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consequence of it; for what could cavalry do, thus broken and divided, against a firm phalanx of rebels, armed with long pikes? Nevertheless, they made three charges, but were repulsed in each; and at every repulse the general urged them to renew the attack.

"It was with the utmost difficulty that Captain Cooks and Captain Erskine could prevail upon their men to renew the charge, after the first defeat. In the last charge, Captain Cooks, to inspire his men with courage by his example, advanced some yards before them; when his horse having received many wounds, fell upon his knees; and while in that situation, the body of that brave officer was perforated with pikes; and he, Captain Erskine, and twenty-two privates, were killed on the spot, and ten so badly wounded, that most of them died soon after."

Shamefully discomfited, Dundas fell back on the village of Kilcullen bridge, and occupied a pass in every respect defensible. So thought the successful peasants who had garrisoned the church-yard, and deforced an English general. They prudently declined any attempt to force the bridge-forded the Liffey at Castlemartin-and took up a position between Naas and Kilcullen; thus cutting off General Dundas's communication with the capital.

Nothing remained for the royalist commander but to drive them from these grounds, and open his road to Naas. He advanced accordingly, found them in line three deep, and with his cavalry in hand, boldly attacked the position with half a company of the gallant Suffolks. Small as the party was, three rounds broke the rebels. The cavalry charged-and the same body, which had so recently inflicted a severe repulse, were scattered like a flock of sheep, leaving the ground covered with their dead and wounded.

After a brief but bloody pursuit, Dundas marched on Naas, to concentrate his troops and assist in covering the capital.

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Stoppage of the t'ail and Morder of Treu. Giffard

CHAPTER VII.

ATTACK ON NAAS-ANECDOTES OF THE ACTION-INSURRECTION IN KILDAREREBELS DEFEATED AT CARLOW-AMNESTY TO THE INSURGENTS-DUFF'S AFFAIR ON THE CURRAGH-STATE OF THE CAPITAL-PARTIAL DISAFFECTION IN THE YEOMANRY-ROMAN CATHOLIC DECLARATION-BATTLE OF TARAA REBEL HEROINE.

"If one can imagine such a thing as a tableau, or bird's-eye view of the rebellion from the 23rd to the 30th of May, the appearance it would present would be this. Seven or eight comparatively minor explosions, lighting up the atmosphere for a short space and then going gradually out, viz. one in Meath (Tara), one in Wicklow (Mount Kennedy), a good blaze in Carlow, and four or five in Kildare, which its being Lord Edward's own county accounts for-these were Naas, Prosperous, Kilcullen, and Rathangan. The eye should then be drawn to the mighty and absorbing eruption of Wexford-and taking Vinegar Hill as its crater, it would observe two streams of lava pouring forth, one due west, to Ross-one due north, towards Wicklow-and a third, of somewhat less importance, north-west to Newtown Barry. I rather think the first shot was fired by my regiment at Naas, as Mick Reynolds, who led the rebels, was one of the promptest of the insurgent leaders."*

The garrison of the latter town consisted of one hundred and fifty of the Armagh militia, with two battalion guns, and seventy-five cavalry, comprising small detachments of the Fourth Dragoons, Ancient Britons, and sixteen mounted yeomen. The whole were under the command of Colonel Lord Gosford.

On the evening of the general insurrection (the 23rd of May), anonymous letters were received by the commanding officer, apprizing him that a night attack would be made upon the town by a numerous body of well-armed rebels, and necessary dispositions of the garrison were made to receive the threatened assault. The guards were doubled, the outskirts of the town carefully patrolled, and a plan of defence pre-arranged, to prevent any confusion when the hour for action came.

Midnight passed without any thing occurring to cause alarm, and as morning dawned, it was believed that the information received the preceding evening had been incorrect, and the officers retired to their quarters. At half-past two, however, an outlying dragoon galloped in, announcing the advance of a numerous body of rebels; the drums beat to arms, and the garrison occupied their alarm posts.

The rebels, who had assembled at the quarries of Tipper, advanced on the town in four divisions, each entering by a different approach;

* MS. Journal of a Field Officer.

and the heaviest column moving by the Johnstown road. The latter was commanded by Michael Reynolds, and it made a bold effort to carry the jail, in front of which a party of the Armagh militia, the Ancient Britons, and a battalion gun were posted. But the attack was completely repulsed, and the rebel loss would have been more considerable, had not the cavalry, irritated by the fall of their officer* who had been piked, charged too prematurely, and interrupted the play of the gun.† For forty minutes, however, desultory firing continued.

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Large parties of the rebels, who stole unnoticed into the town, through the houses and narrow lanes, fought some time in the streets, and stood three volleys from a party of the Armagh militia, posted opposite to the barrack, before they gave way; at last they fled precipitately in every direction, when the cavalry charged, and killed a great number of them in the pursuit. Thirty of the rebels were killed in the streets; and, from the numbers found dead in back houses and in the adjacent fields, a few days after, it is imagined that no less than three hundred must have fallen.

"They dropped in their flight a great quantity of pikes, and other arms, of which a number were found in pits near the town, where also three men with green cockades were seized, and instantly hanged in the public streets. Another prisoner was spared in consequence of useful information which he gave. He informed the commanding officer that the rebel party was above one thousand strong, and was commanded by Michael Reynolds, who was well mounted, and dressed in yeoman uniform. He made his escape, but his horse fell into the hands of our troops."

"Lord Gosford had a very narrow escape. His lodging was situated on the summit of the hill, which the Dublin road ascends. The sentinel at his door, having his attention attracted by the entrance of the rebel columns at the foot of the hill, was so far off his guard as to allow two pikemen, belonging to the town, to slip into the hall, where they were ready to receive his lordship with their pikes as he hurried from his chamber on the alarm. And they were very near succeeding -but the sentinel turning about at the critical moment, shot one, and bayoneted the other, just as his lordship was rushing down the stairs. The sentinel's name was John Sandford; he was afterwards made a serjeant, and his son a drummer. He died about four or five and twenty years afterwards, in the humble station of a Dublin watchman, which I obtained for him and several others on the final reduction of the regiment."

"A very singular exhibition of desperate sternness took place in

*Captain Davis.-He died of his wounds the following day.

†The execution of the gun was so trifling compared to what it should have produced upon a body in close column, and at canister range, that it was ascribed rather to treachery than want of skill.

"One of the rebels concerned in the attack, who obtained the royal mercy by surrendering himself under the proclamation, informed me that one of the gunners, who directed the cannon at the gaol, having been seduced by the rebels, elevated it so much as not to injure the assailants."-Musgrave.

+ Musgrave.

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