ly proceeded from the barrack, exhibiting the pitched cap on the top of a pike, displaying at the same time the orange commission or warrant, and were in direct march, with violent shouts of exultation, to Lord Kingsborough's lodging. I was in the act of bathing at the time, and hearing the tumultuous noise, I dressed quickly and arrived at the house along with them. I went up to Lord Kingsborough's room and sought to appease the multitude by addressing them from the window; but this was not effected till many of the principal inhabitants were brought to the scene of tumult; when one of them, on pretence of looking at the pitched cap, took and threw it over the quay, and the hated emblem being no longer in view, the fury of the people abated, the orange commission or warrant was taken from them, and they dispersed ; nor was there any thing more heard of the affair until the next morning, when the captain of the guard for the day, (having every thing previously arranged and ready, after parade, when all others had retired to breakfast, and on his own mere authority,) took down Lord Kingsborough and his two officers to the quay, and conducted them on board the ship that had been fitted out but condemned, where he provided them with abundance of fresh straw, and placed a detachment of his guard over them. All this was executed with such haste and precaution, that it was not for some time known to the principal inhabitants. These, however, on hearing of the affair, assembled and appealed to the people, then collected to know what was the matter. They represented to them, that as these officers had surrendered on condition of being treated as prisoners of war, they ought not to be confined on board a condemned ship; and the consequence was, that two boat-loads of butchers were sent on board to examine and inspect the state

of the vessel, on whose report that she was not fit for a pig to be confined in, Lord Kingsborough and his officers were brought back to their former situation, where they remained until the surrender of the town; the vessel was then hauled into the harbor, where she sunk within a foot of her deck.

From the great heat and violence of the people against Lord Kingsborough, in consequence of reports of his cruelty and exertions in flogging, and the other modes previously practised for quieting the people, different parties, from town and country, frequently proceeded to the house where he was confined, with an intention of putting him to death; but the guards always refused to give him out to them without an order, and during the delay thus occasioned, providentially for his lordship, one or other of the principal inhabitants usually came up, and by representing the conditions which had been promised him on surrendering, they prevailed on the people to depart. Considering the great fury of the people against Lord Kingsborough for his previous violent exertions, being reported very cruel and sanguinary, his escape must be considered really wonderful, if not truly astonishing; and I can account for it in no other manner, than that the county of Wexford not having been his scene of action, and there existing no kind of communication with any other quarter, there could not possibly be any positive proof adduced of his actions, except in a solitary instance, which was easily got over. His lordship had been, previous to his imprisonment, but a very short time in Wexford, as he left that town in two or three days after he had marched into it with his regiBut some of his officers had observed a lady at a window, viewing the troops as they came in, who attracted their particular notice. After dinner,

ment.

at which the bottle had pretty freely circulated, the recollection of the sight of this lady had so far worked on the minds of some of the lads, that they proposed to sally forth and endeavor to obtain a nearer view of her; and Lord Kingsborough, being a young man himself, humored the frolic, and accompanied them. Not gaining admittance, however, as they expected, they in the military style resolved to storm the premises; and his lordship, being a tall, athletic man, raised one of the officers on his shoulders, who was thereby enabled, as the house was low, to get in through a window in the second story. The lady's husband was absent, and herself quite alone in the house, but on perceiving their intentions she got out by a back-window, and thus eluded their design, as well as put an end to any further progress in this ad venture. When his lordship afterwards became a prisoner, this was quoted as an unfavorable circumstance, but it was obviated with little difficulty by an argument, (not at all intending to throw the least reflection on the lady's character,) which was, that her husband was himself a prisoner with the people, against whom, therefore, the offence could never have been intended, as no attempt of the kind had been made on any of their wives or families, but was an insult offered by one whom they called an enemy, to another whom they thought deserving of the same appellation. This point being thus settled, and all other accusations against his lordship being general, they were the more easily overcome; but had they been particular the event might have been quite otherwise, as the injured person or persons, for the most part, would not listen to any kind of reasoning, but obstinately held out and persevered in their accusations and complaints, which they so feelingly impressed on the assemblage of people appealed to on

such occasions, that they usually gained over their sympathetic approbation of the measures they proposed, and would thus succeed against all intercession. Of this truth I had most sensible experience; for although I proved on several occasions providentially instrumental in saving lives, I was utterly incapable in other instances: particularly I found it totally out of my power, notwithstanding the many means I sought, to rescue my ever to be regretted, dear, and valuable friend, Mr. Turner, from the fury of the people, by whom he had been previously very much beloved; but all his former popularity was eclipsed by his having been unfortunately worked up to set fire to some houses; and this being well known to the people of the country, his safety became an impossibility. Taking the cases of Mr. Turner and Lord Kingsborough in any point of view, and considering my frequent success in preserving the man with whom his misfortune alone made me acquainted, while my most earnest and anxious endeavors to protect the friend of my bosom were fatally ineffectual, local circumstances alone can explain the consequences. But how variously will prejudice and misrepresentation detail and expatiate on such intricate facts, according to the feeling, inclination, or judgment of the narrator, who, if he be not a sensible or unbiased eye-witness, discriminating and dauntless during the period of danger, or discerning in selection of report, will afterwards display the thoughts of latent bigotry, wilful perversion of truth, or the flimsy tissue of hearsay information, varied and altered into different shapes of falsehood, according to the several dispositions of the circulators; but ocular evidence must ever supersede the accounts of rumor, even of ever such boasted authenticity, when discrimination may be overpowered by terror.

The insurgents in the different camps being in great want of gunpowder, without which they could not proceed, remained stationary for several days, as the powder in Wexford was considered too little for its defence, and different reports were circulated, that it was to be attacked from the southern quarter. The demand for gunpowder, however, from the camp on Gorey Hill was so pressing, that a barrel of it was sent thither from Wexford to enable the insurgents to proceed to Arklow, which, on the defeat of Colonel Walpole, had been deserted by the military; but the inhabitants of which, on being left to themselves, remained quietly at home, imitating the example that had been set them at Gorey, before the battle of Tubberneering, when they were forced and overwhelmed into the system of the insurrection. The Cavan militia was ordered from Dublin to join Colonel Walpole's division, then under General Needham, and they marched into Arklow on the 6th of June; different other parties of the military arrived there on the 7th and 8th, and on the 9th the garrison was considerably reinforced by the Durham fencibles, who suffered no fatigue in their way from Dublin, as they had been conveyed in carriages and jaunting-cars pressed for that purpose: the whole force in Arklow amounted all together to sixteen hundred men. The insurgents had marched from Gorey Hill to Colgreny, where arranging their mode of attack, they proceeded in two great columns-one towards the fishery on the sea-side, and the other towards the upper end of the town, the attack being to be made on both ends of the town at once. The military, having full notice of the approach, were very advantageously posted, without which they could not have resisted the impetuous attack made upon them; however, they were obliged to retire somewhat from their