marched in from Duncannon Fort, with a promise from General Fawcett, who commanded there, to come in person with further reinforcements. The thatch was stripped off the houses, to prevent the town from being fired; and every boat in the harbour was in requisition to take the women and children on board ship. The old town walls (which were still standing in good preservation) were strongly guarded, the gateways barricaded and fortified, and patrols of cavalry constantly kept out reconnoitring. Meanwhile, the widows of the militiamen killed at Oulard went weeping and wailing about the town. In the course of the morning, the bodies of the slain were brought in for burial, which, as Mr. Hay says, "contributed not a little to dispirit the military in the town." The military in the town had a decided taste for that part of their profession which consisted in burning cabins, butchering prisoners, and whipping and pitchcapping croppies; but when it came to real bodily fighting, with the chance of being killed, it was another affair altogether—the ruffian collapsed into the poltroon.

Still, with all their preparations, the Wexford authorities did not like the aspect of things. They thought negociating would be safer and more agreeable than fighting; and, for the first time in the history of Wexford Protestantism, they determined to "try conciliation." In this, the first hour of real danger they had ever known, these proud, hard and cruel men were not ashamed to invoke the liberal and Catholic gentry whom they had maligned and insulted, as intercessors for them with the peasantry whom they had flogged and tortured. The principal gentlemen of the town first applied to Mr. Hay-who, as a Catholic of liberal politics, might be presumed to have influence with the people-and besought him to go out to the insurgents and endeavour to induce them to disperse. Mr. Hay was perfectly willing to do this, though the service was one of no small peril, provided a magistrate, on whose honour he could rely to protect him from slanderous misconstruction, would go with him. But the magistrates, one and all, declined the enterprise. It was then considered that some of the prisoners might make acceptable and useful negociators; and it was proposed, and eventually agreed on, that Messrs. Harvey, Fitzgerald, and Colclough should be admitted to bail, and that the two latter should go out to parley with the rebel army, Harvey remaining in prison as a hostage for their honourable return.*

This mission had results little contemplated by its authors. It strikingly shows the unpremeditated character of the Wexford insurrection, that, on the arrival of Fitzgerald and Colclough at Enniscorthy, at four o'clock in the afternoon, they found the insurgents in the act of dispersing. They had been debating (without a thought of Wexford) whether to attack Ross, or Gorey, or Newtown-Barry; but there was neither concert in their councils nor discipline in their ranks. Every man was anxious to go home, and see to the protection of his own house and family from the attacks of the Orangemen; and the rebel army had already begun disbanding itself. The rebellion, in fact, was over-if it had only been let alone. The embassy from Wexford made a difference.

* Hay says (p. 98):-" The prisoners were visited by the most respectable gentlemen in the town, several requesting me to accompany them to the prison for the purpose of introduction. Indeed, so marked was the attention paid to them on this occasion, that an indifferent spectator would be led to consider them rather as the governors of the town than as prisoners."

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"Most of the multitude," says Hay, was dispersed, and on the way to their several homes, in all directions from Vinegar Hill, when some of them met Messrs. Fitzgerald and Colclough (whose arrests were publicly known) near the village of St. John's, and finding them liberated and sent out to them, they were immediately welcomed by a general shout, which, communicating from one to another like electricity, it was re-echoed all the way to Enniscorthy, and so on to the top of Vinegar Hill, and thence through all the country round. The reverberation of the shouts thus widely diffused arrested the attention of the astonished multitude, who instantly returned to discover the cause of such sudden exultation; so that when the deputed gentlemen arrived on Vinegar Hill, the camp, so deserted but a moment before, now became as thronged as ever.” Their perplexed counsels were now suddenly enlightened, their divided forces combined, their fluctuating purposes fixed, their aimless energies concentrated on an object. The offer to parley betrayed, in a most unexpected way, the weakness of their enemies, gave them a new sense of their own strength and importance, lifted them in an instant to the height of the occasion-the war-cry was raised, "To WEXFORD! TO WEXFORD!" Fitzgerald was detained in the camp, and Colclough sent back to his employers to report progress. That night the insurgents encamped on the THREE ROCKS, an eminence at the extremity of the Forth mountains, about three miles from Wexford.

The next morning, (Wednesday, the 30th of May) the magistrates and military, on the faith of General Fawcett's promise to bring them a powerful succour from Duncannon Fort-which succour, it was calculated, must by that time be within view of the rebel camp-ventured on the bold measure of a sally; presuming that the insurgents would be too well occupied on the other side of their position to be able to offer any effectual resistance to them. But it happened, unfortunately for their plan, that General Fawcett and his troops were not on the way to their relief. By a stupid and unlucky blunder, the General and his troops had parted company the night before. The General had returned in great haste to Duncannon Fort; the troops had come unwittingly too near the Three Rocks, and been cut to pieces in a few minutes, with the exception of one ensign and sixteen privates, who were taken prisoners. Two pieces of artillery were the trophies of the popular victory. Of all this nothing was known to the Wexford magistrates and military, till it was too late. The garrison made their sally, and failed; a colonel of militia was killed, and the troops fled. On their return to Wexford a hasty council of war was held, and it was determined to evacuate the town.

The retreat of the garrison from Wexford* was marked by all the cowardice and cruelty which habitually characterised the worst army the British empire has ever seen. Poor Mr. Harvey had been dragged down by the heels out of a chimney in which he had taken refuge from the murderous threats of the Orange yeomanry, and had written to the insurgents, on the entreaty of the magistrates, to implore Christian charity" for the lives and properties of the inhabitants. Deputies had been sent

They were twelve hundred strong; enough to have defended the town, fortified as it was, against ten times their own number of assailants.-Hay, p. 99.

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out to the camp with Harvey's note; but the military could not wait for the return of the deputation-they had their own lives to save. No sooner had the deputies set out than" all the military corps, a part of one only excepted, made the best of their way out of the town," leaving the armed Catholic inhabitants on duty at their posts. These were actually ignorant of the flight of the soldiery until the latter had been miles out of the town." Of the small remnant who were not so fortunate as to escape in time, some disguised themselves in female or other unmilitary attire, some placed themselves under the protection of Mr. Harvey. The valiant North Cork Militia retained to the last their instinct for mischief: on leaving the barracks they set them on fire. After this disgraceful abandonment of their post, the fugitive garrison made off to Duncannon Fort, committing the most abominable outrages by the way, burning peasants' cabins and Catholic chapels, and shooting all the poor creatures they could find, women and children not excepted.

The victorious and exulting insurgents, meanwhile, poured into the town by thousands; released all the prisoners in the gaol; chose Mr. Harvey to be their Commander-in-Chief; pillaged the houses of those who refused to give them refreshment and accommodation; sent parties out in boats, to get all the arms, ammunition, and fugitives they could find on board the ships in the harbour; and piked two of their tyrants and oppressors. But they did not sack the town; they did not burn the Protestant church; they did not murder their prisoners; they did not kill women and children; they had not one pitch-cap in all their military stores. The night of the 30th was "remarkably quiet, considering all that had happened;" and the next day the victorious army was prevailed on by the inhabitants to retire peaceably from the town. They afterwards separated into two divisions, one of which marched westward to Taghmon, and the other northward in the direction of Gorey. A few days afterwards (4th of June) the latter division of the insurgent forces, by a bold and rapid movement, gained a decisive victory over the royal troops near Gorey, which placed them in possession of that town. The whole county of Wexford, with the exception of New Ross, Newtown-Barry, and Duncannon Fort, was now in the hands of the people.

Mr. Hay gives a very minute and curious account of the internal state of Wexford under the revolutionary régime: which, as indicative on a small scale of what would have taken place over the greater part of Ireland in the event of the general success of the rebellion, possesses considerable interest and value.

The insurgents, having complete and undisturbed possession both of town and country, soon proceeded to form a sort of government. Captain MATTHEW KEUGH, an officer in his Majesty's army, who had risen from the ranks by merit, and who had also distinguished himself as an active and upright magistrate for the county until (in 1796) the Lord Chancellor dismissed him for his liberal politics, was elected by acclamation governor and military commander of the town, which was divided into wards, each of which had its company of guards armed with guns and pikes. There was a regular parade, morning and evening, on the Custom-House Quay ;

* Hay, p. 109.

guards were posted and relieved, and pass-words and counter-signs regularly given out. At the commencement of the revolution, the town had suffered a good deal from plunder, some of the insurgents having remained after the withdrawal of the main body, and assumed to themselves, under the title of commissaries, the power of levying contributions at discretion for the supply of the camps. This nuisance was promptly abated. In order to prevent the waste and oppression consequent on this mode of raising the supplies, the inhabitants took the duty on themselves, and appointed a committee of twelve to see to the equal apportionment of the burden, and the faithful application of the contributions. Of the plunder taken by the insurgents on entering the town, a large part was subsequently restored, in obedience to a public notice from the new authorities that the discovery of property in any other than the lawful owner's hands would be attended with severe punishment. The court-house was the depository of goods so returned, which the owners recovered on making their claims.

In regard to economy and finance, the condition of revolutionised Wexford nearly approached to what is called the "state of nature." Money was rarely to be seen, except in the shape of bank-notes; in which shape it had ceased to possess any money value. "Great quantities of them were inconsiderately destroyed-some in lighting tobacco-pipes, and others used as wadding for fire-locks." Nothing passed in the market except specie, the possession of which few persons appeared willing to own. "But it must be mentioned that indeed the necessity of purchasing at market was in a great measure superseded; for, among the various duties of the committee, one was that of supplying every person in town with provisions. On application to them, every house was furnished with a ticket specifying the number of inhabitants, and all persons, even the wives and families of those considered the greatest enemies of the people, were indiscriminately included; and every person sent with a ticket to the public stores appointed for that purpose, received a proportionate quantity of meat, potatoes, and other necessaries free of any expense."

The military and naval departments of the executive government were conducted with vigour and efficiency. In addition to the arrangements made for the internal security and quiet of the town, a pretty complete military organisation was adopted in the country round. Each parish had its division of militia, electing its own officers. All persons capable of bearing arms were required, upon occasion, to attend the camps, on foot or horseback, with pike or gun, according to their means. All the smiths' forges, both in town and country, were kept at full work fabricating pikeblades; and timber fit for handles was cut down wherever it was to be found. The ornamental was cultivated as well as the useful. The new levies "decorated themselves in the most fantastical manner with feathers, tippets, handkerchiefs, and all the showy parts of ladies' apparel. Green was the most favourite and predominant colour; but on failure of this, decorations of almost any other colour were substituted. And as to their flags or ensigns, they were also generally green or of a greenish hue; but, on account of a deficiency in this respect, they displayed banners of all colours except orange, to which the people showed the most unalterable dislike, aversion, and antipathy; even blue, black, red, and yellow were remarked among their banners. Many damsels made an offering of their coloured petticoats

for the public service; and, to make these gifts the more acceptable, they usually decorated them according to their different fancies."*

The entrance of the harbour was guarded with three pieces of cannon, mounted at the Fort of Roslare, to prevent the enemy from approaching by sea; and, for further security, four old sloops were kept ready to be scuttled and sunk at a moment's notice, to render the harbour inaccessible to ships of war. Four oyster boats were fitted out in the harbour, armed, and manned with five-and-twenty men each, to cruise outside the bay; and these, from time to time, made very useful and seasonable seizures of small coasting vessels, laden with oats, potatoes, and other provisions. On the fourth day of the insurgents' occupation of the town (2nd June) this naval activity and vigilance found its reward in one of the most important acquisitions effected by the people during the whole campaign-the capture, namely, of LORD KINGSBOROUGH, Colonel of the North Cork Militia, with two of his officers. His lordship, ignorant or incredulous of recent events, was proceeding by water from Arklow to Wexford, for the purpose of joining his regiment. His boat was hailed and taken by one of the armed oyster vessels, and the passengers were brought prisoners into Wexford. This capture became, in the event, the salvation of the town from the worst horrors of war.

The new order of things was marked by a vast number of extraordinarily sudden religious conversions, although (the fact is honourable to the people and their clergy) it does not appear that such conversions were at all necessary for the personal safety of the neophytes. The war was not a religious war, though the Orange bigots and tyrants had done their worst to make it such. During the whole Wexford insurrection, only one Protestant church was destroyed (notwithstanding repeated and continual attacks by the military on the Catholic chapels), and the town church of Wexford sustained no other indignity than the cowardly absenteeism and apostacy of its own congregation. But the Protestant gentlemen and ladies of Wexford could not understand this; they determined that at any rate they would err on the safe side, and lost no time in giving in their adhesion to the new Popish ascendency that was to be. Broad and strong, if not deep, was the tide of proselytism which then set in towards the "damnable and idolatrous" ancient faith of Christendom. The Catholic chapels were crowded as they never had been crowded before; and the proselytes-as is the way with proselytes-were many degrees more zealous than the oldestablished believers.† Hosts of converts came flocking in to the priests for baptism, to an extent which sadly embarrassed those reverend and excellent persons. To give the sacrament to such hypocrites would be pro

*Mr. Hay adds "Several loyal ladies, too, both in town and country, displayed their taste in richly and fancifully ornamenting ensigns, to ingratiate themselves with the people; but many of them not having time to perfect their chef d'œuvres before the insurrection was suppressed, have since thought it prudent, I suppose, to destroy these and the like specimens of elegant accomplishment, at which I had opportunities of observing them earnestly employed during the short-lived period of popular triumph." "The epithet of craw-thumper, opprobriously applied to Catholics for contritely striking their breasts at their devotions, was never more strongly exemplified than by these converts. Catholics strike their breasts gently on certain occasions, and with the right hand alone; but Protestants who attended at mass in these times generally continued to strike themselves vehemently with both hands almost during the whole service."Hay, p. 144.