opening a passage into the house; but they were killed in the attempt, the bullets penetrating even this thick tegument. As a discharge of musketry was maintained from the windows on the assailants, whose associates injudiciously set fire to the neighbouring house of Henry Morton, the illumination enabled the garrison to aim at their enemies in the night, and the loss of the rebels was very considerable amounting, according to some accounts, to a hundred and thirty men-by others, to two hundred. This ill-judged affair occurred on the 2nd of July."* The rebel corps, from Ballyraheen proceeded to high grounds called the White-heaps, and there bivouacked until the 4th. Their new position was immediately beside the village of Coolgreney, some six miles north of Gorey where General Needham commanded; Sir James Duff was stationed at Carnew, and the Marquis of Huntley at Arklow. On ascertaining that the insurgents were in force in their immediate neighbourhood, the royalist commanders determined to dislodge them, and a combined movement against the White-heaps was arranged. While their retreat by the Wicklow Gap was to be intercepted by General Duff's troops, the Croghan Mountain, to the northward of Coolgreney, was to be occupied by the column under Lord Huntley, -the task of driving them from the height devolving upon General Needham. At day-break, the latter officer, favoured by a thick fog, had nearly reached the insurgent position, when the advanced guard was discovered by some straggling rebels posted at a farm-house, which the Byrnes had made head-quarters. An alarm was instantly given-and, under cover of the mist, the rebels decamped, and abandoned the Whiteheaps before the royalists could gain the summit. At noon the fog dispersed, and the insurgents were seen ascending the Croghan Mountain, never dreaming that this outlet for escape was closed against them by the Marquis of Huntley. On making the discovery however, they rapidly descended, directing their course for the Wicklow gap. There, in the thick weather, they came unexpectedly on the column under Sir James Duff-and on the opening of the royal artillery, they turned and made off to a hill near Moneyseed. General Duff pursued them closely, and General Needham finding it impossible to overtake them with the infantry, detached his cavalry in pursuit. Driven hither and thither for a dozen miles, harassed by the cavalry, exhausted with fatigue, and despairing of escape, they turned at Ballygullen, and awaited an attack. The action opened with a sharp cannonade from four six-pounders, protected by the cavalry. As the infantry had not got up, the rebels endeavoured to carry the guns-but they were steadily repulsed. Duff's column presently came into action, and the rebels were thrown into confusion and routed, when the fox-hunters, under Lord Roden, and the yeomen cavalry, under Captain White, pursued them vigor * Gordon. ously, and cut down great numbers. It was computed that between two and three hundred of the deluded peasantry were killed-and this defeat was so decisive and dispiriting, that they never in the county Wexford assembled in any force, or ventured to oppose in a body the royalists and yeomanry. In predatory bands they infested for months afterwards Kildare, Carlow, and Meath, committing robberies and murders, and keeping the country in confusion. Of their leaders, Fitzgerald and Aylmor surrendered, and Kearns and Perry were hanged.* Many of their followers died by the sword and gibbet; others turned robbers; and but few returned to their respective homes." 66 Such was the sad summary that too faithfully describes the termination of the Wexford insurrection. "A brief account of Anthony Perry, one of the rebel generals above mentioned, may serve to shew what difficulty a man may find who endeavours to extricate himself from a conspiracy against government, when he has once engaged in it. This gentleman, a man of amiable manners and well-informed understanding, was yet weak enough to be seduced into the conspiracy; and having acted so as to cause much suspicion, was arrested and confined in Gorey a little before the insurrection. He repented heartily of his misconduct, and gave information useful to government; but such was the state of things, that he was treated in prison with the utmost harshness and indignity. Among other acts of severity, a serjeant of the NorthCork militia, nicknamed Tom the devil, cut away all his hair close to the head, and then burned the roots of it with a candle. Being liberated by the magistrates on the morning of the 28th of May, he returned to his house, four miles from Gorey, where he hoped to be permitted to remain-unconcerned for the future in plots and conspiracies. But he was soon followed by some yeomen, who destroyed his effects, and obliged him to abscond for the preservation of his life. Finding no alternative, he disguised himself in the habit of a beggar, and thus crossing the country, threw himself into the arms of the rebels. In the course of the war he exerted himself to restrain the cruelty of his followers; and as he disapproved both of their cause and conduct, he was always meditating an elopement from them. In an attempt, some time after the assault at Hacketstown, to penetrate into the northern parts of the kingdom, where he hoped to abscond from the rebels, and to conceal himself from the partisans of government, he was taken and hanged at Edenderry, in the King's County, a little before the end of the rebellion."-Gordon. CHAPTER XVII. ATTACK UPON CLONARD-INSURRECTION AT CASTLECOMER-SUBSEQUENT MOVEMENTS AND FINAL DISPERSION OF THE REBELS. WHEN Wexford was thus liberated from the great masses of its insurgent population, before we review either the causes which kept the country so long unsettled afterwards, or the measures adopted by the Irish Government to effect a general tranquillity, it will be better to describe the ulterior proceedings of the Wexford rebels, and trace their further progress until the period of their final dispersion. We have already stated that the scene of their predatory warfare was changed from their native county to Kildare, and that there they were reinforced by the insurgents commanded by Michael Reynolds. The junction produced little advantage, except in increasing the numbers of a tumultuary rabble, in whom there was neither unity of purpose, nor any fixed plan of future operations. Every leader had some object of his own, none a particle of military talent-and their stratagic conceptions were as erroneous, as the execution was feeble and contemptible. Perry, despairing of doing any mischief in Wexford, as it was now so well defended, when joined by a strong body of insurgents under the command of Michael Aylmer, intended to penetrate into the North of Ireland, where he expected to meet with a cordial co-operation. But Aylmer prevailed on him to abandon his intention, and declared that it was more advisable to attack Clonard, a town on the confines of Kildare and Meath, and situated on the river Boyne, as there was but a small force to defend it; and afterwards march by Kilbeggan to the Shannon, and surprise Athlone; where, from its central position, great advantages might be expected to arise. This plan was accordingly adopted; and their united forces, amounting to four thousand men, on the 11th of July, marched to the attack of Clonard. Many very gallant exploits were performed during this short and sanguinary period by loyalist irregulars; but probably, the defence of Clonard may be placed foremost among numerous occurrences, in which the boundless gallantry of a determined handful of daring spirits repulsed the overwhelming masses to which they were opposed, and proved that no physical superiority can quench the courage of men devoted to home and altar, and determined" to do or die." The little garrison of Clonard consisted of a weak corps of yeoman infantry, and its commander was a self-taught soldier. But military talent is intuitive, and Lieutenant Tyrrell proved that the ruder the storm, the more extensively the resources of a brave man will be developed. On being apprized that the rebel column was in march, Tyrrell N made the best dispositions for defence which his small force permitted. He occupied a turret which domineered the road with half a dozen musketeers, and, with the remaining twenty, retired into the old mansion-house. Having selected his best marksmen, they were placed at such of the windows as offered the best positions for firing with effect upon the assailants-while the remainder of the corps were secured behind the walls, and employed in loading spare muskets, to replace the firearms when discharged. The rebel cavalry, amounting in rough numbers to three hundred, formed an advanced guard, and were commanded by a man named Farrall. Unconscious that the garden turret was occupied, they came forward in a trot, and the first intimation that they were already under fire, was conveyed by a shot from the youngest Tyrrell-a boy only fifteen years old, which mortally wounded the rebel captain. À volley from the other loyalists emptied several rebel saddles; a panic ensued; and the horsemen galloped out of musket range, leaving several of their companions dead upon the road. With more caution and better success, the rebel footmen came forward under shelter of a hedge, and, lining an opposite fence, they opened a sharp fire on the turret, while the column itself pushed forward to surround the house, and unite itself with another division which had advanced to join them by a cross road. To cut off all communication, and prevent the garrison from receiving reinforcements, the bridge was occupied by a rebel guard-but as it lay directly under the fire of the house, half a score of the occupants were rapidly shot down-the bridge cleared of its defenders-the western road laid open, and the garrison communication maintained. In both their first attempts the insurgents were heavily repulsedbut defeat seemed only to exasperate them, and they again came forward to the attack. Penetrating by the rear, an immense number filled the garden, and seized the lower portion of the turret. As the ladder had been drawn up by the defenders of the upper story, the rebels, by climbing on each other's shoulders, attempted to force through the trapway-but every one who tried it perished. In vain they fired through the floor from below, and struck their pikes through the ceiling-still the fatal fire of the loyalists was kept up-at every shot a rebel felland on the ground-floor lay seven-and-twenty bodies. At last, despairing of success, they procured a quantity of straw, and fired the building. To force a passage through the rebels was almost a desperate attempt, but to perish in the flames, which had now seized the building, was the sad alternative. Two yeomen were killed in their effort at escape-but, fortunately, the other four, by jumping from a window into a hay-yard, under cover of the garden-wall, succeeded in reaching the main body who were posted in the dwelling-house. For six long hours this unequal contest had been maintained, and still no impression had been made upon the gallant royalists. To confuse the garrison, the assailants set fire to the toll-house and adjacent cal ut the conflagration served no better purpose than to consume slain, whose bodies they flung into the burning houses. |