitter rivalries, -the various factions, having confidence in Malachy’s wisdom and -patriotism, again elected him High King of Ireland, the last man who -held that title without dispute. He reigned but eight years after his -second elevation to the supreme throne of his country and died at a good -old age about the middle of September, 1022, in the odor of sanctity, -and sincerely lamented by the Irish nation, excepting a few ambitious -princes who coveted the crown his acts had glorified. In the whole range -of Irish history he was the noblest royal character, and his name -deserves to be forever honored by the nation he sought to preserve. - -After the good king’s death, a younger son of Brian Boru, Prince Donough -(Dunna), made an attempt to be elected Ard-Righ, and, failing in that, -sought to hold the crown by force. But the provincial monarchs refused -to recognize his claims, as he did not appear to inherit either the -military prowess or force of character of his great father. After some -futile attempts to maintain his assumed authority, he was finally -deposed by his abler nephew, Turlough O’Brien, who occupied the throne, -not without violent opposition, for a period. Poor Donough proceeded to -Rome and presented his father’s crown and harp to the Pope, probably -because he had no other valuable offerings to bestow. This circumstance -was afterward made use of by the Anglo-Normans to make it appear that -the presentation made by the deposed and discredited Donough to the -Pontiff carried with it the surrender of the sovereignty of Ireland to -his Holiness. No argument could be more absurd, because, as has been -shown, the crown of Ireland was elective, not hereditary, except with -well understood limitations, which made the blood royal a necessity in -any candidate. Donough, in any case, was never acknowledged as High King -of Ireland, and could not transfer a title he did not possess. In fact -all the Irish monarchs may be best described not as Kings of Ireland, -but Kings of the Irish. They had no power to alienate, or transfer, the -tribe lands from the people, and held them only in trust for their -voluntary subjects. Modern Irish landlordism is founded on the feudal, -not the tribal, system. Hence its unfitness to satisfy a people in whom -lingers the heredity of the ancient Celtic custom. King Brian, the most -absolute of all the Irish rulers, is described by some annalists as -“Emperor of the Irish.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - Desolating Civil Wars Among the Irish - - -FROM the deposition of Donough O’Brien down to the period of the Norman -invasion of the island—about a century and a half—Ireland was cursed by -the civil wars which raged interminably, because of disputes of royal -succession, between the McLoughlins of Ulster—a branch of the Hy-Niall -dynasty—and the descendants of King Brian of Kinkora, in which the -latter were finally worsted. Then the successful family fell out with -royal O’Conors of Connaught. One of the latter, a brave and ambitious -man, called Turlough Mor, aimed at the chief sovereignty and proved -himself an able general and a wise statesman. He reigned in splendor -over Connaught, and terrorized his enemies of Ulster and Munster by his -splendid feats of arms. He held his court at Rathcroghan, in Roscommon, -and often entertained as many as 3,000 guests on occasions of festival. -His palace, fortified after the circular Celtic fashion, dominated more -than four hundred forts, or duns, which were the strongholds of his -chiefs, in the territory of Roscommon alone; he founded churches and was -generous to the clergy and to the poor. In spite of all this, however, -he was unable to attain to the High Kingship, and only succeeded in -paving the way to the national throne for his son and successor, Rory, -commonly called Roderick, O’Conor, whose reign was destined to behold -the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. Dr. Joyce, in dealing with this troubled -period of Irish history, says that during the one hundred and fifty -years comprised in it, there were eight Ard-Righs “with opposition”—that -is, some one of the provinces, perhaps more, would refuse to recognize -their jurisdiction. There was also chaos among the minor royal families. -As regarded the High King, it was not unusual to have two of them using -that title at once, as was the case with Donal O’Loughlin, King of -Ulster, and Murtough O’Brien, King of Munster. Both these claimants -terminated their careers in monasteries. A similar condition existed, -also, between Turlough Mor O’Conor, before mentioned, and Murtough -O’Loughlin, King of Ulster, and the strife was only ended by the death -of Turlough Mor, in 1156. His son, Roderick, then attempted to wrest the -Ard-Righship from the Ulster monarch, but was defeated. On the death of -the latter, in 1166, Roderick, who was not opposed by any candidate of -influence, was elected High King—the last of the title who reigned over -all Ireland. - -It may be asked, why did not the clansmen—the rank and file of the Irish -people—put a stop to the insane feuds of their kings, princes, and -chiefs? Because, we answer, they were accustomed to the tribal system -and idea. Doubtless, they loved Ireland, in a general way, but were much -more attached to their family tribe-land, and, above all, they adored -the head of their sept and followed where he led, asking no questions as -to the ethics of his cause. Had they been more enlightened regarding the -art of government, they might have combined against their selfish -leaders and crushed them. But the tribal curse was upon them, and is not -yet entirely lifted. - -The Danes held the crown of England for about a quarter of a century -after they were driven from power in Ireland. At last, after great -difficulty, they were driven from the throne and the saintly Edward the -Confessor, of the old Saxon line, was raised to the kingship of England. -His successor, King Harold—a brave but, we fear, not a very wise man—is -said by English historians to have “done homage”—an evil custom of those -days—to William, Duke of Normandy, while on a visit to that country. At -all events, William claimed the crown, which Harold, very properly, -declined to surrender. William was an able and resolute, but fierce and -cruel, warrior. He speedily organized a force of 60,000 mercenaries, -mainly French-Normans, but with thousands of real Frenchmen among them, -and, having provided himself with an immense flotilla—a wondrous -achievement in that age of the world—succeeded in throwing his entire -force on the English coast. Harold, nothing daunted, met him on a heath -near Hastings, in Sussex, where the Saxon army had strongly intrenched -itself, and would, perhaps, have been victorious had not it abandoned -its position to pursue the fleeing Normans, who, with their accustomed -martial skill, turned upon their disordered pursuers and repulsed them -in return. The centre of the great conflict is marked by the ruins of -Battle Abbey. The two armies were about equal in strength and fought the -whole length of an October day before the combat was decided. Prodigies -of valor were performed, but, at last, the brave Harold fell, and the -remains of the Saxon army fled from that fatal field. William, soon -afterward, occupied London. The Saxons made but small show of -resistance, after Hastings, and, within a few years, “fair England” was -parceled out among William’s Norman-French captains, who thus laid the -foundation of the baronial fabric that, with one brief interval, has -dominated England ever since. A few of the Saxon nobles managed, -somehow, to save their domains—probably by swearing allegiance to -William and marrying their lovely daughters to his chiefs—but, as a -whole, the Saxon people became the serfs of the Norman barons, and were -scarcely recognized even as subjects, until the long and bloody wars -with France, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, -made them necessary, in a military sense, to the Plantagenet kings, who -employed them chiefly as archers. Under Norman training, their skill -with the deadly long bow made them perhaps the most formidable infantry -of the Middle Ages. - -The Normans in England, very wisely, accommodated themselves to the new -conditions and made up their minds to live upon and enjoy the lands they -had won by the sword. They rapidly became more English than Norman, and -after the accession of the House of Anjou to the throne, in the person -of Henry II, began to call themselves “Englishmen.” Sir Walter Scott, in -his noble historical romance of “Ivanhoe,” draws a splendidly vivid -picture of that period. - -In Ireland, as we have seen, the series of distracting civil wars, all -growing out of questions of succession to the national and provincial -thrones, still progressed, and, owing to the unceasing discord, -prosperity waned, and some historians claim that Church discipline was -relaxed, although not to any such extent as is asserted by the Norman -chroniclers. But the reigning Pontiff, hearing of the trouble, summoned -some of the leading hierarchs of the Irish Church to Rome, where they -explained matters satisfactorily. - -About the time that Henry II, in virtue of his descent from the -Conqueror, through his mother, daughter of Henry I, assumed the English -crown, the Papal chair was occupied by Adrian the Fourth, whose worldly -name was Nicholas Breakspeare, an Englishman by birth, and the only man -of that nationality who ever wore the tiara. He, too, had been informed -by Norman agents of the disorders in Ireland, where, among other things, -it was claimed that the people in general had neglected to pay to the -Papacy the slight tribute known as “Peter’s Pence.” This circumstance, -no doubt, irritated the Pontiff, and when Henry, who had his ambitious -heart set on acquiring the sovereignty of Ireland, laid open his design, -Pope Adrian, according to credible authority, gave him a document called -a “bull,” in which, it would appear, he undertook to “bestow” Ireland on -the English king, with the understanding that he should do his utmost to -reform the evils in Church and State said to exist in that country, and -also compel the regular payment of the Papal tribute. All of which Henry -agreed to do. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - The Norman-Welsh Invasion of Ireland—Their Landing in Wexford - - -POPE ADRIAN’S “gift” of Ireland to Henry II, absurd as it may appear in -this age, was not without precedent in the Middle Ages, when the Roman -Pontiff was regarded as supreme arbiter by nearly all of Christendom. -Such “gifts” had been made before the time of Adrian, and some -afterward, but they were not considered bona fide by the countries -involved. So also with the Irish people as a majority. They respected, -as they still respect, the Pope in his spiritual capacity, but rightly -conceived that he had no power whatever to make a present of their -country to any potentate, whether native or alien, without their -consent. An influential minority held otherwise, with most unfortunate -results, as we shall see. Some superzealous Catholic writers have sought -to discredit the existence of the “bull” of Adrian, but weight of -evidence is against them, and, in any case, it was “confirmed,” at -Henry’s urgent request, by Pope Alexander III. The king was engaged in -civil war with his own sons—in every way worthy of their rapacious -father—during most of his reign, for he held under his sway Normandy, -Aquitaine, and other parts of France, which they wanted for themselves. -Thus no chance to push his long meditated Irish scheme presented itself -until about A. D. 1168. Fifteen years prior to that date, Dermid, or -Dermot, MacMurrough (Mac Murro), King of Leinster, a very base and -dissolute ruler, had carried off the wife of O’Ruarc, Prince of Breffni, -while the latter was absent on a pious pilgrimage. The lady was a -willing victim, and added the dowry she brought her husband to the -treasure of her paramour. When Breffni returned to his castle and found -that his wife had betrayed him, he was overpowered by grief and anger, -and, not having sufficient military force himself to punish his enemy, -he called on Turlough Mor O’Conor, then titular Ard-Righ, to assist him -in chastising MacMurrough. O’Conor did so to such purpose that, -according to Irish annals, Dervorgilla, which was the name of O’Ruarc’s -wife, together with her dowry, was restored to her husband, who, -however, discarded her, and she died penitent, it is said, forty years -afterward in the cloisters of Mellifont Abbey. But Dermid’s evil conduct -did not end with his outrage against O’Ruarc. He entertained the most -deadly animosity to the O’Conor family on account of the punishment -inflicted on him by Turlough Mor, and when on the death in battle of -Ard-Righ Murtagh McLaughlin, Roderick, son of Turlough Mor, claimed the -national crown, MacMurrough refused him recognition, although nearly all -the other sub-kings had acknowledged him as supreme ruler of Ireland. -Incensed at his stubbornness, King Roderick, who had with him O’Ruarc -and other princes of Connaught, marched against Dermid, who, seeing that -he was overmatched, burned his palace of Ferns, and, taking to his -galley, crossed the Irish Sea to England and sought out King Henry II at -his Court of London. On arriving there he was informed that the king was -in Aquitaine, and thither he at once proceeded. The politic founder of -the Plantagenet dynasty received him quite graciously and listened -complacently to his story. Henry was secretly well pleased with the -treasonable errand of his infamous guest, which was to demand -Anglo-Norman aid against his own monarch, regardless of the after -consequences to the fortunes of his country. He enumerated his -grievances at the hands of the O’Conors, father and son, and related how -he had been the faithful ally of the former in his long war with one of -the Thomond O’Briens. Turlough Mor, he considered, had treated him badly -for the sake of O’Ruarc, and his son, Roderick, had been quite as -hostile, forcing him to seek Henry’s protection against further invasion -of his hereditary patrimony. The Anglo-Norman king said, in reply, that -he could not aid MacMurrough in person as he was then engaged in a war -with one or more of his own sons, but he consented to give him -commendatory letters to certain Norman chiefs, brave but needy, who were -settled in Wales and the West of England, and had there made powerful -matrimonial alliances. The traitor gladly accepted the letters, “did -homage” to Henry, and took his leave elated at the partial success of -his unnatural mission. Landing in Wales, he found himself within a short -time in the presence of Richard De Clare, surnamed “Strongbow,” a brave, -adventurous, and unscrupulous Norman noble, who bore the title of Earl -of Pembroke. He also made the acquaintance of other Norman knights—among -them Robert Fitzstephen, Maurice De Prendergast, Maurice Fitzgerald, -ancestor of the famous Geraldine houses of Kildare and Desmond; Meyler -FitzHenry and Raymond Le Gros—all tried warriors, all in reduced -circumstances, and all ready and willing to barter their fighting blood -for the fair hills and rich valleys of Ireland. They listened eagerly -while MacMurrough unfolded his precious plot of treason and black -revenge. The daring adventurers seized upon the chance of fortune at -once, and the traitor was sent back to Ireland to prepare his hereditary -following for the friendly reception of “the proud invaders,” his newly -made allies. Before leaving Wales he had made bargains with the alien -adventurers which were disgraceful to him as a native-born Irishman. In -a word, he had, by usurped authority, mortgaged certain tracts of the -land of Leinster for the mercenary aid of the Anglo-Normans, or, to be -more historically exact, the Norman-Welsh. - -Soon after the departure of Dermid for Ireland, Robert Fitzstephen, the -readiest of the warlike plotters, and the first of the invaders, sailed -for that country at the head of thirty knights, sixty men in armor, and -three hundred light-armed archers. In the fragrant ides of May, 1169, -they landed on the Wexford coast, near Bannow, and thus, -inconsequentially, began the Norman invasion of Ireland. De Prendergast -arrived the following day with about the same number of fighting men. -Only a few years ago, in removing some débris—the accumulation of -ages—near Bannow, the laborers found the traces of the Norman camp-fires -of 1169 almost perfectly preserved. The two adventurers sent tidings of -their arrival to MacMurrough without delay, and he marched at once, with -a powerful force of his own retainers to join them. All three, having -united their contingents, marched upon the city of Wexford, many of -whose inhabitants were lineal descendants of the Danes. They made a -gallant defence, but were finally outmanœuvred, overpowered, and -compelled to capitulate. Other towns of less importance submitted under -protest to superior force. Indeed there seemed to be a total lack of -military foresight and preparedness in all that section of Ireland in -1169. Fitzpatrick, Prince of Ossory, descended from that ally of the -Danes who attacked the Dalcassians returning from Clontarf, alone -opposed to the invaders a brave and even formidable front. He committed -the mistake of accepting a pitched battle with MacMurrough and his -allies, and was totally defeated. King Roderick O’Conor, hearing of the -invasion, summoned the Irish military bodies to meet him at Tara. Most -of them responded, but the Prince of Ulidia, MacDunlevy, took offence at -some remark made by a Connaught prince, and, in consequence, most of the -Ulster forces withdrew from the Ard-Righ. King Roderick, with the troops -that remained, marched to attack MacMurrough at his favorite stronghold -of Ferns, where he lay with the Normans, or a part of them, expecting a -vigorous siege. Instead of assaulting the enemy’s lines at once, when -his superior numbers would, most likely, have made an end of the traitor -and his Norman allies, O’Conor weakly consented to a parley with Dermid, -who was a most thorough diplomat. The Ard-Righ consented, further, to a -treaty with MacMurrough, who, of course, designed to break it as soon as -the main body of the Normans, under Strongbow in person, should arrive -from Wales. He did not, nevertheless, hesitate to bind himself by a -secret clause of the treaty with the king to receive no more foreigners -into his army, and even gave one of his sons as a hostage to guarantee -the same. The Ard-Righ retired from Ferns satisfied that the trouble was -ended. The royal army was scarcely out of sight of the place when -MacMurrough learned that Maurice Fitzgerald, at the head of a strong -party of Normans, had also arrived on the Wexford coast. He now thought -himself strong enough to lay claim to the High Kingship and negotiated -with the Danes of Dublin for recognition in that capacity. Meanwhile, -still another Norman contingent under Raymond Le Gros landed at the -estuary of Waterford, on the Wexford side thereof, and occupied -Dundonolf Rock, where they intrenched themselves and eagerly awaited the -coming of Strongbow with the main body of the Norman army. - -By this time Henry II began to grow jealous of the success of his -vassals in Ireland. He wanted to conquer the country for himself, and, -therefore, sent orders to Strongbow not to sail. But that hardy soldier -paid no attention to Henry’s belated command, and sailed with a powerful -fleet and army from Milford Haven, in Wales, arriving in Waterford -Harbor on August 23, 1171. The Normans, under Raymond Le Gros, joined -him without loss of time, and the combined forces attacked the old -Danish city. The Danes and native Irish made common cause against the -new enemy and a desperate and bloody conflict occurred. The Normans were -several times repulsed, with great loss, but, better armed and led than -their brave opponents, they returned to the breach again and yet again. -At last they gained entrance into the city, which they set on fire. An -awful massacre ensued. Three hundred of the leading defenders were made -prisoners, their limbs broken and their maimed bodies flung into the -harbor. King MacMurrough, who had already pledged his daughter’s hand to -Strongbow—a man old enough to have been her father—arrived just after -the city fell. In order to celebrate the event with due pomp and -circumstance, he caused the Princess Eva to be married to the Norman -baron in the great cathedral, while the rest of the city was burning, -and the blood of the victims of the assault still smoked amid the ruins! -An ominous and fatal marriage it proved to Ireland. - -And now, at last, the blood of the native Irish was stirred to its -depths and they began, when somewhat late, to realize the danger to -their liberty and independence. In those far-off days, when there were -no railroads, no electric wires, no good roads or rapid means of -communication of any kind, and when newspapers were unknown, -information, as a matter of course, traveled slowly even in a small -country, like Ireland. The woods were dense, the morasses fathomless, -and, in short, the invaders had made their foothold firm in the east and -south portions of the island before the great majority of the -Celtic-Irish comprehended that they were in process of being subjugated -by bold and formidable aliens. There had existed in Ireland from very -ancient times five main roads, all proceeding from the hill of Tara to -the different sections of the country. That called “Dala” ran through -Ossory into the province of Munster. The road called “Assail” passed on -toward the Shannon through Mullingar. The highway from Tara to Galway -followed the esker, or small hill range, as it does in our own day, and -was called “Slighe Mor,” or great road; the road leading from Tara to -Dublin, Bray, and along the Wicklow and Wexford coasts was called -“Cullin”; the highway leading into Ulster ran, probably, through -Tredagh, or Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, and Armagh, but this is not -positive. As it was the route followed by the English in most of their -Ulster wars, it is quite probable that they picked out a well-beaten -path, so as to avoid the expense and labor of making a new causeway. -McGee tells us that there were also many cross-roads, known by local -names, and of these the Four Masters, at different dates, mentioned no -less than forty. These roads were kept in repair, under legal enactment, -and the main highways were required to be of sufficient width to allow -of the passage of two chariots all along their course. We are further -informed that the principal roads were required by law to be repaired at -seasons of games and fairs, and in time of war. At their best, to judge -by the ancient chroniclers, most of them would be considered little -better than “trails” through the mountains, moors, and forests in these -times. - -MacMurrough and Strongbow did not allow the grass to sprout under their -feet before marching in great force on Dublin. King Roderick, leading a -large but ill-trained army, attempted to head them off, but was -outgeneraled, and the enemy soon appeared before the walls of Leinster’s -stronghold. Its Dano-Celtic inhabitants, cowed by the doleful news from -Waterford, tried to parley; but Strongbow’s lieutenants, De Cogan and Le -Gros, eager for carnage and rich plunder, surprised the city, and the -horrors of Waterford were, in a measure, repeated. The Danish prince, -Osculph, and most of his chief men escaped in their ships, but the -Normans captured Dublin, and the English, except for a brief period in -the reign of James II, have held it from that sad day, in October, 1171, -to this. - -Roderick O’Conor, that weak but well-meaning prince and bad general, -retired into Connaught and sent word to MacMurrough to return to his -allegiance, if he wished to save the life of his son, held as a hostage. -The brutal and inhuman traitor refused, and King Roderick, although -humane almost to a fault, had the unfortunate young man decapitated. -This was poor compensation for the loss of Waterford and Dublin. Those -pages of Irish history are all besmeared with slaughter. - -Many of the Irish chroniclers, who are otherwise severe on Norman -duplicity, relate a story of chivalry, worthy of any age and people, in -connection with Maurice de Prendergast and the Prince of Ossory. -Strongbow had deputed the former to invite the latter to a conference. -The Irish prince accepted. While the conference was in progress, De -Prendergast learned that treachery was intended toward his guest. He -immediately rushed into Strongbow’s presence and swore on the hilt of -his sword, which was a cross, that no man there that day should lay -hands on the Prince of Ossory. The latter was allowed to retire -unmolested, and Prendergast and his followers escorted him in safety to -his own country. De Prendergast has been known ever since in Irish -annals as “the Faithful Norman,” and his fidelity has made him the theme -of many a bardic song and romantic tale. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - Superior Armament of the Normans—Arrival of Henry II - - -ALTHOUGH two of the chief Irish cities had fallen to the invaders, the -struggle was not entirely abandoned by the Irish nation. Ulster and most -of Connaught remained intact, and even in Munster and Leinster there -was, from time to time, considerable, although desultory, resistance to -the Anglo-Normans. The latter, clad in steel armor from head to foot, -and possessing formidable weapons, had a great advantage over the -cloth-clad Irish, although, of course, the latter greatly outnumbered -them. The weapons of the Irish were the skian, or short-sword—resembling -the Cuban machete—the javelin, and the battle-axe—the latter a terrible -arm at close quarters; but even the axe could not cope with the -ponderous Norman sword and the death-dealing long bow, with its -cloth-yard shaft. In discipline and tactics, also, the Irish were -overmatched. In short, they were inferior to their enemies in everything -but numbers and courage. But all would have been redeemed had they but -united against the common foe. - -Why they did not may be justly, as we think, attributed to the tribal -system which taught the clans and tribes to be loyal to their particular -chiefs rather than to their country as a whole; the absence of a fully -recognized federal head, and the vacillations of an honest and patriotic -Ard-Righ, who, noble and amiable of character, as he undoubtedly was, -proved himself to be a bungling diplomat and an indifferent general. Had -his able and determined father, Turlough Mor, been on the Irish throne, -and in the vigor of his life, when Strongbow landed, he would have made -short work of the Norman filibusters. The king seemed ever behind time -in his efforts to stem the tide of invasion. He had rallied still -another army, and gained some advantages, when he was confronted by a -new enemy in the person of Henry II. This king, determined not to be -outdone by his vassals, had ordered Strongbow, who, because of his -marriage with Eva MacMurrough, had assumed the lordship of Leinster, to -return with all his chief captains to England, the penalty of refusal -being fixed at outlawry. Strongbow attempted to placate the wrathful -king and sent to him agents to explain his position, but the fierce and -crafty Plantagenet was not a man to be hoodwinked. He collected a -powerful fleet and army, set sail from England, in October, 1171, and, -toward the end of that month, landed in state at Waterford, where -Strongbow received him with all honor and did homage as a vassal. This -was the beginning of Ireland’s actual subjugation, for had the original -Norman invaders refused to acknowledge Henry’s sovereignty, and, uniting -with the natives, kept Ireland for themselves, they would eventually, as -in England, have become a component and formidable part of the nation, -and proved a boon, instead of a curse, to the distracted country. The -landing of Henry put an end to such a hope, and with his advent began -that dependency on the English crown which has been so fatal to the -liberty, the happiness, and the prosperity of “the most unfortunate of -nations.” - -Henry having “graciously” received the submission of Strongbow and his -confederates, proceeded, at once—for he was a monarch of great energy—to -make a “royal progress” through the partially subdued portions of -Munster and Leinster. He took care, in doing this, to show Pope Adrian’s -mischievous “bull” to the Irish prelates and princes, some of whom, to -their discredit be it confessed, bowed slavishly to the ill-considered -mandate of the Pontiff. Many of the princes were even base enough to -give Henry “the kiss of peace,” when, instead, they should have rushed -to arms to defend the honor and independence of their country. The -prelates, trained to ecclesiastical docility, disgusted with the -everlasting civil contentions of the country, and fearful of further -unavailing bloodshed, had some feeble excuse for their ill-timed -acquiescence, but what are we to say of those wretched Irish princes who -so weakly and wickedly betrayed their nation to the foreign usurper? -They were by no means ignorant men, as times went, but they were -ambitious, vain, and jealous of the half-acknowledged authority of High -King Roderick, who, poor man, seems to have been the Henry VI of -Ireland. Those treasonable princes deserve enduring infamy, and foremost -among them were Dermid McCarthy, King of Desmond, and Donald O’Brien, -King of Thomond. Both lived to regret most bitterly their cowardice and -treason. - -Henry II was a politic monarch. He flattered the pliable Irish bishops -and spoke to them gently about Church reforms, while he palavered the -despicable Irish princes, and, at the same time, pretended to favor the -common people and affected to check the rapacity of his Norman subjects. -Hostilities ceased for a time, except on the borders of Leinster and -Connaught, where King Roderick, deserted by many of his allies, and -deeply depressed at the absence of national union against the invaders, -kept up an unavailing resistance. In this he was encouraged and aided by -the patriotic Archbishop of Dublin, St. Lorcan O’Tuhill, who appears to -have been the only man among the entire Irish hierarchy who comprehended -the iron grip the Normans had on the throat of Ireland. Had all the -prelates been like St. Lorcan, and preached a war of extermination -against the invaders at the outset, Ireland could, undoubtedly, have -thrown off the yoke, because the princes would have been forced by their -people, over whom the bishops had great moral sway, to heal their feuds -and make common cause for their country. King Roderick, despite his -errors, deserves honor for his patriotic spirit. The Ulster princes, -too, with few exceptions, stood out manfully against the foreigner, and -a long period elapsed before the Anglo-Norman power found a secure -footing amid the rugged glens and dense forests of the western and -northern portions of the invaded island. - -Geraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald Barry, a Norman priest of Welsh birth, -accompanied, A.D. 1185, King Henry’s son, John, as chronicler, to -Ireland. Like nearly every man of his race, he hated the native Irish, -but, occasionally, as if by accident, spoke well of some of them. In -general, however, his book is a gross libel on the Irish Church and the -Irish people. He purports to give Roderick O’Conor’s address to his army -on the eve of battle with the Anglo-Normans, and the concluding words of -the speech are alleged to have been as follows: “Let us then,” said the -Irish king, “following the example of the Franks, and fighting bravely -for our country, rush against our enemies, and as these foreigners have -come over few in numbers, let us crush them by a general attack. Fire, -while it only sparkles, may be speedily quenched, but when it has burst -into a flame, being fed with fresh materials, its power increases with -the bulk, and it can not be easily extinguished. It is always best to -meet difficulties half way, and check the first approaches of disease, -for (the Latin quotation of the king is here translated) - - “Too late is medicine, after long delay, - To stop the lingering course of slow decay. - -Wherefore, defending our country and liberty, and acquiring for -ourselves eternal renown, let us, by a resolute attack, and the -extermination of our enemies, though they are but few in number, strike -terror into the many, and, by their defeat, evermore deter foreign -nations from such nefarious attempts.” - -Henry’s astute policy disarmed, for a time, even Roderick himself. The -Anglo-Norman monarch, who would have made an admirable modern -politician, does not seem to have desired the absolute ruin of the Irish -nation, but his greedy Norman captains were of a different mind, and -when Henry, after having wined and dined the Irish princes to their -hearts’ content, in Dublin and other cities, at last returned to -England, in the fall of 1173, the Norman leaders showed their teeth to -the Irish people, and forced most of those who had submitted into fierce -revolt. As a result, the Norman forces were crushed in the field. -Strongbow, himself, was shut up in Waterford, and his comrades were -similarly placed in Dublin, Drogheda, and Wexford. Henry, incensed at -this unlooked-for sequel to his Irish pilgrimage, sent over a commission -to inquire into the facts. The result was that an Irish delegation went -to London to explain, and, at Windsor, where Henry held his court, a -treaty was entered into, finally, between King Roderick and himself, by -which the former acknowledged Henry as “suzerain,” and Roderick was -recognized as High King of Ireland, except the portions thereof held by -the Normans under Henry. This was a sad ending of Roderick’s heroic -beginning. As usual with English monarchs, when dealing with the Irish -people, Henry, urged by his greedy dependants in Ireland, soon found -means to grossly violate the Treaty of Windsor, as the compact between -the representatives of Roderick and himself was called, thus vitiating -it forever and absolving the Irish nation from observing any of its -provisions. Another fierce rebellion followed, in which the southern and -western Irish—the Anglo-Normans having now grown more numerous and -powerful—were remorselessly crushed. Roderick’s rascally son, Prince -Murrough O’Conor, who thought his father should be satisfied with the -titular High Kingship, and that he himself should be King of Connaught, -rose in revolt and attempted to seize the provincial crown. The -Connacians, indignant at his baseness, stood by the old king. Murrough -was defeated and received condign punishment. This bad prince must have -been familiar with the unseemly course pursued by the sons of Henry II -in Normandy, for he allied himself with his country’s, and his father’s, -enemies, the Anglo-Normans, under the treacherous De Cogan, and this -act, more even than his filial impiety, inflamed the minds of his -countrymen against the unnatural miscreant. King Roderick, unhappy man, -whose pride was mortally wounded, and whose paternal heart, tender and -manly, was wrung with sorrow at the crime of his son and its -punishment—decreed by the Clans and not by himself—disgusted, besides, -with the hopeless condition of Irish affairs, made up his mind to retire -from the world, its pomps and vexations. He repaired to the ancient -monastery of Cong, in Galway, and there, after twelve years of pious -devotion, on the 29th day of November, 1198, in the 82d year of his age, -this good and noble but irresolute monarch surrendered his soul to God. -He was not buried at Cong, as some annalists have asserted, but in the -chancel of the Temple Mor, or Great Church, of Clonmacnois, in the -present King’s County, where he was educated. Tradition has failed to -preserve the location of the exact place of sepulture within the ruined -shrine. And so ended the last Ard-Righ, or High King, that had swayed -the sceptre of an independent Ireland. - -King Henry’s claim that the Irish Church needed great reformation is -disproved by the enactments of his own reign in that connection, viz.: -1. That the prohibition of marriage within the canonical degrees of -consanguinity be enforced. 2. That children should be regularly -catechized before the church door in each parish. 3. That children -should be baptized in the public fonts of the parish churches. 4. That -regular tithes should be paid to the clergy, rather than irregular -donations from time to time. 5. That church lands should be exempt from -the exaction of livery and other burdens. 6. That the clergy should not -be liable to any share of the eric, or blood fine, levied off the -kindred of a man guilty of homicide. 7. A decree regulating the making -of wills. - -Surely, this was small ground on which to justify the invasion of an -independent country and the destruction of its liberty! - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - Prince John “Lackland” Created “Lord” of Ireland—Splendid Heroism of Sir - Armoricus Tristram - - -HENRY II, whatever may have been his original intentions toward Ireland -and the Irish, soon after his return to England assumed the tone of a -conqueror and dictator. He forgot, or appeared to forget, the treaty he -had concluded with King Roderick’s representatives at Windsor, which -distinctly recognized the tributary sovereignty of the Irish monarch, -and left the bulk of the Irish people under the sway of their own native -laws and rulers. Now, however, he, in defiance of the commonest law of -honor, proclaimed his weakest and worst son, the infamous John, “Lord” -of Ireland—a title retained by the English kings down to the reign of -Henry VIII, who, being a wily politician, contrived to get himself -“elected” as “King of Ireland.” This title remained with the English -monarchs until January 1, 1801, when the ill-starred legislative union -went into effect, and George III of England became king of the so-called -“United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.” - -Henry II died in 1189, preceding the Irish king he had so deeply wronged -to the grave by about nine years. His last hours were doubly imbittered -by the discovery that his youngest son, John, who was also his favorite, -and in whom he had concentrated all his paternal love and confidence, -was leagued with his enemies. An able, but thoroughly bad, man, Henry -Plantagenet died a miserable death—his heart filled with rage against -his own rebellious offspring, who, no doubt, only practiced the -perfidious policy inculcated by their miserable father. The death scene -occurred at Chinon, in Aquitaine, and his last words, uttered in the -French tongue, and despite the vehement protests of the surrounding -ecclesiastics, were, “Accursed be the day on which I was born, and -accursed of God be the sons I leave after me!” His curse did not fall on -sticks and stones. All of his guilty sons, except John, died violent and -untimely deaths. Lackland, the exception, died of an overdose of pears -and fresh cider, added to grief over the loss of his treasure, which -sunk in a quicksand while he was marching with his guard along the -English coast. Henry’s curse remained with the Plantagenets to the end, -and most of the princes of that family met a horrible doom, from Edward -II, foully murdered in Berkeley Castle, to the last male Plantagenet, of -legitimate origin, the Earl of Warwick, beheaded by order of Henry VII -in 1499. Strongbow, Henry’s chief tool in the acquirement of Ireland, -died of a dreadful blood malady, which, the doctors said, resembled -leprosy, some years before the king. He is buried in Christ Church -Cathedral, Dublin, and beside him are said to rest the relics of his -only son, killed by the ferocious father’s hand, because he fled from -the Irish in some border battle. - -Before closing this chapter we may be allowed to remark that Richard -III, when he had his nephews murdered in the Tower of London, in 1483, -came legitimately by his cruel nature. John Lackland was the progenitor -of all the Plantagenets who succeeded him on the English throne, and, -like his direct descendant, Richard Crookback, was a usurper, because -Prince Arthur, son of his elder brother, Geoffrey Plantagenet, was -lineal heir to the throne. History and tradition agree in saying that -John caused Prince Arthur to be murdered, and some historians say that -he was the actual murderer. He was the only coward of his race, and was, -also, frivolous and deliberately ill-mannered. When on a visit to -Ireland, in the supposed interest of his father, he caused a revolt -among the Irish chiefs who called upon him, by pulling their long beards -and otherwise insulting them. Those cringing chiefs deserved the -treatment they received, but John Lackland, as he was dubbed, is not, -therefore, excusable for having acted toward them as a boor and a -ruffian. Later on, when he became King of England, he again visited -Ireland, and built many strong castles. That of Limerick, called King -John’s Castle, is still almost perfectly preserved, and is a superb -relic of Norman military architecture. As the Irish were not provided -with armament, or appliances, for making a successful siege, the -fortresses built by King John were, so far as they were concerned, -virtually impregnable. Whenever the Normans were vanquished in the -field, they retired to their castles, which were amply provisioned, and -defied the vengeance of their foes. - -In the last year of the reign of Henry II, there occurred in Ireland one -of those memorable combats which deserve a lasting place in history, not -so much because of any important reform or social or political blessing -of any kind resulting from them, but as tending to show that warrior -men, in all ages, have often been chivalrous and self-sacrificing. The -Norman race—glorious as has been its record all over Europe and -Palestine—never evinced greater bravery than on the Woody field of -Knocktuagh (Nockthoo), “the Hill of Axes,” in Galway, A.D. 1189. Sir -John De Courcy, hard pressed in Ulster by the fiercely resisting septs -of the north, asked aid from his sworn friend and comrade, Sir Armoricus -Tristram—ancestor of the family of St. Lawrence, Earls of Howth—then -serving in Connaught. Tristram had with him, according to some accounts, -thirty knights, one hundred men-at-arms, mounted, and one hundred -light-armed infantry; according to other statements, he had under his -command thirty cavalry and two hundred foot. This force Cathal O’Conor, -afterward known as “the Red-Handed,” Prince of the royal house of -Connaught—a most valiant and skilful general, who was younger brother, -born out of wedlock, of King Roderick, then virtually in the retirement -of the cloisters of Cong Abbey—led into an ambush, and attacked with a -superior force. Sir Armoricus saw at a glance that escape was hopeless, -and that only one refuge was left for him and his following—to die with -honor. Some of his horsemen, tradition says, proposed to cut their way -out and leave the infantry to their fate. Against this mean proposition -Sir Armor’s brother and other knights vehemently protested. “We have -been together in many dangers,” they said; “now let all of us fight and -die together.” Sir Armor, by way of answer, alighted from his steed, -drew his sword and, with it, pierced the noble charger to the heart. All -the other horsemen, except two youths, who were detailed to watch the -fight from a distant hill, and report the result to De Courcy in Ulster, -immediately followed their glorious leader’s example. Tradition asserts -that the two young men who made their escape, by order, were Sir -Armoricus’s son and the squire of De Courcy, who brought the latter’s -message to Tristram. Having completed the slaughter of their horses, the -little band of Normans formed themselves in a phalanx, and marched -boldly to attack the outnumbering Irish. The latter met the shock with -their usual courage, but the enemy, clad in armor, cut their way deeply -and fatally into the crowded ranks of their cloth-clad foes. The Irish -poet, Arthur Gerald Geoghegan (Geh’ogan), thus graphically and -truthfully describes the dreadful encounter: - - “Then rose the roar of battle loud, the shout, the cheer, the cry! - The clank of ringing steel, the gasping groans of those who die; - Yet onward still the Norman band right fearless cut their way, - As move the mowers o’er the sward upon a summer’s day. - - “For round them there, like shorn grass, the foe in hundreds bleed; - Yet, fast as e’er they fall, each side, do hundreds more succeed; - With naked breasts undaunted meet the spears of steel-clad men, - And sturdily, with axe and skian, repay their blows again. - - “Now crushed with odds, their phalanx broke, each Norman fights alone, - And few are left throughout the field, and they are feeble grown, - But high o’er all, Sir Tristram’s voice is like a trumpet heard, - And still, where’er he strikes, the foemen sink beneath his sword. - - “But once he raised his visor up—alas, it was to try - If Hamo and his boy yet tarried on the mountain nigh, - When sharp an arrow from the foe pierced right through his brain, - And sank the gallant knight a corse upon the bloody plain. - - “Then failed the fight, for gathering round his lifeless body there, - The remnant of his gallant band fought fiercely in despair; - And, one by one, they wounded fell—yet with their latest breath, - Their Norman war-cry shouted bold—then sank in silent death.” - -When Cathal Mor finally became King of Connaught, he caused a monastery, -which he called “the Abbey of Victory,” but which has been known to the -Irish of Connaught for ages as “Abbey Knockmoy,” to be erected on or -near the site of the battle. Tradition, not a very reliable guide, fails -to exactly define the scene of Cathal’s victory over the Normans. -Knocktuagh, an inconsiderable eminence, is within a few miles of the -city of Galway, whereas Knockmoy, where stands the historic abbey, is -fully twelve miles east of that ancient borough, on the highroad to -Athlone. Cathal of the Red Hand fought many battles and won many -splendid victories, although he occasionally sustained defeats at the -hands of the Normans and their traitorous native allies; his greatest -victory was won over his bitter rival, albeit his nephew, Caher Carragh -O’Conor, whom he encountered somewhere in the county of Galway. There -was an awful slaughter on both sides, but Cathal prevailed, and, no -doubt, built the abbey on the spot where Caher and his leading -chieftains, Irish and Norman, fell. De Courcy was the only foreigner -allied with Cathal Mor in this great battle. Abbey Knockmoy is one of -the most interesting of Irish ruins, and contains friezes and frescoing -most creditable to Irish art in the thirteenth century. The victory gave -Cathal Mor the undisputed sway of Connaught. Adopting the policy of the -invaders, for the benefit of his country, he used Norman against Norman; -allied himself with Meyler FitzHenry, the last of Strongbow’s -lieutenants, to punish Connaught’s inveterate foe, William de Burgo, -ancestor of the Clanricardes in Limerick, and to humble the pride of the -ambitious De Lacys in Leinster. In 1210, this gallant Irish monarch -compelled King John of England to treat with him as an independent -sovereign, and, while he lived, no Norman usurper dared to lord it over -his kingdom of Connaught. Like his royal father and brother, he was a -champion of the Irish Church, and was a liberal founder and endower of -religious houses. Had the Connacian kings who followed been of his moral -and military calibre, the Normans could never have ruled in Connaught. -Nor did this great Irishman confine himself to his native kingdom alone; -he also assisted the other provinces in resisting foreign encroachment. -Even in his old age, when the De Lacys tried to embarrass his reign by -fortifying Athleague, so as to threaten him in flank, the dauntless -hero, at the head of his hereditary power, marched from his palace of -Ballintober, made two crossings of the river Suck, and, by a bold -manœuvre, came on the rear of the enemy, compelling them to retreat in -all haste across the Shannon into Leinster. He did not fail to raze -their forts at Athleague to the ground. This was the last of his -countless exploits. His time was drawing nigh, and, according to the -Four Masters, “signs appeared in the heavens” which foretold his death. -In 1223, Cathal’s load of age and care became too heavy, and he resigned -the crown of Connaught to his son, Hugh. The old king, assuming the -habit of the Franciscans, retired to the Abbey of Knockmoy, and there -expired, mourned by his country and respected by its enemies, A.D. 1224. -Tradition still points to his tomb amid the majestic ruins of that -venerable pile. His death was the signal for the rise of Norman power in -Connaught, and for the final deposition by the alien De Burgos of the -royal race of O’Conor. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - Ireland Under the Earlier Edwards—The Younger Bruce Elected King by the - Irish—Battle of Athenry—Death of Bruce at Faughart Hill - - -AFTER the death of King John, affairs in Ireland proceeded tamely enough -until the repeated encroachments of the Anglo-Norman settlers and their -progeny, who occupied chiefly a comparatively small district called “the -Pale,” which consisted of most of the present counties of Dublin, Louth, -Meath, Westmeath, Kildare, and Kilkenny, forced the native Irish to rise -“in rude but fierce array” against them. The Norman family of De Lacy -disputed supremacy in Leinster with the Fitzgeralds, or Geraldines, but -the latter, finally, outshone their rivals both in court and camp. The -De Courcys, headed by the bold and chivalrous Sir John, “of that ilk,” -made some impression on the coast of Ulster. The De Burgos, ancestors of -all the Irish Burkes, became powerful in Connaught, and the old Irish, -headed by the O’Conors, fought against them fiercely from time to time. -But the gallant, if covetous, Norman captains beheld the Irish maidens, -and saw that they were fair. Love-making, despite frequent feuds, -progressed between Norman lord and Celtic virgin; and not uncommonly -between Irish prince and Norman lady. Many “mixed marriages” resulted, -and, naturally, racial animosities became greatly softened, “for love -will still be lord of all.” Very soon the warrior Normans, who -acknowledged but a doubtful allegiance to the English monarch, began to -assume Irish manners, wear the Irish costume, and speak in the Gaelic -tongue. All this did not suit the English policy, and the Norman Irish -were often described by their kindred across the sea as “Degenerate -English.” It was written of the Fitzgeralds, in particular, that they -had grown “more Irish than the Irish.” This alarmed England, for it -began to look as if Norman and Celt in Ireland would soon make common -cause against her power. But many Norman chiefs were land hungry, and -many of the Irish princes were fierce and filled with a just wrath -against their invaders. Gradually, therefore, the Geraldines swept all -before them in Kildare and Desmond, for they were very warlike, and many -native Irish joined their fortunes to theirs, because of “fosterage” and -other interests. The Butlers possessed themselves of large tracts of -country in the present counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary, and became -Earls of Ormond; and the De Burgos, as Earls of Clanricarde, became, in -great part, masters of Galway, Mayo, and other parts of the province of -Connaught. Factions among the Celtic chiefs made their conquests easy. -The Normans, wily as they were brave, fostered these feuds, and were -particularly delighted when the formidable O’Neills and O’Donnells of -Ulster wasted their strength in internecine strife. The politic -foreigners occasionally allied themselves to either one of the -contending septs, and generally succeeded in outwitting both -contestants. Yet, as time wore on, the Norman warriors, forgetting their -fathers’ speech, shouted their battle cries in the Gaelic tongue, and, -except for their armor, could hardly be distinguished from the Celts. - -Henry III paid but small attention to Irish affairs. He ascended the -English throne a minor, and his mature years were spent mainly in -repeated civil wars with his barons, who finally compelled him to extend -and confirm the Magna Charta of his father. His son, Edward I, nicknamed -“Long Shanks,” the ablest king of the Plantagenet race, was almost -constantly occupied, during his stirring reign, in wars of conquest -against Wales and Scotland, and he succeeded in annexing the first-named -country to the English crown. His son and successor, Edward II, was the -first English Prince of Wales. This Edward inherited the Scotch war -which his father had left unfinished, after great effusion of blood. In -1314, his great English army, said to have numbered 100,000 knights, -archers, and men-at-arms, was disastrously routed at Bannockburn -(“Oaten-cake rivulet”), near Sterling, by King Robert Bruce, of -Scotland, who had under his command not more than 30,000 men, horse and -foot. This great victory did not entirely end the Anglo-Scotch wars, -which were always bitter and bloody down to the close of the sixteenth -century, but it preserved the independence of Scotland for nearly four -hundred years. That country ceased to be a separate nation in 1707. Many -Irish clans of Ulster aided Bruce at Bannockburn, and some Connaught -septs, under one of the O’Conors, fought on the English side, and were -nearly exterminated, which “served them right.” As the Irish princes -could not settle on one of their own number for High King, they, at the -suggestion of the wise and generous Donald O’Neill, King of Ulster, -agreed to elect Edward Bruce, brother of the Scotch monarch, king of all -Ireland. Their proffer of the Irish throne was accepted by the Bruces, -and Edward was duly crowned in 1315. This provoked a destructive three -years’ war. Brave King Robert came to Ireland to aid his brother, and, -in the field, they swept all before them, particularly in Munster. But -the Norman-Irish fought them bitterly, notably the Geraldines, the -Berminghams, and De Burgos. Felim O’Conor, the young and gallant king of -Connaught, was forced into a repugnant alliance with De Burgo, who was -powerful in the west. His heart, however, was with the Bruce, and he -soon found an opportunity to break away from his repugnant Norman ally. -Summoning all his fighting force, he marched upon the fortified town of -Athunree, or Athenry, “the Ford of the Kings,” in Galway, and came up -with the Anglo-Norman army, arrayed outside the walls, on the morning of -August 10, 1316. De Burgo and De Bermingham, two able veteran soldiers, -headed the Anglo-Normans. The conflict was fierce and the slaughter -appalling, particularly on the Irish side, because the heroic clansmen -did not have, like their foes, the advantage of chain armor and long bow -archery. Night closed upon a terrible scene. The Irish refused to fly -and died in heaps around the lifeless body of their chivalric young -king, who, with twenty-eight princes of his house, proudly fell on that -bloody field. Most of the Irish army perished—the loss being usually -estimated at 10,000 men. The Anglo-Normans also suffered severely, but -their armor proved the salvation of most of them. Connaught did not -recover from this great disaster for many generations. Athenry proved -fatal to the cause of Bruce, although, gallantly seconded by Donald -O’Neill, he fought on for two years longer, but was at last killed in -battle on Faughart Hill, in Louth, A.D. 1318. With him disappeared, for -that century at least, the hope of an independent Ireland. - -After the battle of Athenry, the power of the De Burgo family, and of -all the allies of their house, became predominant in Connaught, but all -these Anglo-Norman chiefs became, also, much more Irish in manners and -sympathy than they had ever been before. The desperate bravery displayed -by O’Conor’s clansmen had aroused the admiration of those born warriors, -and they felt that to ally themselves in marriage with so martial a race -was an honor, not a degradation, such as the English sought to make it -appear. Ulster maintained its independence, and so also did much of -Connaught and portions of Munster and Leinster, and there were -periodical raids upon the Pale and carrying off of “Saxon” flocks and -herds, followed by feasts and general jubilation. The Palesmen, whenever -too weak to meet the Celts in the field, would resort to their -time-honored strategy of shutting themselves up in their strongholds, -and making, whenever opportunity offered, fierce retaliatory raids on -the Irish territory. This kind of warfare was unfortunate for Ireland, -because it kept the English feeling strong in the hearts of the -Palesmen, who were constantly recruited by fresh swarms of adventurers -from England. Outside of the Pale, however, the Old Irish and the -Normans continued to affiliate and intermarry, as we have already said. -Fosterage—a peculiarly Irish custom, which meant that the children of -the king, prince, or chief should be nursed by the wives of the -clansmen, instead of their own mothers—grew apace, and nearly every -Norman lord had his heirs suckled by the women of the Celtic race, thus -creating a bond of “kinship”—if so it may be termed—in many instances -stronger than even the brotherhood of blood. - -Irish tradition abounds in examples of the devotion of foster-brethren -to each other; and in all written history there is given but one -instance of treachery in this connection, and that instance does not -involve a man of Celtic, but of Latin, lineage. We refer to the betrayal -of Lord Thomas Fitzgerald by Parez in the reign of Henry VIII, which -will be dealt with in the proper place. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - Prince Lionel Viceroy for Edward III—The Statute of Kilkenny - - -EDWARD III, that valiant, vigorous, and ambitious “English” king—he was -almost a pure-blooded Frenchman and about the last Norman monarch who -occupied the throne of England that did not speak with fluency the -language of the people he governed—was so occupied with his unjust wars -against France that he gave but small heed to Irish affairs and never -visited the island at all. But he sent over his third son, Prince -Lionel, ancestor of the royal house of York and Clarence, as viceroy. -Lionel had with him a well-equipped army of native-born English, but he -treated his Anglo-Irish allies so contemptuously that many fell away -from him and joined the ranks of the Old Irish. His English army, -unaccustomed to the Irish climate and mode of warfare, made but a poor -figure in the field, and was everywhere beaten by the dauntless Irish -clansmen. At last he was compelled to lower his imperious tone to the -Anglo-Irish and these foolishly helped him out of his scrape. It is said -that a more than doubtful campaign in the present county of Clare -procured for him, from his flatterers, the title of Duke of Clarence—a -title, by the way, which brought more or less misfortune to every -English prince who has borne it, except William IV, from his day to our -own. - -Lionel was particularly jealous of the friendship which seemed to exist -between old Anglo-Irish and the old Celtic-Irish, and his small mind -conceived a method of putting an end to it. He summoned a parliament to -meet at Kilkenny, and there it was enacted, among other things, “that -all intermarriages, fosterings, gossipred, and buying or selling with -the (Irish) enemy shall be accounted treason; that English names, -fashions, and manners (most of these having disappeared) shall be -resumed under penalty of confiscation of the delinquent’s lands; that -March laws (Norman) and Brehon laws (Irish) are illegal, and that there -shall be no laws but English laws; that the Irish shall not pasture -their cattle on English lands; that the English shall not entertain -Irish rhymers, minstrels, or newsmen, and, moreover, that no ‘mere -Irishman’ shall be admitted to any ecclesiastical benefice or religious -house (England was then all Catholic) situated within the English -district.” - -Other provisions of the Statute of Kilkenny, as this precious “law” is -called in Irish history, forbade the wearing of long hair, mustaches, -and cloaks, after the manner of the Irish, and the use of the Gaelic -speech was also forbidden, under heavy penalties. With their usual -subserviency to English demands, the Anglo-Irish barons of the Pale—the -portion of Ireland held by the English settlers, as already -explained—passed this barbarous enactment without opposition, although -they themselves were the chief “offenders” against it, in the eyes of -the tyrannical viceroy. - -To the honor of the Anglo-Normans and Celtic-Irish be it remembered, the -base statute became almost immediately inoperative, and the Norman lords -and Irish ladies, and the Irish princes and the Norman ladies, -intermarried more numerously than before—an example generally followed -by their dependants. The gallant house of Fitzgerald, or Geraldine, as -usual, set the example of disregard. - - “These Geraldines! These Geraldines! Not long her air they breathed— - Not long they fed on venison in Irish water seethed— - Not often had their children been by Irish mothers nursed, - When from their full and genial hearts an Irish feeling burst! - The English monarch strove in vain, by law and force and bribe, - To win from Irish thoughts and ways this ‘more than Irish’ tribe; - For still they clung to fosterage—to Brehon, cloak, and bard— - No king dare say to Geraldine: ‘Your Irish wife discard!’” - -The immediate effect of the Statute of Kilkenny was to temporarily unite -most of the Irish clans against the common enemy. They fell fiercely -upon the Pale and again shut up the Normans in their fortresses. Prince -Lionel returned to England grieved and humiliated. His viceroyalty had -been a signal failure. - -Throughout the viceroyalty of Clarence and his successor, William de -Windsor, the desultory war between the Old Irish and the Anglo-Normans -made many districts, in all the provinces, red with slaughter. The power -of the De Burgos declined in Connaught after the death of the warlike -Red Earl, who was the scourge of the O’Conors, and the latter family -brought his descendants, who had assumed the name of MacWilliam, under -their sway. The fierce tribes of Wicklow, Wexford, and Carlow harried -the Pale, and were frequently joined by the O’Mores of Leix, and the -Fitzpatricks of Ossory. In Ulster, Niel O’Neill, Prince of Tyrone, -attacked and defeated the English armies and garrisons with so much -success that he cleared Ulster of all foreigners, and won the title of -Niel the Great. The Earl of Desmond met with a severe defeat at the -hands of O’Brien, Prince of Thomond, who assailed him near the abbey of -Adare in Limerick, and routed his army with terrible carnage. Desmond -himself was mortally wounded and died upon the field. The Earl of -Kildare, Desmond’s kinsman, attempted to avenge his rout, but met with -scant success, because the Irish had, by this time, grown used to the -Norman method of warfare, and, in many cases, improved upon the tactics -of their oppressors. - -Edward III, just before his death in 1376, attempted to get the -settlements of the Pale to send representatives to London to consult -about the affairs of Ireland, but they demurred, saying that it was not -their custom to deliberate outside of their own country. However, they -sent delegates to explain matters to the king, who did not further -insist on convening a Pale Parliament in the English capital. It is -strange that so able a monarch as Edward was, even in his declining -years, never thought of visiting Ireland. Of course, most of his reign -was taken up with the wars in France, in which he proved so signally -victorious, and he had but little time for other occupations. In truth, -Edward III, although nominally English, was, in reality, a Frenchman in -thought and speech, and his dearest dream was to rule over the country -of his Plantagenet ancestors, with England as a kind of tributary -province. Of course, the English people would never have acquiesced in -this arrangement, for, however willing to impose their yoke on other -peoples, they are unalterably opposed to having any foreign yoke imposed -upon themselves. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - Richard II’s Invasions—Heroic Art MacMurrough - - -THE first half of the fourteenth century passed away quietly enough in -Ireland, except for occasional conflicts between the Anglo-Normans and -the Celtic tribes, or an odd encounter of the latter with one another. -Edward III had so many quarrels with Scotland and France that he could -do nothing in Ireland, even were he so inclined, and the sad experience -of the Duke of Clarence in that country warned succeeding viceroys to -let well enough alone. The Irish nation, Celtic, Norman, and Saxon, was -gradually fusing and would soon have developed a composite strength -nearly equal to that of England herself. In the wars with France, many -Anglo-Irish septs fought under the orders of Edward, and, probably, some -of the Celtic septs also joined his standard, rather as allies, through -the bad policy of their chiefs, than as mercenaries. - -By the time that Edward completed, or nearly so, the conquest of France, -the English power in Ireland had so shrunken as to be almost nominal. -Dublin, Drogheda, Kilkenny, and Waterford were the chief garrisons of -the English. The Lacys, Burkes, Fitzgeralds, and other Norman-Irish -houses and clans were scarcely to be distinguished from the Milesian -families and septs. Such fighting as they indulged in between themselves -was comparatively trivial. The island, blessed with partial peace, began -to grow more populous and prosperous. Edward, the Black Prince, having -crowned himself with glory in France, died before he could inherit the -crown of England. Edward III, not so old as worn out by ceaseless -warfare, died in 1377, and after him came to the English throne Richard, -son of the Black Prince, a handsome boy of sixteen, who, at first, gave -promise of great deeds, but who subsequently proved himself a weakling -and voluptuary. In Ireland, Ulster, Connaught, and Munster remained -tranquil for the most part, but, in Leinster, the royal house of -MacMurrough—lineal descendants of the traitor of Strongbow’s time—showed -a determination to drive the remnant of the English garrison into the -sea. They were as loyal to Ireland as their accursed ancestor had been -faithless. King Art I, after a long series of successes and failures, -died, and was succeeded on the Leinster throne by King Art II—one of the -bravest, wisest, and truest characters in Irish history. He continued -the war his father had begun. Richard II, like all of his race, was vain -and greedy of military glory. As the war with France had closed for a -period, he thought Ireland a good field in which to distinguish himself -as a general. He had heard of “MacMore,” as he called MacMurrough, and -longed to measure swords with him. Accordingly, in the summer of 1394, -he landed at Waterford with a large army. The historian McGee estimates -it at 35,000 horse and foot, but we are inclined to think it was much -less. That it was formidable, for those times, all historians who have -dealt with the subject are agreed upon. He was accompanied, also, by a -large retinue of nobility, among them Roger Mortimer, the young Earl of -March, who, because of the childlessness of Richard, was heir to the -British throne, through descent from the Duke of Clarence, in the female -line. Richard did not wait long in Waterford, but proceeded on his march -to Dublin, unfurling the banner of Edward the Confessor, for whom the -Irish were supposed to have a deep veneration. MacMurrough, however, -showed scant courtesy to the Confessor’s ensign, not because it was the -banner of a saint, but because, for the time, it represented the -rapacity of England. Richard was met boldly at every point. His bowmen -got tangled up in the woods. His horsemen floundered in the bogs. -MacMurrough’s army hovered in his front, on his flanks, and in rear. Not -a single success did the English monarch gain. He summoned MacMurrough -to a conference when he reached Dublin—having lost a third of his army -while en route—and the Leinster king, having accepted the invitation, -was ruthlessly thrown into prison. After a time, a treaty of some kind -was patched up between King Richard and himself, and the Irish prince -was allowed to go free. Richard then returned to England, leaving Roger -Mortimer in command. Soon afterward, MacMurrough, objecting to the -English encroachments in his territory, again rose in arms. He -encountered Mortimer and the English army on the banks of the King’s -River at Kenlis or Kells in Westmeath, and utterly routed them. -England’s heir-apparent was among the slain. This circumstance had much -to do with bringing about the bloody Wars of the Roses in the succeeding -century. - -About this time Art MacMurrough and his chief bard, who, as was then the -Irish custom, accompanied his patron everywhere, were invited to a -banquet by one of the Norman lords, who treacherously pretended -friendship. The invitation was accepted. While seated at a window of the -banquet-hall, the bard perceived a mustering of troops around the -castle, and at once seized his harp and struck the chords to an ancient -Irish air. The Gaelic words which accompanied the measure fell upon the -ears of Art MacMurrough and warned him of his danger. His sword and -buckler hung near by. On some trivial pretext, he arose and seized them, -the bard having, meanwhile, armed himself. The two made a sudden -onslaught and, surprising their foes, cut their way to the courtyard, -where, fortunately, their horses still stood. They sprang upon them, -and, before the astonished men-at-arms could rally, made good their -escape. Art MacMurrough never again trusted the English, and remained -their consistent foe to his latest hour. - -But King Richard, maddened by the death of Mortimer, which he felt was -dangerous to himself, raised another great army, and, in 1398, again -invaded Ireland. He was accompanied by a younger son of his uncle, John -of Gaunt, “time-honored Lancaster,” and also by Prince Henry, eldest son -of Henry of Hereford and afterward Henry V, the hero of Agincourt. The -boy was only in his twelfth year, but well grown and brave as a lion. In -the first encounter with the formidable MacMurrough, in the glens of -Carlow, he so distinguished himself that Richard II knighted him on the -field. This march from Waterford to Dublin proved, in the end, even more -disastrous than the former one. MacMurrough kept up his harassing -tactics, as usual. The rain poured down in torrents. The Irish drove all -the cattle away from the English line of march, and destroyed the -growing crops. Nearly all the baggage-animals of the invading force died -for want of forage, and the army was in a state of famine and revolt, -when it finally reached the seacoast near the present town of Arklow, -where some English ships, laden with provisions, saved it from actual -starvation. The remnant made its way to Dublin, where other disastrous -news awaited King Richard. Henry of Hereford, eldest son of John of -Gaunt, whom he had unjustly exiled, and whose lands he had seized, now, -on the death of his father, having become Duke of Lancaster, came back -from the continent, having heard of Richard’s misfortunes in Ireland, -and laid claim to the crown. Richard, after ordering young Prince Henry -and his uncle to be imprisoned in the castle of Trim—still one of the -finest Norman keeps in Ireland—set sail for England. Henry, who had by -this time raised a large army, made him prisoner and sent him to -Pontefract Castle, in Yorkshire, where, soon afterward, he was starved -to death, or otherwise foully made away with. Prince Henry and his uncle -were immediately released when the Duke of Lancaster ascended a usurped -throne as Henry IV of England. And thus was laid the bloody foundation -of the dreadful after wars between the rival royal houses of York and -Lancaster, which ended in the extermination of the legitimate -Plantagenets. An illegitimate branch, directly descended from John of -Gaunt, still survives in the ducal house of Beaufort. - -Art MacMurrough remained a conqueror to the end, and kept up the war -with the Normans. In 1404, he defeated at Athcroe (Ford of Slaughter), -near Dublin, Lord Thomas of Lancaster, brother of the king, putting most -of the English to the sword, and desperately wounding the prince -himself. Only a few years ago, Irish laborers, excavating for a railroad -at Athcroe, came upon nearly a thousand bent swords, some of them badly -decomposed by rust, buried in the river bed. They were the swords taken -from the dead English, in 1404, and bent across the knees of the -victorious Irish, according to their custom in those days. - -MacMurrough’s career of glory continued until 1417, when, having -captured all the important towns of Leinster, except Dublin and -Drogheda, he died at his capital of New Ross—then the second city in -Ireland—as some say by poison, in the sixtieth year of his age and -forty-fourth of his reign. Taken for all in all, he was not alone the -bravest, but the ablest, of Irish princes and warriors since the days of -King Brian, and it was a sad day for Ireland when the word went through -Leinster and rang around the island that King Art was dead. Many a dark -generation passed away before such another chief, or any one worthy to -be mentioned as a rival of his fame, arose in that unfortunate land. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - Ireland During the Wars of the Roses - - -AFTER the premature death of Henry IV, an able but unscrupulous -sovereign, in 1413, the attention of England was again directed to the -conquest of France by the chivalrous and skilful Henry V. His capture of -Harfleur and marvelous victory of Agincourt, against overwhelming odds, -in 1415, stamp him as one of the world’s great military leaders. During -the nine years of his reign, he succeeded in subduing France, and, -finally, married Catherine, heiress of Charles VI, an almost imbecile -king, and had himself declared regent and next in succession to the -throne after his father-in-law. France was stupefied, but God, -infinitely stronger than French arms, decreed Henry’s early death. He -died in the conquered country in 1422, leaving an only son, Henry VI, an -infant of nine months, to succeed him, under the regency of his uncle, -Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who, for a wonder, considering the history -of the Plantagenets, remained faithful to his trust. John, Duke of -Bedford, a younger brother of Henry, and a very brilliant soldier, -became regent of France. This was the period of the inspired -peasant-girl, Joan of Arc, whose story of victory and death belongs to -the history of France, although, after having performed prodigies, she -died at the stake to which the English, into whose hands she had fallen, -condemned her. The Dauphin, as Charles VII, succeeded to his legitimate -throne, and, about 1453, the English were expelled from France, except -the old town of Calais, which remained in their possession until 1558. -In Ireland, meanwhile, the chief feuds were those between the Geraldines -and the Butlers and the De Burgos and the Connaught chiefs. There were -also minor feuds in different parts of the island, but, as a rule, the -Irish people had things pretty much their own way, and might have thrown -off the English yoke utterly, if they had had an Edward Bruce or Art -MacMurrough to arouse and lead them to victory. Unfortunately they had -not, and, as the English fetter was very light on Ireland during the -Wars of the Roses, which began in 1455, they imagined, perhaps, that the -old enemy, having plenty of fighting to do on their own account, might -leave them alone for evermore—a vain hope if it were seriously -entertained. - -After an interval of six years, the Wars of the Roses—so-called because -the red rose was the badge of the House of Lancaster and the white that -of the House of York—broke out more violently than before, because Henry -VI, who had been declared imbecile and unfit to reign, suddenly -recovered his intellect, and Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who -claimed a prior right to the throne, and had been appointed Regent, with -the right of succession, refused to give up his authority. Henry had a -son by his brave wife, Margaret of Anjou. He might be called a weakling, -but she summoned the people to defend the rights of her son. York was -defeated, captured, and beheaded at Wakefield, in 1461, but his son -Edward, Earl of March, routed the queen’s army immediately afterward and -ascended the throne as Edward IV. Struggle succeeded struggle, but the -House of York achieved a crowning triumph at Tewkesbury and again at -Barnet Heath, where Warwick, the King Maker, fell. The direct male line -of the House of Lancaster perished at Tewkesbury, where, it is alleged, -the gallant Prince Edward, son of Henry VI, was murdered, after having -been made prisoner, by Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence—the same -afterward drowned in a butt of wine by order of his cruel brother. King -Edward IV, after a reign of twenty-two years, marked by slaughter of his -foes and some of his friends, notorious immorality, and swinish -debauchery, died of a fever brought on by his excesses, in 1483, and his -vile younger brother, the Duke of Gloucester, succeeded the boy-king, -Edward V, by process of murder, in the same year. The last battle of the -Wars of the Roses was fought at Bosworth, near Leicester, August 22, -1485. Richard, last king of the Plantagenet family, fell and was -succeeded by his rival, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, descended, in the -female line, from John of Gaunt, who ascended the throne as Henry VII. - -Thus, you will see, Ireland was left pretty much to herself, during -those thirty years of English civil war, in which twelve murderous -pitched battles were fought. Most of the old nobility were killed in -battle or executed, or otherwise destroyed, and more than one hundred -thousand Englishmen of the middle and lower classes were immolated on -the smoking altars of family pride and savage ambition. Every prince of -the race of Plantagenet was exterminated when, in 1599, Henry VII -ordered the beheading of the young Earl of Warwick, son of the Duke of -Clarence. Many of the Anglo-Irish lords and their followings took part -in the English wars, mainly on the side of the House of York, and the -Geraldines, in particular, got sadly mixed up in them, for which they -suffered amply in after days. No reigning king of England had set foot -in Ireland since Richard II sailed to his death from Dublin, and Henry -VII proved to be no exception to the rule. He, however, interfered in -the quarrel between the Fitzgeralds and the Butlers—as bitter and -prolonged as that between the Camerons and Campbells in Scotland—and -made the Earl of Kildare viceroy. The Desmonds, the powerful southern -branch of the Geraldines, were also eternally at variance with the -Butlers. It is related that, on one occasion, the Earl of Desmond was -wounded and made prisoner. While being borne on a litter to Butler’s -stronghold, one of the bearers insolently and brutally demanded, “Where -is the great Earl of Desmond now?” To which the heroic captive -immediately replied—“Where he ought to be” (alluding to the litter in -which he was carried by his foes): “still on the necks of the Butlers!” - -The most memorable event of Henry VII’s reign, as far as Ireland was -concerned, was the coming over from England of Sir Edward Poynings, as -Lord Deputy during the temporary retirement of Kildare. The English -colonists of the Pale, almost from their first settlement of that -district, possessed an independent parliament, modeled on that of -England. It was, in general, oppressive toward the Celtic-Irish, but -made good laws enough for the Palesmen. Poynings, soon after his -arrival, called this parliament to assemble at Drogheda and there (1495) -the Statute of Kilkenny was reaffirmed, except as regarded the -prohibition of Gaelic, which had come into general use, even in the Pale -itself. The main enactment—the first uttered in the English tongue in -Ireland—was that known as 10 Henry VII, otherwise Poynings’ Law, which -provided that no legislation should be, thereafter, proceeded with in -Ireland unless the bills were first submitted for approval or rejection -to the monarch and privy council of England. In case of approval they -were to be attested by the great seal of the English realm. It was, to -be sure, a most unjust and insolent measure, and it seems almost -incredible that even the Pales people—mere hybrids, neither English nor -Irish—should have tamely submitted to its infamous provisions. It -remained in force 287 years, or until 1782, when it was repealed under -circumstances that will appear hereafter. - -The close of this reign witnessed a bloody struggle between the Kildares -and Clanricardes, in which many Celtic tribes also bore a part, and in -which thousands of men lost their lives to no good purpose. In the two -principal battles, those of Knockdoe and Monabraher (1507-10), artillery -and musketry were first made use of on Irish soil. - -As most of the Irish Palesmen, including the House of Kildare, were -partisans of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses, the two -pretenders—prepared by Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward -IV, to impersonate, respectively, Edward, Earl of Warwick, only son and -heir of the late Duke of Clarence, and Richard, Duke of York, the second -son of Edward IV, who was murdered in the Tower, by order, it is said, -of his base uncle, Richard III, together with his brother, the boy-king, -Edward V—found adherents when they landed on Irish soil. Indeed, Lambert -Simnel, the first of these pretenders, a handsome young Englishman, who -resembled the princes of the House of York, was crowned king, as “Edward -VI,” in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Many Pales Irish followed him -to England, where Henry VII defeated and made him prisoner. The real -Warwick was taken from the Tower and paraded through the streets-a sad -spectacle of physical comeliness marred, and intellect clouded, by long -and harsh confinement. Having been sufficiently exhibited to satisfy the -public of Simnel’s imposture, the poor boy was returned to his cell. -Simnel, himself, was made a “turnspit” in the royal kitchen, afterward -raised to the post of falconer, and ended his days in that humble -position. The second pretender, Perkin Warbeck, a Belgian by birth, had -less support from Ireland than his predecessor, but involved some of the -nobles of the Pale with King Henry. But his adherents, remembering the -imposition of the bogus Edward VI, soon fell away, and Perkin went to -Scotland, where James IV received him, as if he were a genuine prince, -and gave him his cousin, the lovely Lady Catherine Gordon, in marriage. -Peace being concluded between James and Henry, Warbeck and his beautiful -bride went to Cornwall. There the pretender, who was really a man of -noble presence and great ability, rallied 3,000 men to his standard. -Successful at first, he proved himself a false Plantagenet by basely -deserting his confiding followers on the eve of decisive battle. He shut -himself up in the sanctuary of Beaulieu, in the New Forest, but soon -surrendered himself, and was shown by the king to the populace of -London. He was well treated for a time, but his position was mortifying. -He ran off to another sanctuary, was again forced to give himself up, -was placed in the public stocks, confessed he was an impostor, and was -finally sent to the Tower, to keep company with the unhappy Warwick. -This circumstance enabled the crafty Henry to get up a so-called plot, -of which it was easy to convict two helpless prisoners. Warwick—last -male of the Plantagenets—lost his head on Tower Hill, and Warbeck died -by the rope at Tyburn. His charming widow became lady-in-waiting to the -Queen. - -Many abbeys and monasteries were built in Ireland during this -comparatively tranquil period, and the passion for learning revived to a -great extent among the native Irish nobility. Pilgrimages, as of old, -were made to distant lands for the purpose of worshiping at famous -shrines. Irish teachers and scholars began again to be numerous in -Spain, Germany, and Italy. Henry VII, engaged in saving the wreck of -England’s almost extinguished nobility, and in hoarding money, for which -he had a passion, took little account of Ireland and the Irish. But, -already, low on the horizon, a blood-red cloud was forming, and it -gradually thickened and extended until, at last, it broke in a crimson -torrent on the fated Irish nation. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOK II - - -TREATING OF IRISH AFFAIRS FROM THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION TO THE -EXILE AND DEATH OF THE ULSTER PRINCES IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - The “Reformation”—New Cause of Discord in Ireland - - -THE bitterness of race hatred had almost died out when the Reformation, -as the opponents of the Church of Rome called the great schism of the -sixteenth century, began to shake Europe like an earthquake. Luther, and -other dissenters from Catholic faith, carried most of the north of -Europe with them. The Latin countries, South Germany, all of Ireland, -and most of England, clung to the old faith, and Henry VIII, who -succeeded his father at an early age, and was quite learned in theology, -wrote a pamphlet defending the Catholic dogmas against Luther and the -others. This work procured for him from the Pope the title of the -“Defender of the Faith,” which still, rather inappropriately, belongs to -the sovereign of England. But Henry was a good Catholic only so long as -religion did not interfere with his passions and ambitions. He had been -married in early life to Catherine of Aragon, who had been the nominal -wife of his elder brother, another Prince of Wales, who died uncrowned. -After many years, Henry, who was a slave to his passions, tired of -Catherine, and pretended to believe that it was sinful to live with his -brother’s widow, even though the latter relationship was but nominal. In -truth, he had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, one of Queen Catherine’s -maids-of-honor. The Pope was appealed to for a divorce and refused to -grant it, after having carefully examined into the case. Then Henry -severed England’s spiritual connection with Rome, and declared himself -head of the English “Reformed” Church. In this he was sustained by -Wolsey, Cromwell, and other high churchmen, all of whom were either -ambitious or afraid of their heads, for Henry never hesitated, like his -grand-uncle, Richard III, at the use of the axe, when any subject, -clerical or lay, opposed his will. But the tyrant, while refusing -allegiance to the Pope, still maintained the truth of Catholic dogma, -and he murdered with studied impartiality those who gave their adhesion -to the Holy See and those who denied its doctrines; no Englishman of -note felt his head safe in those red days. As for the common people, -nobody of “rank” ever gave them a thought. Henry now seized upon the -Church property, and, therewith, bribed the great lords to take his side -of the controversy. The boors followed the lords, and so most of England -followed Henry’s schism and prepared to go farther. - -Henry married Anne Boleyn when he had “divorced” Queen Catherine. After -the Princess Elizabeth was born, he tired of his new wife, had her tried -for faithlessness and high treason and beheaded. Scarcely was she dead -when the inhuman brute married Lady Jane Seymour, of the great Somerset -family. She gave birth to Prince Edward and died. Then he married Anne -of Cleves, but, not liking her person, “divorced” her and sent her back -to Germany. For “imposing” her on him, he disgraced, and finally -beheaded, the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, who had been his great -friend. The monster next espoused Lady Catherine Howard, of the House of -Surrey, but he had her beheaded, on charges almost similar to those -urged against Anne Boleyn, within the year. At last he married a widow -of two experiences, Lady Catharine Parr, who, being a woman of tact and -cleverness, managed to save her head, although frequently in danger, -until the ferocious king, who must have been somewhat insane, finally -fell a victim to his own unbridled vices. “The plain truth,” says -Charles Dickens, in his “Child’s History,” “is that Henry VIII was a -most intolerable ruffian, a disgrace to human nature, and a blot of -blood and grease upon the history of England.” - -This was the crowned “fiend in human shape” who sought to effect his -“Reformation in Ireland,” where both the Old Irish and the Old English -had united against his tyranny. The weight of his wrath fell first upon -the Leinster Geraldines, whom he dreaded. He contrived to pick a quarrel -with Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, who had been for many years his -favorite viceroy in Ireland, and summoned him to London in hot haste, on -flimsy, notoriously “trumped-up” charges of treason. He flung him into a -dungeon in the Tower of London. Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the Earl, -called “Silken Thomas,” because of the beauty of his person and the -splendor of his apparel, was appointed deputy by his father, who thought -his absence in England might be brief. Lord Thomas was young, brave, and -rash, and, in short, the very man to fall an easy victim to the wiles of -his House’s enemies. Tradition says that the false news of Earl Gerald’s -execution, by order of King Henry, was spread in Dublin by one of the -Butlers. The privy council, over which he usually presided, was already -in session at St. Mary’s Abbey, when “Silken Thomas” heard the story. -He, at once, with a large escort, proceeded to the abbey, renounced his -allegiance to the English monarch, and, seizing the sword of state from -the sword-bearer, threw it, with violent gesture, on the council table, -“the English Thanes among.” Protests availed nothing. He rushed to arms, -and for nearly two years held at bay Henry’s power. Had he but laid his -plans with care and judgment, he would, no doubt, have ended the rule of -England over Ireland, which, although not his primary, became his -ultimate, object. In the end, his stronghold of Maynooth Castle was -betrayed into the hands of the English general, Sir William Skeffington, -by Lord Thomas’s foster-brother, Parez, for a sum in gold. General -Skeffington paid the money on the surrender of the castle, and -immediately hanged the traitor. For this act of chivalric justice, the -name of that stern Englishman is still held in respect by all readers of -Irish history. The loss of Maynooth depleted the strength of “Silken -Thomas.” He struggled on for some time longer, but, at last, accepted -the terms of Lord Deputy Gray, who offered him his life and guaranteed -the safety of his five uncles—two, at least, of whom had had no hand in -the outbreak. They were invited to a banquet by the Lord Deputy, and -there, while drinking with their false hosts, were treacherously seized, -placed in irons, and sent to England in a ship called the _Cow_. One of -the uncles, hearing the name of the vessel, said: “We are lost! I have -dreamed that six of us, Geraldines, would be carried to England in the -belly of a cow and there lose our heads!” The augury was fulfilled. -Henry VIII, with his usual disregard of terms, had them beheaded -immediately after their arrival in London, at Tyburn. The old Earl of -Kildare had not been executed after all, but died of a broken heart in -the Tower on learning of the revolt and misfortunes of his son. Only one -heir-male of the noble House of Kildare now survived, and for him, -although only twelve years old, Henry sought, through his agents, with -the relentless ferocity of a Herod. The boy was related to the great -Celtic houses, for the Geraldines of that period preferred Irish wives, -and his mother was a princess of the House of O’Neill of Ulster. By her, -and by other noble Irish ladies, he was concealed and protected until he -was enabled to escape to France. Thence he proceeded to Rome, where he -was educated as befitted his rank and lineage. This young Gerald was -restored to his titles and estates by Queen Mary I, but he accepted -Protestantism when Elizabeth came to the throne, because, otherwise, he -could not have saved land and title—a most unworthy motive, but one very -common in that violent and sanguinary era. In his descendants the elder -Geraldine branch still lives in Ireland—the present head of the family -being Maurice Fitzgerald, “the boy-Duke” of Leinster. - -“Bluff King Hal,” as the English called their royal Bluebeard, never did -anything by halves, if he could help it. He did not think the title of -“Lord of Ireland” sufficient for his dignity, and set about intriguing -to be elected king. Accordingly, he caused to be summoned a parliament, -or rather what we of to-day would call a convention, composed of -Anglo-Irish barons and Celto-Irish chiefs, to meet in Dublin, A.D. 1541. -This parliament or convention, at which the great Ulster princes, -O’Neill and O’Donnell, did not attend, voted Henry the crown of -Ireland—something the Irish chiefs, at least, had no power to do, as -they held their titles by election of their clans and not by right of -heredity. The outcome was, however, that Henry became King of -Ireland—the first English monarch to achieve that distinction. In order -to emphasize his power, he at once decreed that the old titles of the -Irish princes should give way to English ones. Thus “The O’Brien” became -“Earl of Thomond”; “The MacWilliam,” “Earl of Clanricarde”; “The -MacMurrough” became “Baron of Ballynun,” and changed his family name to -Kavanagh. Shameful to relate, O’Neill and O’Donnell, both old men, -broken in health, “came in” and joined the titled serfs. The former -became “Earl of Tyrone” and the latter “Earl of Tyrconnel.” - -When the news reached the Irish clansmen, there was a general revolt and -new chiefs of the same families, with the old Irish designations -unchanged, were elected. The English interest supported “the King’s -O’Donnell” and the others of his type, while the bulk of the Irish -people stood for the newly chosen leaders. Thus was still another -firebrand cast by English policy among the Irish people, and there was -civil war, thenceforth, for generations in the clans themselves. - -Nor was Henry satisfied with mere civil supremacy in Ireland. He also -set himself up as head of the Irish Church. Many Anglo-Irish Catholic -bishops basely acquiesced in his policy, but the Celtic bishops, almost -to a man, spurned his propositions. The masses of the Irish nation, -whether of Celtic, Norman, or Saxon origin, remained steadfastly -Catholic, although, in the past, they had had little cause to be pleased -with the political action of the Vatican, which had generally sided with -the Catholic monarchs of England against Ireland’s aspirations after -independence. Now, however, the favored country had become Rome’s most -deadly enemy in Europe, while Ireland, inhabited by a highly spirited -and stubborn people, who venerated the creed taught their fathers by St. -Patrick, became the foremost European champion of the old faith. - -We can not dwell at greater length on this lurid dawn of the Reformation -in Ireland, because, fierce as was the persecution under Henry, it was -trivial compared with what followed his reign, and made the distracted -island a veritable den of outrage and slaughter. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - The Reformation Period Continued—Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth, and “John - the Proud” - - -WHEN Edward VI, another boy-king, came to the throne, in 1547, Ireland -was pretty well distracted, owing to the seeds of discord sown by his -ferocious father. The young monarch was under the absolute control of -his maternal kinsmen, the Seymours, and all that was done to forward the -Reformation in Ireland during his brief reign may be justly attributed -to them. On his death, in 1553, Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and -Catherine of Aragon, and wife of Philip II of Spain, succeeded. She was -a bigoted Catholic and soon made things decidedly warm for the -Protestants in England. Many of these fled for safety to Ireland, where -the Catholic people—incapable of cruelty until demoralized by the -ruthless tyranny of religious persecution—received and sheltered them—a -noble page of Anglo-Irish history. - -The Reformation, of course, came to a standstill in Ireland, during -this queen’s reign, but the plunder and persecution of the Irish -people did not, therefore, abate. There were raids and massacres and -confiscations, as usual. Of course there were bloody reprisals on the -part of the Irish, also—as was but natural. Some of the old Irish -districts—particularly Leix and Offaly—were, under the sway of Mary, -called the King’s and Queen’s Counties—the chief town of the one being -named Philipstown, after the queen’s Spanish husband, and the capital -of the other Maryborough, after herself. The Irish Reformers “laid -low,” as was prudent in them, during Mary’s period of power, because -she had the unpleasant Tudor habit of putting to death, by divers -violent modes of punishment, those who presumed to differ from her -rather strong opinions. The English, who sincerely rejoiced when, -after reigning about five years, she passed to her account, nicknamed -her “Bloody Mary,” although she was not a whit “bloodier” than her -awful father, and had a very formidable rival for sanguinary “honors” -in her younger half-sister, Elizabeth. Mary Tudor was the last -_avowed_ Catholic monarch who reigned in England, except the ill-fated -James II. In this reign, the English law of primogeniture was first -generally introduced into the Celtic districts annexed to the Pale, -which had been divided into “shire-ground,” and this was the cause of -much internal disorder among the Irish tribes that clung to the old -elective system of chieftaincy. - -Elizabeth, called by her admiring English subjects “Good Queen Bess,” on -very insufficient grounds, ascended the throne in 1558. She had, -apparently, “conformed” to Catholicity during the lively reign of her -half-sister, fearing, no doubt, for her head in case of refusal. Henry -VIII’s daughter, by Anne Boleyn, she inherited great energy of -character, a masculine intellect, superabundant vanity, a passion for -empire, and a genius for intrigue. Her morals were none of the best, -according to many historians. She was, for that age, highly educated, -could speak divers tongues, and possessed many of the polite -accomplishments. Indeed, she was somewhat of a female pedant. In person, -while yet young, she was not ill-favored, being well-formed and of good -stature. Her complexion was fair, her hair auburn, and her eyes small, -but dark and sparkling. Her temper was irritable; she swore when angry, -and, at times, her disposition was as ferocious as that of “Old Hal” -himself. Like his, her loves were passing passions, and her friendship -dangerous to those on whom she lavished it most freely. Flattery was the -surest way by which to reach her consideration, but, in affairs of -state, not even that could cloud her powerful understanding or balk her -resolute will. She resolved to finish what her father and brother had -begun, and finish it to the purpose—namely, the Reformation—in both -England and Ireland. In the former country, her will soon became law, -and Rome ceased to be considered, for generations, as a factor in -English affairs. In Ireland, it was different. The people there refused, -as a great majority, to conform to the new order of things. They obeyed -the Pope, as their spiritual chief, and went to mass and received the -sacraments as usual. In Ulster, particularly, the people, headed by John -O’Neill, Prince of Tyrone, surnamed “The Proud,” resisted all English -encroachments, civil and religious. A bloody war resulted. The English -generals and some of the Anglo-Irish lords were commissioned by -Elizabeth to force the new religion down the throats of the Irish people -at the point of the sword. The Liturgy, she proclaimed, must be read in -English, the mass abandoned, and she herself be recognized as Pope in -Ireland, as well as in England. Accordingly, the English armies burned -the Catholic churches and chapels, assassinated the clergy, and -butchered the people wherever resistance was offered. But John O’Neill -was a great soldier and managed, for many years, to defend his country -with great success, defeating the best of the English captains in -several fierce conflicts. Elizabeth, struck with his bravery and -ability, invited him to visit her at her palace of Greenwich. The -invitation was sent through Gerald of Kildare, O’Neill’s cousin. The -Irish prince accepted and proceeded to court with a following of three -hundred galloglasses, or heavy infantry, clad in saffron-colored -jackets, close-fitting pantaloons, heavy shoes, short cloaks, and with -their hair hanging down their backs, defiant of Poynings’ Law, and all -other English enactments. They were gigantic warriors—all more than six -feet tall—and with huge mustaches, the drooping ends of which touched -their collarbones. They also carried truculent-looking daggers and -immense battle-axes, such as might have won the admiration of Richard -Cœur de Lion himself. The English courtiers—pigmies compared with the -galloglasses—might have been inclined to make fun of their costumes, but -those deadly appearing axes inspired awe, and no unpleasant incident -occurred during the visit. “Shane the Proud” made a deep impression on -Elizabeth, for he was physically magnificent and as fierce as her -dreaded father. “By what right do you oppose me in Ulster?” she asked. -“By very good right, madam,” he answered. “You may be queen here, but I -am king in Ulster, and so have been the O’Neills for thousands of -years!” Then she offered to make him Earl of Tyrone by letters patent. -“Earl me no earls, madam,” he replied. “The O’Neill is my title! By it I -stand or fall!” There was nothing more to be said, so the queen made him -rich presents, after asking him to be her “good friend,” which, being a -gallant, he promised, and then he went back to Ulster. - -But Shane, although a good general and a great fighter, was a bad -statesman, and by no means a conscientious character. He oppressed the -neighboring Irish chiefs, being, indeed, half mad with pride, and made a -most unjust and unnecessary attack on the Clan O’Donnell, next to the -O’Neills the most powerful of Ulster tribes. He not alone ruined the -O’Donnell, but also dishonored him, by carrying his wife away and making -her his mistress, in mad disregard of Irish public opinion. He also -quarreled with the old MacDonald colony of Antrim—said by some writers -to be Irish, not Scotch, in their origin—and used them with extreme -harshness. In the end, his misconduct produced a revolt even among his -own followers. His enemies, including the injured O’Donnells, speedily -multiplied, and he who had been fifty times victorious over the English, -was, at last, signally defeated by his own justly indignant -fellow-countrymen. In this extremity, he fled with his mistress and a -few followers for refuge to the MacDonalds, who, at first, received the -fugitives hospitably, but soon, instigated, it is said, by one Captain -Piers, an Englishman, fell upon O’Neill at a banquet and stabbed him to -death. Had he loved his own people as much as he hated the English, he -might have lived and died a conqueror. The MacDonalds did not respect -the body of this dead lion. They severed the head from the trunk, -pickled it, and sent the ghastly present to the English Lord Deputy in -Dublin, who caused it to be spiked on the tower of Dublin Castle. -O’Neill’s death, in the very prime of his military genius, relieved -Elizabeth of her most dangerous Irish enemy. But another scion of that -warrior race was under the queen’s “protection” in London, and was -destined to raise the Bloody Hand, the cognizance of his house, to a -prouder eminence than it had attained in Irish annals since the far-off -days of Nial of the Hostages. - -Treacherous massacres of Irish chieftains dangerous to England’s -supremacy in their country would appear to have been a special feature -of Elizabeth’s reign. Under the Lord Deputy Sydney’s régime, A.D. 1577, -Sir Francis Cosby, the English general commanding in the ancient -territories of Leix and Offaly, unable to obtain the submission of the -native chiefs by force of arms, invited several hundred of them to a -banquet at the rath of Mullaghmast, in the present county of Kildare. -The principal families represented were the O’Mores, O’Nolan’s, -O’Kelly’s, and Lalors. The rath, or fort, was fitted up for the -occasion, and, through the entrance, the unsuspecting Irish chieftains -and their friends rode with happy hearts and smiling faces. But one of -the Lalors who was rather belated, had his suspicions aroused by the -dead silence which seemed to prevail in the rath, and by the peculiar -circumstance that none of those who had entered came out to welcome the -later arrivals. He bade the few friends who had accompanied him to -remain outside, while he entered the fort to investigate. He took the -precaution to draw his sword before he went in. Proceeding with caution, -he was horrified at stumbling over the dead bodies of some of his -neighbors just beyond the entrance. He retreated at once, but was set -upon by assassins placed there to murder him. A powerful man, he wielded -his blade with such good effect that he cut his way out, mounted his -horse, and set off with his horrified associates at full gallop to his -home at Dysart. More than four hundred confiding Irish gentlemen had -entered the rath that day, and of all of them, only the sagacious Lalor -escaped. The tribe of O’More alone lost nearly two hundred of its -foremost members, but was not entirely exterminated. Rory Oge O’More, -son of the slaughtered head of the tribe, made relentless war on the -English Pale, and never desisted until he had more than avenged his -kindred slain in the foul massacre of Mullaghmast. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - The Geraldine War—Hugh O’Neill and “Red Hugh” O’Donnell - - -ULSTER was subdued, for a time, but, in Munster, the younger branch of -the Geraldines, known as Earls of Desmond, rose against the edicts of -Elizabeth and precipitated that long, sanguinary, and dreary conflict -known as the Geraldine War. Most of the Irish and Anglo-Irish chiefs of -the southern province bore a part in it, and it only terminated after a -murderous struggle, stretching over nearly seven years. The Desmonds and -their allies gained many successes, but lack of cohesion, as always, -produced the inevitable result—final defeat. South Munster became a -desert. Elizabeth’s armies systematically destroyed the growing crops, -and, at last, famine accomplished for England what the sword could not -have done. The Munster Geraldines were mainly led by Sir James -Fitzmaurice, a kinsman of the earl, who was a brave man and an -accomplished soldier. The earl himself, and his brother, Sir John -Fitzgerald, had been summoned to London by the queen, and were made -prisoners and placed in the Tower, after the usual treacherous fashion. -After a period of detention, they were transferred, as state prisoners, -to Dublin Castle, but managed to effect their escape (doubtless by the -connivance of friendly officials) on horseback and reached their own -country in due time. The earl, foolishly, held aloof from Fitzmaurice -until a dangerous crisis was reached, when he threw himself into the -struggle and, in defence of his country and religion, lost all he -possessed. The Pope and King of Spain, in the Catholic interest, sent -men and money, but the Papal contingent, led by an English military -adventurer, named Stukley, was diverted from its purpose, and never -reached Ireland. The Spanish force—less than a thousand men—was brought -to Ireland by Fitzmaurice himself. He had made a pilgrimage to Spain for -that purpose. Smerwick Castle, on the Kerry coast, was their point of -debarkation. With unaccountable timidity, Earl Desmond made no sign of -an alliance, and Fitzmaurice was in search of other succor, when he -fell, in a petty encounter with the De Burgos of Castle Connell. The -Spaniards, who occupied Smerwick, were besieged by a large Anglo-Irish -force, under the Earl of Ormond and other veteran chiefs. They made a -gallant and desperate defence, but they were invested by land and sea, -and were perfectly helpless against the shower of shot and shell rained -upon them night and day by the English batteries. Seeing that further -resistance was useless, the Spanish commander finally surrendered at -discretion, but, disgraceful to relate, Lord Deputy De Grey refused -quarter and the hapless Spaniards were butchered to the last man. It is -not pleasant to have to state that among the fierce besiegers were the -celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh, the great English poet Edmund Spenser, -and Hugh O’Neill, then serving Elizabeth, “for policy’s sake,” in a -subordinate capacity, but afterward destined to be the most formidable -of all her Irish foes. The Munster Geraldines were exterminated, except -for a few collateral families—the Knight of Kerry, the Knight of Glin, -and some other chiefs whose titles still survive. But the great House of -Desmond vanished forever from history, when Garret Fitzgerald, the last -earl, after all his kinsmen had fallen in the struggle, was betrayed and -murdered by a mercenary wretch, named Moriarty, in a peasant’s hut in -Kerry, not far from Castle Island. The assassin and his brutal -confederates decapitated the remains and sent the poor old head to -Elizabeth, in London, who caused it to be spiked over the “traitor’s -gate” of the Tower. So ended the Geraldine revolt, which raged in -Munster from 1578 to 1584, until all that fair land was a desert and a -sepulchre. The bravest battle fought during its continuance was that of -Glendalough, in the summer of 1580. This was on the soil of Leinster, -and the victory was won by the heroic Clan O’Byrne, of Wicklow, led by -the redoubtable chief, Fiach MacHugh. The English, who were led by Lord -De Grey in person, suffered a total rout, and the Lord Deputy, at the -head of the few terrified survivors, fled in disgrace to Dublin, leaving -behind him the dead bodies of four of his bravest and ablest -captains—Audley, Cosby, Carew, and Moore. - - “Carew and Audley deep had sworn the Irish foe to tame, - But thundering on their dying ear his shout of victory came; - And burns with shame De Grey’s knit brow and throbs with rage his eye, - To see his best, in wildest rout, from Erin’s clansmen fly.” - -The defeat and death of “Shane the Proud” had left Ulster, temporarily, -without a military chief competent to make head against the English, -and, therefore, the Desmonds were left, practically, without help from -the northern province. Notwithstanding, the new Lord Deputy, Perrott, -kept his eyes fixed steadily on Ulster, the fighting qualities of whose -sons he knew only too well. In Tyrconnel young Hugh Roe, or Red Hugh, -O’Donnell, was growing fast to manhood, and his fame as an athlete, a -hunter, and hater of the English, spread throughout Ireland. Hugh -O’Neill, the son of Matthew, Baron of Dungannon, was enjoying himself at -Elizabeth’s court, where he made the acquaintance of Cecil, Essex, -Bacon, Marshal Bagnal, Mountjoy, and numerous other celebrities, and -basked in the sunshine of the royal favor, which he took particular -pains to cultivate. He was a handsome young man, of middle size, rigidly -trained to arms, and “shaped in proportion fair.” The queen’s object was -to make him an instrument in her hands for the final subjugation of -Ireland. He seemed to enter readily into her plans, which his quick -intellect at once comprehended, and he met her wiles with a -dissimulation as profound as her own. If any man ever outwitted -Elizabeth, politically, that man was Hugh O’Neill, whom she finally -created Earl of Tyrone—a title which, in his inmost heart, he despised, -much preferring his hereditary designation of “The O’Neill.” But it was -not Hugh’s immediate purpose to quarrel with Elizabeth about titles, or, -in fact, anything else. He was graciously permitted to raise a bodyguard -of his own clansmen, and to arm and drill them at his pleasure. Nay, -more, the queen allowed him to send from England shiploads of lead -wherewith to put a new roof on his castle of Dungannon. And he went to -Ireland to look after his interests in person. Soon, rumors reached -Elizabeth that O’Neill, when he had sufficiently drilled one batch of -clansmen, substituted another; and that enough lead had been shipped by -him from England to Tyrone to roof twenty castles. It was further -rumored that the clanswomen of Tyrone were employed casting bullets at -night, instead of spinning and weaving. O’Neill, learning of these -rumors from English friends, repaired to London, and, at once, reassured -the queen as to his “burning loyalty and devotion to her person.” So he -was permitted to return to Dungannon unmolested. Unlike his fierce -kinsman, John the Proud, Hugh cultivated the friendship of all the -Ulster chiefs, within reach, and more particularly that of the brave and -handsome young Red Hugh O’Donnell. Nor did he confine his friendly -relations to the chiefs of Ulster. He also perfected good understandings -with many in the other three provinces, and managed to keep on good -terms with the English also. Indeed, he did not hesitate to take the -field occasionally “in the interest of the queen,” and, on one occasion, -during a skirmish in Munster, received a wound in the thigh. How could -Elizabeth doubt that one who shed his blood for her could be otherwise -than devoted to her service? O’Neill, no doubt, liked the queen, but he -loved Ireland and liberty much better. In his patriotic deceit he only -followed the example set him at the English court. He kept “open house” -at Dungannon Castle for all who might choose or chance to call. Among -others, he received the wrecked survivors of the Spanish Armada cast -away on the wild Ulster coast, and shipped them back to Spain, at his -own expense, laden with presents for their king. A kinsman, Hugh of the -Fetters—an illegitimate son of John the Proud by the wife of O’Donnell, -already mentioned—betrayed his secret to the English Government. He -explained his action to the satisfaction of the Lord Deputy, for he had -a most persuasive tongue. Having done so, he exercised his hereditary -privilege of the chief O’Neill, arrested Hugh of the Fetters, had him -tried for treason, and, it is said, executed him with his own hand, -because he could find no man in Tyrone willing to kill an O’Neill, even -though proven a craven traitor. - -Lord Deputy Perrott, in 1587, or thereabout, concocted a plan by which -he got the young O’Donnell, whose rising fame he dreaded, into his -power. A sailing-vessel, laden with wine and other merchandise, was sent -around the coast of Ireland from Dublin and cast anchor in Lough Swilly, -at a point opposite to Rathmullen. Red Hugh and his friends, young like -himself, were engaged in hunting and fishing when the vessel appeared in -the bay. The captain, in the friendliest manner, invited O’Donnell and -his companions on board. They consented, and were plied with wine. By -the time they were ready to return to shore, they found the hatches -battened down and the ship under way for Dublin. And thus, meanly and -most treacherously, was the kidnapping of this noble youth and his -friends accomplished by, supposedly, an English gentleman. - -O’Donnell, after a confinement of three years in Dublin Castle, managed -to effect his escape, in company with some fellow captives. But they -missed their way, and were overtaken and captured in the territory of -O’Tuhill, at a place now called Powerscourt, in the county Wicklow. A -second attempt, made two years later on, proved more successful, and the -escaping party managed to reach the tribe-land of the O’Byrnes, whose -brave chief, Fiach MacHugh, received and sheltered them. Art O’Neill, -one of Red Hugh’s companions, perished of cold and hunger—the season -being winter—on the trip; and O’Donnell’s feet were so badly frozen that -he was partially disabled for life. This fact did not, however, -interfere with his warlike activity. O’Byrne at once informed Hugh -O’Neill of Red Hugh’s escape and whereabouts, and the Ulster chief sent -a guide, who brought him safely to Dungannon, where he was royally -entertained and admitted to the knowledge of O’Neill’s secret policy, -which, as may have been surmised, aimed at the overthrow of English rule -in Ireland. - -After resting sufficiently, O’Donnell proceeded to Tyrconnel, where he -was joyfully received by his people. His father, old and unenterprising, -determined to abdicate the chieftaincy in his favor, and, accordingly, -Red Hugh was proclaimed “The O’Donnell,” with all the ancient forms. He -proceeded with characteristic rigor to baptize his new honors in the -blood of his foes. Old Turlough O’Neill had weakly permitted an English -garrison to occupy his castle of Strabane. O’Donnell attacked it -furiously and put all of the garrison to the sword. He followed up this -warlike blow with many others, and soon struck terror into the hearts of -all the “Englishry” and their much more despicable Irish allies, on the -borders of Ulster and Connaught. His most active and efficient ally in -these stirring operations was Hugh McGuire, Prince of Fermanagh—the best -cavalry commander produced by either party during the long and -devastating Elizabethan wars. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - Confiscation of Desmond’s Domains—English Plantation of Munster - - -THERE had been, of course, a general “confiscation to the Crown”—that -is, to the English “carpet-baggers”—of the broad domains of the defeated -Desmonds, and their allies, and among the aliens who profited greatly -thereby, for a time, at least, were the poetic Edmund Spenser, who -obtained the castle and lands of Kilcolman, in Cork, and Sir Walter -Raleigh, who fell in for extensive holdings in Youghal, at the mouth of -the southern Blackwater, and its neighborhood. In the garden of Myrtle -Grove House, Sir Walter’s Youghal residence, potatoes, obtained from -Virginia, were first planted in Ireland, and the first pipeful of -tobacco was smoked. In connection with the latter event, a story is told -that a servant-girl, about to scrub the floors, seeing smoke issuing -from Sir Walter’s nose and mouth, conceived him to be on fire, and -emptied the contents of her pail over him, in order, as she explained, -“to put him out.” Sir Walter, we may be sure, did not relish her method -of fighting “the fire fiend.” - -The Desmond confiscation was by no means the first case of the kind on -record in Ireland. The original Geraldines took the lands by force from -the Celtic tribes, but they speedily amalgamated with the natives, and, -within a few generations, became full-fledged Irish in every -characteristic, except their family name. Neither was this great -confiscation the last, or greatest, as will be seen in the progress of -this narrative. The queen’s ministers caused letters to be written to -the officers of every “shire” in England, “generously” offering -Desmond’s plundered lands in fee simple—that is, practically, free of -cost—to all younger brothers, of good families, who would undertake the -plantation of Munster. Each of these favored colonists was allowed to -“plant” a certain number of British, or Anglo-Irish, families, but it -was specifically provided that none of the native—that is, the Celtic -and Catholic and the Norman-Catholic—Irish were to be admitted to the -privilege. The country had been made “a smoking desert” before this -plantation of foreigners was begun. Most of the rightful owners had -perished by famine and the sword, and those who still survived, -“starvation being, in some instances, too slow, crowds of men, women, -and children were sometimes driven into buildings, which were then set -on fire” (Mitchel’s “Life of Hugh O’Neill,” page 68). “The soldiers were -particularly careful to destroy all Irish infants, ‘for, if they were -suffered to grow up, they would become Popish rebels.’” (_Ibid._ pp. 68, -69.) It is related by the historian Lombard that “women were found -hanging upon trees, with their children strangled in the mother’s hair.” - -And all this was done in the name of the “reformed religion.” In good -truth, although Elizabeth herself may have wished to make the Irish -people Protestant in order that they might become more obedient to her -spiritual and temporal sway, her agents in Ireland wished for nothing of -the kind. They wished the Irish masses to remain Catholic. Otherwise, -they would have had no good pretext for destroying them and usurping -their lands. And this, too, satisfactorily explains why, for a very long -period, the Irish national resistance to England was considered and -described as a purely Catholic, sectarian movement. Protestantism, in -the period of which we write, meant, to the average Irish mind, -England’s policy of conquest and spoliation in Ireland. It is hardly -wonderful, therefore, that there grew up between the followers of the -old and new creeds an animosity doubly bitter—the animosity of race -supplemented by that of religion. In our own days, we have seen the same -result in the Polish provinces of Russia and the Turkish principalities -in the Danubian region of Europe. Well might the poet ask— - - “And wherefore can not kings be great, - And rule with man approving? - And why should creeds enkindle hate - And all their precepts loving?” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - Conditions in Ulster Before the Revolt of O’Neill - - -THE first jury “trial” in Ulster was that of Hugh Roe MacMahon, -chieftain of Monaghan, who became entangled with Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam -in some one-sided “alliance,” and, failing in some slight particular to -keep his side of the contract, was “tried” by twelve soldiers in -Elizabeth’s pay, condemned to death and shot at his own door. This and -other brutal murders, attested by the English historian, Moryson, filled -the north with rage, and the very name of English “law” became a menace -and a terror throughout the length and breadth of Ulster. From that -bloody period dates the hatred and distrust of English “justice” which -still survives among the Irish people. Indeed, instances of judicial -murder, almost rivaling that of MacMahon Roe, might be cited by living -Irishmen as having occurred within their own experience. Elizabeth’s -deputy, Fitzwilliam, who was a consummate scoundrel and jobber in -bribes, and would have made a champion modern “boodle alderman,” -succeeded in making the very name of “shire,” or county, land detested -in Ireland. When he informed McGuire, the bold chief of Fermanagh, that -he was about to send a sheriff into his “county” to “empanel juries,” -the chief answered grimly, “Let him come; but, first, let me know his -eric (price of his blood), so that, if my people should cut off his -head, I may levy it on the country.” This was the Irish method under the -Brehon law. No sheriff appeared in Fermanagh for many a year after -McGuire’s significant statement. - -Red Hugh O’Donnell continued to make things exceedingly lively for the -English garrisons in Ulster and Connaught, and made them take to the -cover of their strong places after nearly every encounter. Near -Inniskillen, the gallant Hugh McGuire, aided by a small body of the -clansmen of Tyrone, who came “on the quiet,” under the command of -O’Neill’s brother, Cormac, met a large English escort, who were -conveying supplies to the town, to which Red Hugh O’Donnell had laid -siege, at a ford of the river Erne. The English suffered a total rout, -and their bread-wagons having been lost in the current, or overturned in -the shallows, the spot is known to this day as Bael-atha-an-Biscoid—in -English “the Ford of Biscuits.” Red Hugh, who had gone to Derry to meet -a body of the Antrim Scots, who were coming to his aid, was necessarily -absent when the battle was fought, and, on hearing of the victory, -remarked he was “sorry he had not been in the fight, as he would have -prevented the escape of so many of the English.” The latter began to -perceive, by this time, that they had to “strip for the combat” in -earnest if they meant to retain their foothold on the borders of Ulster. - -Rumors of O’Neill’s disaffection had again reached the queen, and again -he journeyed to London and reassured her of his “loyalty.” He even made -great show of accepting the English title of Earl of Tyrone, and -returned to Dungannon encumbered with the gold chain symbolical of his -new “rank.” This did not please his clansmen, who could not see into his -dissembling schemes, so he was obliged to placate them by consenting to -be installed as The O’Neill—a title he very much preferred to his -English one of Earl—at the rath of Tulloghoge (Hill of the Youths), in -his native Tyrone. Thomas Davis, the poet of Young Ireland—a party of -Irish literary men and high-souled patriots who flourished from 1842 -until 1848—in his fine ballad of the “True Irish King,” gives a vivid -picture of the scene in the following lines: - - “Unsandaled he stands on the foot-dinted rock; - Like a pillar-stone fixed against every shock. - Round, round as the rath, on a far-seeing hill, - Like his blemishless honor and vigilant will. - The graybeards are telling how chiefs by the score - Had been crowned on the rath of the kings heretofore: - While crowded, yet ordered, within its green ring, - Are the dynasts and priests round the True Irish King. - - “The chronicler read him the laws of the clan, - And pledged him to bide by their blessing and ban. - His skian and his sword are unbuckled to show - That they only were meant for a foreigner foe; - A white willow wand has been put in his hand— - A type of pure, upright, and gentle command, - While hierarchs are blessing, the slipper they fling - And O’Cahan proclaims him a True Irish King. - - “Thrice looked he to heaven with thanks and with prayer, - Thrice looked to his borders with sentinel stare— - To the waves of Lough Neagh, to the heights of Strabane; - And thrice to his allies, and thrice to his clan— - One clash on their bucklers—one more—they are still— - What means the deep pause on the crest of the hill? - Why gaze they above him? A war eagle’s wing! - ‘’Tis an omen—hurrah for the True Irish King!’” - -Those who may condemn the apparently tortuous policy of O’Neill must -bear in mind that he was only practicing against the enemies of his -country the double-dealing and subtle acts they had themselves taught -him, in order to make him a more facile instrument in their hands for -that country’s subjugation. The dark and crooked policy inculcated by -Machiavelli was then in vogue at all the European courts, and at none -was it practiced more thoroughly than at that of Elizabeth of England. -It must be admitted that the English found in Hugh O’Neill a very apt -pupil—a true case of “diamond cut diamond.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - O’Neill Draws the Sword—Victories of Clontibret and Armagh - - -MARSHAL SIR HENRY BAGNAL—one of Elizabeth’s most potent military -commanders—had never liked Hugh O’Neill, whom he had often met in London -and Dublin, but this hatred of the Irish prince was not shared by the -marshal’s fair sister, the Lady Mabel Bagnal, who presided over his -mansion at Newry, where were established the headquarters of the English -army in Ulster. Lady Mabel was one of the most beautiful of women, and -O’Neill, who had become a widower, grew desperately enamored of her. He -managed to elude the vigilance of the hostile brother, and, assisted by -a friendly “Saxon,” succeeded in eloping with and making her his wife. -The elopement filled Sir Henry with fury. He entered into a conspiracy -against O’Neill with other Englishmen and Palesmen. A new Lord Deputy -had come over from England in the person of Sir William Russell. Charges -against O’Neill were laid before him. He communicated with the Court of -London and commands soon came to arrest the Chief of Tyrone without -delay. O’Neill, as usual, had means of secret information and soon knew -all about the plot laid for his destruction. Instead of being dismayed, -he hastened, at once, to Dublin and surprised his treacherous accusers -in the midst of their deliberations. His old-time friend, the Earl of -Ormond, stood by him and refused to be a party to the treachery planned -by the new Lord Deputy. When a similar order had reached Ormond himself -from Lord Burleigh—ancestor of the late Prime Minister of England—the -earl replied scornfully in these words: “My lord, I will never use -treachery to any man, for it would both touch her Highness’s honor and -my own credit too much; and whosoever gave the queen advice thus to -write is fitter for such base service than I am. Saving my duty to her -Majesty, I would I might have revenge by my sword of any man that thus -persuadeth the queen to write to me.” Noble words, gallant Ormond! - -The earl, feeling convinced that Lord Russell, who was not much affected -by honorable scruples, would obey the order from the queen and arrest -O’Neill, advised the latter to fly from Dublin the very night of his -arrival. The Ulster prince thought this very good advice and accepted -Ormond’s friendly offices. He managed to make his way in safety to -Dungannon and at once set about perfecting his preparations for open -warfare with the generals of Elizabeth. The latter were not idle either, -for Russell surmised O’Neill’s intention and sent Sir John Norreys -(Norris), an experienced general, just returned from the wars in -Flanders, to command against him. The remainder of the year 1594, as -well as some of the succeeding year, was spent in useless negotiations, -for both parties well knew that war was now inevitable. O’Donnell, -McGuire, and some other chiefs kept up a fierce, but rather desultory, -warfare, greatly annoying the English garrisons in the border -strongholds. At last, in the early summer of 1595, O’Neill threw off the -mask, unfurled the Red Hand of Ulster, and marched against the Castle of -Monaghan, held by the enemy. In the midst of a siege but feebly carried -on for lack of a battering train, he heard that Norreys, with a powerful -force, was advancing northward to raise the siege. O’Neill at once -decided to anticipate his movement and moved to Clontibret, about five -miles off, and there took post. Norreys soon appeared, and, being a hot -soldier, attacked at once. He was met with a veteran firmness that -astonished him, and both he and his brother, Sir Thomas Norreys, were -wounded in the main attack on the Irish battle-line. At the moment when -all seemed lost for England, Colonel Segrave, an Anglo-Norman of Meath, -charged the Irish home, with a body of horse, and, for a time, restored -the battle. Segrave, himself, rushed madly on O’Neill and the two -leaders fought hand to hand for some time, while both armies stood still -to witness the result. Mr. Mitchel thus eloquently describes what -followed: “Segrave again dashed his horse against the chief, flung his -giant frame upon his enemy, and endeavored to unhorse him by the weight -of his gauntleted hand. O’Neill grasped him in his arms, and the -combatants rolled, in that fatal embrace, to the ground. - - ‘Now, gallant Saxon! hold thine own— - No maiden’s hand is round thee thrown! - That desperate grasp thy frame might feel - Through bars of brass and triple steel.’ - -“There was a moment’s deadly wrestle and a death groan. The shortened -sword of O’Neill was buried in the Englishman’s groin beneath his mail. -Then from the Irish ranks rose such a wild shout of triumph as those -hills had never echoed before. The still thundercloud burst into a -tempest; those equestrian statues became as winged demons, and with -their battle-cry of Lamh-dearg-ahoo! (‘The Red Hand to Victory’), and -their long lances poised in eastern fashion above their heads, down -swept the chivalry of Tyrone upon the astonished ranks of the Saxon. The -banner of St. George wavered and went down before that furious charge. -The English turned their bridle-reins and fled headlong over the stream -(which they had crossed to attack the Irish), leaving the field covered -with their dead, and, worse than all, leaving with the Irish that proud -red-cross banner, the first of their disgraces in those Ulster wars. -Norreys hastily retreated southward, and the castle of Monaghan was -yielded to O’Neill.” - -About the same time, Red Hugh O’Donnell “prevailed mightily” in the -west, “so that,” says Mitchel, “at the close of the year 1595, the Irish -power predominated both in Ulster and Connaught.” O’Neill followed up -his success by laying siege to Armagh, which he captured by an ingenious -stratagem. Colonel Stafford had been appointed to the command of the -English in the old city, and he proved himself equal to the occasion, so -far as fighting bravely to hold it went. But provisions were running -low, and it was known to Stafford that Norreys was sending to him, from -Dundalk, a large convoy of provisions. O’Neill’s scouts had the same -information, so a body of Irish was detached to attack the convoy and -capture the rations. The movement proved successful. About three hundred -English soldiers were made prisoners. O’Neill ordered them to be -stripped of their red surtouts, and bade the same number of his clansmen -to put the garments on their own backs. Then he commanded the convoy to -march toward Armagh as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, he had caused -his relative, Con O’Neill, to occupy an old ruined abbey near the main -gate of the city. All this was accomplished under cover of the night. At -sunrise, Stafford and his hungry soldiers, from the ramparts, gazed -wistfully southward, and, to their great joy, beheld, as they imagined, -the convoy marching rapidly to their relief. Almost on the instant, it -was, seemingly, attacked by the Irish army. Volleys—blank cartridges -being used—were exchanged, and many men appeared to fall on both sides. -At last, the supposititious English seemed about to give way. Stafford -and his famished men could stand the sight no longer. They rushed -through the now open gate to the aid of their countrymen, as they -thought. To their amazement, both red coats and saffron shirts fell upon -them, and they perceived they had been tricked. A brave attempt was made -by them to re-enter the town, but Con O’Neill and his party, rushing -from the old ruin, seized the gate. All the English outside the walls -were captured. Soon afterward, the city itself surrendered to the Irish -leader. O’Neill made humane use of his victory. He disarmed and paroled -the English prisoners and sent them, under safe escort, back to General -Norreys. He was a man of strict honor, and, no doubt, the terms of the -capitulation were properly observed. The Irish dismantled Armagh, as -O’Neill had no need of fortresses, but, during his absence elsewhere, -some English made their way to the place and refortified it; only, -however, to have it retaken by the Irish army. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - Ireland Still Victorious—Battles of Tyrrell’s Pass and Drumfluich - - -THE year 1597 witnessed the recall of Lord Deputy Russell from the -government of Ireland, and the substitution of Lord De Burgh. A -temporary truce was entered into by the belligerents, and neither side -lost any time in augmenting its strength. All Ulster was practically -freed from English rule, but they had garrisons shut up in the castles -of Carrickfergus, Newry, Dundrum, Carlingford, Greencastle, and -Olderfleet—all on the coast. When the truce came to an end, the Palesmen -organized a large force and prepared to send it northward, to aid those -garrisons, under young Barnewall, son of Lord Trimleston. O’Neill -detached a force of 400 men under the brave Captain Richard Tyrrell and -his lieutenant, O’Conor, to ambush and destroy it. Tyrrell moved -promptly to accomplish his mission, and rapidly penetrated to the -present county of Westmeath. There, at a defile now known as Tyrrell’s -Pass, not far from Mullingar, he awaited the coming of the Palesmen. In -the narrow pass, the latter could not deploy, so that the battle was -fought by the heads of columns, which gave the advantage to the Irish. -Some of the latter managed to get on the flanks of the Palesmen, and a -terrible slaughter ensued. Of the thousand Palesmen, only Barnewall -himself and one soldier escaped the swords of the vengeful natives. The -former was brought a prisoner to O’Neill, who held him as a hostage, and -the soldier carried the dread news of the annihilation of the Meathian -force to Mullingar. - -But the Lord Deputy and the Earl of Kildare, with all the force they -could muster, were in full march for Ulster. Sir Conyers Clifford, -another veteran Englishman, attempted to join them from the side of -Connaught, but was met by Red Hugh O’Donnell and compelled to go back -the way he came, leaving many of his men behind him. At a place called -Drumfluich, the Lord Deputy and Kildare, who were en route to recapture -Portmore, which had fallen into the hands of O’Neill, encountered the -Irish army. The latter was strongly posted on the banks of the northern -Blackwater, but the English attacked with great resolution, drove its -vanguard across the river and took possession of Portmore. O’Neill, -however, held his main body well in hand, and while De Burgh was -congratulating himself on his success, fiercely attacked the English who -had crossed to the left bank of the river, and inflicted on them a most -disastrous defeat. The Lord Deputy and the Earl of Kildare were both -mortally wounded, and died within a few hours. The English army was -practically destroyed. Red Hugh O’Donnell had arrived in the nick of -time to complete the victory, and, with him, the Antrim MacDonalds, -whose prowess received due honor. The historian of Hugh O’Neill says, -succinctly: “That battlefield is called Drumfluich. It lies about two -miles westward from Blackwater-town (built on the site of Portmore), and -Battleford-bridge marks the spot where the English reddened the river in -their flight.” - -But Captain Williams, a valiant “Saxon,” held Portmore, in spite of -O’Neill’s great victory, and this fortress, in the heart of his country, -proved a thorn in the side of Tyrone, who, as we have already mentioned, -was destitute of battering appliances for many a day. The result at -Drumfluich struck dismay into the hearts of the stoutest soldiers of the -English interest, and the dreaded names of O’Neill and the Blackwater -were on every trembling lip throughout the Pale. The queen, in London, -grew very angry, and rated her ministers with unusual vehemence. It was -fortunate for De Burgh and Lord Kildare that they died on the field of -honor. Otherwise, they would have been disgraced, as was General Norreys -for his defeat at Clontibret. He died of a broken heart soon after being -deprived of his command in Ulster. - -The English were also unfortunate in Connaught and Munster, and when the -Earl of Ormond assumed the government of Ireland, by appointment, after -the defeat and death of De Burgh, the English interest had fallen lower -in the scale than it had been since the days of Richard II. The earl -entered into a two months’ armistice with O’Neill, and negotiations for -a permanent peace were begun. O’Neill’s conditions were: perfect freedom -of religion not only in Ulster but throughout Ireland; reparation for -the spoil and ravage done upon the Irish country by the garrisons of -Newry and other places, and, finally, entire and undisturbed control by -the Irish chiefs over their own territories and people. (Moryson, -McGeoghegan, and Mitchel.) - -Queen Elizabeth was enraged at these terms, when transmitted to her by -Ormond, and sent a list of counter-terms which O’Neill could not -possibly entertain. He saw there was nothing for it but the edge of the -sword, and grew impatient at the tardiness of King Philip of Spain in -not sending him aid while he was prosecuting the war for civil and -religious liberty so powerfully. The English Government, in order to -discourage the Catholic powers and keep them from coming to the aid of -Ireland, concealed or minimized O’Neill’s splendid victories. Lombard, -cited by McGeoghegan—a most conscientious historian—avers that an -English agent was employed, at Brussels, “to publish pretended -submissions, treaties, and pardons, so that the Spanish governor of -Flanders might report to his master that the power of the Irish -Catholics was broken and their cause completely lost.” (Mitchel.) The -same charge has been made against England in our own day—only in a -different connection. Germany, France, and Russia have semi-officially -declared that English agents at Berlin, Paris, and St. Petersburg have -persistently misrepresented the attitude of those countries toward -America during the recent Spanish War. Whatever may have been the truth -regarding the Brussels agent, it is undeniable that King Philip -abandoned Ireland to her fate until it was too late to hinder her ruin; -and that, when Spanish troops landed at Kinsale, in 1601, they proved -more of a hindrance than a help. O’Neill gave up all hope of assistance -from Philip in the fall of 1597 and resolved to stake all on his genius -as a commander, and on the tried valor of the glorious clansmen of -Tyrone and Tyrconnel. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Irish Victory of the Yellow Ford, Called the Bannockburn of Ireland - - -WE dwell at greater length on the Elizabethan era in Ireland than, -perhaps, on any other, because then began the really fatal turn in the -fortunes of the Irish nation. Notwithstanding splendid triumphs in the -field, cunning and treachery were fated to overcome patriotism and -heroic courage. But, before this great cloud gloomed upon her, Ireland -was still destined to witness many days of glory, and to win her most -renowned victory. - -The spring and early summer of 1598 saw Captain Williams still holding -Portmore, on the Blackwater, stubbornly for England, but his rations -were nearly exhausted and he managed to get word of his desperate -condition to Marshal Bagnal, who, at the head of a splendidly appointed -army of veteran troops, horse and foot, marched northward from Newry to -his succor. His first operations were successful and he came very near -to capturing O’Neill himself, at a place called Mullaghbane, not far -from Armagh. Then Bagnal pushed on to raise the siege of Portmore, where -Williams was living on his starved horses and suffering all the pangs of -hunger. - -O’Neill, having been fully informed of Marshal Bagnal’s progress, -summoned O’Donnell and his other allies to join him immediately, which -they did. He left Portmore to the famine-stricken garrison, and turned -his face southward fully resolved to give battle to his redoubted -brother-in-law before he could reach the Blackwater. Thoroughly -acquainted with the character of the country through which the English -were to pass, he had no difficulty in choosing his ground. He took post, -therefore, in the hilly, wooded, and marshy angle formed by the Callan -and Blackwater Rivers, at a point where a sluggish rivulet runs from a -large bog toward the main river, and which is called, in the Gaelic -tongue, Beal-an-atha-buidhe, in English, “the Mouth of the Yellow Ford,” -destined to give title to the Irish Bannockburn. This field is about two -and one-half miles N.W. from Armagh. - -The superb English array, all glittering in steel armor and with their -arms flashing back pencils of sunlight, Bagnal himself in the van, -appeared at the opening of the wooded pass, which, all unknown to the -marshal, was garrisoned by five hundred Irish kerns early on the sultry -morning of August 10th—T. D. McGee says the 15th—1598. The head of the -column was attacked immediately by the Celtic infantry, who, however, -obedient to orders, soon fell back on the main body, which was drawn up -behind a breastwork, in front of which was a long trench, dug pretty -deep, and concealed by wattles (dry sticks) and fresh-cut sods—a -stratagem borrowed by O’Neill from the tactics of Bruce, so successfully -put in practice at Bannockburn, nearly three centuries before. Having -finally cleared the pass, not without copious bloodshed, Bagnal -debouched from it, and deployed his forces on the plain in face of the -Irish army. His cavalry, under Generals Brooke, Montacute, and Fleming, -shouting, “St. George for England!” charged fiercely up to the Irish -trench, where the horses floundered in the covered trap set for them, -and then the Irish foot, leaping over their breastwork, piked to death -the unfortunate riders. Bagnal, in no wise daunted, pressed on with his -chosen troops, animating them by shout and gesture. A part of the Irish -works, battered by his cannon, was carried, and the English thought the -battle won. They were preparing to follow up their success when, -suddenly, O’Neill himself appeared, at the head of his main body, who -had abandoned their slight defences, and came on to meet the English -with flashing musketry and “push of pike.” Bagnal’s artillery, with -which he was well provided, did much damage to O’Neill’s men, but -nothing could withstand the Irish charge that day. O’Donnell’s dashing -clan nobly seconded their kinsmen of Tyrone, and a most desperate -conflict ensued. Bagnal and his soldiers deported themselves bravely, as -became tried warriors, but, in the crisis of the fight, the marshal -fell, a wagon-load of powder exploded in the English lines, their ranks -became confused, and few of their regiments preserved their formation. -The Irish cavalry destroyed utterly what remained of the English horse. -“By this time,” says Mitchel, “the cannon were all taken; the cries of -‘St. George’ had failed or were turned to death-shrieks, and once more, -England’s royal standard sank before the Red Hand of Tyrone.” The -English rout was appalling, and the chronicler of O’Donnell says: “They -were pursued in couples, in threes, in scores, in thirties, and in -hundreds.” At a point where the carnage was greatest, the country people -still show the traveler the Bloody Loaming (lane) which was choked with -corpses on that day of slaughter. Two thousand five hundred English -soldiers perished in the battle and flight; and among the fallen were -the marshal, as already related, twenty-two other superior officers, and -a large number of captains, lieutenants, and ensigns. The immediate -spoils of the victory were 12,000 gold pieces, thirty-four standards, -all the musical instruments and cannon, and an immense booty in wagons, -loaded with clothing and provisions. The Irish army lost 200 in killed -and three times that number wounded. By O’Neill’s orders, the dead of -both sides were piously buried. (Irish annals cited by Curry and -Mitchel.) - -Sir Walter Scott, in his graphic poem of “Rokeby,” which should be read -by all students, as it deals with a stirring period of English history, -thus refers to the battle of the Yellow Ford: - - “Who has not heard, while Erin yet - Strove ’gainst the Saxon’s iron bit, - Who has not heard how brave O’Neill - In English blood imbrued his steel; - Against St. George’s cross blazed high - The banners of his tanistry— - To fiery Essex gave the foil - And reigned a prince on Ulster soil? - But chief arose his victor pride - When that brave marshal fought and died, - And Avonduff[2] to ocean bore - His billows red with Saxon gore.” - -Footnote 2: - - Blackwater. - -The survivors of Bagnal’s heroic, if defeated, army, fled to Armagh, -which had again fallen into the possession of the English, and there -took shelter. O’Neill invested the place and, being now provided with -artillery, captured from the enemy, speedily compelled its surrender. -The gallant Williams, starved out at Portmore, also capitulated. -O’Neill, with his customary magnanimity, after depriving the prisoners -of both places of their arms, took their parole and sent them in safety -to the Pale, and, for a time, all English power whatever vanished from -the soil of Ulster. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - How O’Neill Baffled Essex—O’Donnell’s Victory of the Curlew Mountains - - -THE limits of this simple narrative of Irish history will not permit us -to go into the details of the numerous “risings” of the Irish and -encounters with the disheartened English in the other three provinces. -O’Donnell swept through Connaught, like a very besom of destruction, -drove the English generals into their castles, and other strong places, -and carried Athenry by storm, “sword in hand.” He also made a raid into -Munster, and punished a degenerate O’Brien of Inchiquin for accepting an -English title, and hugging his English chain as “Earl of Thomond.” Then -he returned to Connaught and finished up what English garrisons still -remained there, with few exceptions. O’Neill himself also made a visit -to Munster, said his prayers at the noble shrine of Holy Cross Abbey, on -the winding Suir, and, the legitimate—according to English notions—Earl -of Desmond being dead, set up an earl of his own. He “put heart into” -the rather slow and cautious Catholic Anglo-Normans of this province, -and caused them to join hands with their Celtic brothers in defence of -country and creed. Under the new earl, they attacked the English with -great spirit, and, although occasionally beaten, managed to hold the -upper hand in most cases. - -In Leinster, the O’Mores, the O’Byrnes, the O’Tuhills, and the Kavanaghs -had also risen in arms, and never had Ireland presented so united a -military front, since the first landing of the English on her shore. -There was fighting everywhere, but, outside of O’Neill and O’Donnell, -and, perhaps, the new Desmond, there would not seem to have been a -concerted military plan—probably owing to the rather long distances -between the respective bodies and the difficulty of communication. - -Queen Elizabeth, when she heard of the Irish triumph at the Yellow Ford, -was violently exasperated, and stormed against Ormond, her Lord -Lieutenant, for remaining in Leinster, skirmishing with the O’Mores and -other secondary forces, and leaving everything in the hands of O’Neill -in Ulster. She was now an aged woman, but still vain and thirsty for -admiration. Her reigning favorite was the brilliant Robert Devereux, -Earl of Essex, who had made a reputation in the Spanish wars. In the -middle of 1599, this favored warrior, accompanied by a picked force of -at least 20,000 men, landed in Dublin and assumed chief command. Instead -of at once moving with his fine army, reinforced by the Palesmen and the -relics of Norreys’ and Bagnal’s troops, against O’Neill, he imitated the -dilatory tactics of Ormond and wasted away his strength in petty -encounters with the hostile tribes of Leinster and the Anglo-Irish of -Munster, most of whom sided, because of common religious belief, with -their Celtic neighbors. He also committed the grave fault of bestowing -high command on favorites who possessed no capacity for such duties. -While marching to besiege Cahir Castle, in the present county of -Tipperary, he was obliged to pass through a wooded defile in Leix -(Queen’s County), where his rearguard of cavalry was attacked by the -fierce O’Mores and cut to pieces. The Irish tore the white plumes from -the helmets of the fallen English troopers, as trophies, and so great -was their number that the gorge has been called, ever since that -tragical day, Bearna-na-cleite—in English, the “Pass of Plumes.” Essex, -notwithstanding this disaster, which he made no immediate effort to -avenge, marched to Cahir and took the castle; but, in subsequent -encounters with the Munster Irish, he suffered severe reverses. Near -Croom, in Limerick, he was met by the Geraldines and their allies and -badly defeated. Sir Thomas Norreys, Lord President of Munster—brother of -the defeated English commander at Clontibret—was among the slain. Thus -baffled, the haughty Essex made his way sadly back to Dublin, pursued -for a whole week by the victorious Geraldines. Smarting under his -disgrace, he caused the decimation of an English regiment that had fled -from the O’Mores—something he himself had also been in the habit of -doing. He had no heart to try conclusions with the terrible O’Neill in -his Ulster fastnesses, and sent many letters of excuse to the queen, in -which he dwelt on the strength and courage of the Irish clansmen in war, -and asked for further reinforcements, before venturing against O’Neill. -These were sent him, to the number of several thousand, and, at length, -he seemed ready to move. Sir Conyers Clifford, a very brave and skilful -officer, commanded for Elizabeth in Connaught. Essex ordered him to -march into Ulster and seize certain strategic points that would open the -way for the main army when it should finally appear in the North. -Clifford obeyed his orders with veteran promptitude. He was soon at -Boyle, in the present county of Roscommon, where he went into camp near -the beautiful abbey, whose ruins are still the admiration of -antiquarians. Thence, he marched northward through the passes of the -Corslibh, or Curlew, Mountains, bent upon penetrating into Ulster. But, -in a heavily timbered ravine, he was fallen upon by the fierce clansmen -of Red Hugh O’Donnell, commanded by their fiery chief in person. When -the English heard the terrible war-cry of “O’Donnell Aboo!” “O’Donnell -to Victory”) echoing along the pass, they knew their hour had come. -However, they met their fate like brave men, worthy of their gallant -commander, and fought desperately, although in vain. They were soon -totally broken and fell in heaps under the stalwart blows of the Clan -O’Donnell. General Clifford and his second in command, Sir Henry -Ratcliffe, were killed, and their infantry, unable to stem the tide of -battle, fled in disorder, carrying with them the cavalry, under General -Jephson, a cool commander who displayed all the qualities of a good -soldier although completely overmatched. Had he not gallantly covered -the retreat, hardly a man of the English infantry would have reached -Boyle in safety. But the valor of Jephson did not extend to all of his -men, some of whom abandoned the field rather precipitately. The English -historian, Moryson, excuses them on the ground that “their ammunition -was all spent.” Sligo, the key of North Connaught, fell to O’Donnell, as -one result of this sharp engagement. - -The defeat and death of Clifford would seem to have utterly demoralized -Essex. He again hesitated to advance against O’Neill, and, instead of -doing so, weakly sought a parley with his able enemy. O’Neill agreed to -the proposal, and they met near Dundalk, on the banks of a river and in -presence of their chief officers. The Irish general, with chivalrous -courtesy, spurred his charger half-way across the stream, but Essex -remained on the opposite bank. This, however, did not prevent the two -leaders from holding a protracted conversation, in the course of which -the wily O’Neill completely outwitted the English peer. They called five -officers on both sides into the conference, and O’Neill repeated the -terms he offered after the victory of Clontibret, in 1595. The -Englishman said he did not think them extravagant, but his sincerity was -never tested. Soon afterward, angered by an epistolary outburst from the -old queen, he threw up his command, and returned to the London court, -where Elizabeth swore at him, ordered him under arrest, had him tried -for treason, and, finally, beheaded—the only cruel act of her stormy -life she ever repented of. The axe that severed the head of Essex from -his body left a scar in Elizabeth’s withered heart that never healed. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - King Philip Sends Envoys to O’Neill—The Earl of Mountjoy Lord Deputy - - -PHILIP II of Spain died in September, 1598, and was succeeded by his son -Philip III, who, it would seem, took more interest in the Irish struggle -against Elizabeth’s temporal and spiritual power than did his father. -Philip, in all likelihood, cared very little about Ireland’s national -aspirations, but, like all of his race, he was a zealous Catholic, and -recognized the self-evident fact that the Irish were, then, fighting not -alone their own battle but also that of the Church, with heroic vigor. -O’Neill began negotiations with the young monarch immediately after his -accession, and Philip responded by sending two envoys to the Irish -general—Don Martin de la Cerda and the Most Rev. Matthias de Oriedo, who -had been appointed by the Pope Archbishop of Dublin—a purely titular -office, seeing that the English were in full possession of that capital. -The bishop presented O’Neill with “a Phœnix plume,” blessed by his -Holiness, and also with 22,000 pieces of gold—a generous contribution in -that age, when money was much more valuable in proportion than it is -now. (O’Sullivan, Moryson, and Mitchel.) - -O’Neill, having sufficiently awed the English generals for a period, -made a sort of “royal progress” through Munster and Leinster, visiting -holy places, settling feuds, and inspecting military forces. He met -with, practically, no opposition, but, near Cork, had the misfortune to -lose his gallant cavalry commander, Hugh McGuire, chief of Fermanagh. -The latter was leading a body of horse on a reconnoitring mission, when -suddenly there appeared a force of English cavalry, bent on a similar -errand, under Sir Warham St. Leger and Sir Henry Power, Queen’s -Commissioners, acting in place of Sir Thomas Norreys. St. Leger rode up -to McGuire and discharged a horse pistol at close range. The heroic -Irish chief reeled in his saddle from a mortal wound, but, before -falling, struck St. Leger a crushing blow on the head with his -truncheon, and killed him on the spot. McGuire, having avenged himself -on his enemy, died on the instant. These were the only two who fell. The -English retreated to Cork and kept within its walls until O’Neill had -left the neighborhood. The Ulster prince turned back through Ormond and -Westmeath and arrived in his own country, “without meeting an enemy, -although there was then in Ireland a royal army amounting, after all the -havoc made in it during the past year, to 14,400 foot and 1,230 -horse”—this, too, exclusive of irregular forces. (Moryson.) This force -was well provided with artillery and all military stores. (Mitchel.) - -But O’Neill’s days of almost unclouded triumph were drawing to a close. -He was, at last, about to meet an English commander who, if not as able -as himself, was infinitely more cunning and unscrupulous. This was -Charles Blount, Earl of Mountjoy, a trained soldier, a veteran diplomat, -a fierce Protestant theologian, and a ripe scholar. His motto, on -assuming the duties of Lord Deputy in Ireland, would seem to have been -“Divide and Conquer.” Mountjoy saw, at once, that steel alone could not -now subdue Ireland, and he was determined to resort to other methods, -more potent but less manly. About the same time, there also came to -Ireland two other famous English generals, Sir George Carew and Sir -Henry Dowcra. The new deputy brought with him large reinforcements, so -that the English army in Ireland was more powerful than it had ever been -before; and Mountjoy’s orders were, in effect, that Ulster, in -particular, should be honeycombed with royal garrisons, especially along -its coast-line. Although Mountjoy himself was checked, at the outset, by -O’Neill’s army, Sir Henry Dowcra, with a powerful force, transported by -sea from Carrickfergus, occupied and fortified the hill of Derry, on the -Foyle—the ground on which now stands the storied city of Londonderry. -Other border garrisons were strengthened by the Lord Deputy, and -everything was made ready for a vigorous prosecution of the war. The -penal laws against the Irish Catholics were softened, so as, if -possible, to detach the Anglo-Irish Catholics from the Celtic Catholic -Irish, and also to impress the weak-kneed among the latter with “the -friendly intentions of her Majesty’s government”—very much like the -court language in use to-day. The bait took, as might have been -expected—for every good cause has its Iscariots—and we soon hear of -jealous kinsmen of the patriot chiefs “coming over to” the queen’s -“interest” and doing their utmost—the heartless scoundrels—to divide and -distract the strength of their country, engaged in a deadly struggle for -her rights and liberty. These despicable wretches are foul blotches on -the pages of Ireland’s history. But for them, she could have finally -shaken off the English yoke, which would have saved Ireland centuries of -martyrdom and England centuries of shame. And so we find Sir Arthur -O’Neill becoming “the queen’s O’Neill”—his branch of the family had long -been in the English interest; Connor Roe McGuire becoming “the queen’s -McGuire,” and so on _ad nauseam_. These creatures had no love for -England or Elizabeth, but simply hoped to further their own selfish ends -by disloyalty to their chiefs and treason to their country. We confess -that this is a chapter of Irish history from which we would gladly turn -in pure disgust did not our duty, as a writer of history, compel us to -dwell upon it yet a while longer. Dermot O’Connor, who held a command -under O’Neill’s Desmond in Munster, yielded to the seductions of Carew -and turned upon his leader, in the interest of his brother-in-law, son -of the “great earl,” who was held as a hostage in London Tower by -Elizabeth, and was now used as a firebrand to stir up feud and faction -among the Munster Irish. Mountjoy had not been many months in Ireland, -when, to use the words of the historian Mitchel, “a network of English -intrigue and perfidy covered the land, until the leaders of the (Irish) -confederacy in Munster knew not whom to trust, or where they were safe -from treason and assassination.” Dermot O’Connor was willing to -surrender Desmond, whom he had kidnapped, to Mountjoy, for a thousand -pounds, but, before he could receive his blood-money, the “Suggawn -(hay-rope) Earl,” as he was called in derision by the English faction, -was rescued by his kinsman, Pierce Lacy. But the White Knight—frightful -misnomer—another relative of the earl—was more fortunate than O’Connor. -He managed to receive the thousand pounds, delivered Desmond to Carew, -and earned enduring infamy. The “Suggawn Earl” was sent to London and -died a miserable prisoner in the Tower. - -Thus, the policy of the Lord Deputy was doing its deadly work in Munster -and also in Leinster, where the Irish were of mixed race, and where -racial animosity could be more easily worked upon than in Ulster and -Connaught, where most of the ancient clans still remained unbroken and -uncontaminated by foreign influences. Yet Ulster and Connaught had their -Benedict Arnolds, too, as we have shown in the cases of O’Neill and -McGuire, and will show in other cases which yet remain to be mentioned. -But in these provinces the war was national as well as religious, while -in Munster it was almost entirely religious. Most of the Catholic -Anglo-Irish would have fought with the English rather than the -Celtic-Irish, if their religion had been tolerated from the first. Among -the Celtic Irish chiefs who went over to the English in Munster, were -O’Sullivan More and McCarthy More (the Great). The latter had the -cowardly excuse that his strong-minded wife had coerced him into -treason, and refused to live with him until he came to terms with the -enemy. Was there ever anything more disgraceful in the history of -manhood and womanhood? They were, indeed, a couple entirely worthy of -each other. The Lord Deputy, in the meantime, had ravaged the -“rebellious” portions of Leinster, burning houses and crops, and doing -other evil things common to the savage warfare of that period. His -greatest piece of luck, however, was the killing of the brave O’More of -Leix in a skirmish. (Mitchel.) - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - Ireland’s Fortunes Take a Bad Turn—Defeat of O’Neill and O’Donnell at - Kinsale - - -THE English force in Ireland was now (1600-1601) overwhelming, and as -the Irish had no fleet whatever, the English were enabled to plant -garrisons, almost wherever they wished to, around the Ulster coast, and -sometimes posts were also established in the interior of the country. -Thus Derry, Dun-na-long, Lifford, and numerous other places held strong -garrisons, and these sallied forth at will—the small Irish army being -actively engaged elsewhere—and inflicted heavy damage on the harmless -people of the surrounding districts. The process of crop-burning was in -full blast again, and such Irish people as escaped the sword and the -halter had the horrible vision of perishing by famine ever before their -eyes. O’Neill and O’Donnell were aware of all this, and did the best -they could, under such discouraging circumstances. They were almost at -the end of their resources, and awaited anxiously for the aid, in men -and money, solemnly promised them by the envoy of Philip of Spain. To -add to their ever-growing embarrassment, Niall Garbh (“the Rough”) -O’Donnell, cousin of Red Hugh, and the fiercest warrior of Clan-Conal, -revolted, because of some fancied slight, and also, no doubt, inflamed -by unworthy ambition, against the chief, and went over to the enemy. -Unfortunately, some of the clansmen, who did not look beyond personal -attachment, followed his dishonored fortunes, but this was about the -only serious case of clan defection. The great body of the Irish -galloglasses and kerns—heavy and light infantry—remained true to their -country and their God, and died fighting for both to the last. - -Niall Garbh, after allying himself with the English, occupied the -beautiful Franciscan monastery of Donegal, in which the Annals of the -Four Masters, Ireland’s chronological history, were compiled. Red Hugh, -fiercely indignant, marched against the sacrilegious traitor and laid -siege to him in the holy place. After three months’ investment, it was -taken by storm, and utterly destroyed by fire, except for a few walls -which still remain. The traitor’s brother, Conn O’Donnell, and several -of the misguided clansmen were killed in the conflict, but, -unfortunately, Niall Garbh himself escaped, to still further disgrace -the heroic name of O’Donnell and injure the hapless country that gave -birth to such a monster. - -Mountjoy, after frequent indecisive skirmishes with O’Neill, amused -himself by offering a reward of £2,000 for that chieftain’s head, and -smaller amounts for those of his most important lieutenants. But no man -was found among the faithful clansmen of Tyrone to murder his chief for -the base bribe of the Lord Deputy. Yet Mountjoy continued to gain ground -in Ulster, little by little, and he built more forts, commanding -important passes, and garrisoned them in great force. He also caused -most of the woods to be cut away, and thus laid the O’Neill territory -wide open for a successful invasion. O’Neill was an admirable officer, -and still, assisted by Hugh O’Donnell, presented a gallant front to -Mountjoy, but he could do little that was effective against an enemy who -had five times the number of soldiers that he had, and could thus man -important posts, filled with all the munitions of war, without sensibly -weakening his force in the field. Destitute of foundries and powder -factories, he could make no progress in the matter of artillery, and -such cannon as he had were destitute of proper ammunition. All this the -Spaniards could have supplied, but their characteristic dilatoriness, in -the end, ruined everything. Another circumstance also militated against -the success of the brave O’Neill—the English and their allies were -solidly unified for the destruction of the Irish, while the latter, as -we have seen, were fatally divided by corruption, ambition, -jealousy—fostered by their enemies—and endless English intrigue. No -wonder that his broad brow grew gloomy and that his sword no longer -struck the blows it dealt so fiercely at Clontibret and the Yellow Ford. - -At last, however, out of the dark clouds that surrounded his fortunes, -there flashed one sun-ray of hope and joy. News suddenly reached the -north, as well as the Lord Deputy, that a Spanish fleet had landed in -Kinsale Harbor, on the coast of Cork. It carried a small force—less than -6,000 men, mostly of poor quality—under the command of the arrogant and -incompetent Don Juan de Aguila. He occupied Kinsale and the surrounding -forts at once, but was disappointed when the Munster Irish—already all -but crushed by Mountjoy—did not flock at once, and in great numbers, to -his standard. Of all the Munster chiefs there responded only O’Sullivan -Beare, O’Connor Kerry, and the brave O’Driscoll. They alone redeemed, in -as far as they could, the apathy of South Munster, and were justified in -resenting the Spanish taunt, bitterly uttered by Don Juan himself, that -“Christ had never died for such people.” The Spaniard did not, of -course, take into consideration, because he did not know, the exhaustion -of South Munster after the Geraldine war and the wars which succeeded -it. Constant defeat is a poor tonic on which to build up a boldly -aggressive patriotism. - -The news of the landing at Kinsale reached Red Hugh O’Donnell while he -was in the act of besieging his own castle of Donegal, surreptitiously -seized by Niall Garbh, “the Queen’s O’Donnell,” while he was absent “at -the front,” with O’Neill. He instantly raised the siege, and, summoning -all of his forces, marched southward without an hour’s delay, as became -his ardent and gallant nature. Neither did O’Neill hesitate to abandon -“the line of the Blackwater,” which guarded his own castle of Dungannon, -to its fate, and at once marched his forces toward Kinsale. The -Clan-Conal marched at “the route step,” through Breffni and Hy-Many, -crossing the Shannon near where it narrows at the east end of Lough -Dearg. On through the Ormonds, where “the heath-brown Slieve Bloom” -mountains rise in their beauty, they pressed, burning, at every -footstep, to reach Kinsale, join the Spaniards, and “have it out” with -Mountjoy and the English. O’Donnell, marching in lighter order and by a -different route, outstripped his older confederate, but narrowly escaped -being intercepted in Tipperary by a superior English force, under -General Carew, detached by the Lord Deputy for that purpose. As Red Hugh -had no intention of giving battle until reinforced by O’Neill, or he had -joined the Spaniards, he made a clever flank movement, by forced march, -over the Slieve Felim Hills, which interposed between him and Limerick. -But the rains had been heavy of late, the mountain passes were boggy, -and neither horses nor carriages (wagons) could pass. Fortunately, it -was the beginning of winter, and, one night, there came a sharp frost, -which sufficiently hardened the ground, and the Irish army, taking -advantage of the kindness of Providence, marched ahead throughout the -dark hours, and, by morning, had left Carew and his army hopelessly in -rear. O’Donnell made thirty-two miles (Irish), about forty-two English -miles, in that movement and halted at Croom, having accomplished the -greatest march, with baggage, recorded in those hard campaigns. (Pacata -Hibernia, cited by Mitchel.) - -His coming among them, as well as the news of the arrival of the -Spaniards, put fresh life into the Irish of West Munster, and, indeed, -Red Hugh stood on scant ceremony with such degenerate Irish as refused -to fight for their country, so that wherever he marched, fresh patriots, -eager to “save their bacon,” in many cases, sprang up like crops of -mushrooms. At Castlehaven he formed a junction with 700 newly arrived -Spanish troops, and, together, they marched toward Kinsale, which -Mountjoy and Carew were preparing to invest. O’Neill and his brave -lieutenant, Richard Tyrrell, did not pursue the route taken by -O’Donnell, but had to fight their way through Leinster and North Munster -with considerable loss. At Bandon, in South Munster, they fell in with -O’Donnell and the Spaniards, and all marched to form an immediate -junction with De Aguila. Mitchel, quoting from O’Sullivan’s narrative, -gives the total strength of the force under O’Neill and O’Donnell at -6,000 foot and 500 horse. The Irish leader was opposed to risking a -general engagement with so small a command, although O’Donnell, when he -beheld Mountjoy’s troops beleaguering the town, wanted to attack, which, -judging by after events, might have been the better plan. O’Neill -argued, however, that the inclement season would soon destroy a good -part of the English soldiers and counseled delay. O’Donnell yielded -reluctantly, and then the Irish, very badly provided, intrenched -themselves and began “besieging the besiegers.” Prudence, on this -occasion, ruined the cause of Ireland—so often ruined by rashness, -before and since; for, three days after O’Neill’s policy had been -acceded to, that is on Christmas eve, 1601, accident brought on an -engagement, in the dark, which neither party seems to have anticipated. -The tragedy is best related by Mitchel in his life of O’Neill, thus: -“Before dawn, on the morning of the 24th (December), Sir Richard Graham, -who commanded the night guard of horse, sent word to the deputy that the -scouts had discovered the matches (matchlock muskets were used at this -period) flashing in great numbers in the darkness, and that O’Neill must -be approaching the camp in force. Instantly the troops were called to -arms; messengers were despatched to the Earl of Thomond’s quarter, with -orders to draw out his men. The deputy (Mountjoy) now advanced to meet -the Irish, whom he supposed to be stealing on his camp, and seems to -have effectually surprised them, while endeavoring to prevent a surprise -upon himself. The infantry of O’Neill’s army retired slowly about a mile -further from the town, and made a stand on the bank of a ford, where -their position was strengthened by a bog in flank. Wingfield, the -marshal, thought he saw some confusion in their ranks, and entreated the -deputy that he might be allowed to charge. The Earl of Clanricarde -joined the marshal and the battle became general. O’Neill’s cavalry -repeatedly drove back both Wingfield and Clanricarde, until Sir Henry -Danvers, with Captains Taaffe and Fleming, came up to their assistance, -when, at length, the Irish infantry fell into confusion and fled. -Another body of them, under Tyrrell, was still unbroken, and long -maintained their ground on a hill, but at length, seeing their comrades -routed, they also gave way and retreated in good order after their main -body. The northern cavalry covered the retreat, and O’Neill and -O’Donnell, by amazing personal exertions, succeeded in preserving order -and preventing it from becoming a total rout.” - -Such was the unfortunate battle of Kinsale—the most disastrous, perhaps, -in Irish annals. It was not even well fought, because the Irish troops, -surprised in their sleep, owing to lack of vigilance on the part of the -sentinels, had lost most of their effective arms, their baggage, and -colors at the outset. Their camp, also, came into immediate possession -of the enemy. Thus, they were discouraged—the Irish character being -mercurial, like the French—if not badly demoralized, and they did not, -in this ill-fated action, fight with a resolution worthy of the fame -they had rightfully earned as soldiers of the first class, nor did they -faithfully respond, as heretofore, to the military genius of their -justly renowned leaders. They were mostly the troops of Ulster, far from -home, and lacking the inspiration that comes to all men when conscious -that they are fighting to defend their own hearths against the spoiler. -Ulster, in that day, was almost alien to the southern province, although -the soldiers of both were fighting in a common cause. Kinsale was, -certainly, not a battle to which Ireland can look back with feelings of -pride, but she may be thankful that there are few such gloomy failures -recorded in her military annals. Yet the bitter fact remains that -Kinsale clouded forever the glory achieved by the troops of O’Neill and -O’Donnell on so many fields of victory. The Spaniards, who had joined -O’Donnell on the march, refused to fly and were almost all destroyed. -Their commander, Del Campo, two officers, and forty soldiers were all -that survived out of seven hundred men, and they were made prisoners of -war. (Mitchel.) In a note, this author, quoting Pacata Hibernia, says: -“The most merciless of all Mountjoy’s army that day was the Anglo-Irish -and Catholic Earl of Clanricarde. He slew twenty of the Irish with his -own hand, and cried aloud to ‘spare no rebels.’ Carew (the English -general and writer) says that ‘no man did bloody his sword more than his -lordship that day.’” This episode shows how well Mountjoy’s policy of -“Divide and Conquer” and temporary toleration of the Catholics worked -for the English cause. Had the penal laws not been mitigated this -Anglo-Irish and Catholic Earl of Clanricarde would have fought on the -side of Ireland. - -De Aguila, seeing that the Irish army was defeated, and that another -effort on the part of O’Neill was rendered impossible by the loss of his -munitions and the lateness of the season, proposed to capitulate. The -Earl of Mountjoy offered him honorable terms, and De Aguila agreed to -surrender to the English all the Irish castles on the coast to which -Spanish garrisons had been admitted, “and shortly after,” says Mitchel, -“set sail for Spain, carrying with him all his artillery, treasure, and -military stores.” Some of the Irish chiefs, notably the O’Sullivan -Beare, refused to ratify that part of De Aguila’s capitulation which -agreed to surrender their castles, occupied by Spanish troops, to the -English. The fortresses had been thrown open to the Spaniards in good -faith, and General de Aguila had no moral right to give them up. The -most he could agree to do was to withdraw his men from the Irish castles -and take them back with him to Spain. And this was the view taken by the -Irish chiefs, with bloody, but glorious, result, as we shall see. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - Sad Death of O’Donnell in Spain—Heroic Defence of Dunboy - - -O’NEILL, when he perceived the hopelessness of the Irish situation in -Munster, conducted what remained of his defeated army back to the north -and cantoned it along the Blackwater for the winter months, where he -felt quite sure the English, worn out by their exertions at the siege -and battle of Kinsale, would not attack him. Red Hugh O’Donnell, -exasperated beyond endurance at the disregard of his bold advice to -attack the beleaguering English, in conjunction with the Spaniards, on -the first arrival of the Irish army before Kinsale, gave up the command -of his clan to his brother, Roderick, and, with a few followers, sailed -for Spain, in search of further aid. He resolved to ask King Philip for -an army, not a detachment. The chief landed at Coruna, and was received -with high honors by the Spanish authorities. He finally reached the -Spanish Court and placed the whole Irish situation clearly before -Philip, who promised a powerful force and actually gave orders to -prepare at once for a new expedition to Ireland. The sad sequel is well -told in the eloquent words of Mitchel: - -“But that armament never sailed, and poor O’Donnell never saw Ireland -more; for news reached Spain, a few months after, that Dunboy Castle, -the last stronghold in Munster that held out for King Philip, was taken, -and Beare-haven, the last harbor in the South that was open to his -ships, effectually guarded by the English; and the Spanish preparations -were countermanded; and Red Hugh was once more on his journey to court -to renew his almost hopeless suit, and had arrived at Samancas, two -leagues from Valladolid, when he suddenly fell sick. His gallant heart -was broken and he died there on the 10th of September, 1602. He was -buried by order of the king with royal honors, as befitted a prince of -the Kinel-Conal; and the stately city of Valladolid holds the bones of -as noble a chief and as stout a warrior as ever bore the wand of -chieftaincy or led a clan to battle.” - -While we do not believe in “painting the devil blacker than he is,” we -think it proper to state here that more recent researches would seem to -have fixed the crime of assassination on the Earl of Mountjoy. In an -account, quoted in several lectures by Frank Hugh O’Donnell, ex-member -of the British Parliament, it is definitely stated that Red Hugh -O’Donnell was poisoned at the inn in Samancas, where he died, by a hired -murderer, named Blake, who acted for the English Lord Deputy. Such, if -the statement is true, were the political ethics of the Elizabethan era. - -Donal O’Sullivan Beare, the bravest of all the Munster leaders, wrested -his castle of Dun-buidhe (Dunboy), in English, “Yellow Fort,” from the -Spaniards after De Aguila had agreed to surrender it to the English. He -justified his conduct to the King of Spain in a pathetic letter in which -he said: “Among other places that were neither yielded nor taken to the -end that they might be delivered to the English, Don Juan tied himself -up to deliver my castle and haven, the only key to mine inheritance, -whereupon the living of many thousand persons doth rest, that live some -twenty leagues upon the seacoast, into the hands of my cruel, cursed, -misbelieving enemies.” - -The defence of this castle by the Irish garrison of one hundred and -forty-three men, commanded by O’Sullivan’s intrepid lieutenant, -McGeoghegan, was one of the finest feats of arms recorded in history. -Although only a square tower, with outworks, it held out against General -Carew, the Lord President, for fifteen days. It was bombarded by the -fleet from the haven, and battered by artillery from the land side. -Indeed, Carew had an army of 4,000 veteran soldiers opposed to -McGeoghegan’s 143 heroes. A breach was finally effected in the castle, -but the storming parties were repeatedly repulsed. The great hall was -finally carried, and the little garrison, under the undaunted -McGeoghegan, retreated to the vaults beneath it, where they sustained -the unequal conflict for four-and-twenty hours, and, by the exertion of -unexampled prowess, at last cleared the hall of the English. The latter -replied with an overwhelming cannonade, and the walls of the castle -crumbled about the ears of its heroic defenders. The latter made a -desperate sortie with only forty men and all perished. The survivors in -the castle continued the defence, but, in the end, their noble -commander, McGeoghegan, was mortally wounded and they laid down their -arms. While their wounded chief lay gasping in the agonies of -approaching death, on the floor of the vault, he saw the English enter -the place. The sight seemed to renew his life and energy. He sprang to -his feet, seized a torch, and made a rush for an open barrel of powder, -intending to blow assailants and assailed into the sky. But an English -soldier was too quick for the dying hero. He seized him in his arms, and -a comrade wrested the torch from the failing hand and extinguished it. -Then they ran their swords through McGeoghegan’s body, and his glorious -deeds and great sufferings were at an end. It should have been stated -that ten of the garrison, who were of the party that made the sortie, on -the failure of their bold effort, attempted to reach the mainland by -swimming across the haven. This movement was anticipated by the English -commander. Soldiers were stationed in boats to intercept the swimmers, -and all were stabbed or shot, as if they had been beasts of prey. The -survivors of the band of Irish Spartans, who made Dunboy forever -memorable in the annals of martial glory, were instantly hanged by order -of Carew, so that not one of the heroic 143 was left. Ruthless as he -was, the Lord President himself, in an official letter, bore this -testimony to their valor: “Not one man escaped; all were slain, -executed, or buried in the ruins, and so obstinate a defence hath not -been seen within this kingdom.” The defence of Dunboy Castle deserves to -rank in history with Thermopylæ and the Alamo of Texas, and the butchery -of its surviving defenders, in cold blood, was a disgrace to English -manhood. How differently the gallant O’Neill treated the English -prisoners taken at Armagh, Portmore, and other places in Ulster during -the period of his amazing victories. It is cruelties of this character -that made the English name abhorred in Ireland, not the prowess, or even -the bloodthirstiness, of the English soldiery in the heat of battle. The -massacre at Dunboy is an indelible stain on the memory of Lord President -Carew. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - Wane of Irish Resistance—O’Neill Surrenders to Mountjoy at Mellifont - - -WITH the fall of Dunboy, Ireland’s heroic day was almost at an end for -that generation. O’Sullivan and some other Munster chiefs still held -out, but their efforts were only desultory. O’Neill, accompanied by -Richard Tyrrell, the faithful Anglo-Irish leader, rallied the remnants -of his clan and attempted to hold again the line of the Blackwater. But -the English were now too many to be resisted by a handful of brave men. -They closed upon him from every side, and advanced their posts through -the country, so as to effectually cut him off from communication with -Tyrconnel, whose chief on hearing of the death of his noble brother, Red -Hugh, in Spain, made terms with the Lord Deputy. So, also, did many -other Ulster chiefs, who conceived their cause to be hopeless. O’Neill, -still hoping against hope, and thinking that a Spanish army might yet -come to his aid, burned his castle of Dungannon to the ground, and -retired to the wooded and mountainous portions of his ancient -principality, where he held out doggedly. But the Lord Deputy resorted -to his old policy of destroying the growing crops, and, very soon, -Tyrone, throughout its fairest and most fertile regions, was a blackened -waste. Still the Red Hand continued to float defiantly throughout the -black winter of 1602-3; but, at length, despair began to shadow the once -bright hopes of the brave O’Neill. His daring ally, Donal O’Sullivan -Beare, having lost all he possessed in Munster, set out at this -inclement season on a forced march from Glengariff, in Cork, to Breffni, -in Leitrim, fighting his enemies all the way, crossing the Shannon in -boats extemporized from willows and horsehides; routing an English -force, under Colonel Malby, at the “pass of Aughrim,” in Galway, -destined to be more terribly memorable in another war for liberty; and, -finally, reached O’Ruarc’s castle, where he was hospitably welcomed, -with only a small moiety of those who followed him from their homes, - - “—Marching - Over Murkerry’s moors and Ormond’s plain, - His currochs the waves of the Shannon o’erarching - And pathway mile-marked with the slain.” - -Even the iron heart of Hugh O’Neill could not maintain its strength -against conditions such as those thus described by Moryson, the -Englishman, who can not be suspected of intensifying the horrid picture -at the expense of his own country’s reputation: “No spectacle,” he says, -“was more frequent in the ditches of towns, and especially of wasted -countries, than to see multitudes of poor people dead, with their mouths -all colored green, by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could -rend up above ground.” There were other spectacles still more terrible, -as related by the English generals and chroniclers themselves, but we -will spare the details. They are too horrible for the average civilized -being of this day to contemplate, although the age is by no means -lacking in examples of human savagery which go to prove that the wild -beast in the nature of man has not yet been entirely bred out. - -Baffled by gold, not by steel, by the torch rather than the sword, -deprived of all his resources, deserted by his allies, and growing old -and worn in ceaseless warfare, it can hardly be wondered at that O’Neill -sent to the Lord Deputy, at the end of February, 1603, propositions of -surrender. Mountjoy was glad to receive them—for the vision of a -possible Spanish expedition, in great force, still disquieted him—and -arranged to meet the discomfited Irish hero at Mellifont Abbey, in -Louth, where died, centuries before, old, repentant, and despised, that -faithless wife of O’Ruarc, Prince of Breffni, whose sin first caused the -Normans to set foot in Ireland. So anxious was Mountjoy to conclude a -peace, that nearly all of O’Neill’s stipulations were concurred in, even -to the free exercise of the Catholic religion in the subjugated country. -He and his allies were allowed to retain, under English “letters -patent,” their original tribe-lands, with a few exceptions in favor of -the traitors who had fought with the English against their own kindred. -It was insisted, however, by the Deputy, that all Irish titles, -including that of “The O’Neill,” should be dropped, thenceforth and -forever, and the English titles of “nobility” substituted. All the Irish -territory was converted into “shire-ground.” The ancient Brehon Law was -abolished, and, for evermore, the Irish clans were to be governed by -English methods. Queen Elizabeth had died during the progress of the -negotiations, and a secret knowledge of this fact no doubt influenced -Mountjoy in hurrying the treaty to its conclusion, and granting such, -comparatively, favorable conditions to Hugh O’Neill and the other -“rebellious” Irish chiefs. Therefore, it was to the representative of -King James I that Tyrone, at last, yielded his sword—not to the general -of Elizabeth. It is said that in the bitter last moments of that -sovereign, her almost constant inquiry was: “What news from Ireland and -that rascally O’Neill?” The latter’s most elaborate historian estimates -that the long war “cost England many millions in treasure, and the blood -of tens of thousands of her veteran soldiers, and, from the face of -Ireland, it swept nearly one-half of the entire population.” (Mitchel.) -And, he continues: “From that day (March 30, 1603, when O’Neill -surrendered at Mellifont), the distinction of ‘Pale’ and ‘Irish country’ -was at an end; and the authority of the kings of England and their -(Anglo) Irish parliaments became, for the first time, paramount over the -whole island. The pride of ancient Erin—the haughty struggle of Irish -nationhood against foreign institutions and the detested spirit of -English imperialism, for that time, sunk in blood and horror, but the -Irish nation is an undying essence, and that noble struggle paused for a -season, only to recommence in other forms and on wider ground—to be -renewed, and again renewed, until—Ah! quousque, Domine, quousque?” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - Treachery of James I to the Irish Chiefs—“The Flight of the Earls” - - -AT the outset of his reign, James I, of England, and VI of Scotland, -collateral descendant of that Edward Bruce who had been crowned King of -the Irish in the beginning of the fourteenth century, promised to rule -Ireland in a loving and paternal spirit. He had received at his London -court, with great urbanity, Hugh O’Neill and Roderick O’Donnell, and had -confirmed them in their English titles of Earl of Tyrone and Earl of -Tyrconnel, respectively. They had accompanied Mountjoy to England, to -make their “submissions” in due form before the king, and, while en -route through that country, were grossly insulted at many points by the -common people, who could not forget their relatives lying dead in heaps -in Irish soil, because of the prowess of the chieftains who were now the -guests of England. It is most remarkable that the English people have -always honored and hospitably entertained the distinguished “rebels” of -all countries but Ireland. Refugees from Poland, from Austria, from -Hungary, from France, from Italy—many of them charged with using -assassin methods—have been warmly welcomed in London, and even protected -by the courts of law, as in the case of the Orsini-infernal-machine -conspirators against Napoleon III, in 1859; but no Irish “rebel” has -ever been honored, or sheltered, or defended by the English people, or -the English courts of law; although individual Englishmen, like Lord -Byron, Percy Shelley, and a few others of their calibre, have written -and spoken in assertion of Ireland’s right to a separate existence. Of -course, the reason is that all the other “rebels” fought in “good -causes,” and, according to English political ethics, no cause can -possibly be just in which the right of England to govern any people -whatever against their will is contested. America learned that bitter -lesson nearly two centuries after O’Neill and O’Donnell were hooted and -stoned by the English populace for having dared to defend the rights and -the patrimony of their people. - -The Catholic religion continued to be tolerated by James until 1605, -when, suddenly, a penal statute of the time of Elizabeth was unearthed -and put into operation with full force. Treaty obligations of England -with the Irish chiefs were also systematically violated. The lands of -Ulster were broad and fair, and the great body of military adventurers -who had come into Ireland from England during the long wars of the -preceding reign, were greedy for spoil. These and the Irish traitors—Art -O’Neill, Niall Garbh O’Donnell, the false McGuire, and the rest—pestered -the government and made never-ending charges of plots and “treasons” -against “the earls,” as the Irish leaders of the late war now came to be -called. The plotters were ably assisted by Robert Cecil, Earl of -Salisbury, ancestor of the late Marquis of Salisbury, who was also his -namesake. Another able English conspirator against the Irish chiefs was -Sir Arthur Chichester, who became one of the chief beneficiaries of the -subsequent “confiscations,” and whose descendants still hold, as “titled -nobility,” a very comfortable slice of ancient Ulster. Some “Reformed” -bishops also took great interest in getting the earls into hot water -with the government. Finally an alleged plot on the part of O’Neill and -O’Donnell to overthrow the King of England’s government in Ulster—an -absurdity on its face, considering their fallen and helpless -condition—was made the pretext for summoning them to appear before the -English courts established in Ireland, in whose justice they had no -confidence, remembering the ghastly fate of MacMahon Roe. A hired -perjurer, named O’Cahan—the unworthy scion of a noble house—was to be -chief “witness” against O’Neill, and no secret was made of the fact that -others would be forthcoming, hired by Chichester, to finish the work -begun by the principal informer. Meanwhile the free exercise of the -Catholic religion—so solemnly guaranteed by Mountjoy—was strictly -prohibited, under the penal enactment of Elizabeth, known as the “Act of -Uniformity,” already referred to; and again began those horrid religious -persecutions, for politics’ and plunder’s sake, which had no termination -in Ireland, except for one brief period, during nearly two centuries. -Such Catholics as desired to practice their faith had to betake -themselves to the mountain recesses, or the caves of the seacoast, -where, before rude altars, Mass was celebrated by priests on whose heads -a penal price was set. Sheriffs and judges, attended by large bands of -soldiers, made circuit of the new Ulster “counties” and succeeded in -completely terrifying the unfortunate Catholic inhabitants. Education, -as far as Catholics were concerned, was prohibited, and then began that -exodus of Irish ecclesiastical students to the Continent of Europe, -which continued down to the reign of William IV, notwithstanding the -partial mitigation of the penal laws, in the reign of his father, and -the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Bill during his brother’s -reign, A.D. 1829. - -The persecuted earls clearly saw there was no hope of peace for them in -Ireland, and that their presence only wrought further ill to their -faithful clansmen, now reduced, for the first time, to the condition of -“subjects” of the King of England. Lord Howth, a powerful Catholic noble -of the Pale, was suspected of having given information to the Lord -Deputy of a meeting held at Maynooth the previous Christmas at which the -earls and several Anglo-Catholic noblemen were present. It was claimed -that the enforcement of the Act of Uniformity was there discussed, and -that another effort to overthrow the English power would be made by the -parties to the meeting. This “plot,” if there were any at all, was -communicated to the Clerk of the Privy Council by an anonymous letter -dropped at the Castle of Dublin in March, 1607. “O’Neill,” says McGee, -“was with Chichester, at Slane, in September when he received a letter -from the McGuire—not the traitor of that title—who had been abroad, -conveying some startling information upon which Tyrone seems to have -acted at once. He took leave of the Lord Deputy, as if to prepare for a -journey to London, whither he had been summoned on some false pretext; -and, after spending a few days with his old friend, Sir Garrett Moore, -at Mellifont, repaired to his seat of Dungannon, where he, at once, -assembled all of his immediate family and all proceeded to the shores of -Lough Swilly, at Rathmullen, where they were joined by Roderick -O’Donnell and all of his household. They embarked immediately on the -French ship which had conveyed McGuire to Ireland, and set sail for -France, where, on landing, they were warmly welcomed and royally -entertained by the chivalric King Henry IV, who, as became a stout -soldier and able captain, greatly admired the prowess displayed in the -Ulster wars by Hugh O’Neill. There sailed to France with the latter his -last countess, daughter of McGenniss of Iveagh; his three sons, Hugh, -John, and Brian; his nephew, Art O’Neill, son of Cormac, and many of -lesser note. With O’Donnell sailed his brother Cathbar; his fair sister, -Nuala, wife of Niall Garbh, who had, in righteous indignation, forsaken -the traitor when he drew the sword against Ireland and her noble -brother, Red Hugh; the lady Rose O’Doherty, wife of Cathbar, and, after -his death, of Owen O’Neill; McGuire, Owen MacWard, the chief bard of -Tyrconnel, and several others. It proved to be a fatal voyage, for it -exiled forever the best and bravest of the Irish chiefs. Well might the -Four Masters in their Annals of the succeeding generation say: “Woe to -the heart that meditated, woe to the mind that conceived, woe to the -council that decided on the project of voyage, without knowing whether -they should to the end of their lives be able to return to their ancient -principalities and patrimonies.” And, adds the graphic Mitchel, “with -gloomy looks and sad forebodings, the clansmen of Tyrconnel gazed upon -that fatal ship, ‘built in the eclipse and rigged with curses dark,’ as -she dropped down Lough Swilly, and was hidden behind the cliffs of Fanad -Head. They never saw their chieftains more.” - -Everything was now settled in Ulster, for the English interest, except -for the brief “rebellion” of Sir Cahir O’Doherty, the young chief of -Inishowen, who fell out with Sir George Powlett of Derry, and flew at -once to arms. He made a brave struggle of some months’ duration, but, as -no aid reached him from any outside quarter, he was speedily penned up -in his own small territory, and, fighting to the last, died the death of -a soldier—the noblest death he could have died, surrounded by the armies -of Marshal Wingfield and Sir Oliver Lambert, on the rock of Doon, near -Kilmacrenan, in August, 1608. Thus went out the last spark of Ulster -valor for a generation. - -King James, having used Niall Garbh O’Donnell for all he was worth to -the English cause, grew tired of his importunities and had him conveyed -to England, under guard, together with his two sons. All three were -imprisoned in the Tower of London from which the traitor, at least, -never emerged again. He met a fate he richly merited. Cormac O’Neill, -the brave captor of Armagh, and the legitimate O’Cahan, both of whom had -incurred the hatred of Chichester, also perished in the same gloomy -prison. - -And now all that remained to be done was to parcel out the lands of the -conquered Ultonians and others of “the Meer Irish” between the captains -of the new conquest. Chichester was given the whole of O’Doherty’s -country, the peninsula of Inishowen, and to this was added O’Neill’s -former borough of Dungannon, with 1,300 acres of valuable land in the -neighborhood of the town. Wingfield was created Lord Powerscourt and -obtained the beautiful district of Fercullen, near Dublin—one of the -most charming domains in all Europe. Lambert became Earl of Cavan and -had several rich estates, including that of Carrig, bestowed upon him in -addition. All the counties of Ulster were declared forfeited to the -Crown of England. The primate and other Protestant prelates of Ulster -claimed, and received, 43,000 acres. Trinity College, Dublin, received -30,000 acres, in Tyrone, Derry, and Armagh, together with six advowsons, -or Church beneficies, in each county. The various guilds, or trades, of -the city of London, England, obtained the gross amount of 209,800 acres, -including the city of Derry, to which the name of “London” was then -prefixed. Grants to individuals were divided into three classes of -2,000, 1,500, and 1,000 acres each. Catholic laborers were required to -take the oath of supremacy—acknowledging King James as spiritual head of -the Church—which they, notwithstanding all their misfortunes, nobly -refused to do. In the end, seeing that the fields would remain -uncultivated for the most part, the English and Scotch “undertakers,” or -settlers, for prudence’ sake, rather than from liberal motives, -practically made this tyrannical requirement a dead letter. But the -Catholic tillers of the soil were driven from the fertile plains and -forced to cultivate miserable patches of land in the bogs or on the -mountains. When these became in any degree valuable, an exorbitant -“rent” was charged, and the poor Catholics, utterly unable to pay it, -were again compelled to move to some even more unpromising location, -where the same procedure again and again produced the same wretched -result. - -It was thus that the ancient Irish clans, and families, were actually -robbed, in spite of solemn treaties and royal pledges, of their rightful -inheritance, and that strangers and “soulless corporations” became lords -of their soil. It was the beginning, in Ulster at least, of that system -of “felonious landlordism” which is the curse of all Ireland, in spite -of recent remedial measures, even in this day. So, too, began that -English garrison in Ireland—pitting race against race and creed against -creed—which has divided, distracted, and demoralized the Irish nation -ever since. The “Plantation of Ulster” was the most fatal measure ever -carried into effect by English policy in Ireland. Some of the Irish -princes did not long survive their exile. From France they had proceeded -to Rome and were very kindly received by the Pontiff, who placed -residences commensurate with their rank and fame at their disposal. -Roderick O’Donnell died in the Eternal City in July, 1608. McGuire died -at Genoa, while en route to Spain in August, and, in September, Cathbar -O’Donnell also passed away, and was laid in the same grave with his -gallant brother, on St. Peter’s Hill. (McGee.) O’Neill’s fate was sadder -still. The historian just quoted says of him: “He survived his comrades -as he did his fortunes, and, like another Belisarius, blind and old, and -a pensioner on the bounty of strangers, he lived on eight weary years in -Rome.” Death came to his relief, according to a historian of his own -period, in 1616, when he must have been over seventy years of age. He -sleeps his last sleep amid the consecrated dust of ages, beneath the -flagstones of the convent of St. Isidore; and there, in the words of the -Irish orator and American general, Meagher, “the fiery hand that rent -the ensign of St. George on the plains of Ulster has mouldered into -dust.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOK III - - -RECORDING THE DOINGS OF THE ENGLISH AND IRISH, IN IRELAND, FROM THE TIME -OF JAMES I TO THE JACOBITE WARS IN THE DAYS OF JAMES II AND WILLIAM III - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - Confiscations and Penal Laws—The Iron Rule of Lord Strafford - - -THE first Anglo-Irish Parliament held within a period of twenty-seven -years was summoned to meet in Dublin on May 18, 1613, and, -notwithstanding the Act of Uniformity, it would appear that quite a -large number of Catholics, styled in the language of the times -“recusants,” because of their opposition to the spiritual supremacy of -the king, were elected to serve in that body. They would have had a -majority but for the creation of some forty “boroughs,” each entitled to -a member, under the patronage of some Protestant peer. This was the -beginning of that “rotten borough” system which finally led to the -abolition of the sectarian Irish Parliament of after times. Scenes of -great disorder occurred in this Parliament of 1613, chiefly occasioned -by the intolerant, and even violent, proceedings of the anti-Catholic -party, unreasonable bigots, having an eye to the main chance in the -matter of confiscated property, to whom the presence of any “Papist” in -that body was as gall and wormwood. This bitter prejudice led finally to -the utter exclusion of all Catholics from the Anglo-Irish Parliament, -and even the few Catholic commoners previously entitled to a vote were -deprived of that privilege, or rather right, until the last decade of -the eighteenth century. Still, the Catholic minority in the Parliament -of 1613 succeeded in preventing ultra-tyrannical legislation, and, -really, made the first stand for the constitutional rights of Ireland, -from the colonial standpoint. It was finally adjourned in October, 1615, -and no other Parliament was called to meet in Ireland until 1635, when -Charles I had already been ten years on the throne. “Government,” -meanwhile, had been carried on arbitrarily, without constitutional -restraint of any kind, as under the Tudor sovereigns—only with far less -ability. The Tudors, at least—particularly Henry and Elizabeth—were -intellectual tyrants, which their immediate successors were not. Never -was so shameful a system of public spoliation carried out as in the -reigns of James I, and his equally despotic, and still more -unscrupulous, son Charles I. The viceroy was not responsible to any -power whatever, except that of the English monarch. Chichester was -succeeded by Lord Grandison, and under his régime the infamous -“Commission for the Discovery of Defective Titles” was organized, of -which the surveyor-general, Sir William Parsons, ancestor of the Earls -of Rosse, was the head. This Commission, “aided by a horde of clerkly -spies, employed under the name of Discoverers (McGee), ransacked Old -Irish tenures in the archives of Dublin and London with such good -effect, that in a very short time 66,000 acres in Wicklow and 385,000 -acres in Leitrim, Longford, the Meaths, and Kings and Queens Counties -were ‘found by inquisition to be vested in the crown.’ The means -employed by the Commissioners in some cases to elicit such evidence as -they required were of the most revolting description. In the Wicklow -case, courts-martial were held, before which unwilling witnesses were -tried on charge of treason, and some actually put to death. Archer, one -of the number, had his flesh burned with red-hot iron, and was placed on -a gridiron over a charcoal fire till he offered to testify anything that -was necessary. Yet on evidence so obtained, whole counties and towns -were declared forfeited to the crown.” (_Ibid._) Is it any wonder, -therefore, that a people so scourged, plundered, and degraded should -cherish in their hearts fierce thoughts of reprisal when opportunity -offered? These wholesale land robberies were not confined to the Celtic -Irish alone, but were practiced on all Irishmen, of whatever descent, -who professed the Catholic faith. Add to these the bitter memories of -the murder and persecution of many bishops and innumerable priests and -communicants of that faith, and the only wonder is that the Irish -Catholic people of the seventeenth, and most of the succeeding, century, -retained any of the milder and nobler characteristics of the human -family. They were stripped of their property, education, civil rights, -and, in short, of all that makes life worth living, including freedom of -conscience—that dearest privilege of a people naturally idealistic and -devotional. The idea of religious toleration never seems to have entered -into the minds of what may be called the “professional Protestant” -ascendency, except, as we have seen, for purposes of diplomacy which -tended to weaken and divide Irish national opposition to foreign rule. -In addition to the grievances we have enumerated, the office of Master -of Wards was bestowed upon Sir William Parsons, and thus “the minor -heirs of all the Catholic proprietors were placed, both as to, person -and property, at the absolute disposal of one of the most intense -anti-Catholic bigots that ever appeared on the scene of Irish affairs.” -(McGee.) This was one of the pernicious influences that, not for -conscience’ sake, but for sordid gain, changed the religion of so many -of the ancient families of Ireland from the old to the new form of -belief; and no English policy was more bitterly resented and vengefully -remembered by the Irish Catholic masses. And because of this dishonest -system of proselytizing, carried on by one process or another from the -period of the Reformation to the reign of Victoria, the Irish Catholic -peasant has associated “conversion” of any of his neighbors to the -Protestant belief with personal degradation. The Irish Catholic peasant -has no feeling but that of utter contempt and aversion for a “turn-coat” -Catholic; but he is most liberal in his feelings toward all Protestants -“to the manor born,” as has been frequently and emphatically manifested -by his choice of Protestant leaders, from Grattan to Parnell. Whatever -of religious bigotry may linger in the warm heart of the Catholic -peasant may be justly charged to outrageous misgovernment, not to his -natural disposition, which, in the main, is both loving and charitable. -The faults we can trace in the Irish character to-day are partially -those of human nature, which averages much the same in all civilized -peoples, but many of them, and the gravest, can be attributed, without -undue prejudice, to the odious penal laws which were sufficient to -distort the characteristics of angels, not to speak of mortal men. - -Charles I, of England, was a thorough Stuart in despotic character, -wavering policy, base ingratitude, and fatuous obstinacy. His reign was -to furnish to Ireland one of the most consummate tyrants and highway -robbers that ever cursed a country with his cruelty and greed. This -moral monster was the infamous Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, -whose “tiger jaws” closed on the unfortunate country with the grip of a -dragon. This dishonorable “noble” counseled King Charles to commit an -act of moral delinquency which, in our day, would be rightly, if -coarsely, called “a confidence game.” The Irish Catholics, in convention -assembled, had drawn up a sort of Bill of Rights, which they urged the -king to confirm, and agreed to pay into the royal treasury the sum of -£100,000, which they could ill spare, to show their “loyalty,” and also, -no doubt, to influence Charles, who, like all of his family, dearly -loved money, to grant “the graces” prayed for. Strafford advised the -base king to take the money, but to manage matters so that the -concessions he had solemnly promised should never go into effect! And -the ignominious Stuart actually acted on the advice of this ignoble -mentor. And so the poor Irish Catholic “gentry” lost both their money -and their “concessions.” When we read this chapter of Irish history, we -are tempted to feel less sympathy for the fate of Charles I, who was -afterward sold to Cromwell and the English Parliament by the Scottish -mercenary army of General Leslie, with which the king had taken shelter, -for back pay, amounting to £200,000 (see Sir Walter Scott’s “Tales of a -Grandfather”). This miserable monarch so far degraded himself, further, -as to cause writs for the election of a Parliament to grant the Catholic -claims issued in Ireland, but privately instructed Lord Falkland to have -the documents informally prepared, so that the election might prove -invalid; and, meanwhile, his Lords Justices went on confiscating -Catholic property in Ireland and persecuting prelates, priests, and -people almost as savagely as in the worst days of Mountjoy and -Chichester. Strafford came to Ireland as Lord Deputy in July, 1633, and -entered at once on his “thorough” policy, as he called it; and, to -prepare himself for the task he had set himself to perform, he through -the “Lords Justices” extracted a “voluntary contribution” of £20,000 -additional out of the terrorized Catholic “nobility and gentry” of the -“sister” island, who, no doubt, wrung it, in turn, out of the sweat of -the faces of their peasant retainers. But this was a mere bagatelle to -what followed. He compelled Ireland to pay subsidies to the amount of -£200,000 in 1634, and imposed £100,000 more in the succeeding year. He -carried the war of wholesale confiscation into Connaught, and compelled -grand juries, specially “packed” for the work, to give the King of -England title to the three great counties of Mayo, Sligo, and Roscommon. -The grand jury of Galway County refused to return such a verdict. They -were summoned to the court of the Castle Chamber in Dublin, and -sentenced to pay a fine of £4,000 each to the crown. The sheriff who -empaneled them was fined £1,000. (McGee.) The very lawyers who pleaded -for the actual proprietors were stripped of their gowns; “the sheriff -died in prison and the work of spoliation proceeded.” (_Ibid._) Similar, -if not quite so general, robberies went on in Kildare, Kilkenny, Cork, -and other counties. It must be said, however, that Strafford was, in a -manner, impartial, and robbed, his master granting full approval, -without distinction of creed. We can not help feeling thankful that the -London companies which swallowed, in the reign of King James, the lands -of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, were compelled by “Black Tom,” as the earl was -nicknamed, to pay £70,000 “for the use of the king.” Out of all this -plunder, and much more beside, Strafford was enabled to maintain in -Ireland 10,000 infantry and 1,000 excellently equipped horse, “for the -service of his royal master.” When this great robber visited London in -1639, fresh from his crimes in Ireland, the king, on whom so much -ill-deserved sympathy has been wasted, assured him, in person, that his -actions in Ireland had his (Charles’) “most cordial approval” (McGee), -and even urged the earl to “proceed fearlessly in the same course.” To -still further mark his approbation of Strafford’s policy, the king -promoted him to the rank of Viceroy of Ireland. Strafford took the king -at his word and did proceed so fearlessly in Ireland that his name of -terror has been overshadowed in that country by only one other—that of -Oliver Cromwell. Every Parliament called to meet by the tyrant in the -conquered country—for so the earl regarded Ireland—was used simply as an -instrument wherewith to extort still more tribute from the impoverished -Irish people. This terrible despot, having accomplished his deadly -mission in Ireland, returned to England and there, as before, became -chief adviser to the weak and wicked monarch. He counseled the latter to -ignore, as far as he dared, the action of Parliament, and was imprudent -enough to remark that he (Strafford) had an army in Ireland to support -the royal will. He was, soon afterward, impeached by the House of -Commons, led by stern John Pym, for treasonable acts in seeking to -change the constitutional form of the English Government. This method of -procedure was abandoned, however, and Parliament passed a bill of -attainder, to which the “false, fleeting, perjured” Charles, frightened -by popular clamor, which accused himself of being implicated in a plot -to admit soldiers to the Tower for the rescue of Strafford, gave the -“royal assent.” The earl, on learning this, placed a hand upon his heart -and exclaimed, “Put not your trust in Princes!” And thus the master he -had but too faithfully served consigned Strafford to the block. He was -beheaded on Tower Hill, May 12, 1641. When the hour of his similar doom -approached, nearly eight years thereafter, Charles said that the only -act of his reign he repented of was giving his assent to the bill which -deprived his favorite minister of life. - -Some Irish historians, McGee of the number, claim that, outside of his -land robberies and tributary exactions, the Earl of Strafford made an -able ruler of Ireland, and that trade and commerce flourished under his -sway. While this may be, to a certain extent, true, nothing can palliate -the crimes against justice and liberty of which he was guilty. He was -only a degree less contemptible than the treacherous master who finally -betrayed and abandoned him. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - Irish Military Exiles—Rory O’More Organizes a Great Insurrection - - -SINCE Sir Cahir O’Doherty fell on the rock of Doon, in 1608, no Irish -chief or clan had risen against the English interest throughout the -length and breadth of the island. The masses of the Irish people had, -apparently, sunk into a condition of political torpor, but the fires of -former generations still smouldered amid the ashes of vanquished hopes, -and needed but a breath of inspiration to fan them into fierce, -rebellious flame. Most of the ancient Celtic and many of the -Anglo-Norman families of Catholic persuasion had military -representatives in nearly all the camps of Europe. One Irish legion -served in the army of Philip III of Spain, and was commanded -successively by two of the sons of Hugh O’Neill, victor of the Yellow -Ford—Henry and John. In it also served the hero’s gallant nephew, Owen -Roe O’Neill, who rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and made a -brilliant defence of Arras in France, besieged by Marshal de Meilleraye, -in 1640. Of this able soldier we shall hear more in the future. The -English Government never lost sight of those Irish exiles, and, about -this time, one of its emissaries on the Continent reported that there -were in the Spanish Netherlands alone “twenty Irish officers fit to be -colonels and a hundred fit to be captains.” The same agent reported, -further, that the Irish military throughout Europe had long been -procuring arms for an attempt upon Ireland, and had 6,000 stand laid up -in Antwerp for that design, and that these had been bought out of the -deduction of their “monthly pay.” At the defence of Louvain against the -French, the Irish legion, 1,000 strong, commanded by Colonel Preston, of -a distinguished Anglo-Irish family, received honorable mention, and -again at the capture of Breda. These are only a few of the stirring -events abroad which raised the martial reputation of the Irish people in -the eyes of all Europe, and the fame of those exploits, reaching Ireland -by means of adventurous recruiting officers or courageous priests, who -defied the penal laws and all their terrors, found a responsive echo in -many a humble home, where the hope of one day throwing off the foreign -yoke was fondly cherished. The exiled priesthood, many of whose members -became prelates of high rank abroad, aided the sentiment of the military -at the Catholic courts, and thus was prepared the way for the breaking -out of the great insurrection of 1641, which, but for the foolish -over-confidence of an Irish chief and the dastardly treason of an -obscure drunkard, might have been gloriously successful. - -The moving spirit in the new project was Roger, or Rory O’More, of the -ancient family of Leix, who had been educated in Spain and was, -virtually, brought up at the Spanish court, in company with the sons of -Hugh O’Neill, of Tyrone. O’More would seem to have been a born -organizer, and a man of consummate tact and discretion. It is a pity -that but little is known of his early career, and, indeed, the precise -time of his return to Ireland remains an unsettled question, but it is -certain that he returned quietly there, and took up his residence, -without parade, on his estate of Ballynagh in Leinster. He never -appeared in Dublin, or any other populous centre, unless on some public -occasion, that would be sure to attract the attendance of the principal -men of the country. Thus, during the Parliamentary session of 1640, we -are told by McGee and other Irish annalists, he took lodgings in Dublin, -and succeeded in drawing into his plan for a general insurrection, -Connor McGuire, MacMahon, Philip O’Reilly, Turlough O’Neill, and other -prominent gentlemen of Ulster. He made a habit, also, of visiting the -different towns in which courts of assize were being held, and there -becoming acquainted with influential men, to whom, after due sounding, -he outlined his plans for the final overthrow of the English government -in Ireland, and the restoration to the Irish people of the lands and -rights of which they had been robbed. On one of these tours, we are -told, he made the acquaintance of Sir Phelim O’Neill, of Kinnaird, in -Tyrone—head of the branch of that great family still tolerated by the -ascendency Sir Connor MCGennis of Down, Colonel Hugh MacMahon of -Monaghan, and the Right Rev. Heber MacMahon, Administrator of Clogher, -by connivance or toleration, for, during the penal laws, there was no -“legal” recognition of a Catholic prelacy, although, under Charles I, -especially about this period, there was no very rigid enforcement of the -Act of Uniformity, probably because the king and government had enough -trouble on their hands in vainly trying to force Protestant episcopacy -on the Scotch covenanters. - -O’More did not confine his operations exclusively to Ulster. He also -made a tour of Connaught, with his usual success; for he was a man of -fine person, handsome countenance, and courtly manners. Tradition still -preserves his memory green among the Irish people of all classes. He was -equally courteous to the lord and to the peasant. In the castles and -mansions of the aristocracy he was ever the favored guest, and he -charmed all his entertainers with the brilliancy of his conversational -powers and the versatility of his knowledge. Among the poor, he was -looked upon as “some glorious guardian angel,” who had come as a -messenger from the God of Freedom to rid them of their galling chains. -It is a singular fact that, although he must have taken thousands, high -and low, into his confidence, not a man seems to have betrayed him to -the Castle Government, which remained in profound ignorance of his plot -until the very eve of insurrection. Robert Emmet, in after times, -practiced the methods of O’More, but with far less wisdom, although -influenced by the same lofty principles of patriotism. - -The records of the times in which he lived do not show that O’More went -extensively into Munster, but he did excellent missionary work among the -Anglo-Catholic nobles of his own native province of Leinster. He found -them, as a majority, very lukewarm toward his project, influenced, no -doubt, by fears of the consequences to themselves should the -contemplated revolution prove abortive. Although not a trained soldier, -O’More had keen military foresight. The army raised by Strafford in -Ireland was mainly made up of Catholics—for he does not seem to have -discriminated very much in the matter of creed—and these troops were, in -consequence, regarded with distrust, and even intense hatred, by the -people of England, to whom the very name of Catholic was, in those days, -odious. The vacillating king, influenced by the prejudices of his -English subjects, resolved to get rid of his Irish army, and gave such -of the regiments as might so elect permission to enter the service of -Spain. Some did volunteer, but O’More prevailed on many of the officers -to keep their battalions together, and thus secured the nucleus of a -well-trained military force at the very outset of hostilities. Among the -influential Irish officers who acted on O’More’s suggestion were Colonel -Plunket, Colonel Sir James Dillon, Colonel Byrne, and Captain Fox. -These, with O’More, constituted the first Directory of the Irish -Confederates of Leinster. Meanwhile active communication was kept up -with their friends on the Continent, and emissaries were coming and -going all the time between the two organizations. The head of the -movement abroad appears to have been John O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who, -however, died suddenly—some writers aver by the hand of a poisoner—early -in 1641; and the military exiles immediately transferred their -allegiance to his cousin, Colonel Owen Roe O’Neill, with whom we have -already made acquaintance. It was agreed among the allies that the -uprising for Irish liberty should occur about the 1st of November, and -October 23, 1641, was finally decided upon as the fateful day. The date -was made known to only the most trusted chiefs of the projected -insurrection. - -Everything appeared to prosper with the plans of the patriots until the -actual eve of the rising. On that night (October 22), as fate would have -it, there dined with Colonel Hugh MacMahon—to whom was intrusted the -command of 200 picked men who were to surprise the Castle—several Irish -officers concerned in the conspiracy. Among the guests was one Owen -O’Connolly, an unworthy creature for whom MacMahon would appear to have -entertained an unaccountable friendship. According to tradition, -O’Connolly remained with Colonel MacMahon after the other guests had -gone to their several abodes, and, in a moment of inexcusable weakness, -the unhappy host, who must have been rendered reckless by wine, confided -to his traitor-guest the secret so momentous to Ireland. O’Connolly was -more than half intoxicated, but, unknown to MacMahon, he was in the -service of a strong government supporter, named Sir John Clotworthy, and -the danger which menaced his patron made the fellow sober enough to -outwit his foolish informant. In order to divert suspicion, he -pretended, after a time, that he wished to retire, and left his sword in -MacMahon’s room. He managed to reach the rear door of the lodgings, and -made his way over all kinds of obstacles, in the dark, to the castle, -where, after much trouble, he succeeded in getting audience of Sir -William Parsons, to whom he related what Colonel MacMahon had revealed -to him. Parsons, observing that O’Connolly was still under the influence -of strong drink, at first refused to believe him; and was on the point -of turning him out of doors, when something in the rascal’s earnestness -made him pause and consider. As a result of his musing, he sent for his -colleague, Sir John Borlaise, Master of the Ordnance; the latter -immediately advised the summoning of the council. Several members of -that body soon appeared, and the deposition of the informer was formally -taken. A squad of soldiers surrounded MacMahon’s lodgings and captured -him. Lord McGuire was also taken, but Colonels Plunket and O’Byrne, Rory -O’Moore, and Captain Fox, who were also in the city, succeeded in making -good their escape. MacMahon, on being arraigned before the Privy Council -in the Castle, at daylight on the memorable 23d, defiantly acknowledged -his share in the plot, and declared that it was then too late for the -power of man to prevent the revolution. He showed great courage, as did -also his colleague, Lord McGuire, but MacMahon’s bravery could have been -much better spared than his discretion, the want of which sent himself -and his companion in misfortune to the scaffold, and, undoubtedly, lost -to Ireland the best chance she had ever had of severing the connection -with Great Britain. This unhappy result teaches a harsh, but useful, -political lesson: Never to confide a secret that concerns a great cause -to a dubious “hanger-on,” and to avoid the cup that inebriates when one -is the possessor of such a secret, or whether one is or not. -O’Connolly’s treachery was rewarded by a grant of lands from “the -crown,” and he was afterward a colonel in Cromwell’s army. His ultimate -fate is involved in obscurity. But his name is embalmed in the annals of -enduring infamy. - -The Lords Justices of England, in Dublin, once made aware of the -situation, lost no time in putting the Castle and city at large in a -posture of defence. The guards were doubled and reinforcements were -summoned, by special messengers, from neighboring garrisons. Two tried -soldiers were invested with the military power—Sir John Willoughby, who -had been Governor of Galway, assumed command of the Castle; and Sir -Charles Coote—one of the blackest names in Irish annals—was made -military governor of the city. The Earl of Ormond—afterward Duke—was -summoned from Carrick-on-Suir to assume chief command of the royal army. -Thus, the Irish capital was again preserved, through folly and treason, -to the English interest. - -MacMahon made no vain boast before the Privy Council, when he declared -that the rising was beyond the power of man to prevent. Ulster did its -full duty, and, on the morning of October 23, the forts of Mountjoy and -Charlemont and the town and castle of Dungannon were in the hands of Sir -Phelim O’Neill or his chief officers. Sir Connor MacGennis captured -Newry; the MacMahons took Carrickmacross and Castleblaney, the -O’Hanlon’s, Tandragee, while O’Reilly and McGuire—a relative of the lord -of that name—“raised” Cavan and Femanagh. (McGee.) Rory O’More -supplemented a brief address of the northern chiefs, wherein they -declared they bore no hostility to the king, or to his English or Scotch -subjects, “but only for the defence and liberty of themselves and the -native Irish of the kingdom,” with one more elaborate, in which he ably -showed that a common danger threatened the Protestants of the Episcopal -Church with Roman Catholics. In all the manifestos of the time, there -was entirely too much profession of “loyalty” to a king who was -constitutionally incapacitated for keeping faith with any body of men -whatsoever. Never was the adage that “Politics makes strange bedfellows” -more forcibly illustrated than during this period of Irish history. The -manliest of all the declarations issued was that of Sir Connor -MacGennis, from “Newry’s captured towers.” “We are in arms,” wrote he, -“for our lives and liberties. We desire no blood to be shed, but if you -(the English and their allies) mean to shed our blood, be sure we shall -be as ready as you for that purpose.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - Horrors of Civil War in Ulster—Battle of Kilrush—Rory O’More Disappears - from History - - -AT first the civil war in Ulster—for in the main it was the Old Irish -against the Anglo-Irish settlers of the Elizabethan régime, or their -immediate descendants—was carried on without ferocity, but the Scottish -garrison of Carrickfergus, in the winter of 1641, raided Island Magee, -in the neighborhood, and put to the sword or drove over the cliffs, to -perish in the breakers beneath them, or be dashed to pieces on the -rocks, 3,000 of the Celtic-Catholic inhabitants, without regard to age -or sex. Protestant historians claim that acts of cruelty had been -committed on the Anglo-Irish settlers by the Celtic Irish before this -terrible massacre was accomplished. There may have been some isolated -cases of murder and rapine—for bad and cruel men are to be found in all -armies—but nothing that called for the wholesale slaughter at Island -Magee by fanatical Scottish Covenanters, who made up a majority of the -Carrickfergus garrison. Christians, not to mention Mohammedans and -savage heathens, have shed oceans of blood in fierce persecution of each -other, as if they were serving a furious devil, rather than a merciful -God. They forget, in their unreasoning hatred, that the gentle Messiah, -whose teachings they profess to follow, never made the sword the ally of -the Cross. The man made mad by religious bigotry is a wild beast, no -matter what creed he may profess. Let us, as Americans, be thankful that -we live under a government which recognizes the equal rights of all the -creeds, and permits every citizen to worship God in peace, after his own -fashion. May the day never come when it shall be different in this -Republic! - -The frightful event we have chronicled naturally aroused the worst -passions of the angered Catholic population of Ulster, and some cruel -reprisals resulted. We are sorry to be obliged to state that credible -history ascribes most of the violence committed on the Irish side to Sir -Phelim O’Neill; but no charge of the kind is made against O’More, -MacGennis, McGuire, Plunket, O’Byrne, or any of the other noted chiefs -of the period. It is impossible to arrive at any accurate statement of -the number of those who perished on both sides, outside of the numerous -battlefields of the long struggle; but it is certain they have been -grossly exaggerated, particularly by English writers, who took for -granted every wild statement made at the period. But, even granting that -all the charges made were true, which, of course, we do not admit, the -fact would not stamp the charge of cruelty on the Irish nation. It was -an age of cruelty—the age of the Thirty Years’ War in Germany, which -gave to the world the horrors of the sack of Magdeburgh; the age of the -wars of the Fronde in France, and almost that of the Spanish atrocities -in the Netherlands. And Cromwell was soon to appear upon the scene in -Ireland, to leave behind him a name more terrible than that of Tilly in -Germany or of Alva in the Low Countries. In fact, in the seventeenth -century, Europe, from east to west, was just emerging from Middle-Age -barbarism, and Ireland, most likely, was neither better nor worse than -most of her sister states. We love and respect the Irish race, but we do -not believe in painting it whiter than it is. The nation, plundered and -outraged, was goaded to madness, and whatever crimes were committed -under such circumstances may well be attributed to the workings of -temporary insanity. It is, however, regrettable that around the history -of the Irish insurrection of 1641 there should linger blood-red clouds, -which even the lapse of two and a half centuries has not been able to -dissipate. - -On the Anglo-Irish side of the conflict, the name of Sir Charles Coote -stands out in bloody pre-eminence. Like Sir Phelim, he had the grand -virtue of physical courage—he feared nothing in mortal shape—but in all -else he was a demon-brute, and his memory is still execrated throughout -the length and breadth of the land he scourged with scorpions. His -soldiers are accused of having impaled Irish infants on their -pikes—their mothers having been dishonored and butchered—without rebuke -from their inhuman commander. On the contrary, McGee, a very painstaking -and impartial historian, quotes Sir Charles Coote as saying that “he -liked such frolics.” (McGee’s “History of Ireland,” Volume I, p. 502.) -It is not unpleasant to note that, after a career of the most aggressive -cruelty, he was finally killed by a musket-shot during a petty skirmish -in the County Meath, and it is popular belief that the shot was fired by -one of his own band of uniformed assassins. - -The war proceeded in a rather desultory manner, chiefly because of lack -of skill in the Irish generals—only a few of whom had seen service—and -the promised Irish military leaders had not yet sailed from the -Continent. Sir Phelim O’Neill made an unsuccessful attack on Drogheda, -and was also repulsed at other fortified places, owing to the lack of a -suitable battering train. English reinforcements kept pouring into -Dublin by the shipload, until a fine army of not less than 25,000 men, -with a numerous and well-served artillery, was in the field. The Irish -army amounted, nominally, to 30,000 men, but only a third of it was -armed and properly trained. - -The excesses of the English army in the peaceful Anglo-Catholic -districts of Leinster aroused the resentment of the hitherto apathetic -nobility and “gentry” of that fine province. They appointed Sir John -Read to bear a protest to the king, but, while en route, he was -arrested, confined in Dublin Castle and put to the rack by the -Parliamentary Government. Even this outrage did not drive the -aristocrats of Leinster into immediate warfare. Other outrages followed -in quick succession. Finally, Lord Gormanstown called a meeting of the -Catholic peers and gentlemen to assemble at the hill of Crofty, in the -County Meath. They met there accordingly, headed by the caller of the -gathering. Other distinguished Palesmen present were the Earl of Fingal, -Lords Dunsany, Louth, Slane, Trimleston, and Netterville; Sir -Christopher Bellew, Sir Patrick Barnewall, Nicholas Darcy, Gerald -Aylmer, and many others. While these personages were still deliberating, -they observed a group of horsemen, bearing arms, approaching at a rapid -pace. They were attended by a guard of musketeers, and proved to be the -insurgent chiefs of Roger O’More, Philip O’Reilly, Costello MacMahon, -Captains Byrne and Fox, and other leaders of the people. The party on -the hill immediately galloped on horseback to meet them, and Lord -Gormanstown, in loud and stern tones, asked: “Who are you, and why come -you armed into the Pale?” To this question O’More replied: “We represent -the persecuted people of the Catholic faith, and we come here for the -assertion of the liberty of conscience, the maintenance of the royal -prerogative, which we understand to be abridged, and the making of the -subjects in this Kingdom of Ireland as free as those of England.” -“Then,” replied Gormanstown, “seeing that these be your true end and -object, we will likewise join with you!” The leaders on both sides then -joined hands, amid the applause of their followers. A more formal -meeting was arranged for at the hill of Tara, and at that gathering, -held the next month, the alliance was formally concluded. - -The faulty training of the Irish army was painfully illustrated soon -afterward, when the forces of the newly made allies encountered those of -Lord Ormond at a place called Kilrush, near the town of Athy, in -Kildare, April 13, 1642. The numbers were about equal—perhaps 7,000 men -each. The Irish were commanded by a brave but inexperienced officer, -Lord Mountgarret, and with him were Lords Dunboyne and Ikerrin, Rory -O’More, Colonel Hugh O’Byrne, and Sir Morgan Kavanagh. Mountgarret -failed to occupy in time a difficult pass through which Ormond must -march on his way to Dublin, and this failure compelled him to rearrange -his plan of battle. Confusion—as is always the case when this experiment -is tried with raw soldiers—resulted. The Irish fought bravely for a -time, but were soon outmanœuvred and outflanked. The Anglo-Irish cavalry -took them in reverse. Colonel Kavanagh, fighting desperately at the head -of his regiment, met a hero’s death. His fall discouraged his troops, -who broke and fled to a neighboring bog, whither the hostile cavalry -could not safely pursue them. The other Irish troops, surrounded on all -sides, made a rush for the morass also, broke through the enemy’s ranks -and joined their vanquished comrades. On the Irish side, 700 officers -and men fell in this untoward affair. The loss of the Anglo-Irish was -much smaller, and Ormond was enabled to proceed in a species of triumph -to Dublin, where the news of his victory preceded his arrival. - -It is passing strange that, after the battle of Kilrush, the great -organizer of the insurrection, Roger O’More, is heard of never more in -his country’s troubled annals. All accounts agree that, during the -combat, he acted his part like a true soldier, but he failed to reappear -in the Irish ranks during subsequent conflicts. His was certainly a -mysterious and unaccountable disappearance. - -The late Rev. C. P. Meehan, author of “The Confederation of Kilkenny,” -who gave more attention to that period of his country’s story than any -other writer, says, on page 26 of his interesting work: “After the -battle of Kilrush, one bright name disappears [he mentions O’More in a -foot-note]; the last time the inspiriting war-shout of his followers -fell on his ear was on that hillside. What reasons there may have been -for the retirement of the gallant chief, whose name was linked with that -of God and Our Lady, are not apparent; but it is said, upon authority, -that he proceeded to Ferns, and devoted the rest of his days to peaceful -pursuits in the bosom of his family.” The historian Coote says that he -died at Kilkenny. This was, surely, a “lame and impotent conclusion” to -such a career. The defeat of his countrymen may have destroyed his -hopes, or he may have had reason to doubt the loyalty of his allies of -the Pale. We are inclined to believe an old Leinster tradition, which -says that he died of a broken heart immediately after the lost battle, -on which he had built such high hopes. Such a spirit as his could not -have remained inactive during the nine long years of the struggle, -inaugurated by himself, which followed the disaster at Kilrush. - -We can not dismiss this extraordinary man from our pages without quoting -the following introduction to a ballad dealing with his career in Edward -Hayes’s remarkable collection of poetry, called “The Ballads of -Ireland,” vol. I, page 173: - -“Roger, or Rory, O’More, is one of the most honored and stainless names -in Irish annals. Writers who concur in nothing else agree in -representing him as a man of the loftiest motives and the most -passionate patriotism. In 1640, when Ireland was weakened by defeat and -confiscation, and guarded with a jealous care, constantly increasing in -strictness and severity, O’More, then a private gentleman with no -resources beyond his intellect and courage, conceived the vast design of -rescuing her from England, and accomplished it. In three years England -did not retain a city in the island but Dublin and Drogheda. For eight -years her power was merely nominal, the land was possessed and the -supreme authority exercised by the Confederation created by O’More. -History contains no stricter instance of the influence of an individual -mind. Before the insurrection broke out the people had learned to know -and expect their Deliverer, and it became a popular proverb, and the -burden of national songs, that the hope of Ireland was in ‘God, the -Virgin, and Rory O’More.’ It is remarkable that O’More, in whose courage -and resources the great insurrection had its birth, was a descendant of -the chieftains of Leix, massacred by English troops at Mullaghmast a -century before. But if he took a great revenge, it was a magnanimous -one. None of the excesses which stained the first rising in Ulster is -charged upon him. On the contrary, when he joined the northern army, the -excesses ceased, and strict discipline was established, as far as it was -possible, among men unaccustomed to control, and wild with wrongs and -sufferings.” Says De Vere, in his sadly beautiful dirge, which assumes -that the great leader died in 1642, as the people of Leinster have been -taught to believe— - - “’Twas no dream, Mother Land! ’Twas no dream, Innisfail! - Hope dreams but grief dreams not—the grief of the Gael! - From Leix and Ikerrin to Donegal’s shore, - Rolls the dirge of thy last and thy bravest O’More!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - Proceedings of the Confederation of Kilkenny—Arrival of Owen Roe O’Neill - and Rinuccini - - -OUT of the chaos of a popular uprising, and a number of minor councils, -which could decide only for localities, there sprang into existence the -National Synod, composed of clerics and laymen of the Catholic -persuasion, because, at this period, few, if any of the Irish -Protestants were in sympathy with the insurrection, or revolution, which -is a more fitting term. The “oath of association” was formulated by the -venerable Bishop Rothe, and, somewhat unnecessarily, seeing that the -King of England was using all the forces at his disposal to crush “the -rebellion,” pledged true faith and allegiance to Charles I and his -lawful successors. The fundamental laws of Ireland and the “free -exercise of the Roman Catholic faith and religion” were to be -maintained. Then came the second, and most important, part of the solemn -and, as some thought, stringent obligation, which bound all Confederate -Catholics never to accept or submit to any peace without the consent and -approbation of their own general assembly. - -A constitution was framed which declared the war just and -constitutional, condemned racial distinctions such as “New” and “Old” -Irish, ordained an elective council for each of the four provinces, and -a national council for the whole kingdom, condemned, as excommunicate, -all who might violate the oath of association, or who should be guilty -of murder, assault, cruelty, or plunder under cover of the war. - -The bishops and priests, very wisely, decided that a layman should be -elected president of the National Council, and Lord Mountgarret was so -chosen, with Richard Belling, lawyer and litterateur, as secretary. Both -were men of moderate opinion and free from any taint of prejudice. - -It was decided that the Supreme, or National, Council should hold its -first session in the city of Kilkenny on October 23, 1642, the -anniversary of the rising; and “the choice of such a date,” says McGee, -“by men of Mountgarret’s and Belling’s moderation and judgment, six -months after the date of the alleged ‘massacre,’ would form another -proof, if any were now needed, that none of the alleged atrocities (of -1641) were yet associated with that particular day.” - -Between the adjournment of the National Synod, in May, and the meeting -of the Council in October, many stirring events occurred. The -confederate general in Munster, the aged Barry, made an unsuccessful -attempt to capture Cork, but had better success at Limerick, which -surrendered to the Irish army on June 21. Soon afterward the Anglo-Irish -leader, General St. Ledger, died at Cork, and the command devolved upon -Murrough O’Brien, Baron of Inchiquin, who had been brought up from an -early age as one of Parsons’ chancery wards, and had, therefore, become -a Protestant. Furthermore, he had grown to be an anti-Irish Irishman of -the blackest and bloodiest type. In Irish history, he is known as “Black -Murrough the Burner,” because the torch, under his brutal sway, kept -steady company with the sword, and both were rarely idle. He served the -king as long as the royal policy suited his views, but, when it did not, -his services were at the disposal of the opposition. Murrough had served -his military apprenticeship under Sir Charles Coote and was a past -master in all the cruelties practiced by his infamous instructor. The -curse of the renegade was strong upon him, for he hated his own kin more -bitterly than if he were an alien and a Briton. Of the ancient royal -houses of Ireland, those of MacMurrough and O’Brien present the -strongest contrasts of good and evil. - -The Irish forces succeeded in taking the castles of Loughgar and -Askeaton, but Inchiquin inflicted a severe defeat upon them at -Liscarroll, where the loss was nearly a thousand men on the side of -Ireland, whereas the victor boasted that there fell only a score on his -side. There were also some skirmishes in Connaught, where the peculiar -inactivity of Lord Clanricarde produced discontent, and led to a popular -outbreak in the town of Galway which General Willoughby speedily -suppressed, with every circumstance of savage brutality. Affairs in -Leinster continued rather tranquil. Ormond was raised by the king to the -dignity of marquis, but does not seem to have been trusted by the -Puritan Lords Justices, Parsons and Borlaise. The fall of the year was -signalized, however, by the landing in Ireland of three able generals, -all of whom fought on the national side—Right Hon. James Touchet, Earl -of Castlehaven, who had been imprisoned as a suspect in Dublin Castle, -but managed to effect his escape; Colonel Thomas Preston, the heroic -defender of Louvain, who debarked at Wexford, bringing with him 500 -officers of experience, several siege guns, a few light field-pieces, -and a limited quantity of small arms; and last, but most welcome to -Ireland, arrived from Spain Colonel Owen Roe O’Neill, who made a landing -on the Donegal coast with 100 officers, a company of Irish veterans, and -a quantity of muskets and ammunition. He immediately proceeded to the -fort of Charlemont, held by his fierce kinsman, Sir Phelim O’Neill, who, -with commendable patriotic self-sacrifice, resigned to him, unsolicited, -the command of the Irish army of the North, and became, instead of -generalissimo, “President of Ulster.” - -Simultaneously with the arrival of Owen Roe, General Lord Leven came -into Ireland from Scotland with 10,000 Puritan soldiers. He had met -O’Neill in the foreign wars and expressed publicly his surprise that he -should be “engaged in so bad a cause”—to which Owen replied that he had -a much better right to come to the rescue of Ireland, his native -country, than Lord Leven had to march into England against his -acknowledged monarch. Leven did not remain long in Ireland, and the -command of his troops fell to General Monroe—a brave but slow man, on -whom the advice of his predecessor to act with vigor was thrown away. -Monroe’s dilatory tactics enabled O’Neill, who had wonderful talent for -military organization, to recruit, drill, and equip a formidable force, -mainly made up of the men of Tyrone and Donegal—as fine a body of troops -as Ireland had ever summoned to her defence. The valorous clansmen were -speedily molded into a military machine by their redoubted chief, who -set the example of activity to all of his command. - -When the Supreme Council of the Irish Confederation met in Kilkenny, -according to agreement, one of its most important acts was the -appointing of generals to command in the several provinces. It named -Owen O’Neill commander-in-chief in Ulster, General Sir Thomas Preston in -Leinster, General Barry in Munster, and General Sir John Burke in -Connaught. Fighting was resumed with vigor. Preston met with alternate -successes and reverses in his province, but, on the whole, came out -victorious. Barry and his lieutenants did brilliant work in Munster, and -routed both Vavassour and Inchiquin. O’Neill played a Fabian game in -Ulster, training his army in partial engagements with the enemy and -husbanding his resources for some great occasion, which, he saw, would -surely come. But the brightest laurels of the campaign were gathered by -General Sir John Burke, who, after other brilliant exploits, compelled -General Willoughby to surrender the city of Galway to the Irish forces -on June 20, 1643; and the national flag waved from the tower of its -citadel until the last shot of the war was fired nine years thereafter. -Clanricarde, who could have had the command in chief, paltered with -time, and thus lost the opportunity of linking his name with a glorious -exploit. - -All the Irish armies, and particularly that under O’Neill, occupied -excellent strategic positions, and the hopes of the military chiefs and -the nation rose high when, suddenly, there came a blight upon those -hopes in the shape of a cessation of hostilities—in other words, a -prolonged armistice—agreed to between the Anglo-Catholic majority in the -National Council on the one side, and the Marquis of Ormond, -representing the King of England, on the other. The Anglo-Catholics were -again duped by pretences of liberality toward their religion, as their -fathers had been in the days of Elizabeth; and this ill-considered truce -wrested from Ireland all the advantages won in the war—which had already -lasted two years—by the ability of her generals and the courage of her -troops. Vain was the protest of O’Neill, of Preston, of Burke, of Barry, -of the Papal Nuncio, of the majority of the Irish nation. Charles was in -straits in England, fighting the Parliamentary forces arrayed against -his acts of despotism, and Ormond promised everything in order to end -the war in Ireland, temporarily at least, and so be enabled to send -needed succor to a sovereign whom he loved and served much better than -he did God and country. With incredible fatuity, the Anglo-Catholic -majority in the National Council listened to the voice of Ormond, and -voted men and money to support the cause of the bad king who had let -Strafford loose upon Ireland! We are glad to be able to say that the -“Old Irish” element, represented by the brave and able O’Neill, was in -nowise responsible for this act of weakness and folly. O’Neill saw into -futurity, and frightful must have been that vision to the patriot-hero, -for it included the horrors of Drogheda and Wexford, where the thirsty -sword of Cromwell bitterly avenged on Ireland the foolish and fatal -“truce of Castlemartin”; another lesson to nations, if indeed another -were needed, to avoid mixing up in the quarrels of their neighbors. -Ireland invited ruin on that dark day when she voted to draw the sword -for the ungrateful Charles Stuart against the Parliament of England. The -temporary concession of Catholic privileges—designed to be withdrawn -when victory perched on the royal banner—was poor compensation for the -loss of advantages gained at the price of the blood of brave men, and -the sowing of a wind of vengeance which produced the Cromwellian -whirlwind. If King Charles had ever done a fair or manly act by -Ireland—even by the Anglo-Catholics of Ireland—the folly of that country -might be, in a measure, excusable, but his whole policy had been, on the -contrary, cold-blooded, double-faced, and thoroughly ungrateful. In this -instance, the Anglo-Irish Catholics brought all their subsequent -misfortunes on themselves. As if to emphasize its imbecility, the -National Council placed Lord Castlehaven, an English Catholic, in -supreme command over O’Neill in Ulster. Owen Roe was, of course, -disgusted, but was also too good a soldier and too zealous a patriot to -resign his command and go back to Spain, as a man of less noble nature -might have done. Meanwhile, Monroe and his army of 10,000 Lowland Scotch -and Ulster “Undertakers” kept gathering like a thundercloud in the -north. In Scotland a body of 3,000 Antrim Irish, under Alister -MacDonald, called Cal-Kitto, or “the Left-handed,” were covering -themselves with glory, fighting under the great Marquis of Montrose in -the unworthy royal cause. And we read that the Irish Confederate -treasury, about this time, is somewhat replenished by funds sent from -Spain and Rome. Even the great Cardinal Richelieu, of France, to show -his sympathy with Ireland, invited Con, the last surviving son of the -great O’Neill, to the French court, and permitted the shipment of much -needed cannon to Ireland. But all of those good foreign friends of the -Irish cause were sickened and discouraged by the miserable policy of -armistice, so blindly consented to by the lukewarm “Marchmen of the -Pale” who had assembled in Kilkenny. - -Many Irish Protestants, particularly the High Church element, were -ardent royalists and refused to take the oath of the Covenanters -prescribed in Ulster by General Monroe. They were driven with violence -from their homes, and many fled for succor to their Catholic brethren, -who treated them with hospitable consideration. In Munster, the -ferocious Inchiquin, and still more savage Lord Broghill, son of Boyle, -first Earl of Cork, foiled in their ambitious schemes by some royal -refusal, broke out most violently, pretending the armistice was -violated, and seized upon three leading Southern towns—Cork, Kinsale, -and Youghal, where their excesses were too horrible for narration—murder -and arson being among the lightest of their crimes. Ormond, in his -peculiarly adroit way, succeeded in still further prolonging the truce, -and stated that he had power from the king to come to a permanent -agreement with the Confederates. The cause of Ireland about this time -lost a true and ardent friend and champion in the death of the good Pope -Urban VIII, who was succeeded by Innocent X—a Pontiff whose noble -generosity is still gratefully remembered by the Irish nation. It was to -one of their worthy predecessors, in the time of the Elizabethan wars, -O’Donnell’s bard referred, when addressing Ireland, in allegorical -fashion, he sang: - - “O! my dark Rosaleen! - Do not sigh, do not weep— - The priests are on the ocean green— - They march along the deep! - There’s wine from the Royal Pope, - Upon the ocean green, - And Spanish ale to give you hope, - My dark Rosaleen!” - -Nathless the truce, those two bad Irishmen, Inchiquin and Broghill, -continued to do base work in the South, where their cold-blooded -atrocities struck terror into the wretched people of Munster. They even -corrupted old Lord Esmond, commandant of Duncannon fort, which partly -commanded the important harbor of Waterford from the Wexford side. -Esmond was blind and almost senile, and, perhaps, too, was terrorized by -the brutal threats of Inchiquin. But Lord Castlehaven and the -Confederate Irish immediately laid siege to the place, and, after ten -weeks of beleaguerment, succeeded in retaking it. The traitorous -commandant perished in the assault, and thus escaped an ignominious -death, which his crime had richly merited. Several other Munster towns, -held by Inchiquin and his officers, were successively attacked and taken -by the Confederates. In Connaught, however, the latter met with serious -reverses. The town of Sligo was captured by Sir Charles Coote, Jr.—a -worse scourge than even his infamous father—and, in an attempt to -recover it, several gallant Irishmen perished. Archbishop O’Healy, of -Tuam, fell into the hands of Coote and was barbarously tortured to -death, Sunday, October 26, 1645. It must be remembered that these -hostilities were the work of the Parliamentary forces, which were -opposed by the “Old Irish” party. The royal troops had been sent to -England to assist Charles, or else lay supine in their garrisons, as did -also the Anglo-Irish, waiting for further developments. - -The king sent the Earl of Glamorgan, an English Catholic, who had -intermarried with the O’Brien family, to Ireland to negotiate a new -treaty with the Confederates. He succeeded in having a preliminary -document drawn up, signed by himself for Charles, and by Lord -Mountgarret and Muskerry on behalf of the Confederates. Ormond, with his -customary dilatoriness, haggled over the provisions regarding toleration -of the Catholic Church in the kingdom, and thus frittered away much -valuable time, which the Parliamentary forces made good use of. Ormond -caused the treaty to be greatly modified, and while the negotiators were -working on it at Kilkenny, there arrived in Ireland a new Papal Nuncio, -in the person of the famous John Baptist Rinuccini, Archbishop of Ferns, -and, afterward, Cardinal. He came to represent Pope Innocent X, who sent -also substantial aid. The Irish in exile and their friends sent, through -Father Luke Wadding, a further contribution of $36,000. The Nuncio -complained that he had been unreasonably detained in France—it was -greatly suspected by the intrigues of Cardinal Mazarin, who had -succeeded Richelieu, Ireland’s true friend. In spite of this trickery, -however, he managed to purchase, with Pope Innocent’s funds, a 26-gun -frigate, which he called the _San Pietro_, 2,000 muskets, 2,000 -cartridge boxes, 4,000 swords, 2,000 pike-heads, 800 horse pistols, -20,000 pounds of powder, and other much needed supplies. (McGee.) A -ludicrous cause of one of his delays in France was the obstinacy of the -wife of Charles I, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry of Navarre, who -insisted that she would not receive the Papal Nuncio unless he uncovered -in her presence. Rinuccini was proud and fiery, and, as representing the -Pope, declined to remove his biretta, which so angered the queen that, -after six weeks’ parleying on this point of etiquette, the pair -separated without coming to an interview. Such is the farcical folly of -“royal minds.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - Treason of Ormond to the Catholic Cause—Owen Roe O’Neill, Aided by the - Nuncio, Prepares to Fight - - -The Papal Nuncio, although only in the prime of life, was in feeble -health, and had to be borne on a litter by relays of able-bodied men, -from his landing-place, at Kenmare in Kerry, to the city of Limerick, -where he was received with all the ceremony due to his high rank, noble -character, and chivalrous mission. From Limerick he proceeded by the -same mode of conveyance to Kilkenny, the Confederate capital, where -honors almost regal in their splendor awaited him. Lord Mountgarret, -President of the National Council—a veteran soldier who had participated -in the wars of Hugh O’Neill against Elizabeth—met the Papal dignitary, -surrounded by a guard of honor, composed of the youthful chivalry of the -Confederation, in the picture gallery of the Castle of Kilkenny—the -palatial residence of the Duke of Ormond, the most politic nobleman of -the age. The so-called Glamorgan treaty proceeded smoothly enough until -certain demands of the exiled English Catholics, made through the -Nuncio, were included in its provisions. Armed with the amended -parchment, Glamorgan and the representatives of the Confederates -returned to Dublin and laid the matter before Ormond. The latter acted -in so strange a manner as to take the Confederate delegates completely -by surprise. He had Glamorgan arrested while at dinner, on charge of -having exceeded his instructions, and threw him into prison. The -Confederate envoys were sent back to Kilkenny, charged to inform the -President and Council that the clauses concerning the English Catholics -were inadmissible and never could be entertained by the English people -who supported the cause of Charles. Lord Mountgarret and his associates -broke off all negotiations with Ormond pending the release of Glamorgan, -which they firmly demanded. Ormond required bail to the amount of -£40,000, and the bond was furnished by the Earls of Kildare and -Clanricarde. When Glamorgan was enlarged, he proceeded to Kilkenny, -where, to the amazement of the Confederates and the Nuncio he defended, -rather than censured, Ormond’s course toward himself. On which McGee -grimly remarks: “To most observers it appeared that these noblemen -understood each other only too well.” - -Frequent bickerings occurred at Kilkenny between Mountgarret’s -followers, or the Anglo-Irish, and the Nuncio’s followers, the “Old -Irish,” who were in the minority. Rinuccini’s heart was with the latter, -for, by instinct as well as observation, he recognized that they were -the only real national party among the Irish factions. The rest he put -down, with good reason, as time-servers and provincialists—ever ready to -go back to their gilded cages the moment the English power filled their -cups with Catholic concessions. With a little more knowledge of Ireland -and her people, the Nuncio would have been a marvelous leader. As it -was, he did the very best he could for Ireland—according to his -lights—and he was one of the very few foreigners who, on coming in close -contact with the situation—remained true to the Irish cause through good -and evil report. He was, of course, a devoted Catholic, but in no sense -a bigot. Irishmen should always hold his name in high honor. Any -mistakes the Nuncio committed were due to lack of familiarity with -surrounding conditions, very excusable in an alien. - -But the Glamorgan treaty would appear to have been taken up at Rome, -where Sir Kenelm Digby and the pontifical ministers concluded a truce -favorable to the interests of both Irish and English Catholics. The king -needed the 10,000 Irish troops which he knew the Confederates could -place at his disposal. In March, 1646, a modified Glamorgan treaty was -finally signed by Ormond for King Charles, and by Lord Muskerry and -other Confederate leaders for their party. “These thirty articles,” -comments McGee, “conceded, in fact, all the most essential claims of the -Irish; they secured them equal rights as to property, the army, the -universities, and the bar. They gave them seats in both Houses and on -the bench. They authorized a special commission of Oyer and Terminer, -composed wholly of Confederates. They declared that ‘the independency of -the Parliament of Ireland on that of England’ should be decided by -declaration of both Houses, agreeably to the laws of the Kingdom of -Ireland. In short, the final form of Glamorgan’s treaty gave the Irish -Catholics, in 1646, all that was subsequently obtained, either for the -Church or the country, in 1782, 1793, and 1829. Though some conditions -were omitted, to which the Nuncio and a majority of the prelates -attached importance, Glamorgan’s treaty was, upon the whole, a charter -upon which a free church and a free people might well have stood, as the -fundamental law of their religious and civil liberties.” - -These concessions proved to be a new “delusion, mockery, and snare.” -Ormond tricked the Confederates, and the poltroon king, just before his -fatal flight to the camp of the mercenary Scots’ army of General Lord -Leven, which promptly sold him to the English Parliament, for the amount -of its back pay, disclaimed the Glamorgan treaty in toto—a policy -entirely in keeping with his unmanly, vacillating nature. - -Owen Roe O’Neill, notwithstanding many and grievous vexations, chiefly -arising from the absurd jealousy of General Preston, had his army well -in hand on the borders of Leinster and Ulster, prepared to strike a blow -at the enemy wherever it might be most needed. He was in free -communication with the Nuncio, who, according to all the historians of -the period, supplied him with the necessary means for making an -aggressive movement. The Anglo-Scotch army of General Monroe presented -the fairest mark for O’Neill’s prowess, and against that force his -movements were, accordingly, directed. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - The Famous Irish Victory of Benburb—Cruel Murder of the Catholic Bishop - of Ross - - -THE forces of the belligerents were not large, according to our more -modern standards. In his comprehensive “History of Ireland,” the Rev. -Abbe McGeoghegan credits Owen Roe with only 5,000 infantry and 500 -horse, while he calls Monroe’s force 6,000 foot and 800 cavalry. The -objective of both generals was the ancient city of Armagh, and the -grand-nephew of the great Hugh O’Neill was destined to win one of -Ireland’s proudest victories in the immediate neighborhood of his -grand-uncle’s most famous battlefield—the Yellow Ford. Marching -northward from the borders of Leinster, Owen Roe crossed the historic -Blackwater and took position at a place called Benburb, in the present -county of Tyrone. Monroe advanced to attack him, and ordered his younger -brother, George Monroe, who commanded a strong detachment, to join -forces with the main body without delay. O’Neill, apprised by his scouts -of this movement, sent two regiments, under Colonels MacMahon and -MacNenay, to intercept young Monroe at a pass through which he would be -compelled to defile his troops in order to form a junction with his -brother. The two colonels obeyed their orders so strictly that George -Monroe’s force was so utterly broken and routed that it was unable to -render any service to the Puritan general during the remainder of the -campaign. The victors immediately rejoined O’Neill, who, in the interim, -had detached Colonel Ricard O’Ferrall to obstruct the elder Monroe’s -march from Kinnaird to Caledon, where he had crossed the Blackwater. The -Scotchman’s cannon proved too much for O’Ferrall, who could only reply -with musketry, but he retired in admirable order, although closely -pressed by Monroe’s stronger vanguard. The battle of Benburb began on -the morning of June 16th, new style, 1646. O’Neill’s post was near the -river, his flanks protected by two small hills, and his rear by a -wood—all held by chosen troops. Throughout most of the day, the Scots, -who had both sun and wind at their backs, seemed to have the advantage, -in so far as partial demonstrations could determine the question. -O’Neill, in expectation of a reinforcement from the direction of -Coleraine, “amused” the Scotch general until the sun had shifted -position and no longer shone full and dazzlingly in the faces of the -Irish soldiers. Almost at this propitious moment, the expected auxiliary -force reached the field, and took up position in O’Neill’s line of -battle. Rev. C. P. Meehan, historian of the “Confederation of Kilkenny,” -who quotes Monroe’s despatch, Rinuccini’s letters, and other -contemporaneous authorities, says: “It was the decisive moment. The -Irish general, throwing himself into the midst of his men, and, pointing -out to them that retreat must be fatal to the enemy, ordered them to -charge and pursue vigorously. A far resounding cheer rose from the Irish -ranks. ‘Myself,’ said he, ‘with the aid of Heaven, will lead the way. -Let those who fail to follow me remember that they abandon their -general.’ This address was received with one unanimous shout by the -army. The Irish colonels threw themselves from their horses, to cut -themselves off from every chance of retreat, and charged with incredible -impetuosity.” Some musketry was used, but the victory was decided in -Ireland’s favor by her ancient and favorite weapon, the deadly pike, -which may be called the parent of the bayonet. Monroe’s cavalry charged -boldly that bristling front of spears, but was overthrown in an instant -and all but annihilated. Vain, then, became the fire of the vaunted -cannon of the Scotch commander and the crashing volleys of his small -arms. Vainly he himself and his chosen officers, sword in hand, set an -example of courage to their men. With the shout of “Lamh Dearg Aboo!” -which, fifty years before, had sounded the death-knell of Bagnal, -Kildare, and De Burgh, on the banks of the same historic river, the -Irish clansmen rushed upon their foes. The struggle was brief and -bitter. Lord Blaney’s English regiment perished almost to the last man, -fighting heroically to the end. The Scottish cavalry was utterly broken -and fled pell-mell, leaving the infantry to their fate. Lord -Montgomery’s regiment alone retired in good order, although with -considerable loss, but Montgomery himself, fifty other officers, and -some two hundred soldiers, were made prisoners. Monroe fled, without hat -or wig, and tradition says he lost his sword in swimming his horse -across the Blackwater. Of the Anglo-Scotch army, there died upon the -field 3,243 officers and men, and many more perished during the vengeful -pursuit of the victors, who do not appear to have been in a forgiving -mood. O’Neill acknowledged a loss of seventy men killed and several -hundred wounded. The Scottish army lost all of its baggage, tents, -cannon, small arms, military chest, and, besides, thirty-two stand of -battle-flags. Fifteen hundred draught horses and enough food supplies to -last the Irish army for many months also fell into the hands of the -vanquishers. Monroe’s army was, virtually, destroyed, and he sullied a -previously honorable record by plundering and burning many villages and -isolated houses to gratify his spite against the people whose soldiers -had so grievously humiliated him. - -O’Neill’s fine military instinct impelled him to follow up his success -by giving Monroe no rest until he had driven him from Ulster, but, -unfortunately, there came at this crisis a request, which really meant -an order, from the Nuncio, to march the Ulster army into Leinster in -order that it might support those who were opposed in the Council at -Kilkenny to entering into further peace negotiations with the bigoted -Ormond and the now impotent king. O’Neill could hardly decline this -misdirected mission, but it proved to be, in the end, a fatal act of -obedience. From that hour the Irish cause began to decline. General -Preston, O’Neill’s fierce Anglo-Irish rival, and fanatically devoted to -the cause of Charles, engaged in battle with the Parliamentary general, -Michael Jones, at Dungan Hill in Meath, and was totally routed, with -immense loss. It is only proper to remark here, that the “Old” Irish did -the best fighting during this war, because their hearts were in the -struggle, while the Anglo-Irish, who mainly composed the armies under -Preston and Lord Taaffe—the latter of whom was ignominiously defeated at -Knockinoss, near Mallow in Cork—were only half-hearted in their efforts. -Taaffe’s defeat was aggravated by the cruel murder of the brave -“Left-handed” MacDonnell of Antrim, who, after having been made -prisoner, was barbarously put to death by order of the murderous -renegade, “Murrough the Burner,” who commanded the victors. This -bloody-minded wretch further signalized his cruelty by storming the city -of Cashel and sacking the grand cathedral, founded by one of his own -princely ancestors, in the twelfth century. Hundreds of non-combatants -of all ages and both sexes, who had taken refuge in the holy place, were -ruthlessly massacred, and twenty priests were dragged from under the -high altar and wantonly butchered. Lord Broghill emphasized his -brutality in Cork County by hanging before the walls of Macroom Castle -the saintly Bishop MacEagan of Ross, who refused to counsel the Irish -garrison to surrender. Dr. Madden, a gifted poet, summed up the noble -refusal and its tragical consequences in the following lines: - - “The orders are given, the prisoner is led - To the castle, and round him are menacing hordes: - Undaunted, approaching the walls, at the head - Of the troopers of Cromwell, he utters these words: - - “‘Beware of the cockatrice—trust not the wiles - Of the serpent, for perfidy skulks in its folds! - Beware of Lord Broghill the day that he smiles! - His mercy is murder!—his word never holds! - - “Remember, ’tis writ in our annals of blood, - Our countrymen never relied on the faith - Of truce, or of treaty, but treason ensued— - And the issue of every delusion was death!’ - - “He died on the scaffold in front of those walls, - Where the blackness of ruin is seen from afar, - And the gloom of their desolate aspect recalls - The blackest of Broghill’s achievements in war.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - Ormond’s Treacherous Surrender of Dublin—Ireland’s Choice of Two Evils - - -ORMOND would seem to have been the evil genius of the Irish nation at -this period of its history. He was suspected by the Confederates and -distrusted by the Parliamentarians. The former, convinced that he meant -to betray Dublin, which was poorly fortified, to the latter, ordered -O’Neill and Preston to unite their forces and take it from Ormond. -Preston, who was, to all appearance, more of a royalist Palesman than an -Irishman, threw obstacles in the way of the intended assault, and -proposed to parley with Ormond before assuming the aggressive. Owing to -this dilatoriness, and because of a false alarm, the combined Irish -forces retired from before the city without accomplishing anything. -There was mutual distrust between the unwilling allies, and, as usual, -Ireland was the sufferer. Preston’s jealousy of O’Neill amounted to a -frenzy, and, before an accommodation could be arrived at, Ormond -surrendered the city to the Parliamentary forces, under General Jones, -and fled to France, where, unaccountably, considering his suspicious -conduct, he was favorably received. After a year’s absence, he returned -to Ireland, and, finding the royal cause desperate, concluded a peace -between the king’s supporters, the Confederates, and the National party, -headed by Owen O’Neill. This treaty was, virtually, a revival of that -submitted by Glamorgan, and fully recognized, when all too late, the -justice of the Catholic claims to liberty of conscience. Had the -original instrument been adopted, Charles could have held Ireland -against the Parliament. But his days were now numbered, and he died on -the scaffold, in front of his own palace of Whitehall, on January 30, -1649. - -The Royalist party at once recognized his heir as Charles II. They were -reinforced by many Parliamentarian Protestants who were shocked and -horrified by the decapitation of the king; and so Old Irish and New -Irish, Confederates and Ormondists, made common cause against the -Parliament, which was defended in Dublin by the redoubtable General -Jones, and in Derry by the ferocious younger Coote. Even the sanguinary -Inchiquin again became a Royalist and captured several towns of strength -and importance from his recent allies. Ormond massed his army and, aided -by Major-General Purcell, made an attempt to storm Dublin. But Michael -Jones made a night sortie from the city and scattered Ormond and Purcell -and their followers to the winds of heaven. The Irish generals mutually -blamed each other and there was much bitter crimination and -recrimination, but all this could not remedy the disaster that -incapacity and over-confidence had brought about. Owen O’Neill kept his -army, which fronted Coote, near Derry, intact, but lost his best friend -when the impetuous Nuncio, who had spared neither denunciation nor -excommunication in dealing with the trimming Anglo-Catholic leaders, -disgusted with the whole wretched business, suddenly departed for the -port of Galway and sailed in his own ship for Rome. Had this good man -had to deal with leaders like Owen O’Neill, faithful, sensible, and -unselfish, Ireland would have been an independent nation ere he returned -to the Eternal City. His retirement placed O’Neill and the “Old Irish” -in great perplexity as regarded a military policy. Ormond, the -treacherous, was, nominally at least, commander-in-chief of the royal -army, and his trusted lieutenants, Preston and Inchiquin, were O’Neill’s -bitter foes. - -Under such disadvantages, we are not surprised to learn that O’Neill -adopted a policy of his own, at once bold and original. He temporized -with the Parliamentarians, and actually entered into a three months’ -truce with General George Monck, who had succeeded to the unlucky -Monroe’s command in the North. The distrust and hatred of Ormond, whose -military power waned immediately after his crushing defeat by General -Jones, already mentioned, were so great that both Galway and Limerick -refused to admit his garrisons. He and his wretched ally, Inchiquin, -became utterly discredited with the Old Irish party, and soon fled the -kingdom their infamies had cursed. Ormond returned to England after the -Restoration and was one of Charles II’s intimates. It can hardly be -wondered at, therefore, that, to use McGee’s language, “the singular -spectacle was exhibited of Monck forwarding supplies to O’Neill to be -used against Ormond and Inchiquin, and O’Neill coming to the rescue of -Coote and raising for him the siege of Derry.” It was unfortunate that -all of the Parliamentary generals were not possessed of the chivalric -qualities of Monck and that hard fortune again compelled Owen Roe to -draw the sword for the cause of the ingrate Stuarts. As for the -Anglo-Irish, whether of the Church of Rome or the Church of England, -they clung to the fortunes, or rather the misfortunes, of Charles II as -faithfully and vehemently as to those of his infatuated father. This was -all the more noteworthy, as the younger Charles had even less to -recommend him to public estimation than his sire. He lived to be a -disgrace to even the throne of England, which has been filled too often -by monarchs of degraded and dissolute character. The second Charles of -England was destitute of every virtue, except physical courage. He had, -in a high degree, that superficial good nature which distinguished his -race, but he was a libertine, an ingrate, and a despicable time-server. -But Ireland did not learn these truths about his character until long -after the period of his checkered career here dealt with. It must be -borne in mind, however, that in the middle of the seventeenth century -the divinity which is alleged to hedge a king was much more apparent to -the masses of the people than it is in our own generation, when the -microscopic eye of an educated public opinion is turned upon the throne -and detects the slightest flaw, in the “fierce light” which beats upon -it. The Old Irish party cared little for Charles, but when it came to a -choice between him and Cromwell, there was nothing left them but to -throw their swords into the scale for the youthful monarch, who was not -nearly as “merry” then as he became in after days, when he quite forgot -the friends of his adversity. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - “The Curse of Cromwell”—Massacres of Drogheda and Wexford—Death of Sir - Phelim O’Neill - - -THEIR adherence to the cause of the young Stuart brought upon the Irish -nation the blighting “curse of Cromwell,” so terribly remembered down to -the present hour in every nook of Ireland visited by his formidable and -remorseless legions. The English Parliament well knew that a general of -the first class was needed to crush the Irish army in field and fort, -and so Oliver Cromwell, commander of the famous “Ironsides,” or -Parliamentary cuirassiers, the greatest and most relentless soldier of -that age, was sent to Ireland, commissioned to work his will upon her. -He landed in Dublin with an army of 4,000 cavalry and 9,000 infantry, -augmented by the forces already in the island, on August 14, 1649. -Plentifully supplied with money and military stores, he at once made -ready for a vigorous campaign. His second in command was General Ireton, -a son-in-law and pupil, who is remembered in Ireland only a degree less -bitterly than the great regicide himself. The latter marched his -formidable army, after a very brief rest, from Dublin to Drogheda, which -was held for Charles II by a garrison of about 3,000 men, burdened with -many helpless non-combatants, under the orders of Sir Arthur Aston, a -brave and experienced officer, who had suffered the loss of a leg in the -Continental wars. He spurned Cromwell’s insolent summons to surrender, -and successfully repulsed two furious assaults, led by the English -general in person. A third attack, made September 10, 1649, was -successful. General Aston fell, and the Puritan soldiers quarreled over -his artificial leg, which was said to be made of gold. Examination -proved it to be of wood—a much less costly and tempting material. The -garrison, seeing their leader fall, laid down their arms, believing that -quarter would be extended. But Cromwell, by his own admission (see his -letters compiled by Thomas Carlyle), refused this accommodation, on the -flimsy pretext that Drogheda did not, at once, surrender on summons; and -the Puritan army was let loose upon the doomed city. For five dreadful -days and nights there ensued a carnival of rapine and slaughter. The -affrighted people fled to cellars, many sought refuge in churches, and -some climbed even to the belfries in the vain hope of escaping the -general massacre. But they were relentlessly pursued, sabred, -suffocated, or burned to death in the places in which they hoped to -obtain shelter. The few miserable survivors—less than one hundred—were -spared, only to be shipped as slaves to the Barbadoes. (See Cromwell’s -Letters, per Carlyle.) - -Cromwell, in his despatch to the speaker of the English Parliament, -called this brutal achievement “an exceeding great mercy,” and, -blasphemously, gave all the praise of the universal slaughter to the -most High God! There is absolutely no excuse for the regicide’s -outrageous conduct at Drogheda, although Froude, Carlyle, and other -British historians have vainly sought to make apology for his inhuman -actions. Many of the garrison were English and Protestant, so that race -and creed did not entirely influence him, as the same considerations -undoubtedly did at other places in Ireland. His cold-blooded idea was to -“strike terror” into Ireland at the outset of the campaign; and in this -he certainly succeeded only too well. It made his subsequent task of -subjugation much easier than it would, otherwise, have been. Having -accomplished his work in the fated city, and left it a smoking ruin, he -counter-marched to Dublin, rested there for some days, and then marched -toward Wexford, capturing several small towns, which offered but feeble -resistance, on his way. His lieutenants had, meanwhile, added Dundalk, -Carlingford, and Newry to his conquests in the North. Wexford prepared -for a brave defence, but was basely betrayed by Captain James Stafford, -an officer of English ancestry, who surrendered the outer defences, -without the knowledge of his chief, Colonel David Sennott. Quarter was -refused, as at Drogheda, and three hundred maids and matrons, many of -the latter with infants in their arms, who fled to the market square, -and took refuge, as they thought, under the sacred shadow of the -gigantic cross which stood there, were butchered, notwithstanding their -pleadings for mercy. Nearly all of these people were Catholic in creed, -if not all of Celtic race, so that Cromwell manifested what may be -called an impartial spirit of cruelty on both bloody occasions. His -hatred for the English Protestant royalists was as hot, to all -appearance, as that which he entertained toward the Irish Catholics, who -had embraced the Stuart cause. But his remorseless policy of general -confiscation of the lands of the vanquished, and the sending into -banishment, as veritable slaves, of the unhappy survivors, have left a -deeper scar on the heart of Ireland than all the blood he so cruelly, -and needlessly, shed on her soil. - -The tidings from Drogheda and Wexford soon spread throughout the -country, and the faint-hearted governors of many strong towns -surrendered without attempting to make an honorable defence. Kilkenny -proved an exception. There a brave stand was made, and garrison and -inhabitants received favorable terms of surrender. But Cromwell’s most -difficult task was in front of “rare Clonmel,” in Tipperary, which was -garrisoned by a few regiments of the aboriginal Ulster Irish—among the -bravest men that ever trod a battlefield or manned a breach—under the -command of Major-General Hugh Duff (Black) O’Neill, nephew and pupil of -the glorious Owen Roe. This brave and skilful officer repulsed, with -much carnage, several of Cromwell’s fiercest assaults, and the siege -would, undoubtedly, have been raised only for failure of ammunition in -the Irish army. O’Neill, having satisfied himself that this was the -unfortunate fact, evacuated the city on a dark midnight of May, 1649, -and retreated to Limerick. Cromwell, ignorant of this movement, demanded -the surrender of Clonmel next morning. Favorable terms were requested -and granted. There was no massacre, and Cromwell’s sardonic nature made -him rather enjoy the masterly trick played upon him by young O’Neill. -Some years afterward, when the latter, after a most noble defence of -Limerick, fell into the hands of Ireton and was condemned to death, we -are informed that Cromwell, then virtually Lord Protector, caused his -sentence to be commuted and allowed him to return to the Continent. Such -is the effect true courage produces on even the most brutal natures. - -Owen Roe O’Neill, who, of all the Irish generals, was alone fitted, both -by nature and experience, to combat the able Cromwell, died soon after -that tyrant’s arrival in Ireland, as some say by poison. He was on the -march to attack the English army, when he surrendered to death at Clough -Oughter Castle, in Cavan, bitterly mourned by all who had dreamed of an -independent Ireland. How beautifully Thomas Davis laments him: - - “We thought you would not die—we were sure you would not go, - And leave us in our utmost need to Cromwell’s cruel blow! - Sheep without a shepherd, when the snow shuts out the sky, - Oh, why did you leave us, Owen, why did you die? - - “Soft as woman’s was your voice, O’Neill! bright was your eye, - O! why did you leave us, Owen? why did you die? - Your troubles are all over, you’re at rest with God on high; - But we’re slaves and we’re orphans, Owen! why did you die?” - -Immediately after the capitulation of Clonmel, Cromwell, summoned by -Parliament to operate against the royalists of Scotland, set sail for -England, leaving behind him Ireton and Ludlow to continue his bloody -work. By Oliver’s direction, confiscation followed confiscation, and, -when he became Protector of the English Commonwealth, many thousands of -innocent boys and girls were shipped from Ireland to the West Indies and -other colonies of England, where most of them perished miserably. Ireton -died in Limerick, which yielded to his arms, after a desperate -resistance, in 1651. Tradition says that he rotted from the plague, and -that his last hours were horrible to himself and to all who surrounded -his repulsive deathbed. He had caused to be killed in the city a bishop, -many priests, and a multitude of other non-combatants; and these -atrocities appalled his craven soul at the moment of dissolution. -Ludlow, an equally ferocious soldier, concluded the work of conquest in -Ireland, and, in 1652, the whole island was again rendered “tranquil.” -“Order reigned in Warsaw,” but it was not the order that succeeds -dissolution. Ireland, as subsequent events proved, was not dead, but -sleeping. The close of “the great rebellion,” which had lasted eleven -years, was signalized by the ruthless executions of Bishop Heber -MacMahon—the warrior prelate who led Owen Roe’s army after that hero’s -death—and Sir Phelim O’Neill, who was offered his life on the steps of -the scaffold, if he consented to implicate the late King Charles I in -the promotion of the Irish revolt. This, the English historians inform -us, he “stoutly refused to do,” and died, in consequence, like a soldier -and a gentleman. He had his faults—this fierce Sir Phelim. He was by no -means a saint, or even an exemplary Christian—but he acted, “according -to his lights,” for the best interests of his native country, and lost -everything, including life, in striving to make her free. A gifted Irish -poet (T. D. McGee) sings of him as “In Felix Felix,” thus: - - “He rose the first—he looms the morning star - Of that long, glorious unsuccessful war; - England abhors him! has she not abhorr’d - All who for Ireland ventured life or word? - What memory would she not have cast away - That Ireland keeps in her heart’s heart to-day? - - “If even his hand and hilt were so distained, - If he was guilty as he has been blamed, - His death redeemed his life—he chose to die - Rather than get his freedom with a lie. - Plant o’er his gallant heart a laurel tree, - So may his head within the shadow be! - - “I mourn for thee, O hero of the North— - God judge thee gentler than we do on earth! - I mourn for thee and for our land, because - She dare not own the martyrs in her cause; - But they, our poets, they who justify— - They will not let thy memory rot or die!” - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - Sad Fate of the Vanquished—Cruel Executions and Wholesale Confiscations - - -THE subsequent fate of other chief actors in this great political and -military drama is summed up by a learned historian thus: “Mountgarret -and Bishop Rothe died before Galway (the last Irish stronghold of this -war) fell. Bishop MacMahon, of Clogher, surrendered to Sir Charles -Coote, and was executed like a felon by one he had saved from -destruction a year before at Derry. Coote, after the Restoration, became -Earl of Mountrath, and Broghill, Earl of Orrery. Clanricarde died -unnoticed on his English estate, under the Protectorate. Inchiquin, -after many adventures in foreign lands, turned Catholic in his old age; -and this burner of churches bequeathed an annual alms for masses for his -soul. A Roman patrician did the honors of sepulture for Father Luke -Wadding. Hugh Duff O’Neill, the heroic defender of Clonmel and Limerick, -and the gallant though vacillating Preston, were cordially received in -France, while the consistent (English) Republican, General Ludlow, took -refuge as a fugitive (after the Restoration) in Switzerland.” - -The same accomplished authority (T. D. McGee) informs us that under -Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate, “A new survey of the whole island was -ordered, under the direction of Sir William Petty, the fortunate -economist who founded the House of Lansdowne. By him the surface of the -kingdom was estimated at ten and a half million plantation acres, three -millions of which were deducted for waste and water. Of the remainder, -above 5,000,000 acres were in Catholic hands in 1641; 300,000 acres were -college lands, and 2,000,000 acres were in possession of the Protestant -settlers of the reigns of James I and Elizabeth. Under the Cromwellian -Protectorate, 5,000,000 acres were confiscated. This enormous spoil, -two-thirds of the whole island (as then computed), went to the soldiers -and adventurers who had served against the Irish or had contributed to -the military chest since 1641—except 700,000 acres given in ‘exchange’ -to the banished in Clare and Connaught, and 1,200,000 confirmed to -‘innocent Papists’ who had taken no part in the warfare for their -country’s liberty. And,” continues our authority already quoted, -“Cromwell anticipated the union of the kingdoms by a hundred and fifty -years, when he summoned, in 1653, that assembly over which ‘Praise-God -Bare-bones’ presided. Members for Ireland and Scotland sat on the same -benches with the Commons of England. Oliver’s first deputy in the -government of Ireland was his son-in-law, Fleetwood, who had married the -widow of Ireton, but his real representative was his fourth son, Henry -Cromwell, commander-in-chief of the army. In 1657, the title of Lord -Deputy was transferred from Fleetwood to Henry, who united the supreme -civil and military authority in his own person, until the eve of the -Restoration, of which he became an active partisan. We may thus embrace -the five years of the Protectorate as the period of Henry Cromwell’s -administration.” High Courts of Justice were appointed for dealing with -those who had been actively in arms, and many cruel executions resulted. -Commissions were also appointed for the expatriation of the people, -particularly the young. “Children under age, of both sexes, were -captured by the thousands, and sold as slaves to the tobacco planters of -Virginia and the West Indies. Secretary Thurloe informs Henry Cromwell -that ‘the Council have authorized 1,000 girls, and as many youths, to be -taken up for that purpose.’ Sir William Petty mentions 6,000 Irish boys -and girls shipped to the West Indies. Some contemporary accounts make -the total number of children and adults, so transported, 100,000 souls. -To this decimation we may add 34,000 men of fighting age, who had -permission to enter the armies of foreign powers at peace with the -Commonwealth.” - -As there was no Irish Parliament called under Cromwell’s régime, the -“government” of Ireland consisted, during that period, of the deputy, -the commander-in-chief, and four commissioners—the Puritan leaders, -Ludlow, Corbett, Jones, and Weaver—all of whom looked upon the -Celtic-Catholic Irish, and, in fact, all classes of the Irish people, -with bigoted hatred and insolent disdain. And these men had, until the -Restoration, absolute dominion over the lives and liberty, the rights -and properties of the nation they hated! - -The Act of Uniformity, which played such a terrible part in the reigns -of Elizabeth and James, was put into relentless force. The Catholics -were crushed, as it were, into the earth, and Ireland again became a -veritable counterpart of the infernal regions. Priests, of all ranks, -were hunted like wild beasts, and many fell victims to their heroic -devotion to their flocks. Catholic lawyers were rigidly disbarred and -Catholic school-teachers were subjected to deadly penalties. “Three -bishops and three hundred ecclesiastics” perished violently during the -Protectorate. “Under the superintendence of the commissioners,” says -McGee, “the distribution made of the soil among the Puritans ‘was nearly -as complete as that of Canaan by the Israelites.’ Such Irish gentlemen -as had obtained pardons were obliged to wear a distinctive mark on their -dress under pain of death. Those of inferior rank were obliged to wear a -round black spot on the right cheek, under pain of the branding iron and -the gallows. If a Puritan lost his life in any district inhabited by -Catholics, the whole population were held subject to military execution. -For the rest, whenever ‘Tory’ (nickname for an Irish royalist) or -recusant fell into the hands of these military colonists, or the -garrisons which knitted them together, they were assailed with the -war-cry of the Jews—‘That thy feet may be dipped in the blood of thy -enemies, and that the tongues of thy dogs may be red with the same.’ -Thus, penned in (according to the Cromwellian penal regulation) between -‘the mile line’ of the Shannon and the ‘four-mile line’ of the sea, the -remnant of the Irish nation passed seven years of a bondage unequaled in -severity by anything which can be found in the annals of Christendom.” - -When the news of Oliver Cromwell’s death, which occurred on September 3, -1658, reached Ireland, a sigh of intense relief was heaved by the -persecuted nation. Many a prayer of thankfulness went up to the throne -of God from outraged Irish fathers and mothers, whose children were -sweltering as slaves under tropical suns. Cromwell himself had passed -away, but the “curse of Cromwell” remained with Ireland for many a black -and bitter day thereafter. - -What followed after his death until the Restoration belongs to English -history. Under his son Richard, and his associates, or advisers, the -Protectorate proved a failure. Then followed the negotiations with -General Monck, and the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, who -landed on English soil, at Dover, May 22, 1660, proceeded to London, -where he was cordially welcomed, and renewed his interrupted reign over -a country which, at heart, despised and distrusted him and all of his -fated house. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - Ireland Further Scourged Under Charles II—Murder of Archbishop - Plunket—Accession of James II - - -THE Irish Catholics had built high hopes on the restoration of Charles, -but were not very jubilant when they learned that he had appointed as -Lords Justices, in Dublin, their ancient foes and persecutors, Coote and -Broghill, the latter now called the Earl of Orrery. In the Irish -(provincial) Parliament, the “Undertaking” element was in the ascendant, -and the Protestants, barely one-fifth of the nation, had, in the House -of Lords, 72 peers of their faith to 21 Catholics. In the Commons the -same disparity existed, there being 198 Protestant to 64 Catholic -members. In England, the defenders of the crown, who had fought against -Cromwell, were, in most cases, treated with justice, and many had their -possessions restored to them. In Ireland, the Royalists, of all creeds -and classes, were treated by the king and his advisers with shameful -ingratitude. Most of the confiscations of the Cromwell period were -confirmed, but the Catholic religion was tolerated, to a certain extent, -and the lives of priests and schoolmasters were not placed in jeopardy -as much as formerly. The Catholics made a good fight for the restoration -of their property, and were faithfully aided by the Earl of Kildare in -Ireland and by Colonel Richard Talbot—afterward Earl of Tyrconnel—in -England. But the Cromwellian settlers maintained the advantage in -property they had gained. In 1775, they still held 4,500,000 acres -against 2,250,000 acres held by the original proprietors. The figures, -according to the most reliable authorities, were almost exactly the -reverse before the Cromwellian settlement. An attempt on the part of the -Catholics, to be allowed greater privileges than they possessed, was met -in a most unfriendly spirit in England. One of their delegates, Sir -Nicholas Plunkett, was mobbed by the Londoners and forbidden the royal -presence by the order of the Council, while Colonel Talbot, because of -his bold championship of the Catholic cause, was sent for a period to -the Tower. The Irish Catholics were, finally, forbidden to make any -further address in opposition to the Bill of Settlement—as the act -confirming the confiscations was called—and the perfidious Charles -signed it without compunction, although he well knew he was beggaring -his own and his father’s friends. An English tribunal, appointed to sit -in Dublin and hear the Irish claims, declared in favor of the plundered -native proprietors, but as it was met immediately by the intrigues of -the ruthless Ormond, who again became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the -duration of this honest English tribunal was limited to a certain day, -when only about 800 out of 3,000 cases had been heard. A measure called -“An Act of Explanation” was then passed (1665), by which it was decreed -that “no Papist who had not been adjudged innocent under the former act -could be so adjudged thereafter, or entitled to claim any lands or -settlements.” “Thus,” remarks a historian, “even the inheritance of -hope, and the reversion of expectation, were extinguished forever for -the sons and daughters of the ancient gentry of the kingdom.” - -An attempt made by the titled Catholic laity and the prelates and -priests of that faith to establish their true position in regard to -their spiritual and secular allegiance was also met in a hostile manner -by Ormond, who so managed as to excite a bitter controversy in regard to -a document called “The Remonstrance,” which was supposed to embody the -Catholic idea of the period. The viceroy succeeded to the top of his -bent. Dissension prevailed at a meeting of the surviving prelates of the -Church, and the superiors of regular orders, held in Dublin, and Ormond -made the failure of the gathering an excuse for persecuting the prelates -and priests, whom he bitterly hated as a body he could not use, with -penal severities, which the selfish and sensual king, who was himself a -Catholic in secret, allowed to pass without interference. - -In this same year (1666) the importation of Irish cattle into England -was declared, by Parliamentary enactment, “a nuisance,” for the reason -that when the Londoners were starving, at the time of the Great Fire, -Ireland contributed for their relief 15,000 fat steers. Instead of being -grateful for the generous gift, the English lawmakers pretended to -believe it a scheme to preserve the trade in cattle between the two -kingdoms. The Navigation Act—invented by Cromwell—which put fetters on -Irish commerce, was also enforced, and these two grievances united, for -a time, the Puritans and the Old Irish, as both suffered equally from -the restrictions placed upon industry. Ormond showed favor to the -discontented Puritans, and was recalled in consequence. His retirement -lasted nine years, and during that period he became a patron of Irish -manufactures, especially in the county of Kilkenny. A bogus “Popish -plot”—an offshoot of that manufactured in England, during this reign, by -that arch-impostor and perjurer, Titus Oates—was trumped up in Ireland -for purposes of religious and political terrorism. The attempt to fasten -it upon the masses of the people happily failed, but, without even the -shadow of proof, the aged and venerated archbishop of Armagh, Oliver -Plunkett, was accused of complicity in it, arrested and confined, -without form of trial, for ten months in an Irish prison. Finally he was -removed to London and placed on trial. One of his “judges” was the -notorious Jeffreys—the English Norbury—a man destitute of a heart. Even -one of the paid perjurers, called a crown agent, stung by remorse, -offered to testify in behalf of the unfortunate archbishop. All was in -vain, however. The judges charged the jury against the accused, -violating every legal form, and the hapless prelate was found guilty. He -was sentenced to be “hanged, drawn, and quartered” on July 1, 1681. This -sentence was carried out in all its brutal details. When the Earl of -Essex appealed to the king to save the illustrious martyr, Charles -replied: “I can not pardon him, because I dare not. His blood be upon -your conscience. You could have saved him if you pleased!” And this -craven king, a few years afterward, on his deathbed, called for the -ministrations of a priest of the Church outraged by the murder of an -innocent prelate! The slaughter of Oliver Plunkett was the most -atrocious political assassination in English history, which reeks with -such crimes. The shooting of Duc d’Enghien by Napoleon did not approach -it in cold-blooded infamy. The king, the minister, the court, the -jury—everybody—believed the archbishop innocent, and yet he was -sacrificed that his blood might satisfy the rampant bigotry of the -times. - -The Catholics were ferociously pursued in Ireland after this shameful -tragedy. Proclamations were issued against them by Ormond, who had yet -again become Lord Lieutenant. They were forbidden to enter fortresses or -to hold fairs, markets, or gatherings within the walls of corporate -towns. They were also forbidden the use of arms—an old English expedient -in Ireland—and they were commanded to kill or capture any “Tory” or -“outlaw” relative within fourteen days from the date of proclamation, -under penalty of being arrested and banished from Ireland. This was the -setting of brother against brother with a vengeance. Few of the Irish -people were found base enough to comply with the unnatural order, but -Count Redmond O’Hanlon, one of the few Irish chiefs of ancient family -who still held out against English penal law in Ireland, was -assassinated in a cowardly manner by one of Ormond’s ruthless tools. The -blood stains from the heart of the brave O’Hanlon will sully forever the -escutcheon of the Irish Butlers. - -Just as the spirit of persecution of Catholics began to subside both in -England and Ireland, Charles II, who had been much worried by the -political contentions in his English kingdom, which resulted in the -banishment of Monmouth and the execution of Lord William Russell and -Algernon Sidney, had a stroke of apoplexy, which resulted in his death -on February 6, 1685. In his last moments he was attended by the Rev. -Father Huddlestone, who received him into the Catholic Church, which he -had betrayed so foully. He was immediately succeeded by his Catholic -brother, the Duke of York, who ascended the throne under the title of -James II. James was a man of resolute purpose, good intentions, no -doubt, but had a narrow intellect and sadly lacked discretion—at least -in the moral sense. His physical courage has been questioned, although -the famous Marshal Turenne certified to it, when he, in his fiery youth, -served in the French armies. He was destined, as we shall see, to ruin -his friends, exalt his enemies, and wreck the ancient Stuart dynasty. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - Well-Meant but Imprudent Policy of King James—England Invites William of - Orange to Assume the Throne - - -ALTHOUGH the final outcome of his policy was disastrous to Ireland, we -feel justified in saying that James II meant well by all his subjects. -He was a friend of religious equality—an idea hateful to the English and -a large portion of the Scottish nation at that period. In Ireland, too, -the Protestant minority resented it, because, to their minds, it meant -Catholic ascendency and the restoration of stolen estates. But James -went about his reforms so awkwardly, and imprudently, that he brought on -himself almost immediately the all but unanimous ill-will of his English -subjects. He dared to profess his Catholic faith openly—an unforgivable -offence in England at that time. He sought to equalize the holding of -office by the abolition of the Test Act, aimed against Catholics, so -that English, Scotch, and Irish Catholics should have the same rights -and privileges in that respect as their Protestant brethren. This, also, -was an idea hateful to the English mind of the period. The king -undertook to regulate the judiciary, the privy council, the army, the -civil list—every public appointment—according to his own notions. This -meant recognition of the Catholics and produced an uproar in England. He -recalled Ormond from the viceroyalty of Ireland and sent Lord Clarendon -to take his place. Finally, Clarendon resigned and Richard Talbot, who -had been created Duke of Tyrconnel, was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. -This appointment alarmed the Irish Protestants, who, as usual, feared -that the Catholics would get back their lands under a friendly -executive, such as Tyrconnel—whose former exertions in regard to the -Catholic claims were not forgotten—was well known to be. He was -injudicious enough, at the outset, to dismiss many Protestant officers -from the Irish military establishment and place Catholics in their -positions. Although this was done by proportion, Protestant jealousy was -aroused and the seeds of revolt were deeply planted. - -In England, popular feeling against the king was at fever heat. His -illegitimate Protestant nephew—putative son of Charles II—the Duke of -Monmouth, who had been exiled, returned to England and organized a -rebellion against him. This ill-starred movement culminated at -Sedgemoor, in Somersetshire, in the summer of 1685. A battle was fought -there between the unorganized English peasants, under “King Monmouth,” -as they called him, and the royal army, under the Earl of Feversham. The -rebels fought with commendable courage, but were badly commanded and -suffered an overwhelming defeat. Monmouth escaped from the field, but -was captured soon afterward, tried, found guilty, and beheaded on Tower -Hill, of bloody memory, July 15, 1685. He had appealed in vain to James -for mercy, and appealed in a manner so craven and undignified that he -aroused the disgust of his stern uncle. But the blood of the vanquished -did not cease to flow when Monmouth died. The “Bloody Assizes,” -conducted by Jeffreys, the “great crimson toad,” as Dickens describes -him, and four assistant judges, spread death and terror throughout the -English districts recently in revolt. This period of English history -bore a striking resemblance to the 1798 period in Ireland, when other -“great crimson toads” hanged the hapless peasantry, and some of higher -rank, by the hundred and thousand. All this butchery made James -unpopular with a vast majority of the English people, but, as he had no -male heir, the nation hesitated to rise against him, especially as -Monmouth himself had been the aggressor. But James, while Duke of York, -had married a young wife, the Princess Mary, sister of the Duke of -Modena, who bore him a son—afterward called by the Hanoverian faction -the Pretender—in June, 1688. This altered the whole aspect of affairs -and a revolution became imminent immediately. Mary of Modena, although -an intelligent and amiable woman, was of a haughty and somewhat -punctilious disposition at times. This made her almost as unpopular with -the English people as was her husband. Sir Walter Scott relates that, -while Duchess of York, she accompanied her husband to Scotland, whither -he went at the behest of his brother, King Charles. James got along very -well with the Scotch, particularly the Highlanders, who adored him, and -whose loyalty to his family remained unshaken until after Culloden. He -invited an old Continental veteran, Sir Thomas Dalzell, to dine with -him. The duchess had the bad taste to object to the company of a -commoner. “Make yourself easy on that head, madam,” remarked Sir Thomas; -“I have sat at a table where your father might have stood behind my -chair!” He alluded to a dinner given him and others by the Emperor of -Austria, who was the suzerain of the Duke of Modena. The latter, if -called upon by the emperor, would have had to act in the capacity of an -honorary waiter. All students of history are, doubtless, familiar with -the romantic chivalry displayed by Edward the Black Prince, when he -waited upon his captive, King John of France, whom he had vanquished at -Poitiers. Mary of Modena was, we may be sure, not formed by nature to -make friends for her husband, as the brave Margaret of Anjou did for the -physically and mentally degenerate Plantagenet, Henry VI. Had Mary been -a Margaret, William of Orange might never have occupied the throne of -“the Three Kingdoms.” The climax of King James’s political -imprudences—they can not, in the light of modern ideas of religious -equality, be called errors—was reached when he issued his famous -declaration against test oaths and penal laws, and decreed that it -should be read from the altars of the Protestant, as well as the -Catholic, churches throughout England. Six Protestant prelates, headed -by the Archbishop of Canterbury, made protest by petition and even -visited the king in his bedchamber to dissuade him from his purpose. But -he persisted, as was usual with him. - -On the Sunday following the bishops’ call, out of 10,000 English -clergymen only 200 complied with the royal decree. Of course we, -Americans, who have equal laws for all creeds and classes, can not -consistently condemn King James for advocating what we ourselves -practice, but we can afford to lament the fatuity which led him to dare -Protestant resentment by seeking to make Protestant pulpits the mediums -of his radical policy. It was playing with fire. Had he stopped short at -this point, James might have still held his crown, but, with incurable -obstinacy, he insisted on prosecuting the recalcitrant bishops before -the Court of King’s Bench, and they were finally committed by the Privy -Council to the Tower of London. All England was now ablaze with fierce -resentment. At the Tower the right reverend prisoners were treated more -like royal personages than captives. The officers and soldiers of the -army—excepting the Irish regiments raised by Tyrconnel for James, and -sent to do garrison duty in England—openly drank to their speedy -release. When they came to trial in the King’s Bench, the jury, after -being out on the case all night, found the six prelates not guilty on -the charge of censuring the king’s government and defying the king’s -mandate, and they were immediately released amid popular acclamation. - -The “loyal” Protestant majority had succeeded in placing the Catholic -minority, their own fellow-countrymen, in a position of political -nonentity, simply because they worshiped God according to their belief. -Who could, then, have imagined that the England which refused equality -in the holding of office to Catholic subjects would, about two hundred -years later, have a Catholic for Lord Chief Justice and an Irish -Catholic (Lord Russell of Killowen) at that? Five generations have done -much toward a change of sentiment in England. But King James, we are -told, on hearing the shouts of the people when the acquittal was -announced, asked of Lord Feversham, who happened to be with him: “What -do they shout for?” And Feversham replied, carelessly: “Oh, nothing—only -the acquittal of the bishops!” “And you call that nothing?” cried the -king. “So much the worse for them,” meaning the people. These latter -were excited by the Protestant lords and gentry, who much feared a -Catholic succession, now that the king had an heir-male to the throne. -Both of his daughters—Mary, married to William, Prince of Orange, the -king’s nephew, and Anne, who became the wife of the Prince of -Denmark—were Protestants, their mother having brought them up in that -belief. William, half a Stuart and half a Dutchman, brave, resolute, and -wise withal, seemed to the English malcontents to be the -“heaven-appointed” man to supplant his own uncle and father-in-law. -William was nothing loth, and Mary, who was to share the throne with -him, made no objection to this most unfilial proceeding. Neither did -Anne, who, like the unnatural creature she was, fled from her father’s -palace, guided and guarded by the Protestant Bishop of London, as soon -as she heard of William’s almost unobstructed march on the capital. That -personage had landed at Torbay, in Devonshire, on November 5—the -anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of the days of James I—convoyed by an -immense fleet, which carried to the shores of England a picked veteran -army of 15,000 men. This army was commanded, under William, by the -Marshal Duke of Schomberg, Count Solmes, General De Ginkel, and other -officers of European renown. The principal plotters who invited William -to seize the crown of England were the Earls of Danby, Shrewsbury, -Devonshire, the Bishop of London, Lord Lumley, Admiral Russell, and -Colonel Sidney. Just a little while before the coming of William, James -took the alarm and attempted to make concessions to the Protestants. He -also decreed the strengthening of the army, and the enlistment of Irish -Catholics and Scotch Highlanders, most of whom had retained the old -faith, was encouraged. - -At the news of William’s arrival in Exeter, whither he had marched from -Torbay, the English aristocracy became wildly excited and hastened to -join his standard. The faculty of the University of Oxford sent him word -that, if he needed money to carry out his enterprise, the plate of that -institution would be melted down to furnish him with a revenue. An -agreement of the nobility and gentry was drawn up and signed, and in it -they promised to stand by William of Orange and each other, “in defence -of the laws and liberties of the three kingdoms and the Protestant -religion.” Thus, it will be noticed, Protestant interests was the cry of -the majority in England, opposed to James, who, as we have said, aimed -at equality of all creeds before the law, while in Ireland, where the -old faith “prevailed mightily,” Catholic interests, or civil and -religious liberty, became, also, the war-cry of the majority. In England -the Catholic minority remained mostly supine during this period and -until long afterward. In Scotland the Catholics and many Episcopalians -rallied for James under the leadership of the implacable and brilliant -Claverhouse, afterward created Viscount Dundee. They took the field for -“James VII of Scotland,” as they called the exiled king, at the first -tap of the war drum. The Catholic majority in Ireland naturally -recognized in the unfortunate monarch a friend who offered them -religious and political liberty, and so they resolved to place their -“lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” at his disposal. - -The Irish Catholics can not be justly blamed for their devotion to the -cause of James, who, whatever his motives, was the first King of England -who ever attempted to do them even ordinary justice. Tyrconnel, like -Strafford in a preceding reign, although with a very different -intention, began the organization of a formidable Irish army, which was -designed to be composed of twenty regiments of horse, fifty of foot, and -artillery in the usual proportion. There were men for the mere asking, -but arms, ammunition, and equipments were sadly lacking. The weakest arm -of the military branch of the public service was the artillery, and this -continued to be the fact throughout all of the subsequent war. As -William drew nearer to London, the bulk of the native English army, -following the example of the highest officers—including Colonel John -Churchill, afterward the great Duke of Marlborough—went over to him. -This determined James to abandon his capital, yet his friends induced -him to return for a period. But the still nearer approach of “the -Deliverer,” as the English called William of Orange, again induced him -to fly from London. He had previously provided for the safety of the -queen and the infant heir to the now forfeited crown, who had taken -refuge in France. The date of his final departure from Whitehall Palace -was December 11. After not a few perilous adventures, he reached the -court of his cousin, Louis XIV, at Versailles, on Christmas Day, 1688. -He was most honorably and hospitably received, and Louis placed at his -disposal the royal palace of St. Germain, in the neighborhood of Paris. -When James heard of the desertion of his youngest daughter, Anne, to his -enemies, the wretched parent, who has been called “the modern Lear,” -exclaimed in the anguish of his soul: “God help me! My very children -have deserted me!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - Irish Soldiers Ill-Treated in England—Policy of Tyrconnel—King James - Chosen by the Irish Nation - - -SUCH Irish soldiers as had remained in England after the flight of James -were mobbed, insulted, and even murdered by the unthinking multitude, so -easily excited to deeds of cruelty. These men had done the English -people no wrong—they had shed no English blood, and they even wore the -English uniform. Many fell in savage combats with the furious mobs, but -the majority fought their way to the seaports, where they, by some -means, obtained shipment to Ireland, carrying with them many a bitter -memory of England and her people. Many of these persecuted troops were -well-trained cavalry, who afterward manifested splendid prowess at the -Boyne and in other engagements. Their colonels were all members of the -ancient Irish nobility, Celtic or Norman, and they were quite incapable -of the crimes the credulous English mobs were taught to believe they -were ready to commit at the earliest opportunity. Although the English -people, in their normal condition, are a steady and courageous race, -they are, when unduly excited, capable of entertaining sentiments and -performing acts discreditable to them as a nation. A people so ready to -resent any imposition, real or fancied, on themselves, should be a -little less quick to punish others for following their example. It is -not too much to say that the English, as a majority, have been made the -victims of more religious and political hoaxes—imposed upon them by -evil-minded knaves—than any other civilized nation. It was of the -English, rather than ourselves, the great American showman, Barnum, -should have said: “These people love to be humbugged!” - -From the French court, which entirely sympathized with him, James -entered into correspondence with his faithful subject and friend, -Tyrconnel, in Ireland. The viceroy sent him comforting intelligence, for -all the Catholics of fighting age were willing to bear arms in his -defence. James sent Tyrconnel about 10,000 good muskets, with the -requisite ammunition, to be used by the new levies. These were obtained -from the bounty of the King of France. As Tyrconnel was convinced that -Ireland, of herself, could hardly make headway against William of -Orange, backed as he was by most of Great Britain and half of Europe, he -conceived the idea of placing her, temporarily at least, under a French -protectorate, in the shape of an alliance defensive and offensive, if -necessary. He had the tact to keep King James in ignorance of this -agreement, because he did not wish him to jeopardize his chance of -regaining the British crown, which a consenting to the French -protectorate would have utterly forfeited. Tyrconnel’s policy, under the -circumstances in which Ireland was placed, may have been a wise one, -although, in general, any dependency of one country upon another is -fatal to the liberty of the dependent nation. Ireland, contrary to -general belief, is large enough to stand alone, if she had control of -her own resources. To illustrate briefly, she is within a few thousand -square miles of being as large as Portugal, and is much more fertile; -while she is almost a third greater in area than Holland and Belgium -combined. Her extensive coast line, numerous safe harbors, and exceeding -productiveness amply compensate for the comparative smallness of her -area. - -In February, 1689, the national conventions of England and Scotland, by -vast majorities, declared that King James had abdicated and offered the -crown to William and Mary, who, as might have been expected, accepted it -with thanks. Ireland had nothing to say in the matter, except by the -voices of a few malcontents who had fled to Britain. Nevertheless, the -new sovereigns finally assumed the rather illogical title of “William -and Mary, ‘by the grace of God,’ King and Queen of England, Scotland, -France, and Ireland.” In France they held not a foot of ground; and in -Ireland four-fifths of the people acknowledged King James. James Graham, -of Claverhouse (Viscount Dundee), expressed his dissent from the -majority in the convention of Scotland. Sir Walter Scott has -immortalized the event in the stirring lyric which begins thus: - - “To the Lords of Convention ‘twas Claverhouse spoke, - ’Ere the king’s crown shall fall, there are crowns to be broke, - So let each cavalier, who loves honor and me, - Come follow the bonnet of Bonnie Dundee!” - -James had some strong partisans in England also—mostly among the Roman -Catholic and Episcopalian High Church elements, but they were powerless -to stem the overwhelming tide of public opinion against him. Ireland was -with him vehemently, except the small Protestant minority, chiefly -resident in Ulster, which was enthusiastic for William and Mary. -Representatives of this active element had closed the gates of Derry in -the face of the Earl of Antrim, when he demanded the town’s surrender, -in the name of the deposed king, in December, 1688. This incident proved -that the Irish Protestants, with the usual rule-proving exceptions, -meant “war to the knife” against the Catholic Stuart dynasty. Thus civil -war, intensified by foreign intervention, became inevitable. - -The towns of Inniskillen, Sligo, Coleraine, and the fort of Culmore, on -the Foyle, either followed the example of Derry, or were seized without -ceremony by the partisans of William and Mary in Ulster and Connaught. -These partisans, headed by Lord Blaney, Sir Arthur Rawdon, and other -Anglo-Irishmen, invited William to come into the country, “for the -maintenance of the Protestant religion and the dependency of Ireland -upon England.” Thus, again, was the Protestant religion made the pretext -of provincializing Ireland, and because of this identification of it -with British supremacy the new creed has remained undeniably unpopular -with the masses of the Irish people. The latter are very ardent -Catholics, as their long and bloody wars in defence of their faith have -amply proven, but while this statement is undeniable, it can not be -denied either that had the so-called Reformation not been identified -with English political supremacy, it might have made much greater -inroads among the Irish population than it has succeeded in doing. -Ireland was treated not a whit better under the Catholic rulers of -England, from 1169 to the period of Mary I—Henry VIII was a schismatic -rather than a Protestant—than under her Protestant rulers, until James -II appeared upon the scene, and his clemency toward the Irish was based -upon religious rather than national grounds. Even in our own day, the -English Catholics are among the strongest opponents of Irish legislative -independence, and in the category of such opponents may be classed the -late Cardinal Vaughan and the present Duke of Norfolk. - -King James, at the call of the Irish majority, left his French retreat, -and sailed from Brest with a fleet provided by King Louis, which saw him -in safety to memorable Kinsale, where he landed on March 12, old style, -1689. He was accompanied by about 1,200 veteran troops, French and -Irish, with a sprinkling of royalists, Scotch and English, and several -officers of high rank, including Lieutenant-General De Rosen, -Lieutenant-General Maumont, Major-General De Lery, Major-General -Pusignan, Colonel Patrick Sarsfield, afterward the renowned Earl of -Lucan, and the king’s two natural sons, the Duke of Berwick and Grand -Prior Fitzjames. There came with him also fifteen Catholic chaplains, -most of whom could speak the Gaelic tongue, and these gentlemen were -very useful to him on a mission such as he had undertaken. The progress -of the ill-fated monarch through Ireland, from Kinsale to Dublin was, in -every sense, a royal one. The Irish masses, ever grateful to any one who -makes sacrifices, or who even appears to make them, in their behalf, -turned out in all their strength. A brilliant cavalcade, headed by the -dashing Duke of Tyrconnel, escorted the king from town to town. His -collateral descent from King Edward Bruce, freely chosen by Ireland -early in the fourteenth century, was remembered. James was, therefore, -really welcomed as King of Ireland. The Irish cared nothing for his -British title. If the choice of the majority of a nation makes regal -title binding, then James II was as truly elected King of Ireland, in -1689, as Edward Bruce was in 1315. And we make this statement thus -plainly, because it will enable non-Irish and non-Catholic readers to -understand why Catholic Ireland fought so fiercely and devotedly for an -English ruler who had lost his crown in the assertion of Catholic rights -and privileges. There was still another cause for this devotion of the -majority of the Irish people to King James. He had consented to the -summoning of a national Irish parliament, in which Protestants as well -as Catholics were to be represented in due proportion, and this decision -on his part made many of the Episcopalian Irish either neutral in the -civil conflict or active on his side. The number of such persons as were -comprised in the latter class was comparatively insignificant—just -enough to mitigate the curse of absolute sectarianism in the contest. -The Dissenting or non-conforming Irish were, almost to a unit, hostile -to the Jacobite cause. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOK IV - - -CHRONICLING IMPORTANT EVENTS IN IRELAND FROM THE ARRIVAL OF JAMES II IN -THAT COUNTRY UNTIL THE DEPARTURE OF THE DUKE OF BERWICK TO FRANCE AFTER -THE FIRST SIEGE OF LIMERICK, IN 1690 - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - King James in Ireland—Enthusiastic Reception of Him by the Irish - People—Military Operations - - -NOTHING could exceed the enthusiasm with which the Irish people welcomed -King James. In the cities and towns, flowers were strewn in his path, -corporation officials turned out in their robes of state, and speeches -of welcome were delivered in English or read in Latin. The entry into -Dublin was a magnificent spectacle. The whole city was in gala dress, -and the different trades paraded before him. Harpers played at the -triumphal arches under which he passed. Beautiful young girls, costumed -in pure white, and coroneted with wreaths, danced the ancient Irish -national dance, known as the Rinka, in the progress of which flowers -were profusely scattered by the fair performers. The religious orders -were out in force, a great cross being borne at their head. The viceroy, -lord mayor, and members of the corporation, on horseback or in -carriages, made up an imposing part of the procession. When he reached -the Castle, the sword of state was presented to him by the Lord -Lieutenant, and the Recorder handed him, according to an old custom, the -keys of the city. “Te Deum” was sung in the Chapel Royal, one of the -architectural creations of the Duke of Tyrconnel. From the flagstaff on -the tower of the Castle itself, floated an Irish national flag, with a -golden harp upon its folds; and on this broad ensign were inscribed the -inspiring and sadly prophetic words, “Now or Never! Now and Forever!” -Wherever the king appeared in public, he was greeted with enthusiastic -shouts, in Gaelic, of “Righ Seamus!—Righ Seamus, Go Bragh”! (“King -James—King James, Forever!”) - -The military situation of King James’s adherents in Ireland could not be -called encouraging when he took up his residence in Dublin. As usual, -arms and ammunition were scarce. Some 30,000 men had volunteered to -fight for Ireland, and there were not more than 20,000 stand of arms, -all told, to place in their hands. And of this small supply, fully -three-fourths were antiquated and worthless. While there were, -nominally, fifty regiments of infantry enrolled, the only serviceable -regiments of horse were those of Galmoy, Tyrconnel, and Russell. There -was one regiment of dragoons, and of cannon only eight field-pieces had -been collected. The two best-equipped bodies of Irish troops were the -command of General Richard Hamilton, in Ulster—about 3,000 men; and that -of General Justin McCarthy, Lord Mountcashel, in Munster—slightly more -numerous. Derry and Inniskillen held out for William of Orange, and -notwithstanding some successes of General Hamilton in the North, there -seemed no immediate prospect of reducing them. The stubborn attitude of -Inniskillen delayed the junction of Mountcashel’s and Hamilton’s forces, -which had been ordered by the Duke of Tyrconnel, commander-in-chief of -the Irish army, with General De Rosen as his second in command. The -smaller places occupied by the Williamite forces were abandoned as being -untenable, and the little garrisons fell back on Londonderry, which had -now become the main objective of the Jacobite army. The military -governor, Lundy, was suspected of being, at heart, a Stuart sympathizer, -but he was soon virtually superseded, first by Governor Baker and -afterward by the celebrated Rev. George Walker, rector of the living of -Donoughmore, to whom history awards the glory of the long, desperate, -brilliant, and successful defence of Derry against the armies of King -James. It is a pity that the ability and bravery displayed by Dr. Walker -have been made causes of political and religious irritation in the north -of Ireland for upward of two centuries. Lundy, when his authority was -defied, escaped from the city at night, in the disguise of a laborer, -and cut no further figure in Irish history. Before his flight, King -James’s flatterers in Dublin had persuaded him to advance against Derry -in person and demand its surrender. Tyrconnel opposed the idea in vain. -He well knew that Lundy was in correspondence with Hamilton and De Rosen -for the surrender of the city. It is quite probable that Derry would -have finally surrendered, on honorable terms, had James taken -Tyrconnel’s advice; but, with his usual fatuity, the obstinate king took -the advice of the shallow courtiers, and did actually present himself -before the walls of Derry and demand its unconditional surrender! The -reply was a cannon shot, which killed an officer at James’s side. The -king retired with precipitation, and the citizens sent after him the -“Prentice Boys’” shout of “No surrender!” Mortified by his rather -ignominious failure, James retired to Dublin, and summoned Parliament to -meet on the lines already indicated. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - Jacobites Foiled at Londonderry—Mountcashel Defeated at Newtown - Butler—King James’s Irish Parliament - - -THE siege of Derry was continued under the supervision of Maumont and -Hamilton, who had quite a large force at their disposal. It is -regrettable to have to state that the Protestant population of Ulster -was further inflamed against the Stuart cause by the needless excesses -of Galmoy and the barbaric severity of De Rosen, who placed a crowd of -helpless women and children between two fires under the ramparts of -Derry, in the hope of compelling the garrison to surrender. The -brilliant victories obtained over the Williamites at Coleraine and -Cladysford, by General Hamilton, in the earlier part of the campaign, -were more than offset by the overwhelming defeat inflicted by General -Wolseley, at Newtown Butler, on the Jacobite army under Mountcashel. It -was Irish against Irish, but the Inniskilleners, who made up the bulk of -Wolseley’s force, were seasoned soldiers, well armed and well directed. -Mountcashel’s men were chiefly green levies, and the battle was really -lost through their faulty manœuvring. One brigade mistook an order to -change front, so as to form a new line against a flank attack of the -enemy, for an order to retreat, and so spread a panic that proved fatal. -Mountcashel himself was dangerously wounded and made prisoner. He lost -2,000 men in killed and wounded, and 400 fugitives, completely -surrounded, surrendered at some distance from the field. This battle was -fought on July 31, 1689, and, on the same day, Derry was relieved by an -English fleet, which succeeded in breaking the boom that had been -constructed by the Jacobite engineers across the mouth of the harbor. - -It will be remembered that the gates of the city were closed against -Lord Antrim on December 7, 1688. Hamilton’s bombardment of the place -began on the 17th of April, 1689, and lasted for three months. There was -a total blockade for three weeks, and provisions became so scarce that -the defenders actually devoured dogs, cats, rats, mice—anything, however -revolting, that might satisfy the cravings of absolute hunger. The -besiegers also suffered from bad weather and the shots from the hostile -batteries. A rough computation places the total loss of the defenders at -about 4,000 men, and that of the assailants at 6,000—the latter loss -chiefly by disease. The relief of Derry was a mortal blow to the cause -of King James, and soon afterward he lost every important post in -Ulster, except Carrickfergus and Charlemont. Yet, as an Irish writer has -well remarked, Ulster was bestowed by the king’s grandfather “upon the -ancestors of those who now unanimously rejected and resisted him.” His -cause also received a fatal stroke in Scotland by the death of the brave -Dundee, who fell, vainly victorious, over the Williamite general, -Mackay, at the battle of Killecrankie, fought July 26, 1689. Duke -Schomberg arrived in Belfast Lough with a large fleet and army on August -13th. Count Solmes was his second in command. He laid siege to -Carrickfergus, which capitulated on fair terms after eight days’ -bombardment. Charlemont, defended by the brave and eccentric Colonel -Teague O’Regan, held out till the following May, when it surrendered -with the honors of war. It is said that King William, on his arrival in -Ireland, knighted O’Regan in recognition of the brilliancy of his -defence. The young Duke of Berwick made a gallant stand in the -neighborhood, but was finally compelled to yield ground to the superior -forces of Schomberg. Critics of the latter’s strategy hold that he -committed a grave military error in failing to march on the Irish -capital, which was not in a good posture of defence, immediately after -landing in Ulster. Had he done so, King James must have had to evacuate -Dublin and fall back on the defensive line of the Shannon, as Tyrconnel -and Sarsfield did at a later period. Then Schomberg, it is claimed, -would not have lost more than half of his army, by dysentery, at his -marshy camp near Dundalk, where King James, in the autumn, bearded and -defied him to risk battle with the stronger and healthier Jacobite -forces. There would have been no occasion for the Battle of the Boyne, -the memory of which has divided and distracted Irishmen for more than -two centuries, had the challenge been accepted. - -The Parliament summoned by James met in the Inn’s Court, Dublin, in the -summer of 1689. It was composed of 46 peers and 228 commoners. Of the -former body, several were High Church Protestants, but, in the Lower -House, there were comparatively few members of the “reformed religion.” -This, however, was not the fault of the king or his advisers, as they -were sincere in their desire to have a full Protestant representation in -that Parliament. But, perhaps naturally, the Protestants were suspicious -of the king’s good intentions, and so the majority held aloof from the -Parliamentary proceedings. The most important acts passed by that -Parliament were one establishing liberty of conscience, which provided, -among other things, that Catholics should not be compelled to pay tithes -to Protestant clergymen, and _vice versa_; another act established the -judicial independence of Ireland, by abolishing writs of error and -appeal to England. The Act of Settlement was repealed, under protest by -the Protestant peers, who did not, for obvious reasons, wish the -question of land titles obtained by fraud and force opened up. An act of -attainder, directed against persons in arms against their sovereign in -Ireland, was added to the list of measures. Heedless of the advice of -his wisest friends, James vetoed the bill for the repeal of the infamous -Poynings’ Law, which made the Irish Parliament dependent upon that of -England; and also declined to approve a measure establishing Inns of -Court for the education of Irish law students. In the first-mentioned -case, James acted from a belief that his own prerogative of vetoing -Irish measures in council was attacked, but his hostility to the measure -for legal education has never been satisfactorily explained. Taken as a -whole, however, King James’s Irish Parliament was a legislative success; -and it enabled the Protestant patriot and orator, Henry Grattan, when -advocating Catholic claims in the Irish Parliament a hundred years -afterward, to say: “Although Papists, the Irish Catholics were not -slaves. They wrung a Constitution from King James before they -accompanied him to the field.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - King James’s Imprudent Acts—Witty Retort of a Protestant - Peer—Architectural Features of Dublin - - -OUR last chapter showed that Ireland, although her population was -overwhelmingly Catholic, began her struggle for civil liberty by a -non-sectarian enactment, which left the exercise of religion free. Yet, -strange to say, this wise and liberal policy did not win her the -sympathy of Europe, Protestant or Catholic, outside of France, whose -king had personal reasons for his friendliness. Louis XIV was both hated -and feared by the sovereigns of continental, as well as insular, Europe. -A combination, called the League of Augsburg, was formed against him, -and of this League the Emperor of Germany was the head and William of -Orange an active member. Spain, Savoy, and other Catholic states were as -zealous against Louis as the Protestant states of Sweden and North -Germany. Even the Pope was on the side of the French king’s foes. In -fact, when Duke Schomberg landed, the war had resolved itself into a -conflict between the rest of Europe, except Muscovy and Turkey and their -dependencies, and France and Ireland. It was a most unequal struggle, -but most gallantly maintained, with varying fortune, on Irish soil -chiefly, for two long and bloody years. - -King James made enemies among his warmest supporters by increasing the -subsidy voted him by Parliament to twice the original amount, payable -monthly. He also debased the currency, by issuing “brass money,” which -led to the demoralization of trade, and Tyrconnel, after James’s -departure from Ireland, was compelled to withdraw the whole fraudulent -issue in order to stop the popular clamor. Some Protestant writers, -notably Dr. Cooke Taylor, have warmly commended the king’s judicial -appointments in Ireland, with few exceptions. In short, to sum up this -portion of his career, James II acted in Ireland the part of despot -benevolently inclined, who thought he was doing a wise thing in giving -the people a paternal form of government. But the Irish people can not -long endure one-man rule, unless convinced that the one man is much -wiser than the whole mass of the nation, which is not often the case. It -certainly was not in the case of King James. His establishment of a bank -by proclamation and his decree of a bank restriction act annoyed and -angered the commercial classes, whose prices for goods he also sought to -regulate. But his crowning act of unwisdom was interference with the -government of that time-honored educational institution, Trinity -College, Dublin, on which, notwithstanding its statutes, he sought to -force officers of his own choosing. He also wished to make fellowships -and scholarships open to Catholics—a just principle, indeed, but a rash -policy, considering that every act of the kind only multiplied his -enemies among the Protestants of Ireland, who were already sufficiently -hostile. Had King James proceeded slowly in his chosen course, he might -have come down to posterity as a successful royal reformer. -Unfortunately for his fame, posterity in general regards him as a -conspicuous political as well as military failure. - -Among King James’s chosen intimates and advisers during his residence in -Dublin, the most distinguished were the Duke of Tyrconnel, the Earl of -Melfort, Secretary of State; Count D’Avaux, the French Ambassador; Lord -Mountcashel, Colonel Sarsfield, afterward so famous; Most Rev. Dr. -McGuire, Primate of Ireland, and Chief Justice Lord Nugent. He generally -attended Mass every morning in the Chapel Royal, and, on Sundays, -assisted at solemn High Mass. One Sunday, he was attended to the -entrance of the chapel by a loyal Protestant lord, whose father had been -a Catholic, as James’s had been a Protestant. As he was taking his -leave, the king remarked, rather dryly: “My lord, your father would have -gone farther.” “Very true, sire,” responded the witty nobleman, “but -your Majesty’s father would not have gone so far!” - -The Dublin of that time was not, in any sense, the attractive city it is -to-day. Beyond the great cathedrals and the ancient Castle, there was -little to attract the eye, except the beauty of the surroundings, which -are still the admiration of all visitors. A century after the reign of -King James, Dublin, from an architectural standpoint, became one of the -most classical of European capitals; and the Houses of Parliament, the -Four Courts, the Custom House, and other public buildings, became the -pride of the populace. These monuments of Irish genius still exist, -although shorn of their former glory; but they serve, at least, to -attest what Ireland could accomplish under native rule. There is not a -penny of English money in any of these magnificent structures. All the -credit of their construction belongs to the Irish Parliaments of the -eighteenth century. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - Composition of the Hostile Armies—King William Arrives in - Ireland—Narrowly Escapes Death on Eve of Battle - - -DURING the spring and early summer of 1690, the war clouds began to mass -themselves heavily in the northeastern portion of the island, where Duke -Schomberg, his depleted army somewhat recruited, still held his ground -at Dundalk, with small garrisons posted throughout Ulster. But it was -soon known that William of Orange, in person, was to command in chief in -this fateful campaign. Several engagements, with varying fortune, had -occurred between the rival armies in different parts of the north -country, where the Duke of Berwick waged a vigorous campaign against the -Williamites. James, dissatisfied with the French Ambassador, D’Avaux, -and Lieutenant-General De Rosen, demanded, and obtained, their recall by -King Louis. By an arrangement between the two monarchs, Mountcashel’s -command of 6,000 men was exchanged for 6,000 French troops, under -Lieutenant-General De Lauzun, who eventually proved to be even a greater -marplot and blunderer than the odious De Rosen. Mountcashel’s force -formed the Old Irish Brigade, of immortal memory, in the French service, -and almost immediately after its arrival in France was sent to operate -under the famous Lieutenant-General St. Ruth in Savoy. It also served in -several campaigns under the great Marshal Catinat, “Father Thoughtful,” -as he was fondly called by the French army. The exchange proved a bad -bargain for Ireland, as will be seen in the course of this narration. -James hoped much from the skill and daring of the French contingent, but -was doomed to bitter disappointment. “His troops,” says McGee, “were -chiefly Celtic and Catholic. There were four regiments commanded by -O’Neills, two by O’Briens, one each by McCarthy More, Maguire, O’More, -O’Donnell, McMahon, and Magennis, chiefly recruited among their own -clansmen. There were also the regiments of Sarsfield, Nugent, De Courcy, -Fitzgerald, Grace, and Burke, chiefly Celts in the rank and file. On the -other hand, Schomberg led into the field the famous Blue and White Dutch -regiments; the Huguenot regiments of Schomberg (the Younger), La -Millinier, Du Cambon, and La Caillemotte; the English regiments of Lords -Devonshire, Delamere, Lovelace, Sir John Lanier, Colonels Langston, -Villiers, and others; the Anglo-Irish regiments of Lords Meath, -Roscommon, Kingston, and Drogheda, with the Ulstermen under Brigadier -Wolseley and Colonels Gustavus Hamilton, Mitchellburn, Lloyd, White, St. -John, and Tiffany.” - -The absence of a fleet, the entire navy having gone over to William, -placed James at a great disadvantage, and explains why there were no sea -fights of importance in British and Irish waters during this war. -Isolated French squadrons could not be expected to make headway against -the united navies of Britain and Holland. William, on the contrary, had -the seas wide open to him, and, on June 14, 1690, he landed at -Carrickfergus with reinforcements and supplies for his army in Ireland, -and accompanied by the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, Prince George of -Denmark, the Duke of Ormond, the Earls of Portland, Manchester, Oxford, -and Scarborough; General Mackay, General Douglas, and many other -warriors well known to British and Continental fame. He established -headquarters at Belfast and caused a muster of all his forces, which -showed him to be at the head of about 40,000 men, mostly veterans, and -made up of contingents from Scandinavia, Holland, Switzerland, -Brandenburg, England, Scotland, Ulster, together with the exiled -Huguenot regiments of France and the Anglo-Irish battalions of the Pale. -Allowing for detachments, William had under him an army of, at least, -36,000 effective men, officered by the best military talent of the -period. - -James, according to all Irish and some British authorities, commanded a -force of 17,000 Irish, of whom alone the cavalry, numbering, probably, -from five to six thousand men, were considered thoroughly trained. In -addition, he had 6,000 well-appointed French infantry, under De Lauzun, -which brought his total up to some 23,000 men, with only twelve pieces -of cannon. William, on the other hand, possessed a powerful and -well-appointed artillery. Once again, James was advised not to oppose -his comparatively weak and ill-disciplined army to an encounter with the -veteran host of William, and again the advantages of the defensive line -of the Shannon were pointed out to him. But he would not listen to the -voice of prudence, and marched northward to meet his rival, almost -immediately after learning of his debarkation at Carrickfergus. The -Stuart army reached Dundalk about June 22, when William was reported to -be at Newry. His scouts were soon seen on the neighboring heights, and -the Franco-Irish forces fell back on the river Boyne, and took post on -the southern bank, within a few miles of Drogheda. The Irish camp was -pitched immediately below the hill of Donore and near the small village -of Oldbridge, in the obtuse salient, pointing northwestward, formed by -the second bend in the river in its course from Slane—about six miles -from Oldbridge—to the sea. In the chart of the battle, published by the -Rev. George Story, King William’s chaplain, in 1693, three strong -batteries are shown in front of the right of the Irish army, on the -south bank of the Boyne, and one protecting its left opposite to the -point where the Mattock rivulet falls into the main river. But no Irish -account mentions these batteries. Some critics have thought it strange -that the Williamites, instead of making a long and tedious movement by -Slane, did not endeavor to attack both sides of the river salient at -once, and thus place the Irish army between two fires. The water, -apparently, was no deeper above than below the rivulet, but even were it -deeper, William had with him a well-appointed bridge train, and the -feeble battery, if any existed at all, would be insufficient to check -the ardor of his chosen veterans. On the summit of Donore Hill, which -slopes backward for more than a mile from the river, stood a little -church, with a graveyard and some huts beside it. Even in 1690, it was -an insignificant ruin, but it is noted in Anglo-Irish history as marking -the headquarters of King James during the operations on the Boyne. - -The right wing of the Irish army extended itself toward that smaller -part of Drogheda which is situated on the south bank of the river, in -the County Meath. The centre faced the fords in front of Oldbridge, -where several small shoals, or islands, as marked in Story’s map, -rendered the passage of an attacking force comparatively easy of -accomplishment. The left wing stretched in the direction of Slane, where -there was a bridge, and, nearer to the Irish army, a ford practicable -for cavalry. James was urged to strengthen this wing of his army, sure -to be attacked, the day before the battle, but he could only be induced -to send out some cavalry patrols to observe the ground. When the tide, -which backs the water up from below Drogheda, is out, many points on the -river in front of the Irish position are easily fordable, and there has -been little or no change in the volume of the current during the last -two centuries. Therefore, the Boyne presented no such formidable -obstacle to a successful crossing as some imaginative historians have -sought to make out. Neither did nature, in other respects, particularly -favor the Irish in the choice of their ground. Their army occupied a -fairly good defensive position, if its advantages had been properly -utilized. King James interfered with the plans of his generals, as it -was his habit to interfere in every department of his government, not at -all to the advantage of the public service. An able general, such as -William or Schomberg was, might have made the Irish ground secure; that -is, with sufficient cannon to answer the formidable park brought into -action by the enemy. The Irish army was in position on June 29, and on -the following day, King William, accompanied by his staff and escort, -appeared on the opposite heights. His main army was concealed behind the -hills in the depression now known as King William’s Glen. With his -customary daring activity, the astute Hollander immediately proceeded to -reconnoitre the Jacobite position, of which he obtained a good view, -though some of the regiments were screened by the irregularities of the -ground. Although within easy range of the Irish lines, he was not -molested for some time. Having concluded his observations, William, with -his officers, dismounted. Lunch was spread on the grass by the -attendants, and the party proceeded to regale themselves. They were -allowed to finish in peace, but when they remounted and turned toward -their camp, the report of a field-piece came from the Irish side. A -round shot ricochetted and killed a member of the escort. A second ball -caught the king upon the shoulder, tore his coat and broke the skin -beneath it. He fell forward on his horse, but immediately recovered -himself, and the entire party rode rapidly out of range. The Irish -officers, who had observed the confusion caused by the second shot, -imagined that William had been killed. The news was circulated in the -camp, speedily traveled to Dublin, and soon found its way to Great -Britain and the Continent. But William was not dead. After the surgeons -had dressed his wound, he insisted on again mounting his horse, and, -like Napoleon when he was wounded in front of Ratisbon, in 1809, showed -himself to the army, whose shouts of joy speedily informed the Irish -troops that their able enemy was still in the saddle. A brisk cannonade, -which did but little damage, was then exchanged between the two armies. -It was the noisy prelude of a much more eventful drama. On the morrow -was to be decided the fate not alone of the ancient Stuart dynasty, but -also of Ireland, with all Europe for witnesses. Night put an end to the -artillery duel, and the hostile hosts, except the sentinels, disposed -themselves to sleep. History fails to record the watchword of King -James’s army, but Chaplain Story is authority for the statement that the -word in William’s camp was “Westminster.” The soldiers on both sides, to -use the military phrase, “slept upon their arms.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - Battle of the Boyne—Death of Marshal Schomberg—Valor of Irish - Cavalry—Inexcusable Flight of King James - - -TUESDAY morning, July 1, old style, dawned beautifully on the river -Boyne. Both of the royal hosts were drawn out in all their bravery, and -the early sun glittered on their burnished arms. We have no good account -of their uniforms, but, judging by prints of the period, the British, in -general, wore scarlet and the Continental allies blue. Some of the -French regiments allied to the Irish army wore white and others blue -coats, which were the favorite colors of the Bourbon kings. The Irish -army must surely have worn scarlet—the livery of the House of -Stuart—because, we are informed by George Story and other historians, -they bore white badges in their hats, to distinguish themselves from the -Williamites, who wore green boughs in theirs. The white cockade, or -rosette, was the emblem of the Dukes of York—a title borne by James, as -will be remembered, before his accession. The irony of fate, surely, was -made manifest by the circumstance of William’s soldiers wearing -Ireland’s national color, as now generally recognized, on the occasion -of her most fateful, although not bloodiest, defeat. - -At 6 o’clock A.M., William took the initiative by ordering above 10,000 -horse and foot, under General Douglas, Schomberg, Jr., and Lords -Portland and Overkirk, to march along the river bank toward Slane, cross -at, or near, that point, and so turn the left flank of the Irish army. -This manœuvre was plainly seen and understood by James and his -lieutenants. Sir Neal O’Neill, at the head of his dragoons, was detached -to check the movement. The brave leader was in time to charge the -enemy’s cavalry, which had crossed nearer to Oldbridge than was -originally designed, as they had found a practicable ford. The main body -crossed higher up, at Slane. O’Neill, according to all accounts of the -engagement on this flank of the Jacobite army, must have made a most -gallant fight, because it was well on toward 9 o’clock before the enemy -was able to secure a footing on the Irish bank of the Boyne, and then -only after the brave O’Neill had been mortally wounded, and his -surviving soldiers discouraged by his fall. Notwithstanding, the Irish -dragoons drew off the field in excellent order, bearing their dying -general along with them. With his latest breath, O’Neill sent word to -King James of how matters stood on his left wing, to which Douglas’s -whole imposing force had now formed itself perpendicularly, that is, at -right angles, threatening not alone the left of the Irish line of -battle, but also the rear, or line of retreat, on the pass of Duleek, -which was the gateway to Dublin. James, observing this, became -demoralized. Instead of using the French veterans at Oldbridge ford, -where he must have seen the main attack was to be delivered, he placed -in the hedges, and other defences which covered it, untried Irish -levies, badly weaponed, brave enough, it is true, but at absolute -disadvantage when placed in opposition to the splendid armament and -perfect discipline of William’s veterans, many of whom had been in a -score of pitched battles. Lauzun and his French were sent toward the -Irish left, accompanied by Sarsfield, with a weak squadron of horse. But -Douglas had formed his troops in such strong array that Lauzun, in spite -of the direct orders of King James, declined to attack him, or receive -his attack. Instead, he manœuvred so as to place a morass between his -troops and the enemy, and then began falling back on the pass of Duleek, -fearing to be outflanked and cut off by young Schomberg’s powerful -cavalry. Sarsfield, according to his custom, charged the hostile horse -boldly, but his men were too few, and he was reluctantly compelled to -follow the retrograde movement of the French. In this operation he lost -one cannon, which got stuck in the mud of a bog that intervened between -the river and Donore. At the latter point he rejoined the king. James -seemed to think only of his line of retreat. Had he thought of his line -of advance, everything might still have been rectified. His army -remained unshaken, except by his own wretched fears. The dread of being -made a prisoner was his bane. He had sent most of the baggage and half -the cannon toward Dublin at the first news of the reverse at Slane—a -remarkable way by which to raise the spirits of an army already sadly -conscious of the incompetency of its royal commander, and its own -inferiority to the Williamite host in everything but ardent zeal and -knightly courage. - -William, on learning of the success of his right wing, immediately -ordered Marshal Schomberg, at the head of the formidable Dutch guards, -two regiments of Huguenots, two of Inniskilleners, Sir John Hammer’s -regiment, and several others on that front, including the Danes, to ford -the Boyne in hot haste. They plunged in bravely, opposite to Oldbridge, -and so dense were their columns, according to Chaplain Story, that the -water rose perceptibly. Still it could not have risen much above the -knees of the shortest soldier, for the historian, Haverty—a scrupulous -writer—says, in his admirable work, that the water did not reach to the -drums of the bands that accompanied the attack. The unseasoned Irish -dragoons and infantry, armed with old fusils and half-pikes, received -the enemy with a hasty and ill-directed fire, which did little damage. -William’s troops replied with overpowering volleys, and his batteries -threw balls into the defences. It would seem that little was done at -this point to rally the defenders, for they soon broke and abandoned the -hedges, but formed again in the lanes of Oldbridge and the fields in its -vicinity. The shout of triumph from Schomberg’s men was answered by a -roar of anger that seemed to come from the battle-clouds above the -river. There was a sound as of many waters, a terrific crashing of -hoofs, a flashing of sabres, dying groans—Richard Hamilton, at the head -of the superb Irish cavalry, was among the Williamite regiments, dealing -death-strokes right and left. Even the Dutch Blues reeled before the -shock—the Danes and Huguenots were broken and driven back across the -stream. Old Duke Schomberg, in trying to restore order, was killed near -the Irish side of the river, and there, too, fell Caillemotte, the -Huguenot hero, and Bishop Walker, the defender of Derry. It was a -splendid charge, and, had it been sustained by the whole Irish army, -might have saved the day. But King James’s eyes were not turned toward -Oldbridge ford, but to the pass of Duleek. Fresh bodies of hostile -infantry continued to cross the stream, and were charged and driven back -several times by the Irish horse. This part of the battle began about -10.15 o’clock and continued until nearly noon. - -King William now took a hand in the fight, and crossed with most of his -cavalry nearer to Drogheda. It is said that the tide had risen so high, -he was obliged to swim his horse, which, also, got “bogged” on the Irish -bank, and was extricated with difficulty. When the animal was freed, -William remounted, and, although his shoulder was still stiff and sore -from contact with the cannon-ball on the previous day, he drew his sword -and placed himself at the head of such of his horse as had crossed with -him. He also rallied some foot-soldiers who had been scattered by -Hamilton’s furious charges. Nor were these yet over. Hardly had William -placed his men in order, when Hamilton came down again, with a whirlwind -rush, and Chaplain Story says, with great simplicity: “Our horse were -forced to give ground, although the king was with them!” William, on -recovering his breath, observed the Inniskillen regiment of cavalry at a -short distance, rode up in front of them and said, in his blunt fashion: -“What will _you_ do for me?” They answered with a cheer, and rode to -meet the Irish cavalry, who were again coming on at a fierce gallop, -urged by Hamilton. The shock was terrible, but again the presence and -the leadership of the warlike William proved unavailing, and the -Inniskilleners, sadly cut up, followed the routed Williamite ruck down -the hill toward the river. Cool in the moment of danger, William of -Orange retired slowly and managed to rally some foot and horse to his -assistance. By this time more of his cavalry had crossed, under Ruvigny -and Ginkel. The former captured some colors, according to Story, but -Ginkel’s force was routed and he, himself, did not conceal his vexation -at their want of firmness. He kept in their rear, in order to prevent -them from bolting at sight of the Irish horse. - -King James was urged by all of those about him who had regard for his -honor, including the brave General Sheldon and the ever gallant -Sarsfield, to place himself at the head of his reserve of cavalry and -charge full upon William as he ascended toward Donore. The unfortunate -man, more of a moral than a physical coward, seemed unable to collect -his faculties; and, instead of doing what became him, yielded to the -advice of the timid, and, even while the battle raged hotly below him, -turned his horse, and, accompanied by his disgusted officers and -astonished troopers, rode toward the pass of Duleek, held by the French -and some of the Irish, who repulsed every effort of General Douglas to -force it. Hamilton’s cavalry still continued to charge the Williamite -advance, and thus enabled the Irish infantry to retire slowly on Donore, -where the bold Duke of Berwick rallied them and presented an unbroken -front to King William. Then, in turn, they retired toward Duleek. -Hamilton made a final furious charge, in which his horse was killed and -fell upon him. He was also wounded in the head and made prisoner. He was -taken before William, who said: “Well, sir, is this business over with, -or will your horse show more fight?” Hamilton responded: “Upon my honor, -sir, I think they will.” The king, who was incensed against the general -for having sided with James and Tyrconnel against himself, looked -askance at the gallant prisoner and muttered: “Your honor! Your honor!” -And this was all that passed between them. - -Chaplain Story, from whose book we have taken many of our facts, was a -most graphic and interesting writer, but a sad hater of the Irish, -against whom he seems to have borne a grudge, perhaps because they -killed his brother, an English officer, in action. He never said a good -word for them if he could avoid doing so. Yet, in spite of this failing, -the truth would escape him occasionally. Many English writers leave the -impression that the Irish army was defeated at the Boyne within an hour -or so after the engagement began. We have seen that the first movement -was made about daylight, and that the battle near Slane opened about 8 -o’clock. In front of Oldbridge the attack was made at 10:15, and -continued hotly until nearly noon, when King William himself took -command, crossed the river with his left wing and was bravely checked by -Hamilton. Duleek is not more than three miles from the fords of -Oldbridge. Therefore, the Irish must have fought very obstinately when -Chaplain Story makes the following admission on page 23 of his -“Continuation of the Wars of Ireland”: “Our army then pressed hard upon -them, but meeting with a great many difficulties in the ground, and -being obliged to pursue in order, our horse had only the opportunity of -cutting down some of their foot, and most of the rest got over the pass -at Duleek; then night coming on[3] prevented us from making so entire a -victory of it as could have been wished for.” Thus, on the testimony of -this Williamite partisan and eye-witness, the battle of the Boyne, -counting from its inception to its close, lasted about fifteen hours. -Evidently the overpowered Irish army did not retreat very fast. - -Footnote 3: - - In Ireland, at that season, there is a strong twilight until nearly 9 - o’clock.—_Author._ - -We have already mentioned the principal men who fell on the Williamite -side. On the Jacobite side there fell Lords Dungan and Carlingford, Sir -Neal O’Neill and some other officers of note, together with some 1,200 -rank and file killed or wounded. Few prisoners were taken. Mr. Story, as -usual, underestimates William’s loss, when he places it at “nigh four -hundred.” More candid English estimates place it at nearer a thousand, -and this was, probably, the true figure. The Chaplain, in dwelling on -the casualties, says plaintively: “The loss of Duke Schomberg, who was -killed soon after the first of our forces passed the river near -Oldbridge, was much more considerable than all that fell that day on -both sides.” - -Drogheda, occupied by an Irish garrison of 1,500 men, surrendered, on -summons, the day after the battle. Had their commander made a spirited -sortie on William’s left wing, as it was crossing the river, good might -have resulted for the cause of James. It would seem that, like himself, -many of his officers lacked the daring enterprise that can alone win the -smiles of Bellona. - -King James, shamefully for himself, deserted the battlefield, or, -rather, the outer edge of it, before the fight at the fords was over. An -Irish Protestant poet, the late Dr. W. R. Wilde, of Dublin, says of the -incident: - - “But where is James? What! urged to fly, - Ere quailed his brave defenders! - Their dead in Oldbridge crowded lie, - But not a sword surrenders!” - -He reached Dublin at 9 o’clock that evening, while still the Irish army -exchanged shots with William’s troops across the Nannywater at the pass -of Duleek! Tradition says that, meeting Lady Tyrconnel at the Castle, he -exclaimed: “Your countrymen run well, madam!” The spirited Irishwoman at -once replied: “I congratulate your Majesty on having won the race!” - -English historians, in general, taking their cue from Story, are -ungenerous to the Irish in connection with the Boyne. English troops had -comparatively little hand in obtaining the victory. The French writers, -also, in order to screen the misconduct, and possibly treason, of De -Lauzun, seek to throw all the blame for the loss of the battle on their -Irish allies. Not so, many of the Irish Protestant writers, whose -coreligionists bore a great deal of the brunt of the fighting on -William’s side, and were thus enabled to know the truth. Among those -writers may be mentioned Colonel William Blacker, poet-laureate of the -Orange Order in Ireland, who wrote at the beginning of the last century, -and, in his poem, “The Battle of the Boyne,” gives full credit to his -Catholic fellow-countrymen for their valor, thus: - - “In vain the sword Green Erin draws and life away doth fling— - Oh! worthy of a better cause and of a braver king! - In vain thy bearing bold is shown upon that blood-stained ground; - Thy towering hopes are overthrown—thy choicest fall around. - - “Hurrah! hurrah! the victor shout is heard on high Donore! - Down Plottin’s Vale, in hurried rout, thy shattered masses pour. - But many a gallant spirit there retreats across the plain, - Who ‘change but kings’ would gladly dare that battlefield again!” - -The expression, in regard to exchanging monarchs, alluded to in the -ballad, is founded on a saying attributed to Sarsfield, who, on being -taunted by a British officer at the Duleek outposts the night of the -engagement, exclaimed: “Change kings with us, and we will fight the -battle over again with you!” - -James, after his defeat, remained but one day in Dublin. He summoned the -State Council and the Lord Mayor, bade them farewell, and left the -government of the kingdom and the command of the army in the hands of -Tyrconnel. Then, accompanied by a small staff, he rode to Bray and -thence by easy stages to Waterford, where he embarked for France and -reached that kingdom in safety. He was generously received by King -Louis. In justice to a monarch who is alleged to have spoken harshly and -unjustly of his Irish troops and subjects after the battle of the Boyne, -we must state that his published Memoirs, as also those of his son, the -heroic Duke of Berwick, bear the very highest testimony to the bravery -and devotion of the Irish army, particularly in dealing with the closing -campaign in Ireland, when it crowned itself with glory. Remembering -this, we may join with the poet in saying— - - “Well, honored be the graves that close - O’er every brave and true heart, - And sorrows sanctified repose - Thy dust, discrownèd Stuart!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - Irish Army Retires on “The Line of the Shannon”—Douglas Repulsed at - Athlone—King William Begins Siege of Limerick—Sarsfield’s Exploit - - -TYRCONNEL, Sarsfield, Berwick, De Lauzun, and their forces immediately -evacuated Dublin and its neighborhood, and, practically, gave up all of -Leinster to the enemy, while they retired on the Shannon and heavily -garrisoned Athlone, Limerick, and Galway—the latter a most important -seaport at that time. The flight of James demoralized Tyrconnel, who was -aging fast, and further discontented Lauzun, but Sarsfield and Berwick -remained steadfast, and were determined not to give up Ireland without a -bitter and bloody struggle. Most of the officers agreed with them. If -they had lost a king, their country still remained, and they would -defend it to the last. - -William’s first attempt was made against Athlone, which is the most -central fortified place in Ireland, situated masterfully on the river -Shannon, the commerce of which it commands for many miles. The garrison -was commanded by an aged veteran of the Confederate war, Colonel Richard -Grace, to whom fear was unknown. General Douglas, with 12,000 men and a -fine battering train, including several mortars, was detached from the -Williamite army at Dublin to attack the town. He appeared before it on -July 17, and sent an offensive message for immediate surrender to the -governor. Colonel Grace discharged a pistol over the head of the -startled envoy, and said: “That is my answer!” The siege began when the -messenger returned. Athlone, divided by the Shannon, is partly in -Westmeath and partly in Roscommon. The latter portion alone was -defensible. Colonel Grace abandoned the Leinster side, called -“Englishtown,” after leveling the works. He also destroyed the bridge, -thus confining himself to “Irishtown,” where still stands the strong -castle. Douglas bombarded it furiously. Grace responded fiercely and -honors were about even, when news arrived in the English camp that -Sarsfield, at the head of a powerful Irish force, was en route from -Limerick to raise the siege. For seven days the English general rained -balls and bombshells on Athlone, but, on the seventh day, the -indomitable Grace hung out a red flag on the castle, to indicate that -the fight was to be to a finish, and that quarter would be neither taken -nor given. The English doubled their efforts to subdue the place, but -made no impression. Finally Douglas, in abject fear of Sarsfield, raised -the siege and left the town amid the cheers of the defenders of the -Connaught side. The garrison and people gave Governor Grace an ovation, -which, indeed, no warrior, young or old, better deserved. - -King William reserved for himself, as he thought, the honor and pleasure -of capturing Limerick, which, in the days of Ireton, had won celebrity -by the obstinacy of its defence. Toward the end of July, 1690, he -marched from the capital, at the head of his main army, toward that -fortress. He was joined by the defeated Douglas, with his depleted -division, at Caherconlish, within a short distance of Limerick, on the -8th of August. This junction brought his force up to 38,000 men, not to -speak of a siege train and other warlike appliances. The Irish force -consisted of 10,000 infantry within the city, and 4,000 horse, encamped -on the Clare side of the Shannon. There was, as at Athlone, an Irishtown -and Englishtown—the former situated on the Limerick side of the stream, -and the latter on an island, called King’s Island, formed by the two -branches of the great river. In addition to an infantry force, some -regiments of Irish dragoons, intended to fight either on foot or -horseback, occupied Englishtown. The defences were in a wretched -condition. Lauzun, who seems to have been the wet blanket of the period, -declared that “King Louis could take them with roasted apples.” -Tyrconnel and he were for surrendering the city “on terms,” but -Sarsfield, ably seconded by the brave and youthful Duke of Berwick—the -best of the Stuarts—made fierce protest. De Boisseleau, a French officer -of engineers, who sympathized with the Irish people, became their ally, -and agreed to reconstruct the works, with the aid of the soldiery and -the citizens. De Lauzun, eager to return to the delights of Paris, -abandoned the city and marched with his French contingent to Galway. It -would appear, from contemporaneous accounts, that his troops were not -all native Frenchmen. Many were Swiss and German—a kind of Foreign -Legion in the French service. Louvois, the elder, at that time Louis’s -Minister of War, detested Lauzun—King James’s appointee—and would not -give him a corps of choice troops. The Swiss and Germans were courageous -soldiers, but their hearts were not in the cause they were engaged in, -and many of them deserted to the Williamites after the battle of the -Boyne. Lauzun remained in Galway until he heard of King William’s -unsuccessful attempt on Limerick, when he and his forces sailed for -France, the old Duke of Tyrconnel accompanying them. The Duke, on -reaching Paris, made charges of insubordination and general misconduct -against Lauzun, who, thereby, lost the favor of the French monarch. His -downfall followed, and, in after years, he was one of the unfortunates -doomed to captivity in the Bastile. He deserves no sympathy, as his -whole conduct in Ireland made him more than suspected of having been a -traitor. - -John C. O’Callaghan, the noted historian of the Williamite wars, in his -“Green Book,” written in refutation of Voltaire, Lord Macaulay, and -other libelers of the Irish nation, says that the Louvois, father and -son, who held in succession the portfolio of war in France, during the -time when James was struggling to regain his crown, were inimical to his -cause, and did all they could to thwart the friendly efforts of King -Louis in his behalf. Louvois, Sr., it is explained, wished the command -of the French troops sent to Ireland conferred upon his son; but James -preferred Lauzun. Thus originated the feud which, no doubt, led to the -utter ruin of the Stuart dynasty. The hostility of the Louvois also -explains the miserable quality of the arms, equipments, and clothing -sent by the French Government to Ireland. How fatal a choice James made -in preferring Lauzun has already appeared. By universal consent, De -Boisseleau was made military governor of Limerick. Berwick, in the -absence of Tyrconnel, was recognized as commander-in-chief, mainly -because of his kinship with the king, while the able and trusty -Sarsfield was second in command, and, as will be seen, did the lion’s -share of the fighting. King William, with his formidable army, arrived -within sight of Limerick and “sat down before it” on August 9, confining -his attentions mostly to the southern defences of Irishtown, which -appeared to offer the most favorable point of assault. Although he had -with him a powerful artillery, he did not hope to reduce the city -without a further supply of heavy ordnance. Before leaving the Irish -capital, he had ordered a great siege train to be put in readiness, so -that it might reach him about the time he would be ready to begin the -investment of Limerick. He knew, therefore, that it was near at hand. -But another soldier, even bolder than himself, knew also of the close -approach of the siege train from Dublin, and that it was escorted by a -strong cavalry force. This was Sarsfield, who, at the head of five -hundred chosen horse, left the camp on the Clare side of the river on -Sunday night, August 10, rode along the right bank toward Killaloe, and, -near that town, crossed into the County Tipperary by a deep and -dangerous ford, seldom used and never guarded. He chose it in preference -to the bridge at Killaloe, because the utmost secrecy had to be -preserved, so that the Williamites might have no information of his -design to intercept the train. His guide was a captain of irregular -horse—called Rapparees—and he bore the sobriquet of “Galloping O’Hogan.” -Dawn found the adventurous force in the neighborhood of the picturesque -village of Silvermines, at the foot of the Keeper Mountain. In the deep -glen, which runs along its eastern base, Sarsfield concealed his party -all day of the 11th; but sent his scouts, under O’Hogan, southward -toward the County Limerick border, to locate the siege train. The -peasantry of the locality still point out the exact spot where the Irish -general awaited impatiently, and anxiously, news from the scouts. The -horses were kept saddled up, ready for immediate action, and, while they -grazed, the men held their bridle-reins. Pickets were posted behind the -crests of every vantage point, to prevent surprise, because the patrols -of King William’s army were ceaseless in their vigilance and might come -upon the bold raiders at any moment. The scouts returned at nightfall -and reported that the siege train and its escort had gone into camp near -the castle of Ballyneety, about two miles from the village of Cullen, in -the County Limerick, and twelve miles, by English measurement, in rear -of the Williamite army. Sarsfield immediately put his troops in motion, -and, after a laborious journey, reached the neighborhood of the rock and -ruined castle of Ballyneety some hours before daybreak. The convoy, -thinking itself secure, kept a careless look-out, and, besides, -Sarsfield, in some mysterious manner, secured the password, which -happened to be his own name. Tradition of the neighborhood says that, as -he approached the camp, the noise of the horses’ hoofs startled one of -the English sentinels, who, immediately, leveled his piece at the Irish -leader, and demanded the password. “Sarsfield is the word!” replied the -general, “and Sarsfield is the man!” Before the sentry could fire off -his musket, he was cloven down, and, at a fierce gallop, the Irish horse -fell upon the sleeping escort, nearly all of whom were sabred on the -spot. The captured cannon, charged with powder to their full extent, -were placed, muzzle downward, over a mine filled with the same -explosive, and the tin boats of a pontoon train, which was also bound -for William’s camp, were piled up near them. The Irish force, humanely -taking the English wounded with them, drew away to witness the result of -the coming explosion with greater security. Soon all was ready; the -train was ignited, and cannon and pontoons were blown into the sky. The -report was heard and the shock felt for twenty miles around, and -startled even the phlegmatic King William in his tent. He divined at -once, with military sagacity, what had taken place. There was no -mistaking it. Already, on the information of an Irish Williamite, named -Manus O’Brien, who had accidentally encountered Sarsfield’s cavalcade on -the Clare side, the king had sent Sir John Lanier, with five hundred -dragoons, to the rescue. Sarsfield eluded the latter and got back to his -camp, recrossing the Shannon much higher up than Killaloe, without the -loss of a man. When the news was confirmed to King William, by General -Lanier, he said, simply, “It was a bold movement. I did not think -Sarsfield capable of it.” Some authors affirm that Sarsfield himself -said to a wounded English officer, whom he had captured, “If this -enterprise had failed, I should have gone to France.” He was destined to -do other stout service for Ireland before he finally shed his life-blood -for the French lilies on a Belgian battlefield. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - William’s Assault on Limerick Repulsed with Slaughter—Heroism of the - Irish Women—Irish Humanity to the English Wounded - - -WILLIAM was not discouraged by the loss of his siege material. He found -that two of the cannon captured by Sarsfield had failed to explode. Some -heavy pieces, with mortars, also reached him, within a few days, from -Waterford, and these, with the ordnance he had brought with him from -Dublin, made a formidable array of breach-producing engines. The siege, -accordingly, was vigorously pressed, as against the Irishtown and King’s -Island, but hardly any demonstration was made against the Clare section, -connected with Limerick by Thomond bridge, probably because of the loss -of the pontoon train. - -The Irish soldiery and the citizens of Limerick, encouraged by De -Boisseleau, Berwick, and Sarsfield, had made considerable improvement in -the defences of Limerick before William came up, and, even after his -arrival, continued to repair the breaches made in the walls by his -cannon. Their batteries vigorously replied to those of the enemy, -although much inferior in number and weight of metal, and the -Williamites suffered quite heavy losses in officers and rank and file. -The Irish leaders had sent many non-combatants to the safer side of the -Shannon, but most of the women refused to leave and worked at the -earthworks like the men. Many of them were killed by the English fire -while so occupied. - -At last, on the morning of August 27, the Williamite engineers declared -the breach in the neighborhood of St. John’s Gate and the Black Battery -on the south side of the town practicable. Some authorities say it was -twelve yards wide, and others, including Thomas Davis, one of Ireland’s -most accurate writers, six perches, which would make quite a difference. -Five hundred British grenadiers, drawn from the right flank companies of -the line regiments, as was then and for long afterward the custom, -constituted the forlorn hope. Their immediate reserves were a battalion -of the Blue Dutch Guards—the heroes of the Boyne—and the regiments of -Douglas, Stuart, Meath, Lisburn, and Brandenburg. The whole army stood -ready to support these picked troops. The signal, three cannon shots, -was given from Cromwell’s Fort, where William witnessed the operation, -at 3.30 P.M. Story tells us the day was torrid. The orders to the -stormers were to seize the Irish counterscarp—the exterior slope of the -ditch—and maintain it. The assault was delivered with great spirit, the -grenadiers leaping out of their trenches, advancing at a run, firing -their pieces and throwing their hand grenades among the Irish in the -works. The attack was fierce and sudden—almost in the nature of a -surprise—but the Irish met it boldly, for, says Chaplain Story, in his -thrilling narrative of the event, “they had their guns all ready and -discharged great and small shot on us as fast as ‘twas possible. Our men -were not behind them in either, so that, in less than two minutes, the -noise was so terrible that one would have thought the very skies ready -to rent in sunder. This was seconded with dust, smoke, and all the -terrors the art of man could invent to ruin and undo one another; and, -to make it more uneasie, the day itself was so excessive hot to the -bystanders, and much more, sure, in all respects to those upon action. -Captain Carlile, of my Lord Drogheda’s regiment, ran on with his -grenadiers to the counterscarp, and tho’ he received two wounds between -that and the trenches, yet he went forward and commanded his men to -throw in their grenades, but in the leaping into the dry ditch below the -counterscarp an Irishman below shot him dead. Lieutenant Barton, -however, encouraged the men and they got upon the counterscarp, and all -the rest of the grenadiers were as ready as they.” - -It would seem that, at this point of the attack, some of the Irish -soldiers began to draw off and made for the breach, which the -Williamites entered with them. Half of the Drogheda regiment and some -others actually got into the town. The city seemed nearly won, as the -supports came up promptly to the assistance of their comrades. But the -Irish troops rallied immediately and fell vehemently on their pursuers. -These, in their turn, retreated from the breach, “but some were shot, -some were taken, and some came out again, but very few without being -wounded.” The Williamite chaplain thus describes the outcome, still -preserving his tone of contemptuous hatred of the brave Irish soldiery: -“The Irish then ventured (_sic_) upon the breach again, and from the -walls and every place so pestered us upon the counterscarp, that after -nigh three hours resisting bullets, stones (broken bottles from the very -women, who boldly stood in the breach and were nearer our men than their -own), and whatever ways could be thought on to destroy us, our -ammunition being spent, it was judged safest to return to our trenches! -When the work was at the hottest, the Brandenburg regiment (who behaved -themselves very well) were got upon the Black Battery, where the -enemies’ powder happened to take fire and blew up a great many of them, -the men, fagots, stones, and what not flying into the air with a most -terrible noise.... From half an hour after three, until after seven, -there was one continued fire of both great and small shot, without any -intermission; in so much that the smoke that went from the town reached -in one continued cloud to the top of a mountain [Keeper Hill, most -likely] at least six miles off. When our men drew off, some were brought -up dead, and some without a leg; others wanted arms, and some were blind -with powder; especially a great many of the poor Brandenburgers looked -like furies, with the misfortune of gunpowder.... The king [William] -stood nigh Cromwell’s Fort all the time, and the business being over, he -went to his camp very much concerned, as, indeed, was the whole army; -for you might have seen a mixture of anger and sorrow in every bodie’s -countenance. The Irish had two small field-pieces planted in the King’s -Island, which flankt their own counterscarp, and in our attack did us no -small damage, as did, also, two guns more that they had planted within -the town, opposite to the breach and charged with cartridge shot. - -“We lost, at least, five hundred on the spot, and had a thousand more -wounded, as I understood by the surgeons of our hospitals, who are the -properest judges. The Irish lost a great many by our cannon and other -ways, but it can not be supposed that their loss should be equal to -ours, since it is a much easier thing to defend walls than ’tis by plain -strength to force people from them, and one man within has the advantage -of four without.” - -Mr. Story acknowledges fifty-nine officers of the English regiments -engaged killed and wounded. Fifteen died upon the ground and several -afterward of their injuries. “The Grenadiers are not here included,” -continues the English annalist, “and they had the hottest service; nor -are there any of the foreigners, who lost full as many as the English.” - -We have quoted this English authority, prejudiced though he was, because -the testimony of an eye-witness is much more valuable than the -allegations of writers who give their information at second hand. We may -add, however, that all Irish historians have declared that the Black -Battery was mined for such an emergency as destroyed the Brandenburg -regiment, and some of them assert that Sarsfield, in person, fired the -mine. As he was the Ajax of the campaign, on the Irish side, it seems -quite natural that every extraordinary feat of skill or valor should -have been credited to him. His own merits made him the idol of his -people, and he was farther endeared to them, as being the son of Anna -O’More, daughter of the famous organizer of the Irish insurrection of -1641. On the paternal side, he was of Norman stock. His father had been -a member of the Irish House of Commons, and was proscribed and exiled -because he had sided with the patriots in the Parliamentary wars. -General Sarsfield—the rank he held at the first siege of Limerick—had -seen hot service on the Continent, during the early part of his career, -and commanded a regiment of the royal cavalry at the battle of -Sedgemoor, where the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth met with his fatal -defeat at the hands of Lord Feversham. In stature, he was -tall—considerably over six feet—fair and strikingly handsome. His -flowing wig—in the queer fashion of the period—fell in massive ringlets -over the corselet of a cuirassier, and, in the rush of battle, he must -have been the counterpart of Murat, Napoleon’s “Emperor of Dragoons.” -Irish poets have called him “headlong Sarsfield.” “Long-headed -Sarsfield” would have been a better sobriquet, for, had his advice been -taken by his royal master and the generals sent by the latter to command -over him, Ireland would never have bowed her head to the yoke of -William. Even the most envenomed of English historians against the -adherents of King James—including Lord Macaulay—do ample justice to the -courage, talents, and virtues of Patrick Sarsfield. - -The heroic women of Limerick, who fought and bled in the breach, are -complimented by Chaplain Story, as we have seen, at the expense of their -countrymen, but the glorious military record of the Irish race in the -wars of Europe and of this continent, since that period, would make any -defence of the conduct of the heroes of Limerick-breach superfluous. The -women, too, deserve immortal honor; because, in defence of their country -and hearthstones, they dared the storm of war, and “stalked with -Minerva’s step where Mars might quake to tread.” - -The Irish loss in killed and wounded was about four hundred. Many lives, -on both sides, were lost by sickness—dysentery and enteric fever -chiefly—during this siege. A conservative estimate places William’s -loss, by wounds and sickness, at 5,000, and the Irish at 3,000. - -The day after his bloody repulse, King William sent a flag of truce to -De Boisseleau asking the privilege of burying his dead. After -consultation with Berwick and Sarsfield, the French governor refused the -request, as he suspected a ruse of some kind behind it. All the dead -were buried by the Irish as quickly as possible, because the heat was -intense, and, aside from feelings of humanity, they dreaded a plague -from the decomposition of the corpses left above ground. We are informed -by the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan, M.P., in his admirable “Story of -Ireland,” that, during the pursuit by the Irish of King William’s men -from the breach to their trenches, the temporary hospital established by -the king for his wounded caught fire. The Irish troops immediately -paused in their fierce pursuit, and devoted themselves to saving their -helpless foes in the hospital, who, otherwise, must have perished -miserably in the flames. - -King William, after carefully considering the situation, and taking -counsel with his chief officers, decided that there was no hope of -capturing Limerick that year. Therefore, he declared the siege -raised—that is, abandoned—and, on August 30th, the entire Williamite -army drew off from before Limerick, posting strong rear-guards at points -of vantage, so as to baffle pursuit. The king, leaving Baron De Ginkel -in command, retired to Waterford. There he embarked for England, bidding -Ireland what proved to be an eternal farewell. Although this gloomy -monarch was not quite as ferocious as some of his contemporaries, and -was a marked improvement on Cromwell, Ireton, and Ludlow in Ireland, he -is charged by careful Irish historians—like McGee, O’Callaghan, and -Sullivan—with having, like his lieutenant, General Douglas, permitted -many outrages on the people, both in person and property, on his march -from Dublin to Limerick. Making due allowance for the difficulty of -restraining a mercenary army, filled with hatred of the people they -moved among, from committing excesses, it is regrettable that the -martial renown of William of Orange is sullied by this charge of cruelty -in Ireland, as, afterward, in connection with the foul massacre of the -Macdonalds of Glencoe in Scotland. Brave men are rarely cruel, but we -fear, in these instances, William was an exception to the rule. - -The story of the first defence of Limerick, in the Williamite war, reads -like a chapter from a military romance, and yet it was, indeed, a stern -and bloody reality. It was, in truth, a magnificent defence against a -powerful foe, not surpassed even by that of Saragossa against the -French. Limerick, like Saragossa, was defended by the citizens, men and -women, quite as much as by the soldiery. All took equal risks, as in the -case of Londonderry. The latter was also a brilliant defence—more, -however, in the matter of splendid endurance than in hand-to-hand -conflict. Londonderry wears the crown for fortitude and -tenacity—Limerick and Saragossa for heroic prowess and matchless -courage. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Fall of Cork and Kinsale—Lauzun, the French General, Accused by Irish - Writers—Sarsfield’s Popularity—Tyrconnel Returns to Ireland—Berwick - Departs - - -THE successful defence of Limerick by the Irish was somewhat offset in -the following month of September by the victorious expedition from -England, against Cork and Kinsale, led by John Churchill, afterward Duke -of Marlborough, the greatest general of that age. Cork, under the -military governor, McEligott, defended itself vigorously during a siege -of five days, but the defences and garrison were both weak, and, -eventually, the city capitulated on honorable conditions. These were -subsequently violated by some soldiers and camp-followers of the English -army, but Marlborough suppressed, in as far as he could, the disorders -as soon as he heard of them. The English lost the Duke of -Grafton—natural son of Charles II—and many other officers and private -men during the siege. Marlborough, with characteristic promptitude, -moved at once on Kinsale. The old town and fort, not being defensible, -were, after some show of resistance, abandoned by the Irish troops, who -took post in the new fort, commanding the harbor, which they held with -creditable tenacity, during fourteen days. They, at last, capitulated, -their ammunition having run low, and were allowed, in recognition of -their valor, to retire to Limerick, the garrison in that city being thus -augmented by 1,200 tried warriors. Marlborough accomplished his task -within five weeks, and returned to England a popular idol. The loss of -Cork and Kinsale, particularly the latter, was a severe blow to the -Irish army, as it was, thereby, deprived of the most favorable seaports -by which supplies from France could reach it. It should have been stated -that Marlborough, in the capture of those towns, was materially assisted -by the English fleet. His army was a very formidable one, consisting of -9,000 picked men from England, and a detachment, nearly equal in -numbers, which joined him, under the Duke of Wurtemburg and General -Scravenmore. The latter body consisted of troops who had fought at the -Boyne and Limerick. Wurtemburg, on account of his connection with -royalty, claimed the command in chief. Marlborough, who was as great a -diplomat as he was a general, agreed to command alternately, but he was, -all through the operations, the real commander. Students of history will -remember that, in after wars on the Continent, Marlborough and Prince -Eugene of Savoy commanded on alternate days. But there was a great -difference in this case, Eugene having been regarded as nearly as good a -general as Marlborough himself. - -O’Callaghan attributes the failure of the main Irish army to succor the -Cork and Kinsale garrisons to the misconduct of Lauzun in deserting -Ireland, with his remaining 5,000 French troops, at this critical -period. He quotes King James’s and Berwick’s memoirs, the Rawdon papers, -and other authorities, to show that the Duke of Berwick had advanced -with 7,000 men as far as Kilmallock, in Limerick County, to raise the -siege of Cork, when he found himself destitute of cannon, which had been -carried off by the French general, and could not expose his inferior -force, destitute of artillery, to the formidable force under his uncle, -Marlborough. He was, therefore, most reluctantly compelled to abandon -the enterprise. Lauzun, it is further claimed, carried off most of the -powder stored in Limerick, and, had it not been for Sarsfield’s exploit -at Ballyneety, that city must have fallen if a second assault had been -delivered by William, as only fifty barrels of powder remained after the -fight of August 27th. - -The autumn and winter of 1690-91 were marked by constant bloody -skirmishes between the cavalry and infantry outposts of the two armies. -Hardly a day passed without bloodshed. Considerable ferocity was -exhibited by both parties, and neither seemed to have much the advantage -of the other. Story’s narrative of this period is one unbroken tale of -disorder and strife. His narration, if taken without a grain of salt, -would lead us to believe that nearly all the able-bodied Celtic-Irish -were put to the sword, at sight, by his formidable countrymen and their -allies, although he does admit, occasionally, that the Irish succeeded -in killing a few, at least, of their enemies. The most considerable of -these lesser engagements occurred between Sarsfield and the Duke of -Berwick on the Irish side and General Douglas and Sir John Lanier on the -side of the Williamites. The Irish leaders made an attack on Birr Castle -in September, and were engaged in battering it, when the English, under -Lanier, Douglas, and Kirk, marched to relieve it. They were too many for -Berwick and Sarsfield, who retired on Banagher, where there is a bridge -over the Shannon. The English pursued and made a resolute attempt to -take the bridge, but the Irish defended it so steadily, and with such -loss to the enemy, that the latter abandoned the attempt at capture and -retired to Birr. Sarsfield possessed one great advantage over all the -higher officers of King James’s army. He could speak the Irish (Gaelic) -language fluently, having learned it from the lips of his mother, Anna -O’More. This gave him vast control over the Celtic peasantry, who fully -trusted him, as he did them, and they kept him informed of all that was -passing in their several localities. The winter was exceptionally -severe—so much so that, at some points, the deep and rapid Shannon was -all but frozen across. Besides, there were several bridges that, if -carelessly guarded, could be easily surprised and taken by the invaders. -Sarsfield’s Celtic scouts, in December, observed several parties of -British cavalry moving along the banks of the river. Their suspicions -were excited, and they, at once, communicated with their general. The -latter had no sooner taken the alarm than one English force, under -Douglas, showed itself at Jamestown, and another, under Kirk and Lanier, -at Jonesboro. The English commanders were astonished at finding the -Irish army prepared to receive them warmly at both points. After severe -skirmishing, they withdrew. The cold had become so severe that foreign -troops were almost useless, while the Irish became, if possible, more -alert. Sarsfield, at the head of his formidable cavalry, harassed the -retreat of the Williamites to their winter quarters. - -The Duke of Tyrconnel, who had, according to O’Callaghan, and other -annalists, sailed from Galway with Lauzun, and, according to other -authorities from Limerick, with De Boisseleau, after William’s repulse, -returned from France, in February, accompanied by three men-of-war well -laden with provisions. They carried but few arms and no reinforcements, -but the aged duke, who seemed to be in good spirits, said that the -latter would speedily follow. The amount of money he brought with him -was comparatively insignificant—only 14,000 louis d’or—which he devoted -to clothing for the army, as most of the men were nearly in rags, and -had received no pay in many months. He had deposited 10,000 louis, -additional, at Brest for the food supply of the troops. - -He found unholy discord raging in the Irish ranks. Sarsfield had -discovered that some members of the Senate, or Council, appointed by -Tyrconnel before he left for France, had been in treasonable -correspondence with the enemy, and that this treachery had led to the -attempt at the passage of the Shannon made by the English in December. -The Council consisted of sixteen members, four from each province, and -was supposed to have supreme direction of affairs. Through the influence -of Sarsfield, Lord Riverston and his brother, both of whom were strongly -suspected of treason, were dismissed from that body, and Judge Daly, -another member, whose honesty was doubted, was placed under arrest in -the city of Galway. A difference had also arisen between Sarsfield and -Berwick, although they were generally on good terms, because the former -did not always treat the latter with the deference due an officer higher -in rank. Berwick was an admirable soldier, but he lacked Sarsfield’s -experience, and, naturally, did not understand the Irish people quite as -well as the native leader did. In fact, Sarsfield was the hero of the -time in the eyes of his countrymen, and, had he been unduly ambitious, -might have deposed Berwick, or even Tyrconnel, and made himself -dictator. But he was too good a patriot and true a soldier to even -harbor such a thought. After all his splendid services, he was -ungratefully treated. He deserved the chief command, but it was never -given him, and he received, instead, the barren title of Earl of Lucan, -the patent of which had been brought over from James by Tyrconnel. But -it was gall and wormwood for Sarsfield to learn from the duke that a -French commander-in-chief, Lieutenant-General the Marquis de St. Ruth, -had been chosen by Louis and James to take charge of military matters in -Ireland forthwith. Already he ranked below Tyrconnel and Berwick, -although having much more ability than the two combined, as he had -proven on many occasions. - -General St. Ruth, if we are to believe Lord Macaulay and other -Williamite partisans, was more distinguished for fierce persecution of -the French Protestants, called Huguenots, than anything else in his -career. He had served in the French army, in all its campaigns, under -Turenne, Catinat, and other celebrated soldiers, since 1667, and, while -yet in vigorous middle life, had won the rank of lieutenant-general. He -had married the widow of old Marshal De Meilleraye, whose page he had -been in his boyhood, and, according to St. Simon’s gossipy memoirs, the -couple led a sort of cat-and-dog existence, the king having been often -compelled to interfere between them. Of St. Ruth’s person, St. Simon -says: “He was tall and well-formed, but, as everybody knew, extremely -ugly.” The same authority says the general was “of a brutal temper,” and -used to baton his wife whenever she annoyed him. It is well known that -St. Simon was a venomous detractor of those who had incurred his -resentment, or that of his friends, and this may account for his -uncomplimentary references to St. Ruth. Irish tradition says that the -latter was hard-featured, but of commanding person, with a piercing -glance and a voice like a trumpet. It is certain that he had an -imperious disposition and was quick to fly into a rage. When appointed -to the command in Ireland, he had just returned from a successful -campaign in Savoy, where Mountcashel’s Irish Brigade, as already stated, -had formed a portion of his victorious forces. He had learned to -appreciate Irish courage and constancy during that campaign, and was, on -that account as much as any other, deemed the fit man to lead the Irish -soldiers on their own soil to victory. - -Tyrconnel had accepted St. Ruth from Louis and James, because he could -not help himself, and, also, because he was jealous of Sarsfield. The -viceroy was no longer popular in Ireland. He was aged, infirm, and -incompetent, and it would seem his temper had grown so bad that he could -not get along peaceably with anybody. One faction from the Irish camp -had sent representatives to James in the palace of St. Germain, begging -that Tyrconnel be recalled and the command placed in the hands of -Sarsfield. But Tyrconnel, because of old association, was all-powerful -with the exiled king, and his cause, therefore, prevailed. Soon -afterward the gallant Duke of Berwick, who subsequently won the battle -of Almanza and placed Philip V—King Louis’s grandson—on the throne of -Spain, unable to agree with either Tyrconnel or Sarsfield, was relieved -of command in Ireland and joined his father in France. This was an -additional misfortune for Ireland. Berwick, the nephew of the great Duke -of Marlborough, was, both by nature and training, a thorough soldier. He -was the very soul of bravery, and could put enthusiasm into an Irish -army by his dashing feats of arms. He was missed in the subsequent -battles and sieges of that war. His career in the French army was long -and brilliant. After rising to the rank of marshal, he was killed by a -cannon shot while superintending the siege of Philipsburg, in 1734. The -aristocratic French family of Fitzjames is lineally descended from the -Duke of Berwick, and that house, although of illegitimate origin, -represents the male Stuart line, just as the House of Beaufort, in -England, represents, with the bend sinister shadowing its escutcheon, -the male line of the Plantagenets. Strange to say, the Duke of Berwick’s -great qualities as a general were not even suspected by his associates, -either French, English, or Irish, in Ireland. When Tyrconnel left him in -command, leading officers of the Irish army declared that they would not -serve, unless he consented to be governed by a council more national in -composition than that nominated by Tyrconnel. After some strong -protests, Berwick yielded the point, but never afterward made any -attempt at bona-fide command. He felt that he was but a figurehead, and -was glad when Tyrconnel’s return led to his recall from a position at -once irksome and humiliating. Had he been King James’s legitimate son, -the House of Stuart would probably have found in him a restorer. He -inherited the Churchill genius from his mother, Arabella, who was King -James’s mistress when that monarch was Duke of York. She was not -handsome of feature, but her figure was perfect, and the deposed king, -to judge by his selections, must have had a penchant for plain women. -O’Callaghan, in his “History of the Irish Brigades,” says of the Duke of -Berwick: “He was one of those commanders of whom it is the highest -eulogium to say that to such, in periods of adversity, it is safest to -intrust the defence of a state. Of the great military leaders of whose -parentage England can boast, he may be ranked with his uncle, -Marlborough, among the first. But to his uncle, as to most public -characters, be was very superior as a man of principle. The Regent Duke -of Orleans, whose extensive acquaintance with human nature attaches a -suitable value to his opinion, observed: ‘If there ever was a perfectly -honest man in the world, that man was the Marshal Duke of Berwick.’” We -have also the testimony of his French and other contemporaries that he -was a man of majestic appearance—much more “royal” in that respect than -any other scion of his race. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOK V - - -RECORDING IMPORTANT EVENTS FROM THE ARRIVAL OF GENERAL ST. RUTH IN -LIMERICK TO HIS GLORIOUS DEATH AT THE BATTLE OF AUGHRIM, IN JULY, 1691 - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - General St. Ruth Arrives at Limerick to Command the Irish Army—His - Marvelous Activity—Brave and Able, but Vain and Obstinate - - -THE garrison of Limerick was beginning to despair of any farther succor -from France, and murmurs against the viceroy became loud and deep, when -runners arrived from the southwestern coast, announcing that a French -fleet had been sighted off the Kerry coast, and that it was, probably, -steering for the estuary of the Shannon. This was in the first week of -May, and, on the 8th of that month, the French men-of-war cast anchor in -the harbor of Limerick. On board was Lieutenant-General St. Ruth, with -Major-General D’Usson, Major-General De Tesse, and other officers. He -brought with him, in the ships, provisions, a supply of indifferent -clothing, and a quantity of ammunition, but no reinforcements of any -kind. The general, however, had a large personal staff and a retinue of -servants and orderlies. He was received, on landing, by Tyrconnel, -Sarsfield, Sheldon, and other army leaders. He and his officers attended -pontifical High Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral, where Te Deum was chanted. -Macaulay, a somewhat imaginative authority, informs us that St. Ruth was -disappointed, if not disgusted, by the conditions then existing in -Limerick. He had been accustomed to command troops perfectly uniformed -and equipped. The Irish army was poorly dressed and indifferently armed. -He had seen the splendid legions of Mountcashel in Savoy, dressed -scrupulously and bearing the best arms of that day, and he was quite -unprepared to behold the undeniable poverty of the brave defenders of -Athlone and Limerick. But he was a practical soldier, and at once set -about what an American general would call “licking his army into shape.” -Dissatisfied with the cavalry mounts, he resorted to a ruse to supply -the deficiency. The “gentry” of the surrounding districts were summoned -to King’s Island to deliberate on the question of national defence. They -came in large numbers—every man, as was the custom of the times, mounted -on a strong and spirited horse. When all had assembled, St. Ruth, -through an interpreter, addressed them in spirited words. One of the -chief needs of the hour was cavalry horses. The gentlemen were invited -to dismount and turn over their horses to the public service. This most -of them did cheerfully, while others were chagrined. However, St. Ruth -gained his point, and the Irish troopers were as well mounted as any in -the world. - -The new French general, although much given to pleasure, was a man of -extraordinary energy. He gave balls to honor the country gentlemen and -their families, and the French uniform became very familiar in all the -aristocratic Catholic circles of Munster and Connaught. St. Ruth -participated in the dancing and feasting, but was always “up betimes,” -and away on horseback, attended by his staff and interpreters, to -inspect the posts held by the Irish along the Shannon and Suck. It was -during one of those rides, tradition says, he noticed the hill of -Kilcommodan, rising above the little hamlet of Aughrim, near -Ballinasloe, and, casting a glance at the position, exclaimed to his -officers, in French, “That is the choicest battleground in all Europe!” -We shall hear more about Aughrim, and what there befell Monsieur St. -Ruth and the Irish army. - -That brave army, at Limerick, Athlone, and Galway, was put through a -course of drilling, such as it had never received before, under the -orders of the ardent and indefatigable Frenchman. He repressed disorder -with an iron hand, and made such examples, under martial law, as seemed -necessary. It is said he was severe to his officers and contemptuous to -the rank and file of his army, but these assertions come mainly from -Chaplain Story and chroniclers of his class. The haughty Irish -aristocrats would have run St. Ruth through the body with their swords -if he had dared to be insulting toward them. He was necessarily strict, -no doubt, and this strictness bore glorious fruit when the reorganized -army again took the field. One of the chief embarrassments of the time -was lack of money. Lauzun, while in Ireland, had played into the hands -of the English by crying down King James’s “brass money,” as it was -called, issued on the national security. The poor devoted Irish soldiers -took it readily enough, but the trading and commercial classes, always -sensitive and conservative where their interests are affected, were slow -to take the tokens in exchange for their goods. King Louis had promised -a large supply of “good money,” but, somehow, it was not forthcoming, -except in small parcels, which did little good. We may be sure, however, -that St. Ruth, accustomed to Continental forced loans, did not stand on -ceremony, and, under his vigorous régime, the Irish army was better -armed, better fed, and better clad than it had been since the outbreak -of the war. Old Tyrconnel ruled Ireland nominally. The real ruler, after -he had, by repeated representations and solicitations, obtained -unrestricted military command, was St. Ruth himself. Unhappily for -Ireland, he slighted Tyrconnel, who was a very proud man, and did not -get along smoothly with Sarsfield, whose sage advice, had he taken it, -would have saved him from a fatal disaster. - -Baron De Ginkel, commander-in-chief for William, marched with an army -computed at 19,000 men from Dublin to open the campaign against the -Irish on the line of the Shannon, on May 30, 1691. On June 7, he reached -the fort of Ballymore, held by a small Irish force under -Lieutenant-Colonel Ulick Burke, and summoned it to surrender. Burke -answered defiantly, and Ginkel immediately opened upon his works. A -detached post, held by a sergeant and a few men, was defended -desperately and caused the Williamites serious loss. It was finally -captured, and De Ginkel, with inexcusable cruelty, hanged the brave -sergeant, for doing his duty, as O’Callaghan says, on the shallow -pretext that he had defended an untenable position. Colonel Burke, -nothing daunted, continued his defence of Ballymore, although Ginkel -threatened him with the unfortunate sergeant’s fate. The fire of -eighteen well-served pieces of heavy artillery speedily reduced the fort -to a ruin. The Irish engineer officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, was -killed, and many men had also fallen. Burke hung out a flag of truce and -demanded the honors of war if he were to surrender the place. Ginkel -refused and called for immediate submission. The utmost time he would -grant was two hours, and he agreed to allow the women and children to -depart within that period. Once he proceeded to storm the position, he -said, the garrison need expect no quarter. Colonel Burke declined to be -intimidated and the work of destruction began anew—the women and -children still remaining in the beleaguered fort. The latter was -situated near the town of the same name, in the County Westmeath, on a -peninsula which jutted into a small loch, or lake, and was too far from -support to make a successful defence. It stood about midway between -Mullingar and Athlone on the road from Dublin. Finally, Ginkel managed -to assail it on the water front, breaches were made, and further -resistance was useless. Therefore, Governor Burke finally surrendered. -He and his command were made prisoners of war, and, in the sinister -words of Story, the four hundred women and children, destitute of food, -shelter, and protection, were “set at liberty.” What subsequently became -of them is not stated. Colonel Burke was exchanged and fell in battle, -at Aughrim, soon afterward. Seven days were occupied by De Ginkel in -again putting Ballymore into a state of defence. He then resumed his -march on Athlone, and, on June 18, was joined at Ballyburn Pass by the -Duke of Wurtemburg and Count Nassau, at the head of 7,000 foreign -mercenaries, and these, according to O’Callaghan, the most painstaking -of historical statisticians, brought his force up to “between 26,000 and -27,000 men of all arms.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - De Ginkel Besieges Athlone—Memorable Resistance of the Irish - Garrison—The Battle at the Bridge—St. Ruth’s Fatuous Obstinacy—Town - Taken by Surprise - - -ST. RUTH had been advised by the Irish officers of his staff not to -attempt the defence of the “Englishtown” of Athlone, on the Leinster -bank of the Shannon; but, rather, to confine himself to the defence of -the Connaught side, as Governor Grace had done so successfully in the -preceding year. He paid no attention to their counsel, considering, -after reflection, that the Williamite army should be met and beaten back -from the Englishtown, and believing that the bridge, which, in the event -of abandonment, must be destroyed, might prove useful in future military -operations. Accordingly, Colonel John Fitzgerald was appointed governor -of this portion of Athlone, and, with a very insufficient force, -prepared to do his duty. Ginkel, his well-fed ranks, according to -Macaulay, “one blaze of scarlet,” and provided with the finest artillery -train ever seen in Ireland, appeared before Athlone on the morning of -June 19th. His advance was most gallantly disputed and retarded by a -detachment of Irish grenadiers, selected by Governor Fitzgerald, for -that important duty. He took command of them in person, and they fought -so bravely and obstinately, that the enemy were delayed in their -progress for several hours, so that the Irish garrison was well prepared -to receive them, when they finally appeared within gunshot of the walls. -The attack on Englishtown began immediately, Ginkel planting such of his -cannon as had already come up with great judgment; and Fitzgerald -replied to his fire with the few and inefficient pieces he possessed. -But his Irish soldiers performed prodigies of heroism. Their deeds of -unsurpassed valor are thus summed up by Mr. O’Callaghan in an epitaph -which he suggested, in his “Green Book,” should be engraved on a -memorial stone in the locality of the action to be revered by the Irish -people of all creeds and parties: - -“Be it remembered that, on the 19th and 20th of June, 1691, a little -band, of between three hundred and four hundred Irishmen, under Colonel -Fitzgerald, contested against an English army of about 26,000 men, under -Lieutenant-General Ginkel, the passes leading to, and the English town -of, Athlone. And though the place had but a slender wall, in which the -enemy’s well-appointed and superior artillery soon made a large breach, -and though its few defenders were worn down by forty-eight hours’ -continual exertion, they held out till the evening of the second day, -when, the breach being assaulted by a fresh body of 4,000 Dutch, Danish, -and English troops, selected from above 26,000 men, who fought in -successive detachments, against but three hundred or four hundred, with -no fresh troops to relieve them, these gallant few did not abandon the -breach before above two hundred of their number were killed or disabled. -Then, in spite of the enemy, the brave survivors made their way to the -bridge over the Shannon, maintained themselves in front of it till they -demolished two arches behind them, and finally retired across the river -by a drawbridge into the Irish town, which was preserved by their -heroism till the coming up, soon after, of the Irish main army under -Lieutenant-General St. Ruth.” - -Having at last attained possession of Englishtown, Baron De Ginkel -proceeded without delay to bombard the Connaught, and stronger, section -of Athlone. His cannonade knocked a portion of the grim old castle to -pieces, and did considerable other damage, but produced no depressing -effect on the resolute Irish garrison, commanded by two such heroes as -Colonel John Fitzgerald and the veteran Colonel Grace, who acted as a -volunteer. The experienced Dutch general, fearing the appearance on the -scene of St. Ruth, with a relieving army, became a prey to anxiety. -Impressed by the spirit displayed by the Irish troops, he knew there was -little chance of forcing the mutilated bridge by a direct assault, and -he looked for some means of flanking the place, either by a ford or a -bridge of boats. He did not have, at first, sufficient material for the -latter, so he “demonstrated” with detachments of horse, toward -Lanesborough, east of Athlone, and Banagher west of it. The vigilance of -the Irish patrols at both points baffled his design. - -Meanwhile, St. Ruth, who had been on the march from Limerick for some -days, at the head of 15,000 men, if we are to believe King James’s -Memoirs, appeared beyond the Shannon and went into camp on a rising -ground about a mile and a half from the town. He was soon made aware of -the condition of affairs, and strengthened the castle garrison. He also -had an earthen rampart constructed to protect the bridge and ford. The -latter was practicable at low water only, and the summer of 1691 was -exceptionally dry. The river had never been known to be so shallow -within the memory of living man. This fact alone should have warned the -French general to be exceptionally vigilant. He retired the brave -Fitzgerald from the governorship, to which he appointed General -Wauchop—a good soldier, but not an Irishman—and the French officers, -Generals D’Usson and De Tesse, were made joint commandants in the town. -The apologists for St. Ruth’s mistakes in front of Athlone claim that -the ill-fated chief gave orders to the French commandants to level all -the useless old walls near the bridge, but that his orders were -neglected. As is usual in such cases, disobedience led to tragical -results. Foiled in his attempt at flank operations, Ginkel determined to -assault the partially destroyed bridge across the Shannon, which, under -cover of a tremendous cannon fire, he did. But it was defended with -Spartan tenacity. Attack after attack failed. Movable covered galleries -were tried, and these contained planks wherewith to restore the broken -arches. Not less than nine English batteries, armed with heavy guns, -rained death on the Irish army, but still it stood unmoved, although -losing heavily. Under cover of the fire of nearly fifty great guns, the -English pontoniers, protected also by their galleries, succeeded in -laying planks across the broken arches. They accounted their work done, -when suddenly out of the Irish trenches leaped eleven men clad in armor, -led by Sergeant Custume, or Costy, who, according to Sullivan, called on -them “to die with him for Ireland.” They rushed upon the bridge and -proceeded to tear away the planks. Instantly, all the English cannon and -muskets sent balls and bullets crashing upon them. The whole eleven fell -dead—shattered by that dreadful fire. Some planks still remained upon -the arches. Eleven more Irish soldiers leaped from their works, and, -following the example of their fallen comrades, gained the bridge and -sought to throw the planks into the river. Nine of these heroes were -killed before their work was accomplished. But the planks were floating -down the Shannon, and two heroic survivors of twenty-two Homeric heroes -regained the Irish lines! Pity it is that their names have not come down -to us. Aubrey de Vere, in his fine poem, commemorating the exploit, -tells us that St. Ruth, who, with Sarsfield, witnessed the glorious -deed, rose in his stirrups and swore he had never seen such valor -displayed in the Continental wars. Chaplain Story, with incredible -meanness, tries to steal the glory of this deed from the Irish army by -saying that the heroes were “bold Scots of Maxwell’s regiment.” The -slander has been sufficiently refuted by O’Callaghan, Boyle, and other -writers. Maxwell was a Scotchman, but he commanded Irish troops -exclusively, and there was not a single Scotch battalion in the service -of King James in Ireland from first to last. For further information on -this point, the reader can consult O’Callaghan’s “Green Book” and -“History of the Irish Brigades,” and also Dalton’s “King James’s Irish -Army List,” which gives the roster of the field, line, and staff -officers of each Irish regiment, including Maxwell’s. The defence of the -bridge occurred on the evening of June 28. On the morning of the 29th -another attempt was to have been made, but, owing to some -miscalculation, was deferred for some hours. St. Ruth was ready for it -when it came, and, after another murderous struggle at the bridge, where -the English and their allies were led by the Scottish General Mackay, -the assailants were again beaten off, their covered gallery destroyed, -and their bridge of boats, which they bravely attempted to construct in -face of the Irish fire, broken up. St. Ruth commanded the Irish army in -person and displayed all the qualities of a good general. Success, -however, would seem to have rendered him over-confident. The conflict -over, he led his main body back to camp, and is said to have given a -ball and banquet at his quarters—a country house now in a neglected -condition and popularly known as “St. Ruth’s Castle.” The Roscommon -peasants still speak of it as “the owld house in which the French -general danced the night before he lost Athlone.” - -By some unaccountable fatality, St. Ruth, instead of leaving some -veteran troops to occupy the works near the bridge, committed them to -new and untrained regiments, which were placed under the command of -Acting Brigadier Maxwell. The latter, who has been—unjustly, -perhaps—accused of treason by Irish writers, would seem to have shared -the fatal over-confidence of St. Ruth. Therefore, no extraordinary -precautions were adopted to prevent a surprise—something always to be -anticipated when a baffled enemy grows desperate. Colonel Cormac -O’Neill, of the great Ulster family of that ilk, happened to be on duty -at the defences of the river front during the night and morning of June -29-30, and noticed suspicious movements among the English troops -occupying the other side of the Shannon. Becoming alarmed, he -immediately communicated his suspicions to Maxwell, observing, at the -same time, that he would like a supply of ammunition for his men. -Maxwell sneered and asked, “Do your men wish to shoot lavrocks (larks)?” -However, O’Neill’s earnest manner impressed him somewhat, and, in the -gray of the morning, he visited the outer lines, and, from what he saw, -at once concluded that De Ginkel had some serious movement in -contemplation. He sent immediately to St. Ruth for a regiment of veteran -infantry, at the same time giving his reasons for the request. St. Ruth, -it is said, sent back a taunting reply, which reflected on Maxwell’s -courage. We are told that Sarsfield remonstrated with St. Ruth, who -declared he did not believe Ginkel would make an attempt to surprise the -town, while he was so near with an army to relieve it. English -historians say that, upon this, Sarsfield apostrophized British valor -and remarked that there was no enterprise too perilous for it to -attempt. The discussion—if, indeed, it ever took place—was cut short by -the ringing of bells and firing of cannon in the town. “Athlone is -surprised and taken!” Sarsfield is credited with having said, as he -observed the untrained fugitives running from the Irish trenches. -“Impossible!” St. Ruth is represented to have replied, “Ginkel’s master -should hang him if he attempts the capture of the place, and mine should -hang me if I were to lose it!” But the uproar from the city soon showed -the Frenchman that something terrible had occurred. When too late, he -gave orders to rectify his mistake. The English were already in the -works and could not be dislodged. Maxwell’s men had fled in disorder, -most of them being surprised in their sleep, and the general and some of -his officers became prisoners of war. It was the most complete and -successful surprise recorded in military annals, except, perhaps, that -of Mannheim by General, afterward Marshal, Ney, in 1799. It would seem -that Ginkel, by the advice of Mackay, and other officers, looked for a -ford, and found it by the aid of three Danish soldiers who were under -sentence of death, and were offered their lives if they succeeded. They -found the ford, and the Irish, seeing them approach the bank of the -river fearlessly, concluded they were deserters and refrained from -firing. After them plunged in sixty armored English grenadiers, led by -Captain Sandys, a noted military dare-devil, and these were followed by -the main body under Mackay, another experienced commander. The hour was -six in the morning of June 30, and, after one of the bravest defences of -which we have record, Athlone, through the infatuation of St. Ruth, was -in English hands before noon on that eventful day. And so it came to -pass, that after a conflict of more than a year, the defensive line of -the Shannon was, at last, broken. It is estimated by most historians -that Ginkel’s total loss amounted to 1,200 men and that of St. Ruth was -somewhat greater, owing to the surprise. Among those killed in St. -Ruth’s army were two colonels, named McGinness, Colonel MacMahon, -Colonel O’Gara, Colonel Richard Grace, who fell in defence of the bridge -on the 29th, and the French adjutant-general. Few officers of note fell -on the English side. Ginkel, during the siege, “expended 50 tons of -gunpowder, 12,000 cannon balls, 600 bombshells, and innumerable tons of -stone, hurled from the mortars, when the shells were exhausted.” After -the capture, the English found only a mass of ruins, and it took De -Ginkel several days to put the place in some kind of repair. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - The Irish Army Falls Back and Takes Post at Aughrim—Description of the - Field—Disposition of the Irish Forces—Baal Dearg O’Donnell’s Apathy - - -BOTH history and tradition affirm that St. Ruth and Sarsfield almost -came to swords’ points over the loss of Athlone, and it is still -believed, in that section of Ireland, that the Irish general, indignant -at the criminal blunder that had been committed by his superior, took -all of his cavalry from under the Frenchman’s command and marched to -Limerick. But this tradition is more than doubtful. It is, however, -certain that the two leaders, who should have been so united in council, -had a bitter altercation over the disaster, and were hardly on speaking -terms during the few momentous days they were destined to serve -together. St. Ruth was filled with rage and mortification. He felt that -he had committed a grievous error, and dreaded the anger of King Louis, -who was a severe judge of those who served him ill. He declared his -determination to hazard all on a pitched battle. Against this resolve, -Tyrconnel, who had come to the camp from Limerick, and others, -protested, but in vain. St. Ruth was in no humor to be balked. Tyrconnel -left the camp in dudgeon and retired once more to Limerick, which he was -destined never to leave again. Having made up his mind to fight, St. -Ruth at once broke camp and moved by Milton Pass, where he halted for a -night, toward Ballinasloe, which stands on the river Suck and in the -county of Galway. The cavalry covered the retreat, but no attempt -whatever was made at pursuit. - -The army took post along the fords of the Suck, as if it intended to -fight in front of Ballinasloe, which was considered quite defensible, -but St. Ruth’s previous knowledge of the country would appear to have -determined him to retire about three and a half miles south by west of -his first position, as soon as reinforcements, drawn from the abandoned, -or reduced, posts along the Shannon, had joined him. In his retreat from -Athlone, some of the Connaught troops, disgusted by the loss of that -town and doubtful of the general’s motives, deserted, and these had to -be replaced by the soldiers of the Irish garrisons broken up or -depleted. About July 9, old style, St. Ruth decamped from Ballinasloe, -and a few hours afterward his devoted army, which, according to our best -information, consisted of about 15,000 foot and 5,000 horse and -dragoons, with only nine field-pieces, defiled by the causeways of -Urachree and Aughrim to the slopes of Kilcommodan Hill, where the new -camp was established, on the eastern side of the eminence, facing toward -Garbally and Ballinasloe. Kilcommodan, at that period, was almost -surrounded by red bog, and, on the front by which De Ginkel must -approach, ran a small stream, with several branches, which made the -morass impracticable for horse and difficult for infantry. In our day, -this morass has become meadow-land, but it is about the only natural -feature that has undergone considerable change since the period of the -battle. From north to south, the hill is estimated to be a little more -than a mile in length, and its mean elevation is about 350 feet. The bog -lay closer up to Aughrim, where stand the ruins of an old castle which -commanded the narrow and difficult pass, than to Urachree, where there -is another pass not particularly formidable to a determined assailant. -The road through the pass of Aughrim ran then, and still runs, by -Kilconnell Abbey and village—after which the French have named the -battle—to Athenry, Loughrea, and Galway. The road through the pass of -Urachree connects Ballinasloe with Lawrencetown, Eyrecourt, and Banagher -Bridge, and also, by a branch route, with Portumna; and these were the -natural lines of retreat for the Irish army in the event of disaster. -Near the crest of Kilcommodan Hill are the remains of two so-called -Danish raths, circular in shape, and in the one nearest to Aughrim -Castle St. Ruth is said to have pitched his tent. - -Most of the elevation was then a wild common, but at its base, on the -Irish front, were many fields under tillage, and these small inclosures -were divided from each other by thick, “quick-set” hedges, or, rather, -fences, such as are still common in Ireland—formidable against the -encroachments of cattle, but still more formidable when applied to -military purposes. The French general had found his intrenchments -ready-made, and proceeded to use them to the best possible advantage. -Weak points in them were strengthened, and passageways connecting one -with the other, from front to rear and from right to left, were -constructed. The design was to enable the formidable Irish cavalry to -aid the infantry when a crisis should arrive. In the direction of -Urachree, St. Ruth caused the construction of regular breastworks, -conceiving that his point of danger lay to the right, and having, as a -military writer has well observed, “a fatal confidence in the strength -of his left flank,” resting as it did on an old castle and “a narrow, -boggy trench through which two horsemen could hardly ride abreast.” All -his arrangements were completed by the 10th of July, and, according to -Boyle, the author of “The Battlefields of Ireland,” his line of battle, -which contemporaneous accounts say covered a front of about two miles, -had its right resting on Urachree and its left upon Aughrim. The London -“Gazette” of July, 1691, says that this wing of the Irish army “extended -toward the Abbey of Kilconnell,” which was considerably to the left and -almost in rear of Kilcommodan Hill. The Irish centre rested on the mid -slope of the elevation, “between its camp and the hedgerows.” Each -division consisted of two front and two rear lines; the former of -infantry and the latter of cavalry. Of St. Ruth’s nine brass pieces, two -were devoted to the defence of Aughrim Castle; a battery of three pieces -was constructed on the northeastern slope of Kilcommodan, so as to rake -the castle pass, a part of the morass, and the firmer ground beyond it, -and thus prevent any hostile troops from deploying there and so threaten -his left. His other battery, of four pieces, was planted on his right -and swept the pass leading to Urachree. It is said that a strong reserve -of horse, under Sarsfield, was posted on the west side of the hill, out -of view of the approaching enemy, but that Sarsfield had been -particularly enjoined by St. Ruth to make no movement whatever without a -direct order from himself. Story, who ought to know, says that Sarsfield -was second in command, but neither to him nor to any other of his -subordinate generals did St. Ruth communicate his plan of battle, so -that, if he were doomed to fall, the conflict could still be waged as he -had from the first ordained it. This was St. Ruth’s most fatal error, as -it placed the fate of Ireland on the life or death of a single man. He -had no cannon with which to arm a battery on his centre, nor does he -seem to have wanted any for that purpose—his apparent plan being to let -the English infantry cross at that point, where he felt confident the -Irish foot and dragoons would soon make an end of them. Although King -James’s memoirs aver that St. Ruth had “a mean [_i.e._ poor] opinion” of -the Irish infantry, until it developed its prowess in the battle, his -disposition of this arm at Aughrim would not convey that opinion to the -observing mind. Most of the Irish foot lacked discipline, in the strict -sense of the term, but no general who had seen them fight, as St. Ruth -did, at the bridge of Athlone, could doubt their courage. His -expectation that the English troops sent against his centre would be -roughly handled was not doomed to disappointment. - -Owing to many untoward causes, a full and correct list of the Irish -regiments that fought at Aughrim is not to be obtained, but Boyle holds -that Colonel Walter Bourke and his brother, Colonel David Bourke, held -the position in and around the castle of Aughrim; that Lord Bophin, -Brigadier Henry Luttrell, and Colonels Simon Luttrell and Ulick Bourke -commanded on the left; that Major-General Dorrington, Major-General H. -M. J. O’Neill, Brigadier Gordon O’Neill, Colonel Felix O’Neill, and -Colonel Anthony Hamilton held the centre; and that Lords Kilmallock, -Galmoy, Galway, Clare, and Colonel James Talbot commanded on the right, -toward Urachree. Thus it may be inferred, says the historian, that the -Munster troops were on the right, the Leinster and Ulster contingents in -the centre, and the soldiers of Connaught were posted on the left. The -general in command of the entire infantry was William Mansfield Barker, -and Major-General John Hamilton was in chief command of the horse. The -discord among the chief officers in the Irish camp must have been -something unusual, when to none of the distinguished commanders -enumerated did the French commander-in-chief reveal his order of battle. -But the historian recently quoted says, in reviewing the character of -the unfortunate Frenchman: “Whatever were the foibles of St. Ruth, from -his advent in the country to his retreat from Athlone, we have now to -look on an entirely different character. He had learned, though at a -fearful cost, that his name had no fears for his potent adversary; that -deeds alone were to be the test of high emprise, and that his folly had -narrowed down the campaign, and in fact the whole war, to the last -resource of fallen heroes—death or victory. With this feeling, all that -was vainglorious in his character at once disappeared; the mist was -removed from his mind, and it shone out to the end of his short career -as that of a true hero in adversity. Unlike his French predecessors, he -scorned to hide his faults behind the shield of calumny; he candidly -acknowledged his error and bitterly lamented it. He became courteous to -his officers, affable to his soldiers, changed at once from the despot -to the patriarch, and, touched by his sorrows, as much as by their own -calamity, they again rallied round him and determined on a final throw -for religion and liberty.” - -A proclamation issued by the English Lords Justices, in the name of -William and Mary, immediately after the fall of Athlone, offered -inducements, in the shape of promotion and money, to such officers and -soldiers of the Irish army as would desert their colors and accept -service with De Ginkel. Very few traitors availed themselves of the -offer, but many of those who were indignant with St. Ruth abandoned the -camp and joined the irregular forces of the military Hiberno-Spanish -adventurer, Baal Dearg O’Donnell, who claimed to be of the noble House -of Tyrconnel, and had lately come from Spain, apparently without a -settled purpose or principle. Instead of uniting his 7,000 irregulars -with the regular Irish army under St. Ruth, who had no French troops -whatever with him, O’Donnell assumed the airs of a hereditary Irish -prince, affected to despise James as well as William, and established -his camp and court in the country between Tuam and Athenry, within two -short marches, if made even in ordinary time, of the Irish encampment on -Kilcommodan Hill. St. Ruth summoned him to his aid, but the adventurer, -whose selfish conduct some Irish writers, notably Mr. Haverty, have -sought to explain and excuse, made no reply, and, to this day, he is -remembered in Ireland with detestation not unmingled with contempt. His -duty, when within sound of the cannon of Aughrim, was to hasten to the -field and spare the fate of his gallant countrymen. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - De Ginkel Marches After St. Ruth—The Latter Prepares to “Conquer or - Die”—His Speech to the Irish Army on the Eve of Fighting - - -REINFORCEMENTS continued to reach De Ginkel’s camp near Athlone, where -he lingered much longer than he originally intended, owing to the utter -ruin which the bombardment had wrought. Another cause of his delay was -his anxiety to obtain fresh supplies of ammunition, and he judged -correctly that St. Ruth, rendered desperate by his late misfortune, -would give him decisive battle at the very first opportunity. But, about -July 10, all was in readiness, and leaving in Athlone a powerful -garrison, the Dutch general and his fine army set out in pursuit of St. -Ruth, who had now so many days “the start” of his enemy. The English -halted that night at Kilcashel, on the road to Ballinasloe. On the 11th -they reached the fords of the Suck, and the scouts reported the Irish -pickets in full view on the heights of Garbally—now the domain of the -Earl of Clancarty, whose ancestor distinguished himself as an -artillerist on the English side at Aughrim. De Ginkel, taking with him a -formidable force of cavalry, crossed the river by the ford and rode -forward to reconnoitre St. Ruth’s position. The Irish pickets fell back -as he advanced, and, reaching the crest of the heights, he beheld, -through his field-glass, on an opposite elevation, about a mile and a -half distant, the Irish army drawn up in “battle’s magnificently stern -array,” matches lighted at the batteries, and their colors advanced, -challenging to combat. He rode forward farther still, to get a closer -view, and St. Ruth allowed him to gratify his curiosity unmolested, -although he came within less than half a mile of the Irish lines. What -he saw made De Ginkel thoughtful. His military glance showed him the -strength of the Irish position, and St. Ruth’s reputation as a competent -general stood high in all the camps of Europe. He rode back to his camp -and called a council of his officers, Mackay, Ruvigny, Talmash, and the -rest. Having explained the situation, he asked for their opinion. Some -were for trying a flank movement, which would draw St. Ruth from his -chosen ground, but the bolder spirits said they had gone too far to turn -aside without loss of honor, and a forward movement was decided on. The -camp, guarded by two regiments, was left undisturbed. All superfluous -clothing was laid aside, and, in light marching order, De Ginkel’s army -crossed the Suck, the movement being visible to St. Ruth from -Kilcommodan Hill, “the foot,” as Story has it, “over the bridge; the -English and French [Huguenot] horse over the ford above, and the Dutch -and Danes over two fords below.” It was six o’clock in the morning of -Sunday, July 12, 1691 (July 23, new style), while the early church bells -were ringing in Ballinasloe, when they prepared to march on Aughrim. -English annalists, intending, perhaps, to minimize the prowess of the -Irish army, place De Ginkel’s strength at 18,000 men of all arms, but -the roster of his regiments, as given by Story and other contemporaneous -writers, shows conclusively that his force could not have been less than -from 25,000 to 30,000 men, nearly all seasoned veterans. The Williamite -chaplain’s map of Ginkel’s order of battle shows over seventy (70) -regimental organizations, not including Lord Portland’s horse, which -joined after the line was formed. Some of the bodies shown as regiments -may have been battalions or squadrons, but, making due allowance for -these, and counting 400 men as the average of seventy distinct -formations, which is an almost absurdly low estimate, the Williamite -army could not, possibly, have been less than 28,000 men. Its artillery -was formidable, and the cavalry—British, Dutch, Danish, German, and -Huguenot—was accounted the best in Europe. As this fine force advanced -toward its objective, the scared rural folk fled before it, remembering, -no doubt, the excesses committed by the armies of William and Douglas in -Leinster and Munster during the preceding year. The writer lived for -some years almost within sight of Kilcommodan Hill, and heard from the -simple, but intelligent, peasantry, whose great-grandfathers had spoken -with soldiers of King James’s army, how De Ginkel’s troops defiled in -four great, glittering columns of scarlet and blue and steel, horse, -foot, and cannoneers, over the Suck and took up their positions on the -Galway side of the river. Their brass field-pieces shone like burnished -gold in the morning sun. They halted where the road from Ballinasloe, -running west by south, branches around the north side of Kilcommodan, -toward Kilconnell, Athenry, and Galway, and around the south end of that -elevation toward Kiltormer, Lawrencetown, and Clonfert. The Irish -pickets fell back before them, firing as they retired, from the heights -of Knockdunloe, Garbally, and Liscappel. De Ginkel marshaled his army -into two lines of battle, corresponding almost exactly to the Irish -formation, the infantry in the front line, and strongest, finally, -toward the centre, and the cavalry on the flanks, supported by the -cannon. - -Up to about 7.30 o’clock, tradition says, the morning remained -beautifully clear, and the Irish camp, on the rising ground, was plainly -visible to the enemy. St. Ruth’s army, except the officers and men on -duty and the few non-Catholic Jacobites who followed its fortunes, was -observed to be assisting at mass—altars having been erected by the -chaplains at the head of every regiment. It was, according to the -imposing French custom, which St. Ruth closely followed, military High -Mass, during which, at the elevation of the Host, there was rolling of -the drums and blare of trumpets, instead of the pealing of cathedral -bells. The horses of the Irish cavalry were “on herd” along the grassy -hillside, under guard; but, when the English advance was sighted, the -bugles sounded “To Horse,” and there was “mounting in hot haste” of -Sarsfield’s and Galmoy’s and Kilmallock’s bronzed and bearded -troopers—the paladins of the Boyne and Ballyneety. Divine service over, -the Irish army at once occupied the positions assigned to the several -corps by their general on the preceding day. Story and some other -English writers claim that, on that day, also, St. Ruth addressed to his -army a pompous, vainglorious, and rather insulting speech, which he -caused to be translated into English and Irish, by his interpreters, for -the benefit of those to whom it was directed. But Irish chroniclers aver -that he spoke to the troops with paternal consideration, reminded them -of their country’s sufferings, and their own duty, and called upon them, -in words of nervous eloquence, in the name of honor, religion, and -liberty, and for Ireland’s military glory, to conquer or die. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - Decisive Battle of Aughrim—It Opens Favorably for the Irish—Desperate - Fighting in the Centre and at Urachree—Fortune or Treason Favors De - Ginkel - - -BUT the fog, “arising from the moist valley of the Suck,” had, -meanwhile, gathered so densely that the rival armies, for a time, lost -sight of each other, and De Ginkel’s forward movement was suspended; but -his soldiers rested in the positions previously determined on, although -the formation had to be somewhat modified later in the day. It was about -noon when the fog finally rolled away, and Ginkel’s line of battle moved -slowly onward, until, at last, to use the graphic words of Lord -Macaulay, the rival armies “confronted each other, with nothing but the -bog and the breastwork between them.” The Irish historian, John Boyle, -states, in his fine account of the conflict at Aughrim, that, at sight -of the Williamite array, on the other side of the morass, the Irish army -broke into loud shouts of defiance, which were vigorously responded to -by their foes. There was a mutual mortal hatred expressed in those -cheers. It meant “war to the knife,” and, as at our own Buena Vista, - - “Who heard the thunder of the fray - Break o’er the field beneath, - Well knew the watchword of that day - Was ‘Victory or death!’” - -Observing the strength of the Irish left at Aughrim Castle, De Ginkel -resolved to manœuvre toward Urachree, where his horse had a better -chance, and, about one o’clock, began the battle with a cavalry advance -in the direction of the latter point. The first charge was made by a -Danish troop on an Irish picket. The latter met the shock so fiercely -that the Danes, although superior in numbers, by the admission of Story, -fled in great haste. Another party was sent forward, and still -another—the Irish responding with fresh bodies of their own, until, at -last, Cunningham’s dragoons, Eppinger’s cavalry, and Lord Portland’s -horse—all under the veteran General Holztapfel—were drawn in on the -English side. They charged furiously, and, for a moment, the Irish -cavalry gave ground, drawing their opponents after them. The English, -carried away by apparent success, rode at a gallop past the house of -Urachree and were immediately charged in flank by the brave Lord Galmoy. -A murderous conflict followed, but, as at the Boyne, the Irish horsemen -showed their superiority, and their gallant enemies were forced to fall -back in terrible disorder, leaving hundreds of their comrades dead or -dying on the ensanguined field. Many of the Irish troopers fell also, -and, on both sides, every man was killed or wounded by the sabre. The -English left their heroic commander, General Holztapfel, among their -dead. When De Ginkel saw his chosen cavalry repelled with slaughter from -Urachree, he became profoundly anxious. There had been, up to this time, -only a few partial demonstrations by the Anglo-Dutch infantry which had -produced no impression whatever on St. Ruth’s sturdy foot, who lay -quietly in their works, waiting for their foes to advance to closer -quarters. - -De Ginkel, in deep distress of mind, summoned a council of war, which -debated whether it were better to defer the battle until next day or -renew the attack immediately. At one time, during the discussion, it was -determined upon to send back to Ballinasloe for the tents, and encamp -for the night where the army stood. This decision was afterward set -aside, and, says Chaplain Story, “it was agreed to prosecute the battel -on the enemies’ right, by that means proposing to draw part of their -strength from Aghrim [so he spells it] Castle, nigh which their main -body was posted, that so our right might have the easier passage over to -attack their left, and then our whole army might have opportunity to -engage. This, I am told, was the advice of Major-General Mackay, a man -of great judgment and long experience, and it had its desired success.” - -We will take the Williamite chaplain’s account of the movement against -the Irish right wing, which immediately followed the council of war: -“About half an hour past four in the afternoon, a part of our left wing -moved toward the enemy, and, at five o’clock, the battel began afresh. A -party of our foot marched up to their ditches, all strongly guarded with -musketiers, and their horse posted advantageously to sustain them: here -we fired one upon the other for a considerable time, and the Irish -behaved themselves like men of another nation [mark the ungracious -sneer], defending their ditches stoutly; for they would maintain one -side till our men put their pieces over at the other, and then, having -lines of communication from one ditch to another, they would presently -post themselves again, and flank us. This occasioned great firing on -both sides, which continued on the left nigh an hour and a half, ere the -right of our army or the centre engaged, except with their cannon, which -played on both sides. All this time, our men were coming up in as good -order as the inconveniency of the ground would allow, and now General -Mackay and the rest, seeing the enemy draw off several bodies of horse -and foot from the left, and move toward their right, when our men -pressed them very hard; they [the English generals] laid hold on that -advantage, and ordered the foot to march over the bogg, which fronted -the enemies’ main battel. Colonel Earl, Colonel Herbert, Colonel -Creighton, and Colonel Brewer’s regiments went over at the narrowest -place, where the hedges on the enemies’ side run farthest into the bogg. -These four regiments were ordered to march to the lowest ditches, -adjoining to the side of the bogg, and there to post themselves till our -horse could come about by Aghrim Castle and sustain them, and till the -other foot marched over the bogg below, where it was broader, and were -sustained by Colonel Foulk’s and Brigadier Stewart’s [forces]. Colonel -Earl advanced with his regiment, and the rest after him, over the bogg, -and a rivulet that ran through it, being most of them up to their -middles in mudd and water. The Irish at their near approach to the -ditches fired upon them, but our men contemning all disadvantages, -advanced immediately to the lowest hedges, and beat the Irish from -thence. The enemy, however, did not retreat far, but posted themselves -in the next ditches before us, which our men seeing and disdaining -[_sic_] to suffer their lodging so near us, they would needs beat them -from thence also, and so from one hedge to another, till they got very -nigh the enemies’ main battel. But the Irish had so ordered the matter -as to make an easy passage for their horse amongst all those hedges and -ditches, by which means they poured in great numbers both of horse and -foot upon us: which Colonel Earl seeing, encouraged his men by advancing -before them, and saying: ‘There is no way to come off but to be brave!’ -As great an example of true courage and generosity as any man this day -living {1693}. But, being flanked and fronted, as also exposed to the -enemies’ shot from the adjacent ditches, our men were forced to quit -their ground, and betake themselves to the bogg again, whither they were -followed, or rather drove [_sic_] down by main strength of horse and -foot, and a great many killed. Colonel Earl and Colonel Herbert were -here taken prisoners; the former, after twice taking and retaking, got -free at last, tho’ not without being wounded. - -“While this was doing here, Colonel St. John, Colonel Tiffin, Lord -George Hambleton, the French [Huguenots] and other regiments were -marching below on the same bogg. The Irish, in the meantime, laid so -close in their ditches that several were doubtful whether they had any -men at that place or not; but they were convinced of it at last; for no -sooner were the French and the rest got within twenty yards, or less, of -the ditches, but the Irish fired most furiously upon them, which our men -as bravely sustained, and pressed forwards, tho’ they could scarce see -one another for the smoak [_sic_]. And now the thing seemed so doubtful, -for some time, that the bystanders would rather have given it on the -Irish side, for they had driven our foot in the centre so far back that -they were got almost in a line with some of our great guns, planted near -the bogg, which we had not the benefit of at that juncture, because of -the mixture of our men and theirs. - -“Major-General Ruvigny’s French horse and Sir John Lanier’s, being both -posted on the right, were afterward drawn to the left, where they did -very good service. And the right wing of our horse, in the meantime, -were making what haste they could to succor our foot; for, seeing the -danger, and, in fact, that all was in hazard by reason of the difficulty -of the pass, they did more than men, in pressing and tumbling over a -very dangerous place, and that amongst showers of bullets, from a -regiment of dragoons and two regiments of foot, posted conveniently -under cover by the enemy, to obstruct our passage. Our horse at this -place were sustained by Major-General Kirke and Colonel Gustavus -Hambleton’s foot, who, after we had received the enemies’ fire for a -considerable time, marched under the walls of the castle, and lodged -themselves in a dry ditch, in the throng of the enemies’ shot [globular -buttons cut from their jackets, when their ammunition failed], and some -other old walls and ditches adjoining.” - -Commenting on the foregoing account of the Williamite chaplain, Mr. -O’Callaghan, in his “Green Book,” page 224, says: “He [Story] has the -same fraudulent coloring I have previously exposed respecting this [the -Huguenot] portion of the English left having ‘kept their ground.’ The -Huguenot narrative [of the battle] is only wrong in the supposition that -La Forest [Huguenot general] on the English left was successful with the -French [Huguenot] infantry, before Ruvigny [Huguenot general], with his -horse, had conquered in the centre; the first progress of the English -having been on their right opposite Aughrim ... where Sir Francis -Compton with the van and Mackay with the rest of the English horse -succeeded in forcing a passage; secondly, on the centre, where Talmash -next to Mackay, and Ruvigny next to Talmash advanced; and, thirdly, on -the left, where La Forest first, and then the Danish horse and foot were -enabled to cross.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - Battle of Aughrim Continued—Its Crisis—The English Turn Irish Left—St. - Ruth Killed by Cannon Ball—Confusion and Final Defeat of Irish Army - - -THE lodgment made by the English, or, rather, Ulster regiment of -Gustavus Hamilton in the dry ditch, as described by Chaplain Story, -together with another lodgment made in front of the Irish left centre by -some of the infantry who escaped the slaughter when they were so -gallantly repulsed at that point shortly before, however effected, threw -the chances of victory, for the first time that day, heavily on the side -of De Ginkel. St. Ruth, whose sharp attention was, doubtless, mainly -drawn off toward his centre and right, where the battle had raged -fiercely and continuously for nearly two hours, soon became aware of the -movement inaugurated by the enemy’s cavalry at the castle pass. He -seemed astonished, conceiving that the point was strongly garrisoned, -and asked of his officers: “What do they mean?” The reply was: “They -mean to pass there and flank our left!” St. Ruth observed them for a -moment, laughed incredulously, having still “that fatal confidence in -the strength of his left flank,” and exclaimed in his impetuous fashion: -“Pardieu! but they are brave! What a pity they should be so exposed!” A -few minutes previously, exhilarated by the splendid prowess of the Irish -infantry, in the centre and at Urachree, he threw his plumed hat in the -air and shouted: “Well done, my children! The day is ours! Now we will -beat them back even to the gates of Dublin!” - -The unlooked-for passage of the English horse on the Irish left has been -variously explained, or, rather, sought to be explained. Almost every -Irish writer, the careful O’Callaghan included, attributes the disaster -to a lack of proper ammunition on the part of Colonel Walter Bourke’s -regiment, to which was committed the defence of the castle. Having -exhausted their original supply, the soldiers opened the barrels in -reserve and found that the bullets were cast for the calibre of the -English guns which they had used earlier in the war, and were too large -for the bore of the French muskets, which they carried at Aughrim. Other -authors aver that when the Irish left was weakened, to strengthen the -right, the front instead of the rear line of the covering brigade (Henry -Luttrell’s) was withdrawn, thus enabling the infantry that accompanied -Sir Francis Compton’s horse—who were twice repulsed, but, being heavily -reinforced, again advanced—to post themselves in “the dry ditch” -referred to by Chaplain Story; while General Talmash made a -corresponding lodgment, with his rallied foot, on the right centre. -Gross carelessness, deliberate treason, or both combined, contributed to -the Irish disaster. St. Ruth himself, however, would not seem to have -been much concerned by the apparition of the English cavalry forming -toward his left flank, in the small area of firm ground, just across -from the old castle. On the contrary, like Napoleon before the final -charge at Waterloo, “the flash of victory passed into his eyes,” and, as -he observed the enemy forming with some difficulty in that narrow space, -while the single infantry regiment in the dry ditch cowering under the -rain of Irish bullets, cried out to his staff, “We have won the battle, -gentlemen! They are beaten. Now let us beat them to the purpose!” His -bodyguard was formed in rear of the staff and he had already ordered his -cavalry reserve to report to him. Therefore, these formidable squadrons -came up at a trot that shook the ground over the hill behind him. We are -not informed of the name of the officer who led them—fortunately for his -fame, for he must have been either a dastard or a traitor. Instead of -committing the command to a subordinate general, as he should have done, -St. Ruth prepared to lead the attack in person, and the mass of -horsemen, proud and confident, began to move slowly down the slope in -the direction of the disheartened but still determined enemy. The -general, dismounting, halted for a brief space at the battery which -defended that flank of the army, addressed some remarks to the officer -in command, and, it is said, directed the fire of one of the cannon, -with his own hand, toward a particular point of the causeway leading to -the castle. Then he remounted his superb gray charger—the third he had -ridden that fatal day—and, dressed as he was in full uniform, made a -conspicuous mark for the English gunners. He drew his sword, his hard -features, according to tradition, kindling with enthusiasm, and was -about to utter the command to charge Compton’s and Levinson’s cavalry—a -charge that must have given the victory to Ireland, because, according -to Macaulay, De Ginkel already meditated a retreat—when, right before -the eyes of his horrified followers, his head was dashed from his -shoulders by a cannon shot, fired from the English battery at the other -side of the bog! His sword remained firmly gripped in his right hand, -but his affrighted horse galloped down the hill, the body of the rider -remaining erect in the saddle, until it was knocked off by the -overhanging branches of a tree whose remnants are still pointed out to -the traveler. A general paralysis of the Irish left wing, chiefly among -the horse, would seem to have immediately followed the sudden and -ghastly death of St. Ruth. The French attendants at once threw a cloak -over the headless trunk, with the well-meant, but, as it turned out, -ill-considered object of concealing the general’s unlooked-for fall from -the all but victorious Irish army. - -St. Ruth’s bodyguard halted the moment he fell, and, when the servants -bore the body over the hill toward the rear, they acted as escort. The -Irish horse, through the timidity or treachery of their chief, halted -also, and, unaccountably, followed the movement in retreat of the -bodyguard. The single word “Charge!” uttered by any general officer, -before the cavalry retired, would have saved the day; but it was never -uttered. The stubborn Mackay and his lieutenants, from their position -near the castle below, divined, from the confusion they observed on the -near hillside, that something fatal had occurred. They took fresh heart. -More of their cavalry, strongly supported by infantry, came up. All -these reheartened troops began to push forward beyond the pass, and even -on their beaten centre and left the long-baffled British and their -allies again assumed the offensive. No orders reached the Irish -troops—mainly foot—still in position on the right and centre and even on -a portion of the left—for the order of battle had perished with St. -Ruth. Was it possible that, impressed by repeated dissensions, he -doubted the fidelity of his chiefs and feared to take any of them into -his confidence? He must have misjudged most of them sorely if this was -the case. Mere selfishness or vanity can not explain his fateful -omission. The English cavalry, now practically unopposed, poured through -the pass, penetrated to the firm ground on the north slope of the hill, -and, finally, appeared in rear of the infantry of the Irish left wing. -Their foot, too, had succeeded in making firm lodgment in the lowest -ditches. The Irish still continued to fight bravely, “but without order -or direction.” At the sight of the repeatedly routed British infantry -crossing the bog in the centre, and the cavalry threatening their left -and rear, it is averred by Boyle that a cry of “Treason!” rang through -the ranks of the regiments so placed as to be able to observe the -hostile movements. - -The enemy now vigorously attacked the Irish right and centre, but were -as vigorously met, and again and again repulsed. For a long time, on the -right particularly, they were unable to advance, and it would appear -that the Irish soldiers in their front were totally ignorant of what had -occurred in other parts of the field. The Irish infantry on the left, -destitute of ammunition and having expended even their buttons and -ramrods for projectiles, retired within the castle, where nearly all of -them were finally slaughtered; or else broke off to the left, toward -Kilconnell, and made for the large, red bog, which almost surrounded -that flank, where many of them found refuge from the sabres of the -pursuing cavalry. But even still the devoted centre and right, although -furiously assaulted, refused to give way. At last, the uproar toward -Aughrim, and the bullets of the outflanking enemy in the left rear, -taking them in reverse, warned these brave troops that their position -had become desperate. Twilight had already set in—it was more than an -hour after the fall of St. Ruth—when the English horse and foot appeared -almost behind them, toward the northwest; while the Dutch, Danish, and -Huguenot cavalry, so long repelled at Urachree, supported by the foot -that had, at long run, crossed the morass, began to hem them in on all -sides. Their bravest leaders had fallen, but this admirable infantry -retired slowly from inclosure to inclosure, fighting the fight of -despair, until they reached their camp, where the tents were still -standing in the order in which they were pitched. Here they made their -last heroic stand, but were, at length, broken and fled toward the red -bog already mentioned. The English leveled the tents, so as to render -pursuit more open, and then a dreadful slaughter of the broken Irish -foot followed. Few of these brave men, worthy of a better fate, escaped -the swords of the hostile horse. “Our foreigners, and especially the -Danes, make excellent pursuers,” writes Chaplain Story grimly. Irish -historians say that two of the Irish regiments, disdaining to fly, took -position in a ravine, and there waited “till morning’s sun should rise -and give them light to die.” They were discovered by the enemy next -morning and perished to a man! The spot where they died is still pointed -out and is called by the peasantry “the glen of slaughter.” - -We have, unhappily, no better authority than tradition for stating that, -toward the end of the battle, a part of the Irish cavalry, led by -Sarsfield, covered the retreat of the survivors of the Irish foot on -Loughrea and Limerick. In fact there seems to be a complete mystery -about the action of the Irish cavalry after the death of the French -general. Certain it is that this force did not act with the vigor it -showed in the early part of the combat on the right or with the spirit -it displayed at the Boyne; and this fact deepens the doubt as to whether -Sarsfield was in the fight or not. Had it not been, as we are informed -by the learned Abbé McGeoghegan, in his able “History of Ireland,” for -one O’Reilly, the almoner of a regiment, who caused the charge to be -sounded as the fugitives passed through a boggy defile on the line of -retreat, the entire Irish infantry might have been destroyed. They were -also aided by darkness, caused by “a thick misty rain,” brought on, no -doubt, by the detonations of the firearms, acting on a humid atmosphere. -Numbers of small arms and other munitions were abandoned in the flight; -all the cannon, most of the colors, and the whole camp material fell -into the hands of the enemy. Aughrim was to Ireland what Culloden was to -Scotland and Waterloo to France—an irretrievable military disaster, -redeemed only by the desperate valor of the defeated army. Even the most -bitter and partisan of the English annalists admit, although with -manifest reluctance, that the Irish army fought heroically in this -murderous battle. Its losses are placed by Story, who witnessed the -conflict throughout, at 7,000 killed on the spot and 500, including -officers, made prisoners. This statement of his shows conclusively that -almost all of the Irish wounded were put to the sword. Other writers, -including King James himself, make the Irish loss somewhat less, but we -are inclined to think that Story, in this case, came pretty near to the -truth. He says in his interesting narrative, “looking amongst the dead -three days after, when all of ours and some of theirs were buried, I -reckoned in some small inclosures 150, in others 120, etc., lying most -of them in the ditches where they were shot, and the rest from the top -of the hill, where their camp had been, looked like a great flock of -sheep, scattered up and down the country for almost four miles round.” -The bodies had been stripped by the camp-followers, which accounts for -the white appearance to which Story makes allusion. Most of these -corpses were inhumanly left above ground, to be the prey of birds and -beasts, by the conquerors, and thus Aughrim is known to the Irish people -as the “Field of our Unburied Dead.” It was customary a generation ago, -and may be so in our day, for the Catholic peasantry passing along the -roads that wind around Kilcommodan, to uncover their heads reverently -and offer up prayers for the souls of the heroes of their race who died -there for faith, land, and liberty. - -Story says he never could find out what became of St. Ruth’s corpse, -“some say that it was left stripped amongst the other dead when our men -pursued beyond the hill, and others that it was thrown into a bog.” In -the neighborhood of Aughrim it was long believed that while still the -left of the Irish army remained in position, the French staff officers -laid the remains to rest under the chancel floor of the adjacent Abbey -of Kilconnell. Other traditions are to the effect that they were buried -in Loughrea Abbey, or beside those of Lord Galway, who fell in the same -battle, in the ruined church of Athenry. Boyle, after mentioning the two -last-named probabilities, says: “There is, however, reason to doubt -both, and the writer is aware that the people of the locality where the -battle was fought, directed by tradition, point to a few stunted white -thorns, to the west of the hill toward Loughrea, beneath which, they -say, rest the ashes of that great but unfortunate general.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - Mortality Among Officers of Rank on Both Sides—Acknowledged English Loss - at Aughrim—English and Irish Comments on Conduct of Battle - - -BESIDES St. Ruth, the chief officers killed on the Irish side were, -according to Story’s account, General Lord Kilmallock, General Lord -Galway, Brigadier-General Connel (O’Connell), Brigadier-General W. -Mansfield Barker, Brigadier-General Henry M. J. O’Neill, Colonel Charles -Moore, his lieutenant-colonel and major; Colonel David Bourke, Colonel -Ulick Bourke, Colonel Connor McGuire, Colonel James Talbot, Colonel -Arthur, Colonel Mahony, Colonel Morgan, Major Purcell, Major O’Donnell, -Major Sir John Everard, with several others of superior rank, “besides, -at least, five hundred captains and subordinate officers.” This latter -statement has been challenged by Irish historians, who claim that -non-commissioned officers were included in the list. Story omitted from -the number of superior officers slain the name of Colonel Felix O’Neill, -Judge-Advocate-General of the Irish army, whose body was found on the -field. Of the less than five hundred Irish prisoners taken, twenty-six -were general or field officers, including General Lord Duleek, General -Lord Slane, General Lord Bophin, General Lord Kilmaine, General -Dorrington, General John Hambleton (Hamilton), Brigadier-General Tuite, -Colonel Walter Bourke, Colonel Gordon O’Neill, Colonel Butler, Colonel -O’Connell (ancestor of Daniel O’Connell), Colonel Edmund Madden, -Lieutenant-Colonel John Chappel, Lieutenant-Colonel John Butler, -Lieutenant-Colonel Baggot, Lieutenant-Colonel John Border, -Lieutenant-Colonel McGinness, Lieutenant-Colonel Rossiter, -Lieutenant-Colonel McGuire, Major Patrick Lawless, Major Kelly, Major -Grace, Major William Bourke, Major Edmund Butler, Major Edmund Broghill, -Major John Hewson, “with 30 captains, 25 lieutenants, 23 ensigns, 5 -cornets, 4 quartermasters, and an adjutant.” - -Chaplain Story, to whom, with all his faults, we are much indebted for -the details of this momentous battle—one of the few “decisive battles” -of the world—says: “We [the English and their allies] lost 73 officers, -who were killed in this action, with 111 wounded, as appears by the -inserted lists [_vide_ his History of the “Wars in Ireland”] of both -horse and foot, given in two days after by the general’s command, and -sent to the king.” The lists referred to acknowledged, also, 600 -soldiers killed and 906 wounded. The allied losses were, no doubt, -underestimated for political effect in England, which had been taught -that one Englishman could kill any number of Irishmen without much fear -of a fatal result to himself. And this superstition was useful, we -believe, to the morale of the British soldiers of the period, whose -stomachs failed them so notably when they were “up against” the defences -of Limerick, as will be seen hereafter. Captain Taylor, a Williamite -writer, who was present at the battle and published a graphic account of -it, says that the loss of the allies (British, Dutch, Danes, Germans, -and Huguenots) was little less than that of the Irish, most of the -latter having fallen in the retreat after the death of General St. Ruth. -Of the Anglo-Dutch troopers, there were killed by the Irish cavalry at -the pass of Urachree, in the early part of the fight, 202, and wounded -125, thus showing the superior strength, reach of arm, and dexterity of -the Irish horsemen. In hand-to-hand conflicts, whether mounted or on -foot, the Irish soldiery, in whatever service, ever excelled, with sword -or battle-axe, pike or bayonet. Clontibret and the Yellow Ford, Benburb -and Fontenoy, Almanza and Albuera, Inkerman and Antietam bear witness to -the truth of this assertion. As a charging warrior, the Irishman has -never been surpassed, and, no matter how bloodily repulsed, an Irish -regiment or an Irish army is ever willing to try again. There may be -soldiers as brave as they, but none are braver, even when they fight in -causes with which they have no natural sympathy. It may be set down as a -military axiom that the Irish soldier is, by force of untoward -circumstances, frequently a mercenary, but rarely, or never, a coward. - -The principal officers who fell on the English side, at Aughrim, were -Major-General Holztapfel, who commanded Lord Portland’s horse at -Urachree; Colonel Herbert, killed in the main attack on the Irish -centre; Colonel Mongatts, who died among the Irish ditches while trying -to rally his routed command; Major Devonish, Major Cornwall, Major Cox, -and Major Colt. Many other officers of note died of their wounds at the -field hospital established on the neighboring heights of Garbally—now -converted into one of the most delightful demesnes in Europe; and some -who survived the field hospital died in the military hospitals of -Athlone and Dublin. Those who fell in the battle were buried on the -field, with the usual military honors. - -Captain Parker, who fought in the English army in this battle, and who -has left a narrative, frequently quoted by O’Callaghan, Haverty, Boyle, -and other historians, says: “Our loss was about 3,000 men in killed and -wounded,” and, as he was in the thick of the fight and came out -unwounded, he had full opportunity, after the battle closed, to verify -his figures. He certainly could have no object in exaggerating the -English loss, for the tendency of all officers is to underrate the -casualties in their army. And Captain Parker says, further: “Had it not -been that St. Ruth fell, it were hard to say how matters would have -ended, for, to do him justice, notwithstanding his oversight at Athlone, -he was certainly a gallant, brave man, and a good officer, as appeared -by the disposition he made of his army this day.... His centre and right -wing [after his fall] still held their ground, and had he lived to order -Sarsfield down to sustain his left wing, it would have given a turn to -affairs on that side”—“or,” O’Callaghan says in comment, “in other -words, have given the victory to the Irish.” - -Lord Macaulay—anti-Irish as all his writings prove him to have been—says -in his “History of England”: “Those [the Irish] works were defended with -a resolution such as extorted some words of ungracious eulogy even from -men who entertained the strongest prejudices against the Celtic race.” -He then quotes Baurnett, Story, and, finally, the London “Gazette,” of -July, 1691, which said: “The Irish were never known to fight with more -resolution.” - -In his interesting, but partial, “Life of William III,” published in the -beginning of the seventeenth century, Mr. Harris, a fierce -anti-Jacobite, says: “It must, in justice, be confessed that the Irish -fought this sharp battle with great resolution, which demonstrates that -the many defeats before this sustained by them can not be imputed to a -national cowardice with which some, without reason, impeached them; but -to a defect in military discipline and the use of arms, or to a want of -skill and experience in their commanders. And now, had not St. Ruth been -taken off, it would have been hard to say what the consequence of this -day would have been.” - -Now we will give a few comments of the Irish historians upon this -Hastings of their country: O’Halloran, who was born about the time the -battle was fought, and who, as a native of Limerick, must have been, at -least, as familiar with soldiers who fought in the Williamite wars as we -are with the Union and Confederate veterans, in Vol. I, page 106, of his -“History of Ireland,” replying to some slurs cast by the Frenchman, -Voltaire, on the Irish people, says: “He should have recollected that, -at the battle of Aughrim, 15,000 Irish, ill paid and worse clothed, -fought with 25,000 men highly appointed and the flower of all Europe, -composed of English, Dutch, Flemings, and Danes, vieing with each other. -That, after a most bloody fight of some hours, these began to shrink on -all sides, and would have received a most complete overthrow but for the -treachery of the commander of the Irish horse, and the death of their -general [St. Ruth] killed by a random shot.” - -On pages 532-533 of the same work, the historian says: “Sir John -Dalrymple tells us that [at Aughrim] the priests ran up and down amongst -the ranks, swearing some on the sacrament, encouraging others, and -promising eternity to all who should gallantly acquit themselves to -their country that day. Does he mean this by way of apology for the -intrepidity of the Irish, or to lessen the applause they were so well -entitled to on that day? Have they required more persuasions to fight -the battles of foreign princes than the native troops, or are they the -only soldiers who require spiritual comfort on the day of trial? I never -thought piety was a reproach to soldiers, and it was, perhaps, the -enthusiasm of Oliver’s troops that made them so victorious. This battle -was, certainly, a bloody and decisive one. The stake was great, the -Irish knew the value of it, and, though very inferior to their enemies -in numbers and appointments, and chagrined by repeated losses, yet it -must be owned they fought it well. Accidents which human wisdom could -not foresee, more than the superior courage of their flushed enemies, -snatched from them that victory, which already began to declare in their -favor. Their bones yet (1744) lie scattered over the plains of Aughrim, -but let that justice be done to their memories which a brave and -generous enemy never refuses.” - -Abbé McGeoghegan, who wrote about 1745, and was chaplain of the -Franco-Irish Brigade, says in his “History of Ireland,” page 603: “The -battle began at one o’clock, with equal fury on both sides, and lasted -till night. James’s infantry performed prodigies of valor, driving the -enemy three times back to their cannon.” - -Rev. Thomas Leland, an Irish Protestant divine, who published a history -of Ireland about 1763, after describing the catastrophe which befell St. -Ruth, says: “His [St. R.’s] cavalry halted, and, as they had no orders, -returned to their former station. The Irish beheld this retreat with -dismay; they were confounded and disordered. Sarsfield, upon whom the -command devolved, had been neglected by the proud Frenchman ever since -their altercation at Athlone. As the order of battle had not been -imparted to him, he could not support the dispositions of the late -general. The English, in the meantime, pressed forward, drove the enemy -to their camp, pursued the advantage until the Irish, after an -engagement supported with the fairest prospect of success, while they -had a general to direct their valor, fled precipitately.” - -The Right Rev. Dr. Fitzgerald, Episcopalian bishop, in his “History of -Limerick,” published some sixty years ago, says: “It [Aughrim] was the -bravest battle ever fought on Irish soil.” The bishop, evidently, had -not read the lives of Art MacMurrough, Hugh O’Neill, Hugh O’Donnell, and -Owen Roe O’Neill, when he penned the words. - -“Such,” writes O’Callaghan, at the conclusion of his account of it, in -the “Green Book,” page 230, “was the battle of Aughrim, or Kilconnell, -as the French called it, from the old abbey to the left of the Irish -position; a battle unsuccessful, indeed, on the side of the Irish, but a -Chæronea, or a Waterloo, fought with heroism and lost without dishonor.” - -A. M. Sullivan, in his fascinating “Story of Ireland” (American edition, -page 458), says, or rather, quotes from a Williamite authority: “The -Irish infantry were so hotly engaged that they were not aware either of -the death of St. Ruth or of the flight of the cavalry, until they -themselves were almost surrounded. A panic and confused flight were the -result. The cavalry of the right wing, who were the first in action that -day, were the last to quit the ground.... St. Ruth fell about sunset -[8.10], and about 9, after three hours’ [nearer four hours’] hard -fighting, the last of the Irish army [who were not killed, wounded, or -captured] had left the field.” - -John Boyle, in his “Battlefields of Ireland,” quotes Taylor, an English -military author who fought at Aughrim, as saying: “Those [the Irish -dead] were nearly all killed after the death of St. Ruth, for, up to -that, the Irish had lost scarcely a man;” and, says he, further, “large -numbers were murdered, after surrender and promise of quarter, by order -of General Ginkel, and among those, so murdered, in cold blood, were -Colonel O’Moore and that most loyal gentleman and chivalrous soldier, -Lord Galway.” This same able writer, in concluding his graphic story of -the famous battle, remarks, with indignant eloquence: “It is painful to -speculate on the cause that left the Irish army without direction after -the death of St. Ruth. Many have endeavored to explain it, but all—as -well those who doubt Sarsfield’s presence on the field as those who -maintain the contrary—are lost in conjecture, and none who participated -in the battle, and survived it, has placed the matter beyond -speculation. So leaving that point as time has left it, what appears -most strange in the connection is the absence of all command at such a -conjuncture. The disposition of the Irish troops, though dexterous, was -simple. The day was all but won. The foiling of Talmash (Mackay) would -have been the completion of victory. A force sufficient was on his -front; a reserve more than ample to overwhelm him was on its way to the -ground—nay, drawn up and even ready for the word. The few British troops -that held a lodgment in the hedges, at the base of the hill, were -completely at the mercy of those above them. It required no omniscient -eye to see this, nor a voice from the clouds to impel them forward, and, -surely, no military etiquette weighed a feather in opposition to the -fate of a nation. Any officer of note could have directed the movement, -and many of experience and approved courage witnessed the crisis. Yet, -in this emergency, all the hard-won laurels of the day were tarnished, -and land and liberty were lost by default! Nor can the rashness of St. -Ruth, his reticence as to his plans, his misunderstanding with -Sarsfield, nor the absence of the latter, justify the want of intrepid -action among those present. This stands unexplained and inexplicable, -nor will the flippant appeal to Providence, whose ways are too -frequently offered as an excuse for human misconduct, answer here. The -want of ammunition at such a moment was, no doubt, of some import, but -the concurrence of events too plainly indicates that Aughrim was won by -the skill of St. Ruth and the gallantry of his troops, and that it was -lost through want of decision in his general officers, at a moment the -most critical in the nation’s history.” - -De Ginkel’s army remained in the neighborhood of the field of battle -long enough to give it an opportunity of burying all of the Irish dead, -were it so disposed. The country-people remained away, in terror of -their lives and poor belongings—particularly cattle—until decomposition -had so far advanced as to make the task of sepulture particularly -revolting. And thus it came to pass that nearly all the Irish slain were -left above ground, “exposed to the birds of the air and the beasts of -the field; many dogs frequenting the place afterward, and growing so -fierce by feeding upon man’s flesh that it became dangerous for any -single man to pass that way. And,” continues Story in his narrative so -frequently quoted, “there is a true and remarkable story of a greyhound -[meaning the large, rapacious, and ferocious, Irish Wolf Dog that -existed in those days, although extinct since the last century] -belonging to an Irish officer: the gentleman was killed and stripped in -the battle, whose body the dog remained by night and day, and tho’ he -fed on other corps [es] with the rest of the dogs, yet he would not -allow them, or anything else, to touch that of his master. When all the -corps [es] were consumed, the other dogs departed, but he used to go in -the night to the adjacent villages for food, and presently to return -again to the place where his master’s bones were only then left; and -thus he continued till January following, when one of Colonel Foulk’s -soldiers, being quartered nigh hand, and going that way by chance, the -dog, fearing he came to disturb his master’s bones, flew upon the -soldier, who, being surprised at the suddenness of the thing, unslung -his piece, then upon his back, and killed the poor dog.” - -Ireland’s national poet, Thomas Moore, in the beautiful words, set to -that weirdly mournful air: “The Lamentation of Aughrim,” thus pours out -in deathless melody the heart of his unfortunate country: - - “Forget not the field where they perished,— - The truest; the last of the brave— - All gone and the bright hopes we cherished - Gone with them and sunk in the grave. - - “Oh, could we from death but recover - Those hearts as they bounded before, - In the face of high heaven to fight over - That combat for freedom once more. - - “Could the chain for a moment be riven - Which Tyranny flung round us then— - No, ’tis not in man, nor in heaven, - To let Tyranny bind it again! - - “But ’tis past; and tho’ blazoned in story - The name of our victor may be; - Accurst is the march of that glory - Which treads on the hearts of the free! - - “Far dearer the grave, or the prison, - Illumed by one patriot name, - Than the trophies of all who have risen - On liberty’s ruin to fame!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOK VI - - -TREATING OF THE PERIOD FROM THE SECOND SIEGE OF LIMERICK, IN 1691, TO -THE DISSOLUTION OF THE EXILED FRANCO-IRISH BRIGADE A CENTURY LATER - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - Second Siege of Limerick—Terrific Bombardment—The English, Aided by - Treachery, Cross the Shannon—Massacre of Thomond Bridge - - -THE decisive battle having been lost by Ireland, what followed in this -campaign became almost inevitable. Louis XIV and his ministers were -criminally culpable in encouraging the Irish people to resistance when -they did not mean to give them effective aid. Ireland had proved, in -breach and field, that she needed no foreign troops to do her fighting, -but she badly needed arms, ammunition, quartermaster’s supplies, and a -money-chest. Perhaps the egotism of the French monarch and his advisers -led them to underrate the importance of Ireland as a factor in the -affairs of Europe, and the slanders of the perfidious Lauzun and his -lieutenants had poisoned the mind of the ruler of France in regard to -Irish valor. James, in his panic flight, had also carried with him to -the French court a most unfavorable impression, and some Irish -writers—among them Mr. Boyle—aver that Louis bitterly reproached the -fallen king for his ignominious abandonment of Ireland after the affair -of the Boyne. James, however, managed to conciliate his haughty cousin, -and the latter made him still more promises of effective assistance. - -De Ginkel, whose immediate objective, as before the great battle, was -Galway, broke up his camp at Aughrim and marched to Loughrea, on July -16. He reached Athenry the following day, and Oranmore on the 18th. At -this point he learned that Lord Dillon was Governor of Galway town, and -that the French general, D’Usson, commanded the garrison. Baal Dearg -O’Donnell, with what remained of his irregular force, hovered about the -city, but failed to throw himself into it. It has been stated, on -seemingly good authority, that the Irish officials within the town -distrusted him, as, indeed, was not unreasonable, seeing that Chaplain -Story tells us that “his [O’Donnell’s] design was to keep amongst the -mountains till he could make terms for himself, upon which account he -writ [wrote] the general, De Ginkel, before our army removed from -Galway.” He followed up this treason in a practical manner, and, some -months later on, as the Chaplain circumstantially informs us, the -adventurer entered the service of William in the Continental wars, and -also received a pension of £500 per annum, for life, from the English -treasury. The same consideration was subsequently given to Brigadier -Henry Luttrell, on whom popular Irish tradition has fixed the odium of -having “sold the pass at Aughrim.” It is certain that twenty-six years -afterward, A.D. 1717, this treacherous “general of the Irish horse” was -shot to death in a sedan chair, while being carried through the streets -of Dublin. No doubt remains among the Irish people that the deed was -done in reprisal for Luttrell’s villanous conduct in the campaign of -1691, and some have gone so far as to charge him with having been the -officer who ordered the Irish cavalry off the field immediately after -the death of St. Ruth on Kilcommodan Hill. - -Galway, before which De Ginkel appeared on the 19th, after a respectable -show of resistance, surrendered with the honors of war, and sundry -liberal civil provisions, on the 22d. On the 26th it was evacuated by -the Irish garrison, which marched to Limerick. This capitulation -virtually ended Irish resistance in Connaught, except for the town of -Sligo, which was stubbornly held by the gallant Sir Teague O’Regan, the -hero of Charlemont, against a strong detachment of the English army, -under Lord Granard, until the following September 16, when he, too, -having done all that a brave commander might, yielded his post with -honor, and was allowed to join the main Irish army in Limerick town. The -adventurer, O’Donnell, assisted the English against Sligo. De Ginkel, -after garrisoning Galway, moved toward Limerick by way of Athenry, -Loughrea, Eyrecourt, Banagher Bridge, Birr, Nenagh, and Caherconlish, -meeting but feeble resistance on his route. He halted at the -last-mentioned place to refresh and reinforce his army, and to provide -himself with a stronger siege train. This he finally brought up to the -number of sixty “great guns,” none of them less than a twelve-pounder, -and about a score of mortars for the throwing of large shells. About -this time, he issued several proclamations, and continued to do so -throughout the subsequent operations, with the design of seducing the -Irish officers and soldiers from their allegiance to a desperate cause. -In this effort he was by no means successful, but several clever Irish -spies passed themselves off as deserters, and gave him plenty of -misinformation regarding the condition of affairs at Limerick. While in -this camp at Caherconlish, the Dutch general’s attention was called to -the cupidity of the sutlers and other camp-followers, who appear to have -been as greedy and conscienceless as their successor of our own times. -The gossipy Chaplain informs us, in this connection, that General Ginkel -“sent out an order that all ale from Dublin and Wicklow should be sold -at 6 pence [12 cents] per quart; all other ale, coming above forty -miles, at 5 pence, and all under forty miles at 4 pence; white bread to -be sold at 3 pence per pound; brown bread at 2 pence; claret at 2 -shillings and 6 pence, and Rhenish at 3 shillings [per quart]; brandy at -12 shillings [$2.88] per gallon, etc.; and that no person should presume -to exceed these rates on the penalty of forfeiting all his goods, and -suffering a month’s imprisonment. But they promptly found out a trick -for this,” continues Mr. Story in disgust, “and called _all_ drink that -came to the camp Dublin or Wicklow ale!” This “touch of nature” shows -how little mankind has changed in principle and practice after a lapse -of more than six generations. - -De Ginkel appeared in front of Limerick on August 25, and the city was -immediately invested on the south, east, and north. The Clare side, -connected by Thomond Bridge with Englishtown, or King’s Island, still -remained unattacked, as no English force had passed the river. The Irish -horse and dragoons were all quartered on that side, while the infantry -garrisoned the threatened portions of the city. - -Notwithstanding the imposing array of Ginkel’s superb army and powerful -siege equipment as they approached the walls of their city, neither the -people nor the garrison of Limerick seem to have been much concerned by -the spectacle. The walls were much stronger than they had been in the -previous siege, and the soldiers were seasoned to hardship and peril. -D’Usson, the French lieutenant-general, was in chief command, with his -fellow-countryman, general, the Chevalier De Tessé, second, and -Sarsfield, it appears from the order of signature in the subsequent -treaty, was third in rank, with the Scotch general, Wauchop, fourth. The -Duke of Tyrconnel had died of apoplexy—Story hints at poison -administered in wine—after dining heartily with the French generals and -other officers on August 14. The misfortunes of his country, in the -opinion of many writers, had more to do with hastening the end than any -other cause. His remains lie under a nameless flagstone in the aisle of -St. Mauchin’s church in Limerick, but we are informed not even Irish -tradition, usually so minute, can point out the exact place of -sepulture. The powerful English batteries, raking the town on three -sides, poured in torrents of bombs and red-hot cannon balls, day and -night, and the place caught fire at several points. Most of the women -and children had to be removed to the cavalry camp on the Clare bank, -and the casualties among the defenders were numerous. The Irish replied -spiritedly, but they were very deficient in weight of metal, and, also, -because of the comparative shortness of supply, had to be sparing of -their ammunition, whereas the English were always sure of a fresh supply -both from the interior and their men-of-war on the adjacent coasts. The -Chaplain, under date of September 8, 1691, relates how the “new -batteries were all ready—one to the left with ten field-pieces to shoot -red-hot ball; another to the right of 25 guns, all 24 and 18-pounders; -and in the centre were placed 8 mortars, from 18¾ to 10½ inches in -diameter; these stood all together on the northeast of the town, nigh -the island; then there were 8 guns of 12-pound ball each, planted at -Mackay’s fort, and some also toward the river on the southwest, where -the Danes were posted. These fell to work all the time and put the Irish -into such a fright [more partisan venom] that a great many of them -wished themselves at another place, having never heard such a noise -before, nor I hope never shall in that kingdom.” - -Three days later the reverend chronicler tells us that “the breach was -widened at least forty paces, and, floats being prepared, there were -great debates amongst the chief officers whether it should be attempted -by storm.... Though indeed we could not do the enemy a greater pleasure, -nor ourselves a greater prejudice, in all probability, than in seeking -to carry the town by a breach, before those within [the Irish, to wit] -were more humbled, either by sword or sickness.” No finer tribute than -this, coming from such a source, could be paid to Irish constancy and -courage, after such treasons and disasters as marked the capture of -Athlone and the loss of Aughrim. - -Thoroughly convinced that he could not hope to carry Limerick by direct -assault, De Ginkel now resolved to test the never-failing weapon of -treachery and surprise on this stubborn foe. He had information that -there was a strong peace-at-any-price party within the town, and that, -could he but land a strong force on the Clare bank of the Shannon, the -city would speedily capitulate. He, therefore, determined to construct, -in all secrecy, a pontoon bridge across the river above St. Thomas -Island, near a place called Annaghbeg, where Brigadier Robert Clifford -commanded a strong body of Irish dragoons and infantry, quite -sufficient, if only properly directed, to foil any hostile movement. On -the night of the 15th of September, the bridge was laid—the most -favorable point having been revealed by some fishermen, who, the -historian O’Callaghan relates, were bribed to betray their country. It -is much more probable, however, that they were forced to turn traitors -under threat of death. However, on the morning of the 16th the bridge -was completed and a formidable English force of horse and foot, under -Generals Talmash and Scravenmore, succeeded in crossing. Apparently -taken by surprise—although distinctly charged with treason by numerous -Irish historians—General Clifford, at this important juncture, displayed -neither zeal, courage, nor capacity. He brought his men up in a state of -unreadiness and in detachments, instead of in a solid formation, and, of -course, was easily put to rout. To show the criminal carelessness, to -say no worse, of this commander, his cavalry horses were “out at grass” -two miles from his camp, when the English attack was made! Such -“generalship” would have demoralized an army of Spartans, and the Irish -rank and file can hardly be blamed if, on this occasion, they did not -manifest their customary intrepidity. Europe never beheld in the field a -braver body of men than King James’s Irish army, and the world never -furnished a more incompetent staff of general officers, whether French -or Irish, than that which commanded and, finally, wrecked it. We wish to -except St. Ruth and Sarsfield and Boisseleau, who were able and gallant -soldiers, thoroughly devoted to the cause in which they had embarked. De -Ginkel’s bold movement resulted in the partial turning of Thomond -Bridge—the key to King’s Island—and the capture of St. Thomas Island, -another important Irish post above the city. He, therefore, felt -justified in issuing, that same day, a proclamation inviting the -garrison of Limerick to surrender on honorable conditions, but the -Irish, although now under a veritable rain of fire and iron from every -point of the compass, paid no heed to it, whereat the phlegmatic, but -skilful, Dutch strategist greatly marveled. - -But, although the river had been successfully passed, Ginkel was so -discouraged by the firm countenance of the Irish garrison that he called -a Council of War on the 17th, when it was, at first, decided to cross -the whole English army into Clare, destroy the Irish resources of food -and forage in that county, and then convert the siege into a blockade -that might last indefinitely. Reflection, however, changed this -decision. Winter was approaching, and the wet Irish winter meant -wholesale death to the soft and pampered English and their foreign -allies. Ginkel, then, resolved to again try his favorite manœuvre—a -turning movement. Accordingly, on September 22, at the head of the -greater portion of the allied army, he crossed the pontoon bridge and, -commanding in person, made a sudden and tremendous attack on the small -fort which commanded Thomond Bridge, and was garrisoned by about 800 -Irish soldiers. The English cannon soon covered this fort with red-hot -projectiles. Everything inflammable in the soldiers’ quarters caught -fire, and the desperate garrison made a sortie with the object of -crossing into King’s Island by Thomond Bridge. The connection was by -means of a draw. A little over a hundred of the Irish had crossed in -safety, when the French major in command at the drawbridge, fearing, it -is said, that the English might enter the town with the fugitives, -caused it suddenly to be raised. The men behind were not able to see -what had happened, and the foremost ranks that stood on the western -abutment were forced over the gulf and nearly all perished in the river. -The others put up white handkerchiefs in token of surrender, but the -savage victors showed no mercy. Story, who saw the whole sickening -butchery, paints the scene in ghastly fashion thus: “Before the killing -was over, they [the Irish] were laid in heaps upon the bridge, higher -than the ledges of it.” Out of 800 men, only the five score and odd that -gained the drawbridge in time, and the few strong ones who swam the -river, escaped. It, on a smaller scale, resembled the disaster at -Leipsic, in 1813, when the French Major of Engineers, Montfort, caused -the bridge over the Elster to be blown up, while yet the corps of -MacDonald and Poniatowski, which formed Napoleon’s rearguard, were on -the hostile bank of the river. Thus, through the stupidity, or panic, of -a subordinate officer, the emperor lost the Polish marshal, who was one -of his best generals, and 20,000 of his choicest troops. A fool or -coward commanding at a bridge over which an army is compelled to -retreat, is more deadly to his friends than all the bullets and sabres -of the enemy. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - Capitulation of Limerick—Terms of the Famous “Violated Treaty”—Cork - Harbor Tragedy - - -THE Irish cavalry, which would seem to have been inefficiently commanded -by General Sheldon during the late operations, and now completely -outnumbered, fell back to Six-Mile-Bridge in Clare, dejected and almost -hopeless. The men had lost faith in their commanders, and that meant a -speedy end of effective resistance. When it became known in Limerick -that the enemy had been successful beyond the river, the peace party -began again to clamor loudly for a capitulation. A party eager for -surrender within a beleaguered city is the very best ally a besieging -force can have. In this case, their treason or pusillanimity proved the -destruction of their country. De Ginkel had positive information that a -great French fleet, under a renowned admiral, Count Chateau-Renaud, was -fitting out at Brest for the relief of Limerick. Therefore he was ready -to promise almost anything in order to gain the timely surrender of the -place, for he knew that if the French once landed in force, all the -fruits of his recent victories would be irretrievably spoiled. The -buoyant Irish would rally again more numerously than ever, better -drilled, equipped, and thoroughly inured to war. His good opinion of -their fighting qualities was unequivocally shown in his eagerness to -enlist them as soldiers under the banner of King William. He felt -morally certain that Sarsfield and the other chief Irish officers were -entirely ignorant of the preparations going on in France. They imagined -themselves absolutely deserted by that power. Irish tradition credits -General Sarsfield with a disposition to hold out to the last, while it -is believed, on the same rather unreliable authority, that the French -generals, D’Usson and De Tessé, favored an honorable and immediate -surrender. It is certain that most of the Anglo-Irish officers were -tired of the war and desired to have an end of it on any reasonable -terms. Ginkel was still over the river in Clare, when, on the evening of -September 23, the Irish drums, from several points in the town, beat a -parley. The siege had lasted almost a month, and the English officers -were delighted at the near prospect of peace. They received Sarsfield, -Wauchop, and their escort, under a flag of truce, with military -courtesy, and directed them where to find the general-in-chief. The -Irish officers crossed the Shannon in a rowboat, and found Ginkel in his -camp by Thomond Bridge. He received them favorably, and a temporary -cessation of hostilities was agreed upon. Next morning, it was decided -to extend it three days. Then it was determined that the Irish officers -and commands separated from the Limerick garrison should be communicated -with, and that all, if terms were agreed upon, would surrender -simultaneously. Meanwhile the English and Irish officers exchanged -courtesies and frequently dined together, although the French generals -held aloof, for some reason that has never been satisfactorily -explained. - -But now the ultra peace party having, in a measure, the upper hand, -sought to commit the Irish army to a dishonorable and ungrateful -policy—the abandonment of France, which, with all its faults, was -Ireland’s sole ally. Hostages were exchanged by the two armies, those -for England being Lord Cutts, Sir David Collier, Colonel Tiffin, and -Colonel Piper; and for Ireland Lords Westmeath, Iveagh (whose entire -regiment afterward passed over to William), Trimelstown, and Louth. -Following the arrival of the latter in the English camp came the peace -party’s proposals, which stipulated for the freedom of Catholic worship -and the maintenance of civil rights, and then basely proposed that “the -Irish army be kept on foot, paid, et cetera, the same as the rest of -their majesties’ forces, in case they were willing to serve their -majesties against France or any other enemy.” - -The Irish army, nobly chivalrous and patriotic, with the usual base -exceptions to be found in every considerable body of men, was not -willing “to serve their majesties” as intimated, as will be seen further -along. Ginkel, who was thoroughly coached by the “royal commissioners” -from Dublin, who were rarely absent from his camp, rejected the -Palesmen’s propositions, chiefly because of the Catholic claims put -forward in them. There is no evidence whatever that Sarsfield -countenanced the policy attempted to be carried out by this contemptible -faction. - -On the 28th all the parties in Limerick town came to an agreement in -regard to what they would propose to and accept from De Ginkel. The -latter, who was quite a diplomatic as well as military “bluffer,” began -openly to prepare his batteries for a renewal of the bombardment—the -three days’ cessation having nearly come to an end. But, on the day -stated, there came to him, from out of Limerick, Generals Sarsfield -(Lord Lucan), Wauchop, the Catholic Primate, Baron Purcell, the -Archbishop of Cashel, Sir Garret Dillon, Sir Theobald (“Toby”) Butler, -and Colonel Brown, “the three last counselors-at-law, with several other -officers and commissioners.” Baron De Ginkel summoned all of his chief -generals to meet them, and “after a long debate, articles were agreed -on, not only for the town of Limerick, but for all the other forts and -castles in the kingdom, then in the enemies’ possession.” In compliance -with the wish of the Irish delegation, De Ginkel agreed to summon the -Lords Justices from Dublin to ratify the treaty. These functionaries, -authoritatively representing King William and Queen Mary, soon arrived -at the camp and signed the instrument in due form. The French generals, -although they did not accompany the Irish commissioners on their visit -to Ginkel, signed the terms of capitulation with the rest, the names -appearing in the following order: D’Usson, Le Chevalier de Tessé, Latour -Monfort, Mark Talbot, Lucan (Sarsfield), Jo Wauchop, Galmoy, M. Purcell. -For England there signed Lords Justices Charles Porter and Thomas -Conyngsby, Baron De Ginkel, and Generals Scravenmore, Mackay, and -Talmash. - -The Treaty of Limerick was thus consummated on October 3, 1691, with all -the required forms and ceremonies, so that no loophole of informality -was left for either party to this international compact. In the treaty -there were 29 military and 13 civil articles. As they were quite -lengthy, we will confine ourselves to a general summary, thus: - -All the adherents of King James in Ireland were given permission to go -beyond the seas to any country they might choose to live in, except -England and Scotland. Volunteers and rapparees were included in this -provision, as well as the officers and soldiers of the Irish regular -army. These voluntary exiles were allowed to depart from Ireland in -“whole bodies, companies, or parties;” and it was provided that, if -plundered by the way, the English Government would grant compensation -for such losses as they might sustain. It was agreed that fifty ships of -200 tons burden each should be provided for their transportation, and -twenty of the same tonnage in addition, if it should be found necessary, -and that “said ships should be furnished with forage for horses and all -necessary provisions to subsist the officers, troopers, dragoons, and -[foot] soldiers, and all other persons [meaning families and followers] -that are shipped to be transported into France.” In addition, two -men-of-war were placed at the disposal of the principal officers for the -voyage, and suitable provision was made for the safe return of all -vessels when their mission of transportation was accomplished. The -thrifty De Ginkel further stipulated that the provisions supplied to the -military exiles should be paid for by their government as soon as the -Irish troops were landed on French soil. Article XXV provided: “That it -shall be lawful for the said garrison [of Limerick] to march out at -once, or at different times, as they can be embarked, with arms, -baggage, drums beating, match lighted at both ends, bullet in mouth, -colors flying, six brass guns, such as the besieged shall choose, two -mortar pieces, and half the ammunition that is now in the magazines of -the said place.” This provision, which, as can be seen, included the -full “honors of war,” was also extended to the other capitulated Irish -garrisons. Another significant provision was that all Irish officers and -soldiers who so desired could join the army of King William, retaining -the rank and pay they enjoyed in the service of King James. - -Of the civil articles, the first read as follows: “The Roman Catholics -of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their -religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did -enjoy in the reign of King Charles II; and their Majesties, as soon as -their affairs will permit them to summon a Parliament in this kingdom, -will endeavor to procure the said Roman Catholics such further security -in that particular as may preserve them from disturbance upon the -account of their said religion.” - -The second article guaranteed protection in the possession of their -estates and the free pursuit of their several professions, trades, and -callings to all who had served King James, the same as under his own -régime, on the taking of the subjoined oath of allegiance prescribed by -statute: “I —— do solemnly promise and swear that I will be faithful and -bear true allegiance to their Majesties, King William and Queen Mary: so -help me God.” A subsequent article provided that “the oath to be -administered to such Roman Catholics as submit to their Majesties’ -government shall be the oath aforesaid and no other”—thus doing away, as -the Irish honestly supposed, with the odious penal “Test oaths,” which -were an outrage on Catholic belief and a glaring insult to the Catholics -of the whole world. - -The third article extended the benefit of the first and second articles -to Irish merchants “beyond the seas” who had not borne arms since the -proclamation issued by William and Mary in the preceding February, but -they were required to return to Ireland within eight months. - -Article IV granted like immunity to Irish officers in foreign lands, -absent in pursuance of their military duties, and naming, specially, -Colonel Simon Luttrell (the loyal brother of the traitor, Henry), -Colonel Rowland White, Colonel Maurice Eustace, of Gormanstown, and -Major Cheviers (Chevers) of Maystown, “commonly called Mount Leinster.” - -Article V provided that all persons comprised in the second and third -articles should have general pardon for all “attainders, outlawries, -treasons (?), misprisions of treasons, præmunires, felonies, trespasses, -and other crimes and misdemeanors whatsoever, committed by them, or any -of them since the beginning of the reign of James II; and if any of them -are attainted by Parliament, the Lords Justices and the General will use -their best endeavors to get the same repealed by Parliament, and the -outlawries to be reversed gratis, all but writing-clerk’s fees.” - -Article VI provided general immunity to both parties for debts or -disturbances arising out of the late war. This provision applied also to -rates and rents. - -Article VII provided that “every nobleman and gentleman comprised in the -second and third articles shall have liberty to ride with a sword and -case of pistols, if they [_sic_] think fit, and keep a gun in their -houses for the defence of the same, or for fowling.” - -The eighth article granted leave to the inhabitants, or residents, of -Limerick, and other Irish garrisons, to remove their goods and chattels, -if so disposed, without interference, search, or the payment of duties, -and they were privileged to remain in their lodgings for six weeks. - -The tenth article declared that “no person, or persons, who shall at any -time hereafter break these articles, or any of them, shall thereby make -or cause any other person or persons to forfeit or lose the benefit of -the same.” - -Article XII read thus: “The Lords Justices and the General do undertake -that their Majesties will ratify these articles within the space of -three months, or sooner, and use their utmost endeavors that the same -shall be ratified and confirmed in the Parliament.” - -The thirteenth, and final, article made provision for the protection -from financial loss of Colonel John Browne, commissary-general of the -Irish army, who, during the war, had seized the property of certain -Williamites for the public use, charging the debt, pro rata, on the -Catholic estates secured to their owners under the treaty; and requiring -General (Lord Lucan) to certify the account with Colonel Browne within -21 days. - -It will be remembered, in examining the religious provisions of the -Treaty of Limerick, that Catholic worship in the reign of Charles II was -permitted by connivance rather than by law. Many of the worst of the -penal laws, although in abeyance, might be revived at any time by law -officers tyrannically disposed toward the Catholics. The latter were -once again to discover that it is one thing to obtain a favorable treaty -from a formidable enemy, while they have arms in their hands and a still -inviolate fortress at their backs, but quite a different matter to make -the foe live up to the provisions of the treaty when the favorable -conditions for the capitulators have passed away. But of this hereafter. - -Not many days subsequent to the surrender of Limerick, Count -Chateau-Renaud, with a powerful French fleet, having on board arms, -cannon, and all kinds of military supplies, together with a veteran -contingent of 3,000 men and 200 officers, cast anchor in Dingle Bay, on -the southern coast, without once coming in contact with the naval might -of England. Were the Irish a dishonorable people, they could have then, -with great advantage, repudiated the treaty, but the national honor was -irrevocably plighted, and, consequently, there was an end of the -struggle. Many honest Irish writers have blamed the precipitancy of -Sarsfield and the other leaders in signing the articles of capitulation, -and not without good cause. Lord Lucan should have court-martialed and -shot the leaders of the peace-at-any-price traitors when they first -showed their hands. Hugh O’Neill, Red Hugh O’Donnell, or Owen Roe -O’Neill would have done so without hesitation, but, then, Sarsfield was -only half a Celt, and had an unfortunate tenderness for his fellows of -the Pale. It is regrettable that none of the French generals has left a -clear statement of the events that led to the premature surrender of the -town; but we know that King Louis, who subsequently honored Sarsfield, -held D’Usson responsible, for Story tells us, on page 280 of his -“Continuation of the History of the Wars in Ireland,” that “the French -king [Louis XIV] was so far from thanking him for it [the capitulation] -that, after some public indignities, he sent him to the Bastile.” - -Viewed in the light of after events, the Treaty of Limerick, from the -Irish standpoint, looks like a huge game of confidence, and is an -ineradicable blot on English military and diplomatic honor. The civil -articles were ignored, or trampled under foot, almost immediately. The -military articles were better observed, except that provision which -related to transportation to France, which was grossly violated and led -to the drowning in Cork Harbor of a number of the wives of the Irish -soldiery, who, unable to find room on board, owing to De Ginkel’s -alleged faithlessness, or the perfidy of his lieutenants, clung to the -ropes, when the ships set sail, and were dragged beneath the waves to -their death. - -Mitchel, in his able “History of Ireland,” page 3, writing of this -painful incident, defends Sarsfield against an imputation cast upon that -officer by Lord Macaulay, in his brilliant but unreliable “History of -England,” thus: “As to General Sarsfield’s proclamation to the men ‘that -they should be permitted to carry their wives and families to France,’ -he made the statement on the faith of the First and several succeeding -articles of the treaty, not yet being aware of any design to violate it. -But this is not all: The historian who could not let the hero go into -his sorrowful exile without seeking to plunge his venomous sting into -his reputation, had before him the ‘Life of King William,’ by Harris, -and also Curry’s ‘Historical Review of the Civil Wars,’ wherein he must -have seen that the Lords Justices and General Ginkel are charged with -endeavoring to defeat the execution of the First Article. For, says -Harris, ‘as great numbers of the officers and soldiers had resolved to -enter into the service of France, and to carry their families with them, -Ginkel would not suffer their wives and children to be shipped off with -the men, not doubting that by detaining the former he would have -prevented many of the latter from going into that service. This, I say, -was confessedly an infringement of the articles.’ - -“To this we may add,” continues Mitchel, “that no Irish officer or -soldier in France attributed the cruel parting at Cork to any fault of -Sarsfield, but always and only to a breach of the Treaty of Limerick. -And if he had deluded them in the manner represented by the English -historian, they would not have followed him as enthusiastically [as they -afterward did] on the fields of Steinkirk and Landen.” - -Mr. Mitchel did Lord Macaulay an unintentional injustice in attributing -the original charge against Sarsfield to him. It originated with -Chaplain Story, and can be found on pages 291-293 of his Continuation, -in these words: “Those [of the Irish] who were now embarking had not -much better usage on this side of the water [he had alluded to the -alleged ill-treatment of the first contingent on its arrival in France], -for a great many of them, having wives and children, they made what -shift they could to desert, rather than leave their families behind to -starve, which my Lord Lucan and Major-General Wauchop perceiving, they -publish a declaration that as many of the Irish as had a mind to’t -should have liberty to transport their families along with themselves. -And, accordingly, a vast rabble of all sorts were brought to the -water-side, when the major-general [Wauchop], pretending to ship the -soldiers in order, according to their lists, they first carried all the -men on board; and many of the women, at the second return of the boats -for the officers, catching hold to be carried on board, were dragged -off, and, through fearfulness, losing their hold, were drowned; but -others who held faster had their fingers cut off, and so perished in -sight of their husbands or relatives, tho’ those of them that did get -over [to France], would make but a sad figure, if they were admitted to -go to the late queen’s court at St. Germain.... Lord Lucan finding he -had ships enough for all the Irish that were likely to go with him, the -number that went before and these shipped at this time, being, according -to the best computation, 12,000 of all sorts [a palpable underestimate], -he signs the following releasement: - - “‘Whereas, by the Articles of Limerick, Lieutenant-General - Ginkel, commander-in-chief of the English army, did engage - himself to furnish 10,000 tons of shipping for the transporting - of such of the Irish forces to France as were willing to go - thither; and to facilitate their passage to add 4,000 tons more - in case the French fleet did not come to this kingdom to take - off some of these forces; and whereas the French fleet has been - upon the coast and carried away some of the said forces, and the - lieutenant-general has provided ships for as many of the rest as - are willing to go as aforesaid, I do hereby declare that the - said lieutenant-general is released from any obligation he lay - under from the said articles, to provide vessels for that - purpose, and do quit and renounce all farther claim and - pretension on this account, etc. Witness my hand this 8th day of - December, 1691. - - “‘LUCAN. - - “‘_Witnesses_: - MARK TALBOT, - F. H. DE LA FOREST, SUSANNEL.’” - -From the same authority we learn that “on December 22, my Lord Lucan, -and the rest of the Irish great officers, went on board the transport -ships [bound for France], leaving hostages at Cork for the return of the -said ships.” - -It is impossible to reconcile the circumstantial statement of the -Williamite historian, Harris, in regard to Ginkel’s faithlessness, with -the official document, signed by Sarsfield, as Earl of Lucan, which -practically exonerates the Dutch general. Would Sarsfield have signed -such a release if Ginkel had been guilty of the treachery ascribed to -him by Harris? Story’s book was published a year before Lord Lucan fell -in Flanders, and must have been read by that general and the officers -who served with him at Limerick. One thing about the question is -certain—if Sarsfield ever issued the proclamation, in conjunction with -General Wauchop, ascribed to him by the English chaplain, he must have -been grossly deceived by somebody. All writers of his own times, and of -after times, describe Sarsfield as the soul of honor, but some have -asserted that he was rather easy-going in business affairs, and a little -too ready to sign any document placed before him. - -We have been unable to find any contemporary confirmation of the -romantic Irish tradition that the Treaty of Limerick was signed on the -historic bowlder, now preserved by pedestal and railing near Thomond -Bridge, on the Clare bank of the Shannon. But tradition is often more -accurate than written history. Therefore, the Irish people having -accepted the story through more than six generations, we accept with -them the legend of “the Treaty Stone.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - The Irish Troops, as a Majority, Enter the French Service—King James - Receives Them Cordially—His Testimony of Their Devotion and Courage - - -IMMEDIATELY after the signing of the treaty, it was fixed upon between -De Ginkel and Sarsfield that, on October 6, the Irish infantry would -march out of the King’s Island by Thomond Bridge, into the County Clare, -and there and then make a choice of service with England or France. It -was arranged that those who chose the former service were to turn to the -left at a certain point, where an English flag was planted, while those -who decided for France were to march straight onward to a more distant -point marked by the French standard. They were, in all, about 15,000 -men, and, quite naturally, the respective leaders awaited the result -with burning anxiety. They were not left long in doubt. The first body -to march was the Royal Irish regiment of Foot Guards, fourteen hundred -strong, of which Mr. Story remarks wofully, it “seemed to go all entire -[for France] except seven men, which the general was much concerned at, -then my Lord Iveagh’s regiment of Ulster Irish came off entire to our -side.” In all a little over 1,000 officers and men ranged themselves -under the flag of King William, while nearly 13,000 mustered under the -Fleur-de-Lis. A few days afterward, the Irish horse, now much reduced, -made choice in the same fashion, and with about the same proportionate -result. The same privilege was granted the outlying bodies of King -James’s army, and all decided for France in the proportion of about ten -to one. Of the Irish general officers, more or less under the suspicion -of the army since the disasters of Aughrim and Annaghbeg, we find -Generals Luttrell and Clifford, Baron Purcell, “and a great many more of -the Irish nobility and gentry going toward Dublin,” which means that -they made terms with the enemy. - -It was well along in the month of December before the Irish soldiers who -had volunteered to go beyond the seas were entirely transported to -France. The foot, for the most part, sailed from Limerick, many of them -in the returning fleet of Chateau-Renaud, and the cavalry from Cork, -where occurred the tragical event we have already related. In -all—including the capitulated troops from every Irish garrison—20,000 -men from Ireland landed in the French ports, and these, together with -Mountcashel’s Brigade, which had been in the French service since before -the battle of the Boyne, made up a force of 25,000 veterans, who were -mostly in the pay of King Louis, but all of whom were sworn to support -King James in any effort he might put forth to recover his crown. - -As much injustice has been done the memory of King James II by Irish -writers, who have taken too much for granted on traditional “hearsay,” -we deem it only fair to place before the readers of this history the -sentiments of the unfortunate monarch toward his Irish defenders. We -quote from his Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 465-467: “Thus was Ireland [he -alluded to the fall of Limerick], after an obstinate resistance in three -years’ campaigns, by the power and riches of England, and the revolt of -almost all its [Ireland’s] own Protestant subjects torn from its natural -sovereign, who, tho’ he was divested of the country, was not wholly -deprived of the people, for the greatest part of those who were then in -arms for the defence of his right, not content with the service already -rendered, got leave [as was said] to come and lose their lives, after -having lost their estates, in defence of his title, and brought by that -means such a body of men into France as by their generous comportment in -accepting the pay of the country [much less than British or Irish pay] -instead of that which is usually allowed there [in France] to strangers -and their inimitable valor and service during the whole course of the -war, might justly make their prince pass for an ally, rather than a -pensioner, or burden, to his Most Christian Majesty, whose pay, indeed, -they received, but acted by the king’s, their master’s, commission, -according to the common method of other auxiliary troops. As soon as the -king [James] heard of their arrival [in France] he writ to the commander -[General Sheldon, who went with the first contingent] to assure him how -well he was satisfied with the behavior and conduct of the officers, and -the valor and fidelity of the soldiers, and how sensible he should ever -be of their service, which he would not fail to reward when it should -please God to put him in a capacity of doing it.” - -Following is the full text of the letter addressed to the Irish troops -through their general by King James, as given in Story’s Continuation, -page 289: - - “JAMES REX. - - “Having been informed of the capitulation and surrender of - Limerick, and the other places which remained to us in our - Kingdom of Ireland, and of the necessities which forced the - Lords Justices and general officers of our forces thereunto: we - will not defer to let you know, and the rest of the officers - that came along with you, that we are extremely satisfied with - your and their conduct, and of the valor of the soldiers during - the siege, but most particularly of your and their declaration - and resolution to come and serve where we are. And we assure - you, and order you to assure both officers and soldiers that are - come along with you, that we shall never forget this act of - loyalty, nor fail, when in a capacity to give them, above - others, particular marks of our favor. In the meantime, you are - to inform them that they are to serve under our command, and by - our commissions; and if we find that a considerable number [of - them] is come with the fleet, it will induce us to go personally - to see them, and regiment them: Our brother, the King of France, - hath already given orders to clothe them and furnish them with - all necessaries, and to give them quarters of refreshment. So we - bid you heartily farewell. - - “Given at our Court at St. Germain the 27th of November [Dec. - 7], 1691.” - -In pursuance of his promise, King James made two fatiguing trips from -St. Germain to Bretagne and return, regimented the gallant exiles at -Vannes, Brest, and other points, and in every possible way showed his -marked appreciation of their devotion. He was accompanied by his son, -the Duke of Berwick. - -In accepting French pay, the Irish soldiery exposed themselves almost to -penury, and their officers submitted to be reduced in rank, almost -without a murmur. Major-generals became colonels; colonels, captains; -captains, lieutenants, and many of the latter sergeants. This was -absolutely necessary, as there was room for only a certain number in the -French establishment. Many reduced officers served also as volunteers, -without pay of any kind, waiting patiently for death or promotion. The -total amount of property sacrificed by these brave men in the Jacobite -cause was 1,060,792 acres, and this new confiscation placed fully -seven-eighths of the soil of Ireland in the hands of the supporters of -the English interest. - -William and Mary formally ratified the Articles of the Treaty of -Limerick within the specified three months, but the English Parliament, -influenced by motives of greed and bigotry, shamefully refused to -acquiesce, and as William and Mary did not endanger their crown by -offering a vigorous opposition, the civil articles of Limerick were, -from that moment, a dead letter. Then redescended on Ireland “the long, -black night of the penal laws,” and we gladly turn from it, for a -period, to follow the brilliant but bloody fortunes of the Irish Brigade -in the service of France. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - Early Exploits of the Irish Brigade in the Service of France—At Landen, - Cremona, and Blenheim—Tribute Paid it by an English Historian - - -IN the preceding chapter we indicated that we would deal with the -history of the Irish brigades in the French service, from 1692 to 1792, -before touching on the terrible penal period in Ireland. Their services -have won a fame so world-wide that no history of Europe is complete that -omits them from its pages. They were prominently engaged in the reign of -Louis XIV in the War of the League of Augsburg, which was hotly waged by -nearly all Europe against him, from 1688 to the Peace of Ryswick, in -1697; in the War of the Spanish Succession—waged by Louis to support his -grandson, Philip of Anjou, on the Spanish throne—commenced in 1700 and -concluded by the Peace of Utrecht and Treaty of Rastadt in 1713-14, and -under Louis XV in numerous minor wars with Germany, and especially in -the War of the Austrian Succession—France supporting the claim of -Charles VII, of Bavaria, against Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, -daughter of the last Hapsburg Emperor of Germany, Charles VI. This war -was begun in 1740. France took sides in 1743, and it was concluded by -the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. In each of these contests France -and England were on opposite sides—a circumstance favorable to the -bloody development of Irish hatred. After the last of the wars -specified, the Irish Brigade, having no warlike food on which to -flourish, covered with laurels and “worn out with glory,” faded from the -fields of Europe. - -In another place we have alluded to the campaign of Savoy, 1690-91, in -which the ill-starred St. Ruth was chief in command. Mountcashel’s, -known as the “Old Brigade,” scaled every Alpine fortress, drove the -vengeful “Vaudois” from their rugged hills, and laid the country under -fire and sword, leaving a reputation for military prowess fresh, at this -day, amid the mountains of Savoy. - -In Flanders, in 1692, under Sarsfield and Lord Clare, the “New” Brigade -won great honor at Steinkirk, where Luxemburg routed King William. At -Landen, or Neerwinden, in July, 1693, William held his ground -desperately against the bravest efforts of the French. Luxemburg was in -despair, when the fierce war-cry, “Remember Limerick!” rent the clouds, -and the Royal Irish Foot Guards, led by Colonel John Barrett, shattered -the English centre, broke into Neerwinden, opened a path to victory for -the French Household, and William was hurled into the river Gette, while -the Irish shout of victory shook the plain like a clap of thunder. -Sarsfield, like the brave Barrett, received his death wound, but his -dying gaze beheld the sight he most loved to see—the English flag in -sullen flight. - -This same year, in Italy, under Catinat, the “Old” Brigade made its mark -at Marsaglia, where it defeated the Savoyard centre, drew the whole -French army after it, and chased Victor Amadeus almost to the gates of -Turin. - -Thenceforth, Lord Mountcashel having died of his wounds, the two -brigades were united as one. The younger Schomberg, son of the hero of -the Boyne, fell before the Irish bayonets at Marsaglia. At the battle of -Montgry, in Spain, fought in 1694, by the French against the Spanish, -the “Brigade,” under Marshal de Noailles, renewed its laurels, and the -Irish charge proved potent in bringing the Spaniards to terms. - -This war terminated gloriously for France by the Peace of Ryswick. - -The War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1700. England and Austria -supported the Archduke Charles against Philip of Anjou, the Bourbon -heir. This struggle brought upon the stage the Duke of Marlborough, for -England, and Prince Eugene, of Savoy, for Austria, two of the greatest -generals of modern times. Marshals, the Duke of Berwick, Catinat, -Villeroy, Vendome, Villairs, Boufflers, and Noailles, commanded the -armies of France. In this frightful struggle, the Irish flag always -blazed in the vanguard of victory, in the rearguard of defeat, and the -Irish name became the synonym of valor. - -In the winter of 1702, the citadel of Cremona, in northern Italy, was -held for France by Marshal Villeroy, with a strong garrison. The French -gave themselves up to revelry, and the walls were poorly guarded. -Caissioli, an Italian, informed Prince Eugene, the Austrian commander, -of the state of affairs. The traitor agreed to let in a portion of the -enemy by means of a sewer running from outside the walls under his -house. At the same time the French sentinels at the gate of St. -Margaret, badly defended, were to be drawn off, so that Eugene himself, -with a strong body of cuirassiers, might enter and join the other party. -Count Merci was to attack the “Gate of the Po,” defended by an Irish -company, and Prince Vaudemont and Count Freiberg were to support the -attack with the cavalry of their respective commands. The attack was -made at midnight, and the plans were admirably executed. The Austrians -were in possession of the town before the garrison was alarmed. Count -Merci, however, met bad fortune at the “Gate of the Po.” The Irish -guard, chatting over old times by the Shannon, the Barrow, or the Suir, -kept faithful watch. The clatter of hoofs aroused them, as Merci, -attended by several regiments of dragoons, rode up to the gate and -called upon them to surrender. The Irish replied with a sharp volley, -which laid some of the Austrians out in the roadway. The fire aroused -the sleeping Irish regiments of Dillon and Burke, who, in their shirts -only, as they sprang from bivouac, grasped their muskets and hastened to -the rescue. They were met in the square by Eugene’s cuirassiers, who -charged them fiercely. Major O’Mahoney formed his Irish into a square -and let the Austrians have a fusillade. The cuirassiers, urged by Eugene -and Freiberg, dashed madly at the Irish battalions, but, despite the -bravest efforts of this iron cavalry, the Irish actually routed them and -slew their leader, Baron Freiberg. Marshal Villeroy was made prisoner by -Macdonald, an Irishman in the Austrian service, and the French general -second in command shared the same fate. But the Irish still held out, -fighting desperately and losing half their men. This prolonged -resistance alarmed the French, who now, thoroughly aroused, gallantly -seconded their Irish comrades, and, after a terrible carnage of eight -hours’ duration, Prince Eugene, with all that remained of the flower of -the Austrian cavalry, gave up in despair, and was hurled pell-mell -through the gates of St. Margaret, by the victorious garrison. This -exploit of the Irish saved northern Italy to the French monarch—the -Austrians retreated to the Alps. All Europe rang applause. Louis raised -the pay of his Irish troops, and made O’Mahoney a general. He also -decreed that Irishmen, who deserved the honor, should thenceforth be -recognized as French citizens, without undergoing the form of -naturalization. - -At the first battle of Blenheim, Bavaria, in 1703, the Irish, under -Marshal Tallard, contributed to that victory. The regiment of Clare, -encountering the Austrian guards, was, for a moment, overpowered, but, -immediately rallying, it counter-charged with such fury that it not -alone recovered its own flag, but gained two colors from the enemy! - -The second Blenheim, so disastrous to France, was fought in 1704. -Marlborough commanded the English right, facing Marshal Tallard, and -Eugene commanded the allied left, facing Marshal de Marcin, with whom -was the Irish Brigade. Tallard was dreadfully beaten, and Marcin fared -little better. The French suffered great slaughter, and were badly -worsted. The Brigade, however, would not lose heart. Closing up its -ranks, it made a superb charge on Prince Eugene’s lines, broke through -them—being one of the few corps in the French army that saved their -colors that day—and covered the retreat of France to the Rhine! - -The English professor, E. S. Creasy of Cambridge University, writing of -the conduct of the Irish in this great battle, says, on page 318 of his -“Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World”: “The [French] centre was -composed of fourteen battalions of infantry, including the celebrated -Irish Brigade. These were posted in the little hamlet of Oberglau, which -lies somewhat nearer to Lutzingen than to Blenheim.” And, on page 320 of -the same work, the professor continues: “The Prince of Holstein Beck -had, with eleven Hanoverian battalions, passed the Nebel opposite to -Oberglau when he was charged and utterly routed by the Irish Brigade, -which held that village. The Irish drove the Hanoverians back with heavy -slaughter, broke completely through the line of the allies, and nearly -achieved a success as brilliant as that which the same Brigade afterward -gained at Fontenoy. But at Blenheim their ardor in pursuit led them too -far. Marlborough came up in person and dashed in on the exposed flank of -the Brigade with some squadrons of British cavalry. The Irish reeled -back, and, as they strove to regain the heights of Oberglau, their -column was raked through and through by the fire of three battalions of -the allies, which Marlborough had summoned up from the reserve.” -Competent military critics have observed that had the French cavalry -seconded the charge of the Irish infantry, Blenheim would have been a -French victory. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - The Irish Brigade in the Campaigns of North Italy and Flanders—Its - Strength at Various Periods—Count Dillon’s Reply to King Louis XV - - -IN the summer of 1705, the Irish again, at the battle of Cassano, where -they fought under Marshal Vendome, paid their respects to Prince Eugene. -They fought with a bravery that electrified the French and paralyzed the -Austrians. Vendome’s flank was badly annoyed by a hostile battery on the -farther bank of the river Adda. The stream was broad and deep, but two -Irish regiments, under cover of the smoke, swam across it, and, under -the very nose of the great Eugene, captured the Austrian cannon and -turned their fire upon the enemy! This intrepid action decided the day, -and France was once more triumphant, by her Irish arm. - -Conspicuous in this brilliant action, as also at Cremona, was the famous -“Regiment of Burke”—the last to yield at Aughrim. Of it the -Scotch-Canadian poet and novelist, William McLennan, has written: - - “Would you read your name on honor’s roll? - Look not for royal grant— - It is written in Cassano, - Alcoy and Alicant! - Saragossa, Barcelona, - Wherever dangers lurk, - You will find in the van the blue and the buff - Of the Regiment of Burke! - All Spain and France and Italy - Have echoed to our name— - The burning suns of Africa - Have set our arms aflame! - But to-night we toast the morn that broke and wakened us to fame— - The day we beat Prince Eugene in Cremona!” - -Marshal Villeroy, in May, 1706, allowed himself to be cooped up by the -Duke of Marlborough in the village of Ramillies, in Flanders. The French -were utterly overwhelmed, and many thousands of prisoners were taken. -Lord Clare formed the Brigade into a column of attack and broke through -the victorious enemy. The regiment of Clare, in this charge, met the -English regiment of Churchill—now the Third Buffs—full tilt, crushed it -hopelessly, captured its battle-flags, and served a Scotch regiment, in -the Dutch service, which endeavored to support the British, in the same -manner. The Brigade then effected its retreat on Ypres, where, in the -convent of the Benedictine nuns, it hung up the captured colors—“sole -trophies of Ramillies’ fray”—where they have waved, for many a -generation, a fitting memento of the faith and fame of the Irish exiles. - -In April, 1707, the Brigade next distinguished itself, at the battle of -Almanza, in Spain, where it fought in the army of Marshal the Duke of -Berwick. The English and Austrians were commanded by Ruvigny—the -Williamite Earl of Galway—who signalized himself at Aughrim. The Brigade -paid him back that day. It charged with a fury never excelled in any -fight. The allies were overthrown, Ruvigny disgraced, and the crown of -Spain was placed on the brow of Philip V. - -In defeat, as in victory, the bayonets of the Brigade still opened up -the road to honor. When the French retreated from Oudenarde, in July, -1708, Marlborough felt the Irish steel, as the gallant fellows hung -doggedly behind the retiring French, kept the fierce pursuers at bay, -and enabled Vendome to reorganize his beaten army. The battle of -Malplaquet, fought September, 1709, was the bloodiest of this most -sanguinary war. The French fought with unusual desperation, and the -English ranks, led by Marlborough and seconded by Eugene, were -decimated. It was an unmitigated slaughter. At length Marshal Villairs, -who commanded the French, was wounded and Marshal Boufflers ordered a -retreat. Again the Irish Brigade, which fought with its usual courage -all through that dreadful day, had the honor of forming the French -rearguard, and, although many flags, captured from France, were laid at -the feet of the victor, no Irish color graced the trophies of -Marlborough, who, with the ill-judged battle of Malplaquet, virtually -ended his grand career as a soldier. After that fight the war was feebly -waged—France being completely exhausted—until the Peace of Utrecht and -Treaty of Rastadt, 1713-14, closed the bloody record. - -It would be almost impossible to enumerate the sieges and minor actions -in which the Irish Brigade of France participated within the limits of -this history. The facts we have given, and are to give, rest on the -authority of the French war records, and the testimony of English and -other writers, carefully compiled by Matthew O’Conor, in his “Military -History of the Irish People,” and by John C. O’Callaghan in his -invaluable “History of the Irish Brigades”—works which should ensure for -their able and careful authors a literary immortality, and which people -of the Irish race should treasure among their most precious heirlooms. -It would be equally difficult to follow the career of those Irish -soldiers who, at the peace, transferred their swords from France to -Spain, because Louis XV, who succeeded his grandfather while yet a -child, could not employ them all. In Spain, as in France, their swords -were sharpest where the English were their foes, always, it must be -admitted, worthy of their steel. - -The subjoined statement of the strength of the Irish forces in the -French service during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is taken -from the authorities already quoted: - -From 1690 to 1692, three regiments of foot; 1692 to 1698, thirteen -regiments of infantry, three independent companies, two companies of -cavalry, and two troops of horse guards; 1698 to 1714, eight regiments -of infantry and one regiment of horse; 1714 to 1744, five regiments of -infantry and one of cavalry; 1744 to 1762, six regiments of infantry and -one of horse; 1762 to 1775, five regiments of infantry; 1775 to 1791—the -period of the dissolution of the Brigade—three regiments of foot. - -From the fall of Limerick, in 1691, to the French Revolution, according -to the most reliable estimate, there fell in the field for France, or -otherwise died in her service, 480,000 Irish soldiers. The Brigade was -kept recruited by military emigrants, borne from Ireland—chiefly from -the province of Munster—by French smugglers, under the romantic and -significant title of “Wild Geese”—in poetical allusion to their eastward -flight. By this name the Brigade is best remembered among the Irish -peasantry. - -After the death of Louis XIV, the Irish Brigade had comparatively little -wholesale fighting to keep them occupied, until the War of the Austrian -Succession, thirty years later. They made many expeditions to the -smaller states on the Rhenish frontier, with which France was in a -chronic state of war, under the Duke of Berwick. In every combat they -served with honor, and always appeared to best advantage where the hail -of death fell thickest. At times, like most of their countrymen, they -were inclined to wildness, but the first drum-roll or bugle blast found -them ready for the fray. On the march to attack Fort Kehl, in 1733, -Marshal Berwick—who was killed two years afterward at the siege of -Philipsburg—found fault with Dillon’s regiment for some breach of -discipline while en route. He sent the colonel with despatches to Louis -XV, and, among other matters, in a paternal way—for Berwick loved his -Irishmen—called the king’s attention to the indiscreet battalion. The -monarch, on reading the document, turned to the Irish officer, and, in -the hearing of the whole court, petulantly exclaimed: “My Irish troops -cause me more uneasiness than all the rest of my armies!” “Sire,” -immediately rejoined the noble Count Dillon—subsequently killed at -Fontenoy—“all your Majesty’s enemies make precisely the same complaint.” -Louis, pleased with the repartee, smiled, and, like a true Frenchman, -wiped out his previous unkindness by complimenting the courage of the -Brigade. - -The great War of the Austrian Succession inaugurated the fateful -campaigns of 1743 and 1745, respectively signalized by the battles of -Dettingen and Fontenoy. The former was a day of dark disaster to France, -and Fontenoy was a mortal blow to British arrogance. - -At Dettingen the Earl of Stair commanded the English and Hanoverians, -although George II and his son, Cumberland, were present on the field. -Marshal de Noailles commanded the French, and was badly worsted, after a -desperate engagement. The Irish Brigade, summoned from a long distance, -arrived too late to restore the battle, and met the French army in full -retreat, hotly pursued by the allies. The Brigade, under the orders of -Lord Clare, opened their ranks and allowed the French to retire, and -then, closing steadily up, they uttered their charging cry, and, with -leveled bayonet, checked the fierce pursuers. Thus, once again, the -Irish Brigade formed the French rearguard, as the Fleur-de-Lis retired -from the plains of Germany. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - The Austrian Succession—Campaign of 1745—Magnificent Achievement of the - Irish Brigade at Fontenoy—Prince Louis’s Adieu to the Heroes - - -THE famous battle of Fontenoy was fought on the soil of Belgium, in the -ancient province of Hainault, within some thirty miles of the memorable -plains of Waterloo, on May 11, new style, 1745. France, as we have -already noted, championed the cause of Charles of Bavaria, who laid -claim to the Austrian throne, while England, Holland, Hanover, and -Austria took the side of Maria Theresa, who eventually, owing to the -unexpected death of Charles, won the fiercely disputed crown. - -The French were besieging Tournay with 18,000 men. A corps of 6,000 -guarded the bridges over the Scheldt, on the northern bank of which -Marshal Saxe, accompanied by Louis XV and the Dauphin, having with him -45,000 men, including the Irish Brigade, took post, to cover the siege -of Tournay, and prevent the march of the allies, English, Dutch, and -Germans, under the Duke of Cumberland and Prince Waldeck, to its relief. -The duke was a brave soldier, but fierce and cruel as a tiger. History -knows him by the well-won title of “the butcher Cumberland.” His -business was to raise the siege of Tournay and open a road to Paris. He -had under his command 55,000 veteran troops, including the English -Household regiments. - -The French lines extended from the village of Rhamecroix, behind De -Barri’s Wood, on the left, to the village of Fontenoy, in the centre, -and from the latter position to the intrenchments of Antoine, on the -right. This line of defence was admirably guarded by “fort and flanking -battery.” The Irish Brigade—composed that day of the infantry regiments -of Clare, Dillon, Bulkeley, Roth, Berwick, and Lally—Fitz-James’s horse -being with the French cavalry in advance—was stationed, in reserve, near -the wood, supported by the brigades of Normandie and De Vassieux. - -Prince Waldeck commanded the allied left, in front of Antoine. Brigadier -Ingoldsby commanded the British right, facing the French redoubt at De -Barri’s Wood, while Cumberland, chief in command, was with the allied -centre, confronting Fontenoy. - -The battle opened with a furious cannonade, at 5 o’clock in the morning. -After some hours spent in this manner, Ingoldsby attempted to carry the -redoubt, but was ignominiously repulsed, and could not be induced to -renew the attempt. This refusal subsequently led to his dismissal from -the army on a charge of cowardice. Prince Waldeck fared no better at -Antoine, being defeated in two attempts to force the lines. The Duke of -Cumberland, grown impatient because of repeated failures, loaded the -unfortunate commanding officers with imprecations. He took the resolve -of beating the French at any cost by a concentrated attack on their left -centre, through a gap of about 700 yards, which occurred between the -Fontenoy redoubts and the work vainly attacked by Ingoldsby in the edge -of the wood of Barri. For this purpose, he formed his reserves and least -battered active battalions, including the English guards, several -British line regiments, and a large body of picked Hanoverian troops, -into three columns, aggregating 16,000 men, preceded and flanked by -twenty pieces of cannon, all drawn by hand, to avoid the confusion -incident on the killing and wounding of the battery horses. But -subsequent developments compelled the Duke to change the original -formation to one massive, solid oblong wedge, the British on the right -and the Hanoverians on the left. Lord Charles Hay, the boldest soldier -in the allied army, drew his sword and led the attacking column. -Meanwhile, Cumberland renewed the attack all along the line, in order to -cover the advance of his human battering-ram. Thus, the French were -pressed hard at every point, but their batteries and battalions replied -with spirit, and Antoine held out heroically in spite of all the efforts -of Waldeck and his Dutch and Austrian troops against it. These latter -were badly cut up by the fire of a French battery planted beyond the -Scheldt. Up to this period, about the noon hour, everything had gone -favorably for the French. - -But the decisive moment had now arrived, and the great Anglo-Hanoverian -column received the command—“Forward, march!” “In front of them, as it -chanced,” says Mitchel, “were four battalions of the French guards, with -two battalions of Swiss on their left and two other French regiments on -their right. The French officers seem to have been greatly surprised -when they saw the English battery taking up position on the summit of -the rising ground. ‘English cannon!’ they cried. ‘Let us go and take -them!’ They mounted the slope with their grenadiers, but were astonished -to find an army on their front. A heavy discharge, both of artillery and -musketry, made them quickly recoil with heavy loss.” On, then, swept the -English column, with free and gallant stride, between Fontenoy and De -Barri’s wood, whose batteries plowed them from flank to flank at every -step. But in the teeth of the artillery, the musketry and the bombshells -which rose, circled and fell among them, killing and wounding scores at -each explosion; charged by the cavalry of the royal household, and -exposed to the iron hail of the French sharpshooters, that -blue-and-scarlet wave of battle rolled proudly against the serried ranks -of France. Falling by the hundred, they finally got beyond the -cross-fire from the redoubts, crossed the slope and penetrated behind -the village of Fontenoy—marching straight on the headquarters of the -king! The column was quickly in the middle of the picked soldiers of -France, tossing them haughtily aside with the ready bayonet, while the -cheers of anticipated victory resounded from their ranks far over the -bloody field. Marshal Saxe, ill, and pale with rage and vexation, -sprang, unarmored, upon his horse, and seemed to think the battle lost, -for he ordered the evacuation of Antoine, in order that the bridges -across the Scheldt might be covered and the king’s escape assured. At -this moment, Count Lally, of the Irish Brigade, rode up to Duke -Richelieu, Saxe’s chief aide, and said to him: “We have still four -field-pieces in reserve—they should batter the head of that column. The -Irish Brigade has not yet been engaged. Order it to fall on the English -flank. Let the whole army second it—let us fall on the English like -foragers!” Richelieu, who, afterward, allowed the suggestion to appear -as if coming from himself, went at once to Saxe and gave him the -substance of Lally’s proposal. The king and Dauphin, who were present, -approved of it. The order to evacuate Antoine was countermanded, and -aides immediately galloped to the rear of the wood of Barri to order up -the Irish Brigade, commanded by Lord Clare, and its supporting -regiments. These brave men, rendered excited and impatient by the noise -of the battle, in which they had not yet been allowed to participate, -received the command with loud demonstrations of joy. Their officers -immediately led them toward the point of danger. - -Meanwhile, the English column, marching and firing steadily—that -“infernal, rolling fire,” so characteristic of the British mode of -fighting—kept on its terrible course, and crushed every French -organization that stood in its path. Had the Dutch and Austrians -succeeded in carrying Antoine at this moment, Cumberland must have been -victorious and the French army could not have escaped. Already the -column, still bleeding at every stride, was within sight of the royal -tent. The English officers actually laid their canes along the barrels -of the muskets to make the men fire low. Suddenly, the fire from the -four reserve French cannon opened on the head of the column, and the -foremost files went down. The English guns replied stoutly and the march -was renewed. But now there came an ominous sound from the side of De -Barri’s wood that made Lord Hay, brave and bold as he was, start, pause, -and listen. It swelled above the crash of artillery and the continuous -rattle of musketry. “Nearer, clearer, deadlier than before,” that fierce -hurrah bursts upon the ear of battle! The English have heard that shout -before and remember it to their cost. The crisis of the conflict has -come, and the command, by voice and bugle, “Halt! halt!” rang from front -to rear of the bleeding column. The ranks were dressed hastily, and the -English prepared to meet the advancing enemy with a deadly volley from -their front and long right flank. They looked anxiously in the direction -of the wood and beheld long lines and bristling columns of men in blue -and red—the uniform of the Irish Brigade—coming on at the charging step, -with colors flying and “the generals and colonels on horseback among the -glittering bayonets.” They did not fire a single shot as they came on. -Behind them were masses of men in blue and white. These were the French -supports. Again the British officers laid their canes across the barrels -of the muskets, and, as the Brigade came within close range, a murderous -volley rolled out. Hundreds of the Irish fell, but the survivors, -leaping over the dead, dying, and wounded, never paused for a moment. -They closed the wide gaps in their ranks and advanced at a run until -they came within bayonet thrust or butt-stroke of the front and right of -the English column, which they immediately crushed out of military -shape; while their fierce war-shout, uttered in the Irish -tongue—“Revenge! Remember Limerick and English treachery!” sounded the -death-knell of Cumberland’s heroic soldiers. While the clubbed muskets -of the Brigade beat down the English ranks, that furious war-cry rang -even unto the walls of old Tournay. The French regiments of Normandie -and Vassieux bravely seconded the Irish charge, and they and other -Gallic troops disposed of the Hanoverians. Within ten minutes from the -time when the Brigade came in contact with the English column, no -British soldiers, except the dead, wounded, and captured, remained on -the slope of Fontenoy. Bulkeley’s Irish regiment nearly annihilated the -Coldstream Guards and captured their colors. - -This victory saved France from invasion, but it cost the Irish dear. -Count Dillon was slain, Lord Clare disabled, while one-third of the -officers and one-fourth of the men were killed or wounded. King Louis, -next morning, publicly thanked the Irish, made Lally a general, and Lord -Clare was, soon afterward, created a marshal of France. England met -retribution for her cruelty and faithlessness to Ireland, and King -George vehemently cursed the laws which drove the Irish exiles to win -glory and vengeance on that bloody day. - -The losses in the battle were nearly equal—the French, Swiss, and Irish -losing altogether 7,139 men killed, wounded, and missing; while the -English, Hanoverians, Dutch, and Austrians acknowledged a total loss of -7,767 men, said by O’Callaghan to be an underestimate. Fontenoy was one -of the greatest of French victories, and led, in the same campaign, to -numerous other successes. Among the latter may be enumerated the triumph -at Melle, the surprise of Ghent, the occupation of Bruges, and the -capture of Oudenarde, Dendermonde, Ostend, Nieuport, and Ath. - -Several officers of the Irish Brigade went with Prince Charles Edward -Stuart to Scotland, when he made his gallant but ill-fated attempt to -restore the fallen fortunes of his luckless father, called by the -Jacobites James VIII of Scotland and James III of England and Ireland, -in 1745-46. The Hanoverian interest called James the “Old” and Charles -Edward the “Young” Pretender. The Irish officers formed “Prince -Charles’s” chosen bodyguard when he was a fugitive amid the Highlands -and Western Isles after Culloden. One of the last great field exploits -of the Irish Brigade was its victorious charge at Laffeldt, in Flanders, -in 1747, when, for the second time, it humiliated Cumberland, and, in a -measure, avenged his base massacre of the gallant Scottish Highland -clans, in 1746. The victory of Laffeldt led to the Peace of -Aix-la-Chapelle, which was favorable to France, in 1748. The Brigade -took part in each succeeding war in which France was involved down to -the period of the Revolution. Some of its regiments served also in India -and America. Under Count Dillon, several Irish battalions distinguished -themselves in the dashing, but unsuccessful, attack on the British at -Savannah, Ga., in 1779, when the brave Count Pulaski, who led the -assault, was killed on the ramparts. By that time, however, the volume -of recruits from Ireland had greatly diminished, owing to the gradual -relaxation of the penal code, and a majority of the officers and -soldiers of the Brigade were, although of Irish blood, French by birth. -Some of the officers were French by both birth and blood, and, among -them, in 1791, was the great-grandson of St. Ruth. The Brigade, as -became it, remained faithful to the last to the Bourbon dynasty. -Unfortunately this fidelity led the feeble remnant, under Colonel -O’Connell, to take service in the West Indies, beneath the British flag, -after the Revolution. In extenuation of their fault, it must be -remembered that they were, to a man, monarchists; that the Stuart cause -was hopelessly lost, and that both tradition and education made them the -inevitable enemies of the new order of things in France. Still, an Irish -historian may be pardoned for remarking that it were much better for the -fame of the Brigade of Cremona and Fontenoy if its senile heir-at-law -had refrained from accepting the pay of the country whose tyranny had -driven the original organization into hopeless exile. - -But the active career of the bold Brigade terminated in a blaze of -glory. The hand of a prince, destined to be a monarch, inscribed its -proud epitaph when, in 1792, the Comte de Provence, afterward Louis -XVIII, presented to the surviving officers a drapeau d’adieu, or flag of -farewell—a gold harp wreathed with shamrocks and fleur-de-lis, on a -white ground, with the following touching words: - - “Gentlemen: We acknowledge the inappreciable services that - France has received from the Irish Brigade in the course of the - last hundred years—services that we shall never forget, though - under an impossibility of requiting them. Receive this standard - as a pledge of our remembrance, a monument of our admiration and - our respect, and, in future, generous Irishmen, this shall be - the motto of your stainless flag— - - “‘1692-1792.’ - “Semper et Ubique Fidelis! - (“Ever, and everywhere, faithful.”) - -Never did military body receive a nobler discharge from service. - -And yet, well might the haughty Bourbon prince so express himself. In -defence of his house, there died beneath the golden lilies, in camp and -breach and field, nearly 500,000 of Ireland’s daring manhood. It is no -wonder that with those heroes departed much of her warlike spirit and -springing courage. Her “wild geese,” as she fondly called them, will -never fly again to her bosom across the waves that aided their flight to -exile and to glory. The cannon of all Europe pealed above their gory -graves, on many a stricken field, the soldier’s requiem. - - “They fought as they reveled, fast, fiery, and true, - And, tho’ victors, they left on the field not a few; - And they who survived fought and drank as of yore, - But the land of their hearts’ hope they saw nevermore: - For, in far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade, - Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade!” - -Its successor in the French army was the Irish Legion, composed in the -main of refugees who had participated in the “rebellion” of 1798 and the -“rising” of 1803. This fine body of soldiers was organized by Napoleon -himself, wore a distinctively Irish uniform of green and gold, and -carried French and Irish colors. To it, also, was intrusted an eagle—the -only foreign force that was so honored by the greatest of generals. The -Legion fought for the Emperor, with splendid fidelity, from 1805 to -1815, participating in most of the great battles of that warlike period. - -It was naturally expected that Louis XVIII, on his final restoration to -the throne, would revive the old Irish Brigade, so highly praised by -him, when Comte de Provence, in 1792, but he was under too many -obligations to England, and, in fact, his treaty with that power, after -the second exile of Napoleon, made it obligatory on him not to accept an -Irish military contingent under any consideration. His acquiescence in -this ignoble compact makes more emphatic the venerable adage, “Put not -your trust in Princes.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOK VII - - -NARRATING THE MANY PENAL STATUTES AGAINST THE CATHOLICS, AND CARRYING -THE STORY DOWN TO THE ACQUIREMENT OF A FREE COMMERCE BY THE IRISH -PARLIAMENT, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF GRATTAN, A.D. 1780 - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - Anti-Catholic Penal Laws—Their Drastic, Brutal and Absurd - Provisions—Professional Informers, Called “Priest-Hunters” - - -WE now approach a period of Irish history from which we would gladly -escape, if we could; a period degrading to Ireland, disgraceful to -England, and shocking to humanity. We are about to deal with the dark -and bloody period of the revived penal code, in Ireland, following fast -upon the capitulation of Limerick. Many writers have extolled the -fair-mindedness and liberality of William III, but his course toward -Ireland does not sustain the justice of their eulogies. That he was an -indifferentist in matters of religion is not doubted, yet he permitted -persecution for conscience’ sake in his Irish dominion. That he was an -able man has not been disputed, yet he permitted English jealousy to -destroy the trade and industries of His own supporters in Ireland, -thereby driving thousands on thousands of the Irish dissenters to the -American colonies, which their descendants, in 1775-83, did so much to -make “free and independent.” We can find nothing to admire in the Irish -policy of William III. Had he been an honest bigot, a fanatic on the -subject of religion, we could understand his toleration of the -legislative abominations which made the Irish Catholic a helot on his -native soil. Had he been an imbecile we could understand how English -plausibility might have imposed upon him in the matter of Irish -Protestant commerce. However, not much of moral stamina could be -expected from a man who estranged his wife and his sister-in-law, Anne, -from their own father; or from a nephew, and son-in-law, that did not -scruple to play the cuckoo and eject his own uncle and father-in-law -from the royal nest of England. Add to this his heartless policy toward -the Macdonalds of Glencoe, in Scotland, the order for whose massacre he -countersigned himself, and we find ourselves utterly unable to give -William of Orange credit for sincerity, liberality, or common humanity. -He was personally courageous, a fair general, and a cautious statesman. -These about summed up his good qualities. But he interposed no objection -when, notwithstanding the solemn civil articles of Limerick, he -permitted the estates of the adherents of King James, to whom his Lords -Justices, by royal sanction, guaranteed immunity, to be confiscated. - -Mitchel, a Protestant in belief, says in his “History of Ireland,” page -3: “The first distinct breach of the Articles of Limerick was -perpetrated by King William and his Parliament in England, just two -months after those articles were signed. King William was in the -Netherlands when he heard of the surrender of Limerick, and, at once, -hastened to London. Three days later he summoned a Parliament. Very -early in the session, the English House of Commons, exercising its -customary power of binding Ireland by acts passed in London, sent up to -the House of Lords a bill providing that no person should sit in the -Irish Parliament, nor should hold any Irish office, civil, military, or -ecclesiastical, nor should practice law or medicine in Ireland, till he -had first taken the oaths of allegiance _and supremacy_, and subscribed -to the declaration against transubstantiation. The law was passed, only -reserving the right [of practice] to such lawyers and physicians as had -been within the walls of Galway and Limerick when those towns -capitulated.” Thenceforward there were repeated violations of the -treaty, during the reign of William and Mary, although the penal laws -did not reach the acme of their crushing severity until the reigns of -their immediate successors, Queen Anne, George I, and George II. Lord -Macaulay himself, who does not admit that William III was ever wrong, -acknowledges, in his “History of England,” that “the Irish Roman -Catholics complained, and with but too much reason, that, at a later -period, the Treaty of Limerick was violated.” The main opposition to the -confirmation of the treaty came, as might be expected, from the party of -Protestant ascendency in Ireland, which had in view “the glory of God,” -and wholesale confiscation of Catholic property. Their horror of what -they called “Popery” was strongly influenced by a pious greed for cheap -real estate. There were, of course, many noble exceptions to this -mercenary rule among the Protestants of Ireland, even in the blackest -period of “the penal days.” If there had not been, the Catholics must -have been exterminated. It is only fair to say that the majority of the -poorer Protestant Irish—particularly the Dissenters—had little or no -part in framing the penal code, and that many members of the Irish House -of Lords, including Protestant bishops, indignantly protested against -the formal violation of the Articles of Limerick, contained in the act -of the “Irish” Parliament, passed in 1695. - -Lord Sydney, William’s Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, summoned the first -Irish Parliament of his master’s reign, in 1692, and this was the only -Parliament, except that called together by King James in 1689, which had -met in Ireland in six-and-twenty years. No act of Catholic -disqualification for Parliament existed in Ireland at that time, and, -therefore, a few Catholic lords and commoners presented themselves, on -summons, and took their seats. They had forgotten that the “paternal” -English Parliament had, in 1691, provided for such an emergency, and -were taken aback when the clerks of Parliament presented to them “the -oath of supremacy, declaring the King of England to be head of the -Church, and affirming the sacrifice of the Mass to be damnable.” Mitchel -says, further, of what followed: “The oath was put to each member of -both Houses, and the few Catholics present at once retired, so that the -Parliament, when it proceeded to business, was purely Protestant. Here, -then, ended the last vestige of constitutional right for the Catholics; -from this date, and for generations to come, they could no longer -consider themselves a part of the existing body politic of their native -land, and the division [of the Irish] into two nations became definite. -There was the dominant nation, consisting of the British colony, and the -subject nation, consisting of five-sixths of the population, who had, -therefore, no more influence upon public affairs than have the red -Indians of the United States.” In order to more fully reduce the -Catholics of Ireland to the condition described, an act was passed by -the Irish Parliament in 1697 which provided that “a Protestant marrying -a Catholic was disabled from sitting or voting in either House of -Parliament.” We may add that, following up this policy, the same -Parliament, thirty years later, fearing that the Catholics were not even -yet sufficiently effaced from political life, passed another bill by -which it was enacted that “no Catholic shall be entitled, or admitted, -to vote at the election of any member to serve in Parliament, as a -knight, citizen, or burgess; or at the election of any magistrate for -any city or other town corporate; any law, statute, or usage to the -contrary notwithstanding.” - -Mitchel, commenting on the severity of the penal laws, presents a -curiously contradictory situation in the Ireland of King William’s time -when he says: “But though the inhabitants of Ireland were now, counting -from 1692, definitively divided into two castes, there arose -immediately, strange to say, a strong sentiment of Irish -nationality—not, indeed, among the depressed Catholics; they were done -with national sentiment and aspiration for a time—but the Protestants of -Ireland had lately grown numerous, wealthy, and strong. Their numbers -had been largely increased by English settlers coming to enjoy the -plunder of the forfeited estates, and very much by conversions, or -pretended conversions, of Catholics, who had recanted their faith to -save their property or their position in society, and who generally -altered or disguised their family names when these had too Celtic a -sound. The Irish Protestants also prided themselves on having saved the -kingdom for William and the ‘Ascendancy,’ and having now totally put -down the ancient nation under their feet, they aspired to take its -place, to rise from a colony to a nation, and to assert the dignity of -an independent kingdom.” - -Even the Irish Protestant Parliament of 1692 quarreled with Lord -Lieutenant Sydney over a revenue bill, which originated in London, and -which it rejected, although it passed another bill, having a like -origin, on the ground of emergency. During the debate on these measures, -several members denied the right of England to tax Ireland without her -consent, and insisted that all revenue bills, which called for Irish -taxation, should originate in Ireland, not in England. This bold spirit -angered Lord Sydney, who immediately prorogued that Parliament, not, -however, before he made an overbearing speech, in which he rebuked the -action of the members and haughtily asserted the supremacy of the -British Parliament over that of Ireland. His remarks left a sting in -Protestant Ireland and served to strengthen, rather than weaken, the -national sentiment alluded to by Mitchel. - -In 1693, King James the Vacillating, then a pensioner of the King of -France, at St. Germain, issued a declaration to his former subjects of -England in which he made humiliating promises, at variance with his -previous record, and in which, among other things, he promised if -restored to the throne to keep inviolate the Act of Settlement, which -deprived his Catholic supporters in Ireland of their estates! This -perfidious document aroused great indignation among the Irish military -exiles, and James, through his English advisers in France, attempted to -smooth matters over by promising that, in the event of his success, he -would recompense all who might suffer by his act, by giving them -equivalents. Lord Middleton, a Scotch peer, is held chiefly responsible -for having led King James into this disgraceful transaction—the most -blameful of his unfortunate career. “There was no such promise [of -recompense] in the declaration” (to the English), says the historian -recently quoted, “but, in truth, the Irish troops in the army of King -Louis were, at that time, too busy in camp and field, and too keenly -desirous to meet the English in battle, to pay much attention to -anything coming from King James. They had had enough of ‘Righ Seamus’ at -the Boyne Water.” - -Lord Sydney, although inimical to the claim of Irish Parliamentary -independence, was rather friendly to the persecuted Irish Catholics, and -was, therefore, at the request of the “Ascendancy” faction, speedily -recalled, not, however, before, after two proroguements, he had -dissolved the Parliament convened in 1692. Three Lords Justices—Lord -Capel, Sir Cyril Wyche, and Mr. Duncombe—were given the government of -Ireland in his stead, but, owing to serious dissensions among -themselves, Capel was finally appointed Lord Lieutenant, and, in 1695, -summoned a new Parliament to meet in Dublin. This assembly was destined -to be infamous. Its first act was to bring up the articles of the Treaty -of Limerick for “confirmation,” and it “confirmed” them by vetoing all -the important and agreeing to all the trivial provisions. The -enumeration of all the penal laws passed by this Parliament would be -tedious in the extreme, and a bare outline will suffice to show their -demoralizing tendency. It was enacted that Catholic schoolmasters were -forbidden to teach, either publicly or privately, under severe penalty; -and the parents of Catholic children were prohibited from sending them -to be educated abroad. All Catholics were required to surrender their -arms, and, in order to enforce the act more thoroughly, “right of -search” was given to magistrates, so that Catholic householders could be -disturbed at any hour of the day or night, their bedrooms invaded, and -the women of their family subjected to exposure and insult. - -Notwithstanding the clause in the Treaty of Limerick which was supposed -to secure the Catholic landholders in certain counties in the possession -of their property, Parliament made a clean sweep by confiscating the -property of all, to the extent of over a million acres, so that now, at -long run, after three series of confiscations, there remained in -Catholic hands _less than one-seventh_ of the entire surface of the -island. The Protestant one-sixth owned all the rest. - -It was agreed not to seriously disturb the parish priests, who were -incumbents at the time of the treaty, but no curates were allowed them, -and they were compelled to register their names, like ticket-of-leave -men, in a book furnished by government. They had, also, to give security -for their “good conduct,” and there were other insulting exactions—the -emanation of bitter hearts and narrow brains. All Catholic prelates, the -Jesuits, monks, and “regular clergy,” of whatever order, were -peremptorily ordered to quit Ireland by May 1, 1698. If any returned -after that date, they were to be arrested for high treason, “tried,” -and, of course, condemned and executed. The object was to leave the -Catholic people without spiritual guides, except Protestants, after the -“tolerated” parish priests had passed away; but, in spite of the penal -enactment, a large number of devoted proscribed bishops and priests -remained in Ireland, and the prelates administered holy orders to young -clerical students, who, like themselves, had defied penalties and risked -their lives for the service of God and the consolation of their -suffering people. - -In order to still further humiliate the unfortunate Irish Catholics, -this Parliament of bigots decreed that no Catholic chapel should be -furnished with either bell or belfry. Such smallness would seem -incredible in our age, but the enactments stand out, in all their -hideousness, in the old statutes of the Irish Parliament, still -preserved in the government archives in Dublin and London. It was this -Parliament that decreed, further, that no Catholic could possess a horse -of or over the value of £5 sterling. On offering that sum, or anything -over it, any Protestant could become owner of the animal. - -The Irish peers who protested against this tyranny were Lords -Londonderry, Tyrone, and Duncannon, the Barons Ossory, Limerick, -Killaloe, Kerry, Howth, Kingston, and Strabane, and the Protestant -bishops of Kildare, Elphin, Derry, Clonfert, and Killala—to whom be -eternal honor. - -But the penal laws were not yet completed. They had just about begun. In -1704, when the Duke of Ormond, grandson of the Ormond of Cromwellian -days, became viceroy for Queen Anne, another Irish Ascendancy Parliament -enacted, among other things, that the eldest son of a Catholic, by -becoming Protestant, could become the owner of his father’s land, if he -possessed any, and the father become only a life tenant. If any child, -of any age above infancy, declared itself a Protestant, it was ordered -placed under Protestant guardianship, and the father was compelled to -pay for its education and support. If the wife of a Catholic turned -Protestant, she could claim a third of his property and separate -maintenance. Catholics were prohibited from being guardians of their own -children, to the end that, when they died, the helpless ones might be -brought up as Protestants. - -Catholics were debarred from buying land, or taking a freehold lease for -life, or a for a longer period than thirty-one years. No Catholic heir -to a former owner was allowed to accept property that came to him by -right of lineal descent, or by process of bequest. If any Protestant -could prove that the profit on the farm of a Catholic exceeded one-third -of the rent paid by the latter, the informer could take immediate -possession of the land. - -We have already alluded to the measures taken to exclude Catholics from -civil and military service, by operation of the odious test oaths, which -were also used to prevent them from entering Parliament, and from even -voting for members of Parliament, although the latter had to be -Protestants in order to be eligible. The Irish Dissenters—Presbyterians -and others—were also subjected to the test-oath indignity, which, -together with the tyrannical restrictions on trade, imposed by the -English and servile Irish Parliament, drove many thousands of them to -America. The Irish Presbyterians, in particular, resented the “test” and -“schism” acts, and refused to apply to Episcopal bishops for license to -teach in schools; or to receive the sacrament after the fashion of the -Church of England. Rewards were held out for all who would reveal to the -government the names of Catholics, or others, who might violate the -provisions of the barbaric laws summarized in this chapter. The scale of -the rewards, as given by McGee and other authors, is a curious study. -Thus, “for discovering an archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, or other -person exercising any foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction, £50; for -discovering each ‘regular’ clergyman and each ‘secular’ clergyman, not -registered, £20, and for discovering each ‘Popish’ schoolmaster, or -usher, £10.” If any person refused to give evidence of the residence of -any proscribed person, he was fined £20, or else had to go to prison for -a year. Many noble-hearted Protestants who, in spite of penal laws, -loved their Catholic fellow-countrymen, suffered pains and penalties, -under these enactments, and became objects of hatred to the more -malignant section of their co-religionists, who were after the Catholic -spoils. Thus, public distrust became epidemic, and the infamous “reward” -policy begot, as a natural result, a host of professional informers, -whose shocking avocation was mainly exercised in the spying out of the -places of concealment of proscribed prelates and priests, and who are -still remembered in Ireland as “priest-hunters.” These malignants also -directed their efforts vigorously against the teachers of -“hedge-schools”—that is to say, schools held in the open air, generally -under the shelter of a tall hedge, or on the edge of a wood, and -presided over by some wandering schoolmaster, who bravely risked -liberty, and often life, in teaching the Catholic youth of Ireland the -rudiments of education. - -There existed a mean “toleration” of Catholic worship, in parishes whose -priests were “registered,” according to the provisions of the penal -code, but, in parishes where the priests were not registered, and they -were numerous, priests and people, who wished to celebrate and assist at -the consoling sacrifice of the Mass, had to retire to ocean cave, or -mountain summit, or rocky gorge, in order to guard against surprise and -massacre. The English government of the day did not scruple to lend its -soldiers to the priest-hunters, to enable the latter to more effectively -accomplish their odious mission; just as in our day it has lent the -military to the sheriffs to carry out those cruel evictions which the -late Mr. Gladstone called “sentences of death.” It was the custom to -place sentinels around the places where Mass was being celebrated, but, -despite of this precaution, the human sleuthhounds occasionally crept -unobserved upon their unarmed victims—for then, as now, the Irish were -systematically disarmed—and often slew priest and people at the rude -altar stones, called still by the peasantry “Mass rocks.” - -So great was the enforced exodus of priests from Ireland, at this awful -period of its history, that, says McGee, “in Rome 72,000 francs annually -were allotted for the maintenance of the fugitive Irish clergy, and, -during the first three months of 1699, three remittances from the Holy -Father, amounting to 90,000 livres, were placed in the hands of the -Nuncio at Paris for the temporary relief of the fugitives in France and -Flanders. It may also be added here that, till the end of the eighteenth -century, an annual charge of 1,000 crowns was borne by the Papal -treasury for the encouragement of Catholic poor schools in Ireland.” - -Of the penal code which produced this dreadful condition of affairs, in -and out of Ireland, Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great English scholar and -philosopher, said, “They are more grievous than all the Ten Pagan -persecutions of the Christians.” - -Edmund Burke, the illustrious Irish statesman, who passed most of his -career in the British Parliament, and was, of course, a Protestant, or -he could not have sat there, denounced them, substantially, as the most -diabolical engine of oppression and demoralization ever used against a -people or ever devised by “the perverted ingenuity of man.” - -And the Protestant and English historian, Godkin, who compiled Cassell’s -“History of Ireland,” for English readers, says of the penal laws: “The -eighteenth century was the era of persecution in which the law did the -work of the sword, more effectually and more safely. There was -established a code framed with almost diabolical ingenuity, to -extinguish natural affection, to foster perfidy and hypocrisy, to -petrify conscience, to perpetuate brutal ignorance, to facilitate the -work of tyranny, by rendering the vices of slavery inherent and natural -in the Irish character, and to make Protestantism almost irredeemably -odious as the monstrous incarnation of all moral perversions.” This -honest Englishman grows indignant when he says, in continuation, “Too -well did it accomplish its deadly work on the intellects, morals, and -physical condition of a people, sinking in degeneracy from age to age, -till all manly spirit, all virtuous sense of personal independence and -responsibility, was nearly extinct, and the very features, vacant, -timid, cunning, and unreflective, betrayed the crouching slave -within.... Having no rights or franchises, no legal protection of life -and property, disqualified to handle a gun, even as a common soldier or -a gamekeeper, forbidden to acquire the elements of knowledge at home or -abroad, forbidden even to render to God what conscience dictated as His -due, what could the Irish be but abject serfs? What nation in their -circumstances could have been otherwise? Is it not amazing that any -social virtue could have survived such an ordeal?—that any seeds of -good, any roots of national greatness, could have outlived such a long -and tempestuous winter?” - -But the seeds of good, although chilled, did not decay, and the manly -spirit of the Old Irish race—the Celto-Norman stock, with the former -element in preponderance—survived all its persecutions, and - - “—Exiled in those penal days, - Its banners over Europe blaze!” - -The great American orator and philanthropist, Wendell Phillips, -lecturing on Ireland, and alluding to the enforced ignorance of a former -period, said: “When the old-time ignorance of the Catholic Irish people -is reproachfully alluded to by the thoughtless, or illiberal, it is not -Ireland but England that should bow her head in the dust and put on -sackcloth and ashes!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - Restrictions on Irish Trade and Manufactures—All Creeds - Suffer—Presbyterian Exodus to America—Death of Royal - Personages—Accession of George I - - -SINCE the days of Charles II, and probably before his reign, a -contemptible jealousy of the growth of Irish commerce had taken -possession of the commercial element in England. We have already said -something about the crushing of the Irish cattle trade, while yet the -“Merry Monarch” was on the throne; but a far deadlier blow was struck at -Irish prosperity when, in 1698, the English manufacturers had the -assurance to petition Parliament against the Irish woolen industry—then -among the most prosperous in Europe. This petition was strongly indorsed -by the English House of Lords, in an address to King William, wherein -they, unconsciously, perhaps, paid a high tribute to Irish manufacturing -genius. They virtually admitted that the superiority of Irish woolen -fabrics made the English traders apprehensive that the farther growth of -the Irish woolen industry “might greatly prejudice the said manufacture -in his Majesty’s Kingdom of England.” Not content with this display of -mean selfishness, the English fisheries’ interest protested against -Irish fishermen catching herrings on the eastern coast of their own -island, “thereby coming into competition with them [the English].” The -Colonial Parliament of Ireland basely yielded to English coercion, and, -in 1699, actually stabbed the industries of their own country in the -back, by placing ruinous export duties on fine Irish woolens, friezes, -and flannels! And this hostile legislation was aimed, not against the -Catholic Irish, who had no industries, but against the Protestant Irish, -who possessed all of them! - -The English Parliament, thus secured against effective opposition, -immediately passed an act whereby the Irish people were forbidden to -export either the raw material for making woolen goods, or the goods -themselves, to any foreign port, except a few English ports, and only -six of the numerous Irish seaports were allowed even this poor -privilege. The natural result followed. Irish prices went up in England, -and, in spite of the acknowledged excellence of Irish manufactures, the -English people would not purchase them at an advanced cost. The Irish -traders could not afford to sell them at a moderate price, and, within a -few years, most of the latter were absolutely ruined. Dr. P. W. Joyce, -in his “History of Ireland,” estimates that “40,000 Irish -Protestants—all prosperous working people—were immediately reduced to -idleness and poverty—the Catholics, of course, sharing in the misery, so -far as they were employed, and 20,000 Presbyterians and other -Nonconformists left Ireland for New England. Then began the emigration, -from want of employment, that continues to this day. But the English -Parliament professed to encourage the Irish linen trade, for this could -do no harm to English traders, as flax growing and linen manufacture had -not taken much hold in England.” - -This, according to Dr. Joyce, was the beginning of that smuggling trade -with France which Ireland carried on for more than a century, and a -close acquaintance, therefore, sprang up between the French and Irish -traders and sailors. Ireland could sell her surplus wool to great -advantage in France, and received from that country many luxuries, -which, otherwise, she could not have enjoyed. French wines became common -at Irish tables, above those of the working-class, and French silks -decorated the fair persons of Irish maids and matrons. Moreover, this -adventurous trade developed a hardy race of Irish sailors, and, by means -of the Irish smugglers and their French copartners, the Irish priests -found a convenient avenue of transit to and from the Continent; and -brave young Irish spirits, registered as “Wild Geese,” found their way -to the ranks of “the bold Brigade,” whose fame was then a household word -in Europe. But the Irish masses, both Catholic and Nonconformist, were -reduced to abject poverty, and each succeeding year brought fresh -commercial restrictions, until, finally, almost every Irish industry, -except the linen, was totally extirpated in the island. The smuggling -trade, alone, kept some vitality in the commercial veins of the ruined -country, and, in defiance of English and Anglo-Irish enactments against -it, it continued to flourish down to the beginning of the nineteenth -century. - -Well-meaning foreign writers, who did not make a study of Anglo-Irish -relations in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, have -expressed astonishment at the paucity of Irish industries, outside of -linen, and have ascribed it to Irish non-adaptability to manufacturing -pursuits! Not alone did England compel Ireland to fine her own traders, -by levying export duties on their output, but she also, as we have seen, -by her own Parliament, limited such exports to the meanest possible -proportions! Of course, at this slavish period of the old so-called -Irish Parliament, duties to limit the importation of English goods and -to foster home industries were not allowed. Ireland was stripped of -everything but linen and “homespun,” and then left a beggar. This is a -most disgraceful chapter in the history of the political connection of -Great Britain and Ireland—one that led to untold bitterness, and that -caused the great orator, Grattan, in after years to exclaim, -prophetically, in the Irish House of Commons: “What England tramples in -Ireland will rise to sting her in America!” He alluded to the -Presbyterian and Catholic exodus, which so materially aided the American -Revolution. - -The last hope of King James again attaining the throne of the “Three -Kingdoms” disappeared with the terrible defeat inflicted on the French -fleet at the battle of La Hogue, 1692, and, thereafter, his life was -passed sadly—for he had ample time to ruminate on his misfortunes—at St. -Germain, until he died, in 1701. His rival, William III, whose wife, -Queen Mary II, had preceded him to the grave, died from the effects of a -horseback accident, in March, 1702. He was immediately succeeded by -Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart line who occupied the throne of -England. Her reign was one of glory for Great Britain and one of hate -and horror for Ireland. We have already mentioned some of the penal laws -passed while she held sway. Her ministers, of course, were responsible -for her acts, because she herself possessed only moderate ability. -Unlike most of the Stuart family, she swam with the current, and so got -along smoothly with her English subjects. The most important domestic -event of her reign was the legislative union of England with -Scotland—which virtually extinguished Scotland as a nation. This event -occurred in May, 1707, and was accompanied by acts of the most shameless -political profligacy on the part of the English minister and the Scotch -lords and commons. In fact, the independence of Scotland, like that of -Ireland ninety-three years later, was sold for titles, offices, -pensions, and cold cash. The masses of the people, to do them justice, -had little to do with this nefarious transaction, which was subsequently -satirized by the great Scottish poet, Robert Burns, in his lyric, one -verse of which runs thus: - - “What English force could not subdue - Through many warlike ages, - Is sold now by a craven few - For hireling traitors’ wages! - The English steel we could disdain— - Secure in valor’s station— - But English gold has been our bane— - Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!” - -The deeds in arms of Anne’s great general, Marlborough, who was a -traitor to both King James and King William, have been partially related -in the chapters bearing on the career of the Franco-Irish Brigade and -need no farther mention in this history. - -In the days of William III appeared a pamphlet called “The Case of -Ireland Stated,” which was written by William Molyneux, a member of -Parliament, for the Dublin University. It appeared in 1698, and made, at -once, a powerful impression on the public mind. It, in brief, took the -ground that Ireland—that is, Protestant, colonial Ireland—was, of right, -a separate and independent kingdom; that England’s original title of -conquest, if she had any, was abrogated by charters granted to Ireland -from time to time, and, finally, denied that the king and Parliament of -England had power to bind the kingdom and people of Ireland by -English-made laws. The English Parliament was, of course, greatly -shocked and scandalized at the idea of a “mere Irishman” putting forth -such theories, and solemnly ordered his book to be burned, publicly, by -“the common hangman”—a functionary always in high favor when Ireland -needs to be “disciplined.” The book was burned accordingly, but its -spirit did not die then, nor is it yet dead, or likely to die, while -Ireland contains a population. King William, in replying to the English -Parliament’s address on the subject of Molyneux’s utterance, assured its -members that “he would enforce the laws securing the dependence of -Ireland on the imperial crown of Great Britain.” - -In the chapter on the penal laws, many of the enactments of the reign of -Anne have been summarized. Her sway was a moral nightmare over Ireland, -and it is a remarkable historical coincidence that the Green Isle -suffered more, materially and morally, under the English female than the -male sovereigns. Under Elizabeth and Anne, the Irish Catholics were -persecuted beyond belief. Under Victoria’s rule, which the British -statistician, Mulhall, has called “the deadliest since Elizabeth,” they -starved to death by the hundred thousand or emigrated by the million. - -The régime of Queen Anne, like that of her predecessors and successors -on the throne, gave the government of Ireland into the hands of -Englishmen, who held all the important offices, from the viceroyalty -downward, and who chose their sub-officers from among the least national -element of the Irish people. This system, although somewhat modified, -continues to the present day. In the Irish Parliament, there was an -occasional faint display of sectarian nationality, but it proved of -little advantage when the English wanted matters in that body to go as -they wished. Ireland then, as a majority ruled by a minority, “stood on -her smaller end,” and so it is even in our own times, notwithstanding -occasional “concessions” and “ameliorations.” - -But, from the day when the pamphlet, or book, of Molyneux saw the light, -a Patriot party began to grow up in the Irish Parliament. The old Irish -nation had, indeed, disappeared, for a period, but the new one soon -began to manifest a spirit that roused the bitter hatred of England. -Such infatuated Irish Protestants as still believed that they would be -more gently treated on account of common creed with the stronger people -were soon bitterly undeceived. - -The death of Queen Anne, all of whose children by the Prince of Denmark -had died before her, occurred in July, 1714. It is said that she -secretly favored the succession of her half-brother, acknowledged by -Louis XIV, and the Jacobite party in Great Britain, as James III of that -realm, but the last Duke of Ormond, the Earl of Orrery, Bishop -Atterbury, and Lord Bolingbroke, the Jacobite leaders in England, lost -their nerve after the Queen’s death and allowed the golden opportunity -of proclaiming the exiled Stuart king to pass away. The Hanoverian -faction, which called James “the Pretender,” took advantage of their -vacillation to proclaim the Elector of Hanover, who derived his claim -from the Act of Succession or Settlement (which ignored the Stuart male -line, or any of its Catholic collateral branches, and excluded them from -the throne), under the title of George I. He derived his claim, such as -it was, from James I, whose daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, had -married the King of Bohemia. Her daughter, Sophia, married the Elector -of Hanover and became mother of King George, who was a thorough German -in speech, manner, and habit, although not in person or in manly -characteristics. But he was a Protestant, and that sufficed for England. -On August 1, 1714, he was proclaimed in London and Edinburgh, and on the -8th of that month in Dublin. The Scotch Jacobites ridiculed his -accession in a racy “skit,” which began with— - - “Oh, wha the deil hae we got for a king - But a wee, wee German lairdie!” - -Ireland, broken in spirit and disgusted by the memory of King James II, -remained quiescent, but, in 1715, Scotland and a portion of the north of -England rose in rebellion, the former under the Earl of Mar and the -latter under young Lord Derwentwater. They were not heartily supported. -Both met with defeat, and Derwentwater, together with several English -and Scotch adherents of note, was captured, beheaded, and had his -estates confiscated to the “crown.” The English Parliament offered a -reward of £50,000 ($250,000) for the “apprehension” of “the Pretender,” -who had been previously “attainted,” but there were no takers, “the -Pretender” aforesaid being safely housed in Paris. This bloody episode -ended Jacobite “risings” in Great Britain for a generation. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - Further Commercial Restrictions—Continued Exodus of Working - People—Jonathan Swift—“The Patriot Party”—Tyranny of Primate Boulter - - -SEEING that Ireland had taken no part in the attempted Stuart revolution -at the beginning of his reign, it might be imagined that George I showed -some favor to the Irish people, but he did nothing of the kind. On the -contrary, the penal laws were enforced with greater virulence than ever, -and several new enactments of a most oppressive character—chiefly -bearing on the franchise—were passed. In 1719, the Patriot party in the -Irish Parliament threw down a challenge to English supremacy. The Irish -House of Lords annulled, on appeal, from the Dublin Court of Exchequer, -a judgment in favor of one Annesley and gave it to the opposition -litigant, Hester Sherlock. The former appealed to the English lords, who -overrode the decision of the Irish House, by reversing judgment in favor -of Annesley. As the sheriff in whose jurisdiction (Kildare) the writ ran -refused to obey the English decree, he was heavily fined. The Irish -House retaliated by remitting the fine, applauding the sheriff and -arresting the judges of the Dublin court who had decided for Annesley. -The anger of England became boundless, as it usually does when Ireland -asserts itself, and the English Parliament, without color of right, -passed the drastic enactment, known as the 6th of George I, which -definitively bound Ireland by English enactments, and took the right of -appeal away from the Irish House of Peers. Thus was the chain begun by -the Poynings’ Law, in the reign of Henry VII, made complete, and, at one -fell swoop, Ireland was reduced to a provincial status. Thenceforth, -until 1780, the Irish Parliament was merely a machine for registering -the will of England, in the matter of Irish government. - -At the same time, England continued her war on the few remaining Irish -industries—nothing seemed to satisfy the jealousy and covetousness of -her merchants. The glaring outrages committed against the business of -Ireland aroused the ire of the famous Jonathan Swift, Protestant Dean of -St. Patrick’s, who was the son of an Englishman. He wrote, anonymously, -several bitter pamphlets against the selfish policy of England, and -urged the Irish people to use nothing but native manufactures. In one of -these fulminations, he used the memorable phrase: “Burn everything that -comes from England, except the coal!” But his patriotic influence rose -to the zenith when he attacked “Wood’s half-pence”—base money coined to -meet a financial emergency—in 1723. His philippics became known as the -“Drapier’s letters” from the signature attached to them, and, in the -end, he compelled the government to cancel the contract with Wood. -England foamed with rage, and had the printer of the letters prosecuted. -However, no judge or jury in Dublin was found vile enough to convict -him. - -Swift, although an Irish patriot, was a Protestant bigot, and detested -the Celtic Catholics quite as much as he did the English, whom, from a -political standpoint, he hated. Yet, he was the idol, during his long -lifetime, of the Catholics, because he had stood by Ireland against the -common enemy. This brilliant man, whose writings have made him immortal, -and whose private sorrows can not be estimated, finally “withered at the -top,” and died insane, after having willed his property to be used for -the building of a lunatic asylum. In a poem written some time before his -sad death, he alludes to his bequest in the following lines: - - “He left what little wealth he had - To build a house for fools and mad— - To show, by one sarcastic touch, - No nation needed one so much!” - -No writer better knew how to enrage the English. He took a savage -delight in tormenting them, wounding their vanity, and exposing their -weaknesses. Neither did he spare the Irish; and, as for the Scotch, he -rivaled Dr. Samuel Johnson in his dislike of that people. In our day, -the average summer-up of merits and demerits would describe Jonathan -Swift as “a gifted crank.” - -Associated with him in the moral war against English interference in -Ireland’s domestic concerns were such other shining lights of the period -as Dr. Sheridan, ancestor of Richard Brinsley, and others of that -brilliant “ilk”: Dr. Stopford, the able Bishop of Cloyne, and Doctors -Jackson, Helsham, Delaney, and Walmsley, nearly all men of almost pure -English descent. McGee also credits “the three reverend brothers -Grattan”—a name subsequently destined to immortality—with good work in -the same connection. - -Whatever the private faults of Swift, Ireland must ever hold his memory -in reverence, with those of many other Irish non-Catholic patriots, who, -although they had little or no Celtic blood in their veins, and were -brought up under English influences, nobly preferred the interests of -their unfortunate native country to the smiles and favors of her -oppressors. And so Ireland, considering these things, blesses - - “—The men of patriot pen, - Swift, Molyneux, and Lucas,” - -as fervently as if they belonged to the race of the Hy-Niall or -Kinel-Conal. - -Nor must it be supposed that the Patriot element, led by Swift, escaped -persecution at the hands of the Protestant oligarchy, although they, -too, were of the Established Church. Swift himself was discriminated -against all his life, because of his advocacy of Irish manufactures, his -discrediting of Wood’s “brass money,” and his defeat of the mischievous -national bank project, which was germane to it. As diocese after diocese -became vacant in Ireland, he saw dullards promoted to the sees, while he -was deliberately overlooked, simply because he had advocated justice to -Ireland! This injustice afterward passed into a proverb. Said an Irish -orator, in after years, speaking of another great Irishman who had also -suffered from English resentment: “The curse of Swift was upon him—to -have been born an Irishman, to have been blessed with talents, and to -have used those talents for the benefit of his country!” - -But Swift was not the only sufferer. There were other distinguished -offenders against English sentiment. It is true they had not provoked -the government by their writings to offer a reward of £300 for their -identity, as was Swift’s fortune, but they had done enough to be made -“horrible examples” of. Thus, Right Rev. Dr. Browne, Protestant Bishop -of Cork, had been threatened with deprivation for protesting against the -insulting language toward Catholics contained in the notorious Orange -toast to the memory of William III; and Dr. Sheridan was deprived of his -“living” in Munster, because, says McGee, “he accidentally chose for his -text on the anniversary of King George’s coronation: ‘Sufficient for the -day is the evil thereof!’ Such,” he continues, “was the intolerance of -the oligarchy toward their own clergy. What must it have been to -others!” - -About this period, too, the differences between Episcopalians and -Nonconformists—the latter having again repudiated the test oaths—became -more bitter than ever. Swift took sides against the Dissenters, whom, as -a fierce Church of England champion, he despised. “They were glad,” he -said, they or their fathers, “to leave their barren hills of Lochaber -for the fruitful vales of Down and Antrim.” He denied to them, with -bitter scorn, the title they had assumed of “Brother Protestants,” and -as to the Papists they affected to contemn, they were, in his opinion, -“as much superior to the Dissenters as a lion, though chained and -clipped of its claws, is a stronger and nobler animal than an angry cat, -at liberty to fly at the throats of true churchmen.” Of course, the -Church of England faction triumphed and the exodus of the Nonconformists -from Ireland received a fresh impetus. “Outraged,” says McGee, “in their -dearest civil and religious rights, thousands of the Scoto-Irish of -Ulster, and the Milesian and Anglo-Irish of the other provinces, -preferred to encounter the perils of the wild Atlantic rather than abide -under the yoke and lash of such an oligarchy. In the year 1729, five -thousand six hundred Irish landed at the single port of Philadelphia; in -the next ten years they furnished to the Carolinas and Georgia the -majority of their immigrants; before the end of this reign [George I] -several thousands of heads of families, all bred and married in Ireland, -were rearing up a free posterity along the slopes of the Blue Ridge in -Virginia and Maryland, and even as far north as the valleys of the -Hudson and the Merrimac. In the ranks of the thirteen United Colonies, -the descendants of those Irish Nonconformists were to repeat, for the -benefit of George III, the lesson and example their ancestors had taught -to James II at Inniskillen and Derry.” - -We do not purpose entering into a chronological account of the several -viceroys—most of them rather obscure—who represented English -misgovernment in Ireland during the reigns of the early Georges. They -simply followed out the old programme of oppression and repression with -tiresome monotony. No matter who “held court” in Dublin Castle, the -policy of England toward Ireland remained unchanged. If ever there came -a lull in the course of systematic persecution, it followed immediately -on some reverse of the English arms on the Continent of Europe. An -English victory meant added taxes and further coercion for the Irish -Catholics and Dissenters. - -George I had died in 1727, leaving behind him an unsavory moral -reputation, and regretted by nobody in England, except his Hanoverian -mistresses, who were noted for their pinguid ugliness. He was succeeded -without opposition by his son, who mounted the throne as George II. He, -too, was small of stature, un-English in language and appearance, and -inherited the vices of his father. He was not deficient in personal -bravery, as he proved at Dettingen, and elsewhere, in after times, and -he had the distinction of being the last king of England who appeared -upon a field of battle. - -The penal code was continued in full force during most of this reign, -although it had lost favor among the English governing class in the time -of the king’s father, when the Protestant Ascendency party in the Irish -Commons brazenly proposed to the English Privy Council the passage of an -act whereby a proscribed prelate or priest arrested in Ireland would be -made to suffer indecent mutilation. Bad as the English privy councilors -generally were, where Ireland was concerned, they would not stomach such -revolting savagery, and the hideous proposition was heard of no more. -And yet England, knowing the ferocious character of the fanatics who -proposed it, left Ireland virtually helpless in their hands! She could -have, at any time, put an end to the intolerable persecutions visited -upon the masses of the people by a heartless oligarchy, actuated about -equally by cupidity and fierce intolerance. Had she done so, she might -have won the Irish heart, as France won that of German Alsace and -Italian Corsica, but she preferred to use one section of the Irish -people against the other, in her lust of empire, and “Divide and -Conquer” became, as in the Elizabethan times, the pith of her Irish -policy. - -The great English minister, Sir Robert Walpole, impressed by the -necessity of breaking down the spirit of independence evoked by Swift -and his able and patriotic colleagues, who had indeed “breathed a new -soul” into the Ireland of their day, appointed that inveterate -politician and corrupt diplomat, Lord Carteret, viceroy. He also -promoted the Right Rev. Hugh Boulter, Bishop of Bristol, also an -Englishman of the virulent type, to the Archbishopric of Armagh—the -primal see of Ireland. Boulter was Castlereagh’s precursor in policy. -Possessed of high office and vast wealth, he did not hesitate to use -both prestige and money in the interests of England, and his corruption -of many members of the Irish Parliament was so open and flagrant as to -scandalize even the brazen chiefs of the atrocious “Court party”—the -Prætorean guard of Lord Carteret. This unscrupulous churchman was the -virtual head of the English interest in Ireland for eighteen years, and, -within that period, overshadowing even viceregal authority, he made the -English name more hated among not alone the Celtic, but the Scoto and -Anglo-Irish than it had been for a century. He was the greatest -persecutor of the Catholics that had appeared since the period of -Cromwell, and he it was who manipulated the machinery of Parliament to -deprive them of the last vestige of their civil and religious liberty in -the closing days of the brutal reign, in Ireland, of George I. Nor did -the Presbyterians and other dissenters fare much better at his hands. -His black career terminated in 1742, and a weight of horror was lifted -from Ireland’s heart when the welcome news of his death spread rapidly, -far and wide, over the persecuted country. - -What made “Primate Boulter” particularly odious to the Catholic people -of Ireland was his institution of the “Charter Schools”—used openly and -insultingly for the perversion of the majority of the population from -the Roman Catholic faith. Since that period, English politicians have -not hesitated to use the influence of the Roman See, with more or less -success, to curb political movements in Ireland. Even then, when England -was enforcing the penal laws against the Irish Catholics with fire and -sword, she was the ally of Catholic Austria against the French, and -glibly advocated toleration for the Protestants of the Hapsburg empire, -while her “priest-hunters” industriously earned their putrid “blood -money” in unfortunate, Catholic Ireland. We may say, in passing, that -Primate Boulter was succeeded in the primacy by another Englishman, -Right Rev. George Stone, who proved himself worthy of his predecessor. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - Official Extravagance—Charles Lucas, Leader of Irish - Opposition—Chesterfield Viceroy—His Recall—Dorset’s Vile Administration - - -AN attempt made in 1729 to place an extortionate estimate on the public -expenses, and which emanated from “the Castle of Dublin,” had the effect -of consolidating the Irish opposition in Parliament. These legislators -protested in a dignified manner against extravagance in public -expenditure. Under the administration of the Duke of Devonshire, in -1737, they set their faces against his method of corrupting the public -conscience by a display of lavish generosity, which is always popular in -a capital where trade depends to a great extent on courtly favor. The -leaders in the House of Commons were Sir Edward O’Brien, of the House of -Inchiquin; his son, Sir Lucius; the Speaker, Henry Boyle, and Mr. -Anthony Malone, whose father had been an efficient ally of Sir Toby -Butler, in defending Catholic rights under the articles of Limerick. - -These gentlemen were ably assisted by Dr. Charles Lucas, who, although -not a member of the House, possessed a vast outside influence, because -of his great talent and moral worth. The doctor was also a druggist by -profession, but could use a virile pen even better than he could a -pestle and mortar. In 1741, he began hammering the government in public -prints, on the lines of Molyneux and Swift, and with almost as great -success. But “the Castle” censor came down upon him, and he was -compelled to leave Ireland for a period. Like Swift, he was rather -antagonistic to Catholic claims, but, as in the case of the great Dean, -the Catholics forgave him because he was true to Ireland. After some -years of exile, he returned to Dublin, was elected to Parliament, and -became a leader of the Patriots in the House of Commons. In the House of -Lords, the Earl of Kildare, afterward first Duke of Leinster, was the -Patriot leader. - -The famous Earl of Chesterfield became Viceroy of Ireland in 1745, and -showed, from the first, a thorough disgust for the penal laws and the -oligarchs who supported them. He connived at Catholic toleration to such -an extent that he became an object of suspicion, if not of hatred, to -the Ascendency faction. The government of England, with habitual -cunning, had selected this finished courtier to rule in Ireland, because -of disquieting rumors of an invasion of Great Britain contemplated by -Charles Edward Stuart, son of “the Pretender,” James III. Also, about -the same time, came the stirring news of the victory of the Irish -Brigade, in alliance with the French, over the Duke of Cumberland’s -column at glorious Fontenoy. “Accursed,” old George II is said to have -exclaimed, on being told of the Franco-Irish victory, “accursed be the -laws that deprive _me_ of such soldiers!” But Chesterfield was, in -reality, friendly to the Irish. He liked their wit and esprit and took -no pains to conceal the fact, greatly to the disgust of the Ascendency -clique. But Charles Edward’s attempt to recover the British crown -utterly failed. Highland Scotland fought for him heroically. The -Jacobites of England held, for the most part, aloof, and, beyond the -officers of the Irish Brigade, who went with him from France, Ireland -hardly furnished a man to aid his hardy and romantic enterprise—thus -showing how completely her spirit was subdued during that momentous -crisis. Charles Edward was a leader that, in the preceding century, the -Irish would have been proud to follow. He was a great improvement on -both his sire and grandsire, although he ended miserably, in his old -age, a career begun so gloriously in his youth. - -Chesterfield remained only eight months in his Irish office. He was -recalled within ten days after the battle of Culloden. There was no -further need, for the time being, to conciliate the Irish. The heir of -the unhappy Stuarts was a houseless wanderer in the land over which his -forefathers had reigned for centuries and their cause was hopelessly -lost. The Earl and Countess of Chesterfield, on their departure from -Dublin, received “a popular ovation.” They walked on foot, arm in arm, -from the viceregal residence to the wharf, where lay the vessel that was -to bear them back to England, and the warm-hearted, “too easily deluded -people” prayed loud and fervently for their speedy return. They came -back no more, but Chesterfield was enabled to assure George II, when he -reached London, that the only “dangerous Papist” he had seen in Ireland -was the lovely Miss Ambrose, afterward Mrs. Palmer, Dublin’s reigning -beauty of the period. Chesterfield made much of her at “the Castle,” and -laughed politely at the bigots who looked upon her as a species of -Delilah. As Miss Ambrose enjoyed, also, the friendship of Lady -Chesterfield, her enemies could evoke no scandal from the platonic -intimacy. The earl’s mild, insinuating system of government had enabled -him to spare four regiments from Ireland for service in Scotland, during -the Jacobite insurrection. His “Principles of Politeness,” practically -applied, were much more effective in the cause of the House of Hanover -than all the repressive enactments of the vicious bigots of the party of -Ascendency. - -The last Jacobite expedition was organized in France, in 1759, and was -under orders of an admiral named Conflans, who, when a short distance -out from Brest, was encountered by an English fleet under Admiral Hawke -and totally defeated. A wing of this expedition, under Commodore Thurot, -whose real name was O’Farrell, did not arrive in time to take part in -the battle, but succeeded in entering the British Channel without -interruption. A storm arose which drove Thurot’s five frigates to seek -shelter in Norway and the Orkney Islands, where they wintered. In the -spring, one frigate made its way back to France. Another sailed with a -similar object, but was never heard from afterward. The remaining three, -under Thurot, made for the Irish coast and entered Lough Foyle, but made -no attempt on Londonderry. They soon headed for Belfast Lough, and -appeared before Carrickfergus about the end of February, 1760. Thurot -demanded the surrender of the place, which was stoutly refused by the -military governor, Colonel Jennings. The Franco-Irish sailor immediately -landed his fighting men and took the town by a rapid and furious -assault. Then he levied on the place for supplies and again put to sea. -Off the Isle of Man he fell in with three newly commissioned ships of -war under the English Commodore, Elliott. A sanguinary encounter -followed. Thurot, alias O’Farrell, and three hundred of his marines and -sailors were killed. The French vessels were fearful wrecks, and the -victorious English towed them in a sinking condition into Ramsay. Thus -terminated one of the most gallant naval episodes of the eighteenth -century. - -When the Earl of Harrington, afterward Duke of Devonshire, became Lord -Lieutenant some time after the recall of Lord Chesterfield, the odious -Primate Stone—accused both in England and Ireland of unspeakable -immorality—ruled Ireland as completely as had his less filthy -predecessor, Primate Boulter. Ireland, at the outset of the new régime, -was astonished to find a respectable surplus in her treasury, and Lord -Chesterfield, who always, while he lived, took a deep interest in Irish -affairs, sent a congratulatory letter on the seeming prosperity of the -country to his friend, the Bishop of Waterford. The Patriot party in the -Commons, led by the sagacious and eloquent Malone, advocated the -expenditure of the surplus on public works and needed public buildings -throughout Ireland and in the capital. But Stone and the Castle ring -fought the proposition bitterly, contending that the money belonged to -the crown and could be drawn by royal order on the vice-treasurer, -without regard to Parliament. When the Duke of Dorset succeeded -Harrington as viceroy, in 1751, the question had reached an acute stage. -Opposition to the royal claim on the Irish surplus had led to the -expulsion of Dr. Lucas from Ireland. But Malone and Speaker Boyle kept -up the fight in the Commons, and, after having sustained one defeat, on -a full vote, finally came out victorious by having the supply bill, -which covered all government service in the kingdom, thrown out by a -vote of 122 to 117. Government showed its resentment by canceling -Malone’s patent of precedence as Prime Sergeant, and striking Speaker -Boyle’s name from the list of privy-councilors. This was outrageous -enough, but what followed was still more so. The king (George II) by -advice of Dorset, Stone, and their clique, overrode the action of the -Irish Parliament and despotically, by operation of a king’s letter, -withdrew the long-disputed surplus from the Irish national treasury. -This crowning infamy was consummated in 1753, and so great became public -indignation that Stone and the obnoxious ministers were mobbed, and the -Duke of Dorset could not appear on the streets of Dublin without being -hooted at and otherwise insulted. Anglo-Ireland seemed on the brink of -revolution, but the popular leaders took a conservative attitude and -thus avoided a violent crisis. Dorset, alarmed by the tempest he had -himself created, virtually fled from Dublin, followed by the execration -of the multitude. He left the government in the hands of three Lords -Justices, one of whom was Primate Stone, whose very name was hateful to -the incensed people. - -The viceroy was followed to England by the popular leader of the Irish -House of Lords, James Fitz-Gerald, 20th Earl of Kildare, who had married -the daughter of the Duke of Richmond, and, consequently, had a powerful -English backing. Kildare presented to King George, in person, a memorial -in which he strongly denounced the misgovernment of Ireland by Dorset, -Stone, and Lord George Sackville, Dorset’s intermeddling son. This -memorial has been described as “the boldest ever addressed by a subject -to a sovereign.” - -Although Lord Holderness, an English courtier, in a letter to Chancellor -Jocelyn, says that the bold Geraldine “was but ill-received and very -coolly dismissed” by the king, Kildare’s policy soon prevailed in -Ireland. Dorset was recalled in the succeeding year, and Primate Stone, -with whom Kildare refused to act as Lord Justice, was removed from the -ministry of Ireland. - -The Duke of Devonshire, formerly Lord Harrington, or Hartington, -succeeded Dorset, and immediately began the congenial work, to an -English statesman, of breaking up, and rendering harmless, the Irish -Patriot party. Boyle was made Chancellor of the Exchequer and was raised -to the peerage as the Earl of Shannon, receiving also a pension of -£2,000 per annum for thirty-one years. Malone would have accepted the -Lord Chancellorship gladly, but was restrained by both private and -public opinion from doing so openly. But Mitchel says that while Boyle -remained nominal chancellor, Malone quietly pocketed the profits of the -position, and his patriotic eloquence declined in proportion to the -growth of his profits. Other leaders of the Patriot party were also -“taken care of,” and England managed to get rid of one of her most -troublesome “Irish difficulties.” - -The purchased Patriots, however, may be fairly credited with having -forced the beginning of the public works, such as canals and highways, -in Ireland, and the construction of some of those splendid official -edifices which still, even in their decay, “lend an Italian glory to the -Irish metropolis.” - -Lord Kildare stands accused of having entered into the negotiations with -the new viceroy for the “placation” of the Patriot party in the Commons. -Such, however, were the political “morals” of the times, and the offices -were, nominally at least, Irish and, therefore, quasi, not fully, -national—seeing that Ireland was what might be called a semi-independent -colonial province, distrustful of England, but without strength or -resolution to snap her chains. The earl soon became Marquis of Kildare, -and, subsequently, Duke of Leinster, but he is best remembered as the -father of the gallant, unselfish, and devoted Lord Edward Fitzgerald, of -1798 fame. - -An attempt made, in March, 1756, to pass a bill in the Irish Commons to -vacate the seats of such members as should accept “any pension or civil -office of profit from the crown,” was defeated by a vote of 85 to -59—thus giving plain notice to the English viceroy that the Parliament -was up for auction, and, within less than fifty years from that date, it -was, accordingly, like that of Scotland, “knocked down to the highest -bidder.” How could it be otherwise? When, as Mitchel truly says in his -Continuation of McGeoghegan’s “History of Ireland,” “The English -Protestant colony in Ireland, which aspired to be a nation, amounted to -something under half a million of souls, in 1754. It was out of the -question that it should be united on a footing of equality with its -potent mother country by ‘the golden link of the crown,’ because the -wearer of that crown was sure to be guided in his policy by English -ministers, in accordance with English interests; and, as the army was -the king’s army, he could always enforce that policy. The fatal weakness -of the colony was that it would not amalgamate with the mass of the -Irish people (_i.e._ the Catholics) so as to form a true nation, but set -up the vain pretension to hold down a whole disfranchised people with -one hand and defy all England with the other.” And this insensate policy -was pursued, with little modification, to the end, and in the end proved -fatal to both “the colony” and the nation. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - More Persecution of Catholics Under George II—Secret Committee - Formed—Snubbed by the Speaker—Received by the Viceroy—Anti-Union Riot in - Dublin - - -THE Duke of Bedford became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1757, and came -as a “conciliator,” with a smile on his face “and a bribe in his -pocket.” His mission was to “soften” the penal laws, which had again -become too scandalous for the “liberal” and “civilized” reputation of -England on the Continent. One Miss O’Toole, a Catholic, had been pressed -by some Protestant friends to “conform” to the Established Church, so as -to avoid persecution, and fled to the house of a relative named Saul, -who resided in Dublin, in order to escape disagreeable importunity. Mr. -Saul was prosecuted and convicted, under the penal code, and the judge -who “tried” the case said, in his charge, that “Papists had no rights,” -because the “law” under which poor Saul was punished “did not,” in the -language of the court, “presume a Papist to exist in the kingdom, nor -could Papists so much as breathe the air without the connivance of -government!” This judge, harsh as his language may now seem, did not -misstate the case, for such, indeed, was the barbarous “law of the land” -at that period, and for a considerable time afterward. - -The bigots in the Irish Commons, soon after the arrival of the Duke of -Bedford in Dublin, had prepared a new and even more drastic bill of -penalties against Catholics than already existed, and so intolerable -were its proposals that several leading Catholics among “the nobility, -gentry, and professional [clandestinely] classes” got together, and, -after a time, formed, in out-of-the-way meeting places, the first -“Catholic Committee” of Ireland—the precursor, by the way, of the many -similar organizations conducted by John Keogh, Daniel O’Connell, and -other Catholic leaders of succeeding generations. - -The chief men of this committee were Charles O’Conor, the Irish -scholar and antiquary; Dr. Curry, the historical reviewer; Mr. Wyse, a -leading merchant of the city of Waterford; Lords Fingal, Devlin, -Taaffe, and some others less known to fame. These amiable gentlemen -were, at first, frightened by the sound of their own voices, but they -gradually grew bolder, although they did not proceed far enough to -bring down upon their heads the full wrath of “government.” Indeed, -they were, on most occasions, obsequiously “loyal” to the “crown,” -which meant the English king and connection. But the iron had entered -their souls, and the stain of its corrosion lingered long in their -veins. When the Duke of Bedford, by the instructions of the elder Pitt -(Chatham), who acted for King George, informed the Irish Parliament -that France contemplated a new invasion and called upon the Irish -people to show their loyalty to the House of Hanover, Charles O’Conor -drew up an abjectly “loyal” address, which was signed by 300 leading -Catholics, and had it presented at the bar of the House of Commons -(Dublin) by Messrs. Antony MacDermott and John Crump. The speaker, Mr. -Ponsonby, received the document in dead silence, laid it on the table -in front of him, and coolly bowed the delegation out. The Duke of -Bedford, however, took “gracious” notice of the address, and caused -his answer thereto, which was appreciative—England being then in -mortal terror of the French—to be printed in the Dublin “Gazette,” -which was the “government’s” official organ. And the poor Catholic -gentlemen, who had signed the cringing document, went into convulsions -of joy because of this “official recognition” of their slavish -professions of “loyalty” to a foreign king, who cared less for them -than for the blacks of the West Indies! - -But Mitchel, the Protestant historian, who understood his country’s sad -story better, perhaps, than any writer who ever dealt with it, makes for -the Catholic committee this ingenious apology: “We may feel indignant,” -says he, “at the extreme humility of the proceedings of the committee, -and lament that the low condition of our countrymen at that time left no -alternative but that of professing a hypocritical ‘loyalty’ to their -oppressors; for the only other alternative was secret organization to -prepare an insurrection for the total extirpation of the English colony -in Ireland, and, carefully disarmed as the Catholics were [and still -are], they, doubtless, felt this to be an impossible project. Yet, for -the honor of human nature, it is necessary to state the fact that this -profession of loyalty, to a king of England, was, in reality, insincere. -Hypocrisy, in such a case, is less disgraceful than would have been a -genuine canine attachment to the hand that smote and to the foot that -kicked.” - -But Bedford, in his policy of conciliation, had even a deeper motive -than fear of France. The statesmen of England, jealous of even the poor -and almost impotent colonial Parliament of Ireland, so early as 1759, -contemplated that “legislative union,” which was to be effected in later -times. Bedford’s design was the truly English one of arraying the Irish -Catholics against the Protestant nationalists, who had, with England’s -willing aid, so cruelly persecuted them. When this project got mooted -abroad, the Protestant mob of Dublin—the Catholics were too cowed at the -time to act, and their leaders were committed to Bedford by their -address—rose in their might, on December 3, 1759, surrounded the Houses -of Parliament and uttered tumultuous shouts of “No Union! no Union!” -They stopped every member of Parliament, as he approached to enter the -House, and made him swear that he would oppose the union project. They -violently assaulted the Lord Chancellor, whom they believed to be a -Unionist, together with many other lords, spiritual and secular, and -“ducked” one member of the Privy Council in the river Liffey. The -Speaker and Secretary of the House of Commons had to appear in the -portico of the House and solemnly assure the people that no union was -contemplated. Even this assurance did not quell the tumult, and, -finally, a fierce charge of dragoons and the bayonets of a numerous -infantry, accompanied by a threat of using cannon, cleared the streets. -Following up the policy of “conciliation,” the Catholic leaders, with -slavish haste, repudiated the actions of the Protestant mob, and thus -produced a contemptuous bitterness in the Protestant mind, which -aggravated the factious feeling in the unfortunate country. England’s -work was well done. She had planted, as a small seed, the idea of -absorbing the Irish Parliament some day, and was willing to let it take -its own time to ripen into Dead Sea fruit for Ireland. The Catholic -helot had been cunningly played off against his Protestant oppressor, -and thus the subject nation had been made the forger of its own -fetters—at least in appearance, although England was the real artificer. -Many Catholics in humble life may have joined in the Dublin anti-union -riots, but the Catholic chiefs, who had their own axe to grind, were -resolved to appear “loyal”—all the more so because some of the -Protestant leaders in the late disorders sought to fasten the -responsibility on the members of the proscribed faith. The outbreak, as -was well known, was mainly the work of the followers of Dr. Lucas, then -in exile, but soon to be a Member of Parliament, and the fiercest -opponent of a legislative union with Great Britain. - -“It deserves remark,” says a historian of the period, “that on this -first occasion, when a project of a legislative union was really -entertained by an English ministry, the Patriot party which opposed it -was wholly and exclusively of the Protestant colony, and that the -Catholics of Ireland were totally indifferent, and, indeed, they could -not rationally be otherwise, as it was quite impossible for them to feel -an attachment to a national legislature in which they were not -represented, and for whose members they could not even cast a vote.” - -George II died of “rupture of the heart”—probably from the bursting of -an arterial aneurism in that region—in 1760. He was never popular in -England, because of his German ways and affections, and the Irish people -regarded him with indifference. They had never seen him, and he was -about as much of a stranger in his Irish realm as the Shah of Persia or -the Khan of Tartary. His reign had lasted twenty-eight years, and, in -all that period, the estimated population of Ireland—for there was no -regular census—increased only 60,000. Presbyterian and Catholic -emigration to the colonies—superinduced by the penal laws against -both—was mainly the cause of this remarkable stagnation. There had been -two famines also, and the victims of artificial scarcity—a condition -produced by restrictions on trade and manufacture—were numerous. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - Accession of George III—His Character—Boasts of Being “a Briton”—Death - of Dr. Lucas—Lord Townsend’s Novel Idea of Governing Ireland—Septennial - Parliament Refused - - -THE long reign of George III, grandson of the late monarch, began in the -month of October, 1760, when he had attained the age of 22 years. His -father, Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, was a dissolute and almost -imbecile person, and was hated by his own father, George II, with a most -unnatural hatred. No doubt he, in great measure, deserved it, for a -member of his own family described Frederick Louis as being “the -greatest brute and ass in Christendom.” George III, when he mounted the -English throne, was a dull, commonplace young man, without pronounced -personal vices, but exceedingly obstinate and subject to spells of -temper, when strongly opposed, that gave assurance of future mental -weakness. He was not, by nature, cruel, but circumstances developed -gross cruelty under his régime, in India, in America, and in Ireland. He -had enough of the Stuart blood in him to be a stickler for “the right -divine” of kings, and he was enough of a Guelph to have his own way with -even his most persuasive ministers. His father’s politics, so far as he -had any, leaned toward Whiggery, but after that prince’s death his -mother had placed him under the tutelage of the Marquis of Bute, who was -an ardent Tory. Consequently, the young king had had the advantage of -being taught in the two great English schools of policy, but, in the -long run, the Tory in his nature prevailed over the Whig, and George III -finally developed into a fierce and intolerant despot. All that could be -said in his favor was that, after he married—and he married young—his -court became, at once, a model of propriety and dulness. The painted -harlots, fostered by his grandfather and great-grandfather, were not -succeeded by others of their kind, and the prudent mothers of England no -longer feared to allow their handsome daughters to enter the precincts -of the royal palace. The English masses were, at first, greatly -astonished at the personal purity of their sovereign, but, after a -while, became reconciled to the belief that a monarch need not, -necessarily, be a libertine. - -King George evidently borrowed a leaf from the book of Queen Anne when -he assumed the crown. She had assured her subjects that hers was “an -entirely English heart.” George’s first address from the throne opened -with the words, “Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name -of Briton.” Coming from a king, this sentiment, addressed to a people in -general so fervidly “loyal” as the English, produced a most favorable -effect, and, to the end of his long reign, was never forgotten, even -when his mule-like obstinacy wellnigh goaded them to desperation. George -III, from first to last, in his love of domination, impatience of -opposition, carelessness of the rights of other peoples, egotism, -intolerance, and commercial greed, stood for John Bull. Behind John Bull -stood England, very much as she still stands to-day. The address -continued by declaring that the civil and religious rights of his -“loving subjects” were equally dear to him with the most valuable -prerogatives of the crown. It was his fixed purpose, he said, to -countenance and encourage the practice of true religion and virtue. The -eyes of all Europe, he declared, were on that Parliament and from it -“the _Protestant_ interest hoped for protection.” At the end of the -speech, King George intimated that the toleration of the Catholics—that -is, connivance at their existence, particularly in Ireland—would not be -interfered with. But the penal statutes remained unrepealed, and the -Irish Catholics continued to be persecuted, although rather less -brutally, particularly as regarded their religious observances, in their -own country. They were not allowed to vote, or hold office, or have any -say whatever in public affairs, although they were subject to taxes and -fines. They could not be educated, and were debarred from practicing any -profession under long-established penalties. In short, they were very -little better off during the earlier years of George III’s reign than -under the sway of his two immediate predecessors. - -The Irish Protestant mind, however, did not lose its patriotic impulse, -because of the interested silence of Malone, Boyle, and the former -leaders of the Patriot party. Members of Parliament had hitherto been -elected to serve during the life of the sovereign, and, in the beginning -of the reign of George III, the new Irish Parliament began an earnest -agitation for octennial Parliaments. Among the able men—of them destined -to be famous—who were elected to the new body were Hussey Burgh, Dennis -Bowes Daly, Henry Flood, and Dr. Lucas. It should have been stated that -the original Irish demand was for a seven years’ Parliament, and bills -were passed, in 1761 and 1763, embodying the proposition, but the king -and English Privy Council, to whom they had to be submitted, under the -Poynings’ Act, coolly “pocketed” them, and they were heard of no more. -This arbitrary conduct of an alien monarch, and advisory body, aroused -great public indignation, and the clamor became so loud, in 1767, that, -finally, the bill was returned from England, changed to octennial, or -eight years, and, with this amendment, it passed the Irish Parliament -and received the royal sanction in February of the succeeding year. -Under the new act, a Parliament was elected in 1768, and all the -advocates of the new dispensation were re-elected. Where all did noble -work, it is not detracting from their merit to remark that Dr. Lucas was -the real leader of the movement, and was generally recognized as such. -He lived only two years after his great triumph, and was almost -universally mourned—the only exceptions being the members of the corrupt -Court party. He was formally eulogized in the Irish House of Commons, -and at his funeral the pall-bearers were Lord Kildare, Lord Charlemont, -Henry Flood, Sir Lucius O’Brien, Hussey Burgh, and Speaker Ponsonby. - -The Patriot party continued, in the new Parliament, under the -administration of Lord Townsend, a vigorous opposition to unjust pension -lists, and other evils which afflicted the nation. The Lord Lieutenant, -who was jolly and persuasive, also corrupt, attempted to break up the -opposition after the good old English fashion, but made no impression on -the able phalanx led by Flood, who, after the death of Lucas, was looked -upon as the chief of the Patriot element in the Commons. Kildare, -notwithstanding his peculiar action in the days of Malone, _et al._, -continued to champion the popular cause in the House of Peers. -Resistance to the supply bill, which changed the Irish military -establishment from 12,000 to 15,000 men, brought about the prorogation -of Parliament session after session for nearly two years. Meanwhile, the -Castle was quietly “seeing” the members, and, in spite of Flood and -Speaker Ponsonby, an address of confidence, carried by a bare majority, -was passed by the Commons. The Speaker refused to present it and -resigned his post. A Mr. Perry was elected to succeed him, and, for a -time, it looked as if the Patriots might be broken up. But Mr. Perry, in -spite of his suspicious conduct in accepting the speakership, vacated by -his friend, Mr. Ponsonby, remained faithful to Irish interests and the -ranks of the opposition became even more formidable than before. - -Lord Townsend, the jolly old corruptionist, became so unpopular that -nearly every public print in Dublin was filled with lampoons upon him, -and, finally, he requested retirement and was succeeded by Lord -Harcourt, in 1772. He began well, but ended badly, as is usual with -English viceroys in Ireland, who have seldom failed to fall eventually -under Dublin Castle influences. He attempted to throw unjust burdens on -Ireland, but was resisted at every point, particularly when he sought to -make the supply bill extend over two years instead of one. Henry Flood -delivered one of his best speeches in opposition to this dishonest -innovation. Hussey Burgh promised that if any member in future brought -in such a bill he would move his expulsion. But the climax was reached -when the Hon. George Ogle, of Wexford, author of the well-known lyric, -“Molly Astore,” which has retained its popularity for more than a -century, proposed that the bill, as introduced, be burned by the -hangman. The Speaker reminded Mr. Ogle that the document was decorated -with the great seal. “Then,” replied the witty poet, “it will burn all -the better!” Mr. Ogle’s suggestion was not carried out, but the bill was -subsequently modified to suit the ideas of the House of Commons. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - The Peace of Paris—Agrarian Warfare in Ireland—Judicial Murder of Father - Sheehy—All who Swore Against Him Die Violent Deaths—Societies - - -THE Peace of Paris, 1763, brought the Seven Years’ War to a conclusion -on the Continent of Europe. Frederick the Great retained Silesia, -formerly an Austrian province, to which he had no just title; and there -were other territorial changes of less importance. England had triumphed -over the French interest in America; for Wolfe’s victory of the Plains -of Abraham, at Quebec, in September, 1759, decided the game of war in -favor of the British, although other battles were fought by the opposing -forces after that event. - -Agrarian oppression in Ireland, particularly in the South, had caused -the peasantry to organize themselves into secret societies for mutual -protection. It was thus that the famous “White Boys” of the last -century—so-called from wearing linen shirts, or white woolen jackets, -over their other clothes, so as to give them a uniform appearance—came -into existence. Their methods were crude, wild, often fierce and -sometimes cruel. They defied the law because they had found no element -of protection in it. Rather had they found it, as administered by the -landlord oligarchy, in whose hands it was placed by the evil genius of -England, an instrument of intolerable oppression. No justice was to be -obtained by any appeal they might make to their tyrants, and so they -resorted to what an Irish orator has called “the wild justice of -revenge.” As usual, some naturally bad men found their way into these -organizations, and often vented their malice on individuals in the name -of the trampled people. The landlords took advantage of the commission -of crime to get up another “Popish plot” scare, and succeeded in making -shallow and timid people accept the slander as truth. The real object of -the “White Boys” was to secure low rentals on tillage land, and to -preserve “commonage rights”—that is, grazing lands in common at a -nominal cost, or else free, something that had long been the usage—for -their stock. The landlords, not satisfied with levying exorbitant rents, -and grown, if possible, harder and more greedy than ever, finally -abolished and fenced in “the commons.” This action aroused the fury of -the peasantry, particularly in the Munster counties, and they collected -in large bodies and demolished the landlords’ fences. This gave the -tyrants an excuse to call for military aid—the argument being that the -people were in arms against “the crown,” which, of course, was false. -The poor peasantry struck at their nearest and most visible oppressors, -and never thought about “the crown.” The king was, to them, very like a -myth. It would seem that many of the poorer Protestants joined with the -Catholics in the demonstration against the inclosures, which, of course, -showed the absurdity of the “Popish plot” story. Still, the affair was -not to terminate until it begot a cruel tragedy. The parish priest of -Clogheen, County Tipperary, in 1765, was the Rev. Nicholas Sheehy, a -high-minded and saintly man, whose heart was deeply touched by the -sufferings of the poor tenants, whose ardent and eloquent champion he -became. The Cromwellian “aristocracy” of the county, headed by the -Bagnals, the Maudes, the Bagwells, the Tolers, and a parson named -Hewitson, resolved to get rid of Father Sheehy, and only waited for a -good chance to insnare him in their toils. Two years previous to the -date already given, they had had the young priest arrested on a charge -of swearing in “White Boys,” but, because of insufficient evidence, he -was acquitted. Soon after he was released, one Bridge, who had been a -principal witness against him, mysteriously disappeared. The oligarchs -had the priest arrested immediately on a charge of murder. The witnesses -employed to appear against him were a horse-stealer, named Toohey, a -vagrant youth named Lonergan, and an immoral woman, named Dunlea. He had -lain in Clonmel jail, heavily ironed, for several months before he was -brought to trial. The prosecution did not have their witnesses fully -instructed. At last, March 12, 1765, Father Sheehy was brought up for -trial. He succeeded in proving an alibi, but that was of no avail. His -destruction was determined upon, and, on March 15, he suffered execution -by hanging and subsequent decapitation. This atrocious murder aroused -the anger of the country. Protestants and Catholics alike joined in -execrating the crime. Yet, he was not the only victim. In May of the -same year, Edward Sheehy, a cousin, and two other young farmers, were -convicted and hanged on the same testimony that had sent Father Sheehy -to his untimely grave. McGee says: “The fate of their enemies is -notorious; with a single exception, they met deaths violent, loathsome, -and terrible. Maude died insane, Bagwell in idiocy; one of the jury -committed suicide, another was found dead in a privy, a third was killed -by his horse, a fourth was drowned, a fifth shot, and so through the -entire list. Toohey was hanged for felony, the prostitute, Dunlea, fell -into a cellar and was killed, and the lad, Lonergan, after enlisting as -a soldier, died of a loathsome disease in a Dublin infirmary.” - -Another attempt at persecution of the priests was made in 1767, but -Edmund Burke, the illustrious statesman, and other liberal Protestants, -came to the rescue with funds for the defence of the accused, and the -oligarchy were unable to secure the conviction of their intended -victims. The fate of the perjured informers, who swore away the lives of -Father Sheehy and his fellow-sufferers, was well known throughout the -country, and, no doubt, had a wholesome effect on other wretches who -might have been bribed into following their example. - -The “White Boys” were not the only secret organization formed in Ireland -at that period. Some were composed of Protestants, mostly of the -Presbyterian sect, who combated in Ulster the exactions of the -landlords. They bore such names as “Hearts of Steel,” because they were -supposed to show no mercy to “the petty tyrants of their fields”; “Oak -Boys,” because they carried oaken boughs, or wore oak leaves in their -hats. The “Peep o’ Day Boys” were political rather than agrarian, and -professed the peculiar principles afterward adopted by the Orange -Association. They confined themselves mainly to keeping up the -anniversary of the Boyne and making occasional brutal attacks on -defenceless Catholics. The respectable Protestant element kept -scrupulously away from association with these rude fanatics. The -successors of the “White Boys” in Munster were the equally dreaded -“Terry Alts,” who existed down to a very recent period, and belonged, -mainly, to the County Tipperary. Like the “White Boys,” they raided the -houses of “the gentry” and their retainers for arms, and severe, often -fatal, conflicts resulted from their midnight visitations. They also -killed, from time to time, obnoxious landlords and their agents, and -were hanged by the score in retaliation. The government was not -over-particular regarding their guilt or innocence. The object was to -avenge the slain land-grabbers, and also to “strike terror.” As usual, -many base informers were found to betray their fellows, but, in justice -to the “White Boys” and “Terry Alts,” it may be stated that the -betrayers of their secrets were mostly Castle spies, or detectives, -employed for the purpose of entrapping the unwary. Very few of the -regular members, who lived among their own relatives, accepted blood -money. In many cases, the peasantry committed unnecessary acts of -violence, but, in general, they only visited with severe punishment -landlords or their agents who were notorious evictors, or farmers who -“took the land” over the heads of the evicted tenants. - -The Catholic Church was the consistent opponent of the agrarian -organizations, because of the mutual bloodshed between them and the -landlord element, but, much as the Catholic peasants held their bishops -and priests in reverence, the admonitions of the latter had small effect -on the young men of their flocks while wholesale evictions were in -progress. The “boys,” with rough logic, would say, among themselves: -“The clergy mean well, but we had better be hanged than starved to -death, and, besides, revenge on our tyrants is sweet.” There is hardly -anything in Old World history more ghastly than the long, desultory, and -deadly war of tenant against landlord in Ireland, from the days of -George II to the latter part of Victoria’s reign. It is a chapter we -gladly turn away from, with the remark that the cruel oligarchy, who -wantonly provoked a naturally humane people to crime, were infinitely -more criminal than the poor, oppressed peasants they made desperate. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Flood and Grattan—Sudden Rise of the Latter—Speaks for a Free - Commerce—The Volunteer Movement—England Yields to Irish Demand - - -IT was unfortunate for both America and Ireland that Henry Grattan, who -had entered Parliament in December, 1775, had not attained to the -leadership of the Patriot party when the colonies revolted against the -tyranny of George III. Flood held that position when hostilities -appeared imminent, and his influence, somewhat ignorantly exerted, had -much to do with voting 4,000 troops from the Irish establishment for -service against the Americans. At the time, the American case was not as -well understood in Ireland as it was later on, and, besides, an -accommodation was hoped for. In the course of his speech supporting the -policy of the government, Flood said that the troops from Ireland were -“armed negotiators”—a most unfortunate phrase, which Grattan, in after -days, turned against him to good effect, when he uttered that fierce -philippic against his quondam friend during an acrimonious debate which -arose soon after the Irish Parliamentary triumph over England in 1782. -It must be remembered by American readers that the Irish Parliament -which voted men to put down the American revolutionists was Protestant -in creed and mainly English in blood. Not a Catholic sat in it, and but -few men of Celtic origin. The sympathies of the Catholic and dissenting -masses were unmistakably with the Americans, and Grattan in the Irish -Legislature, and Burke and Brinsley Sheridan in the English House of -Commons, were their eloquent champions. Flood, although a man of fine -intellect and an accomplished orator, soon found himself rather -outclassed by Grattan, who was young, ardent, and animated by a -“pentecostal fire,” which prompted him to utter some of the most -inspiring speeches that ever flowed from the lips of man. Flood, -following the example of Malone at another period, had accepted office -under the Harcourt administration, and it was openly charged by his -enemies, and probably with some degree of truth, that he had been -influenced in his action against America by the circumstance. He had -also supported the embargo measure, imposed by order in council, which -debarred Irish food products from exportation to the American colonies -in revolt. Naturally, conduct of this kind produced dissatisfaction -among his friends and followers, and his popularity immediately -declined. - -The decline of Flood as a Patriot leader left a free field for Grattan -and his best-known competitors for oratorical honors, Hussey Burgh, -Bowes Daly, and Yelverton. At first, Grattan was rather chary of speech -in the House, but, gradually, he gained confidence in himself, and, -although his gestures were awkward and his elocution generally faulty, -the matter of his addresses was so full of fire, energy, and logic that -he soon became the acknowledged chief of what Byron happily termed in -his “Irish Avatar” the eloquent war. The restrictions on Irish commerce -demanded his first attention, and his earlier utterances in Parliament -were mostly devoted to that question. It has been erroneously stated -that Henry Grattan was a “free trader” in the American and British sense -of that term. On the contrary, he believed in a moderate tariff for the -protection of Irish industries, and also for the accumulation of a -revenue, and this was fully exemplified by the action of the Irish -Parliament, when, from 1782 to 1800, it became virtually independent, in -enacting tariff laws for the objects stated. It is true the tariff in -regard to English imports was comparatively low, but still high enough -to give the Irish manufacturer a good chance to compete with the -manufactures of the richer country. What Grattan and his followers -wanted was free commerce—an exemption from the export duties, which -crippled Irish merchants; and freedom to export Irish goods, without -hindrance from English customs officers, to any country of the world. - -When the news of the battle of Saratoga and surrender of Burgoyne to the -American army reached Ireland, in 1777, it produced a profound -impression. Grattan, who always favored the American cause, moved an -address to the throne in favor of retrenchment, which meant reduction of -the military establishment, while Bowes Daly moved, and had carried, -another address, which deplored the continuance of the American war, but -professed fidelity to the royal person. As usual, when England got the -worst of it abroad, small concessions were made to the Irish Catholics, -and the Irish Parliament was permitted to pass a bill “authorizing -Papists to loan money on mortgages, to lease lands for any period not -exceeding 999 years, and to inherit and bequeath real property.” This -bill had “a rider” which abolished the test oath as regarded the -Dissenters, and, no doubt, this provision had much to do with the -success of the bill as a whole, which did not, however, pass without -strenuous opposition. - -An attempt made by Lord Nugent in the English Parliament to mitigate the -severity of the navigation and embargo acts, as regarded Ireland, was -howled down by the English manufacturers, merchants, and tradespeople -generally. The knowledge of this action spurred on Grattan and his -followers and, thenceforward, “Free Trade” became their rallying cry. - -Protestant Ireland, since the year of Thurot’s bold exploit, had lived -in much terror of another French invasion, on a larger scale. When -France, in 1778, became the ally of the United States of America, which -had declared their independence on July 4, 1776, this feeling of alarm -increased. Their leaders demanded military protection from the -government, and were informed that the latter had none to give, unless -they would accept invalids and dismounted cavalrymen. Henry Flood, -seconded by Speaker Perry, had long advocated the formation of a -national militia, and these gentlemen were cordially supported in the -proposition by Grattan, Lord Charlemont, and other noted leaders of the -Patriot party. A bill authorizing a volunteer militia passed the Irish -Parliament in 1778. After a great deal of discussion, it was deemed more -prudent to form the force from independent organizations of volunteers, -armed by the state, but clothed and otherwise equipped by themselves. -They were left free to elect their own officers. Immediately, a -patriotic impulse permeated the nation, and the Protestant Irish, who -were alone permitted to bear arms, rallied to the armories and -parade-grounds by the thousand. Belfast and Strabane claimed the honor -of having formed the first companies. The richer among the Catholics -supplied money to the poor among their Protestant neighbors for the -purchase of uniforms and other necessaries. This patriotic action on -their part naturally resulted in an immediate mitigation of the penal -discrimination against them and the entrance of hundreds of them into -the ranks of the volunteers was, at first, connived at, and soon openly -permitted. The result was that, by the spring of 1780, there were, at -least, 65,000 men under arms for Ireland in her four provinces—Ulster -leading in numbers and enthusiasm. The rank and file were artisans, -farmers, and clerks, while the officers were, in general, selected from -among the wealthy and aristocratic classes. Many of these officers -equipped their companies, or regiments, at their own expense. The Earl -of Charlemont—a weak but well-meaning nobleman—was elected commander by -the Ulster volunteers, while the amiable Duke of Leinster—the second of -that proud title—was chosen by those of Leinster. Munster and Connaught, -not being quite as well organized as their sister provinces, deferred -their selections. All English goods were tabooed by the volunteers, -their families, and friends, and a favorite maxim of the period was that -of Dean Swift, already quoted, “Burn everything coming from England, -except the coal!” - -The now feeble shadow of English government, holding court at Dublin -Castle, viewed this formidable uprising with genuine alarm, and did its -utmost to prevent the issuance of arms to the volunteers, but the Irish -leaders were not to be cajoled or baffled, and, in the summer of 1779, -the new Irish army was thoroughly armed, drilled and ready for any -service that might be demanded from it. The leaders had now the weapon -to enforce their rights in hand, and did not fail to make good use of -it. They met and formed plans for the coming session of Parliament, and -were delighted to receive assurances from Flood, and other -officeholders, that they would support Grattan and his allies in the -demand that Irish commerce have “free export and import.” - -An address, covering the points stated, with the amendment “free trade” -substituted by Flood for the original phrase, passed the Houses, when -they met, and on the succeeding day the House of Commons, with the -Speaker at its head, proceeded to the Castle and presented the address -to the viceroy. The volunteers, commanded by the Duke of Leinster, -occupied both sides of the streets through which the members had to pass -and presented arms to the nation’s representatives, many of whom wore -the diversified uniforms of the Patriot army. Dublin, in all its varied -history, never witnessed a grander or more inspiring spectacle. - -Alderman Horan, of Dublin, precipitated a crisis by demanding freedom of -export for some Irish woolens to Amsterdam, and he filed his demand, in -due form, at the custom house. This was in defiance of the prohibitory -enactment of the reign of William III and an English man-of-war was -stationed in Dublin Bay to enforce it. Mr. Horan, not being provided -with a battleship, was fain to content himself with leaving his demand -on file, but he had gained his point by directing public attention to an -insulting grievance with a stern object lesson. Ireland saw, at once, -that English monopoly would yield nothing, except to force, or the -threat of force. Henry Grattan, in the Commons, replied to the shotted -guns of the English frigate in the bay by introducing an amendment to -the supply bill, which declared that “at this time, it is inexpedient to -grant new taxes.” This was carried overwhelmingly, and England began to -think that, after all, Irish votes were a match for English guns. -Grattan gained a further triumph over the government by causing the -defeat of a bill providing duties for the support of the loan fund. - -Lord North, when confronted with the ominous news from Ireland, -remembering his unfortunate experience with the American patriots, -determined to back down from his former despotic position. He brought in -resolutions which gave Ireland the right to trade with British colonies -in America and Africa, and granted free export to glass and woolens. The -Irish Parliament adopted similar resolutions, and the main portion of -Ireland’s commercial grievances was, thereby, removed. - - - - - END OF VOLUME ONE - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - ○ Text that: - was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S BEST HISTORIES: -IRELAND, VOLUME I (OF 2) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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