ceeded at Enniscorthy with thofe you had. Mr. Roche, who commands the rebels, is encamped, I hear, about five miles off; he fent lord Kingsborough to furrender upon terms. Your prefence speedily is upon every account extremely neceffary.

I have the honour to be, &c. &c.

JOHN MOORE."

DURING the action at Foulkes's-mill, many of the rebel leaders, among whom father Roche, doctor Caulfield's chaplain, was very confpicuous, were extremely active in keeping the rebel foldiers to their quarters, and in preventing them from flying. They horfewhipped fome of them, and even fired piftols at others; in the performance of this fervice, Roche attempted to horfewhip a proteftant of the name of Barrington, who was compelled to join them. I have been affured by a perfon who ferved in the rebel army in that action, that the object of father Philip Roche the general, was to attack Rofs when general Johnfon left it ; that he fent one party to Horetown to watch the motions, and engage the attention of general Moore, while the main body proceeded by Cuilinftown-bridge, to the attack of that town. The former fuddenly, and unexpectedly, came on general Moore, and had a skirmish with him; which the main body hearing, went to their affistance, which brought on a general action. Roche intended to have kept one divifion of his army in the woods of Horetown; the other in thofe of Rofsgarland; and to have attacked general Moore next morning; but the arrival of the Queen's and the 29th regiments, to general Moore, deterred him from that attempt. It was much to be lamented, that a gallant officer, major Daniel of the 41ft regiment then quartered at Lifmore, loft his life by this action. He volunteered, and folicited to be employed against the Wexford rebels; and having received a bad wound in the knee, he died of it a few weeks after in Dublin. He had difplayed very great valour both in the Eaft and Weft Indies.

3.

A defcription of the rebel camp on the mountain of Forth, on the thirtieth of May.

PREVIOUS to the evacuation of Wexford, its proteftant inhabitants, dreading that the fudden and furious affault

of

the rebel army ftationed on the mountain of Forth, within three miles of it, would be attended with the complete deftruction of their lives and property, prevailed upon Mr. Loftus Richards and his brother to go to them for the purpose of propofing certain pacifick terms; and I give the reader his defcription of their camp. "On entering, they were furrounded by many thousand vagabonds, of whom they enquired, to whom they fhould addrefs themfelves as their leaders; and they answered, To father John Mur phy, of Boulavogue, or lord Edward Fitzgerald,' as they ufually ftiled him. They foon after met this reverend gentleman, on horfeback, and on communicating to him the object of their million, he faid, He did not know what terms they could expect from the treatment which he had received; for that, by burning his house and property, and obliging him to take shelter in the ditches, he was under the neceffity of raifing the whole country. From his favage afpect, they had very great reafon to be alarmed for their fafety: they therefore advanced from a crowd, who were debating on putting them to death; and fent for Mr. Edward Fitzgerald of Newpark, another rebel chieftain, who came to them, and treated them with more civility and humanity; and who difperfed the rabble, telling them at the fame time, that they should have nothing to do with them. They inftantly obeyed. He then led them to a miserable hut at the top of the rocks, which feemed to have been appropriated to the double purpose of an hofpital and a place of shelter for their leaders; but in the thatch of which there were many holes. Soon after their arrival they were obliged to deliver up their arms and accoutrements. Mr. Robert Carthy, who seemed, from the authority which he exercised, to be chief in command, approached, and asked them, What terms they could expect, when at the moment they were entering into a treaty for furrendering the town, there was an army marching against them from towards Taghmon? and fee,' faid he, pointing to a mob of affaffins, where I have my men ready drawn out to attack them.' And they made a moft extraordinary appearance, being armed with pikes, fcythes, hay-knives, fcrapers, currying-knives, and old rufty bayonets fixed on poles but a good number of them had mufkets. They expoftulated with Carthy, and told him they had good au-thority for faying, that the thirteenth regiment, which had advanced as far as Taghmon, had retreated, on hear

• See the affidavits of Roffiter and Crawley, vol ii. p. 332.

ing

ing of the defeat of a detachment of the Meath regiment; but, to fatisfy them, they propofed that Fitzgerald, his brother and himself, fhould take horses, and proceed to meet the regiment, if coming, and to tell colonel Bradshaw, who commanded it, of the circumftances as they then ftood. They advanced within a mile of Taghmon, where they met a large foraging party proceeding to the rebel camp, with from fix to eight car loads of provifions, and who declared that the thirteenth had retreated. They then returned speedily to the rebel camp, and made their report; but Carthy came forward again, and said, Can these men be fincere? the whole country towards the barony of Forth is in flames' alluding to the village of Maglafs, which our retreating army had fet fire to, as they had been treacheroufly fired on by a party of rebels, who lay in ambush there for them. Mr. L. Richards replied, if they had any doubts of their fincerity, that he would remain as an hoftage with them, while his brother and Mr. Fitzgerald went to Wexford, to which they affented. He then remained in the hut, with a guard at the door, and, while there, he perceived, through a hole in the wall, about a foot fquare, a great number of men armed with the defperate weapons which he before defcribed, inceffantly marching, except that now and then, they knelt down to pray; and at the end of each prayer, bent their bodies towards the earth, and thruft the forefinger of their right hand into their mouth, as far as the extremity of the knuckle. When he had remained about three hours in that unpleafant fituation, Mr. John Hay came to him, and faid, That the people had agreed, that he had betrayed Fitzgerald, and therefore that he must be put to death.' Mr. Richards infifted on the contrary. Mr. Hay went off, returned in about half an hour, and declared, it was univerfally agreed, That Fitzgerald had either fold them, or that he had betrayed him.' And he fwore vehemently, that the forces would be marched immediately towards Wexford, which Mr. Richards faid, would be the beft thing to prove his fincerity. In about five minutes after, the whole body of the rebels proceeded towards Wexford; and as they marched, continued to fire mufkets, and give the moft dreadful yells. They left two fentinels to guard Mr. Richards; who, in the mean time, examined the wounds of fix unfortunate wretches who lay upon ftraw in the hut, and

who,

who, though badly wounded, did not receive any nourishment or medical affiftance.

The banditti who marched towards Wexford, could not be lefs than fifteen thoufand men. Mr. Fitzgerald fent for Mr. Richards, and for a drummer of the Meath militia, that had been cut off that morning. They fet off with their conductor, and when they had arrived within a quarter of a mile of Wexford, they perceived the rebels flying into the country, in every direction, and the road ftrewed with their coats, wigs, hats, pikes, muskets, and other weapons; and men, women, and children, in the greatest confternation. On enquiry, he found that their dismay, and their flight, were occafioned by the report of a gun, which had been fired at Mr. Sparrow, of Ennifcorthy, a yeoman of diftinguished loyalty, by a perfon in the van of their army; from which the rear, having been panickftruck, fled in the utmost confufion; conceiving that our army had returned and were firing on them.* Mr. Richards, on entering the town, faw the dead body of Mr. Sparrow lying in the street, and the rebels engaged in destroying the houfe of a watch-maker, whom they branded with the ap pellation of "orangeman." A gentleman who had procured the pardon of one of the unfortunate wretches who attended this camp, affured him, that at one time he was almost famished; that at another, he was overcome with repletion. That at times, the hunger of the rebel foldiers. was fo great, that they used to cut off large pieces of flesh from the body of a bullock, before it was killed, then throw it on a fire, with the hair and skin on, and confume it before it was half roasted.

4.

A lift of perfons executed in the town of Wexford, for the crimes of rebellion, murder, &c. from the retaking of the town by the royal army, June the twenty-first, 1798, to the eighteenth of December, 1800.

The

So fure were the rebels that the confifcation of all proteftant property would take place, that Michael Kelly, commonly called general Kelly, made a will, by which he left captain Blacker's estate to a relation in case he fhould be killed in the rebellion. The will and father Roche's vestments were found together on Lacken-hill, when general Johnson drove the rebels from it.

1 No. 66 was executed for a recent murder; he was not a rebel.