of which the entrance was artfully concealed. There Harvey joined the unhappy fugitives and chiefly through the indiscretion with which he had neglected to keep his fatal visit secret, the whole party were arrested, brought back, and committed to close custody.

The prisoners were arraigned on charges of high treason, and tried by a court-martial. Among the first to suffer were Father Philip Roach,* Keugh, Hay, and Esmond Kyan.† The executions took place upon the bridge, and they were hurried over with little consideration to the last moments of the dying, or to the feelings of the relations who survived them. Roach was a tall and weighty man, and on being suspended, the rope broke, and he fell to the ground stunned and stupified. Another halter was immediately procured, and he thus suffered the last penalties of the law, it might be said, twice over. After death the sufferers were decapitated-the mutilated bodies cast into the river-and the heads placed upon spikes, and exposed to public view, thus calling into operation again one of the most disgusting remnants of feudal severity upon offenders against the

state.

Grogan was next brought before the court,-but from the want of some material evidence, his trial was postponed. Harvey's trial commenced on the same evening-he appeared to be much agitated, and spoke little. It came out in evidence that he acted as commander-inchief of the rebel forces at the battle of Ross, on the 5th of June, and a letter to the commander-in-chief of the king's troops, signed "B. B. Harvey," summoning him to surrender the town to the rebels, was produced in evidence on the trial, and acknowledged by Mr. Harvey to be his handwriting. The unhappy man produced many witnesses in his defence, but none to contradict the main facts. He did not deny having acted as commander of the rebel forces, but endeavoured to extenuate his conduct by saying that he had accepted the distinction to prevent much greater evils, which must have occurred had it fallen into other hands, and in the hope of surrendering that command, one day or other, with greater advantage to the country. He had no counsel and after a trial which lasted eight hours, was

* "He had been curate to the Rev. John Synnott, of Gorey; had been a proper man, and would be useful, but indulging in excess of drinking, and beginning to agitate, he became obnoxious and was removed. He was afterwards sent curate, after reprehension, admonition, and instruction by his superior, to Rev. Thomas Doyle, in Bantry, the other extremity of the diocese, last winter. I heard nothing of him there until he joined the rebels, and soon became a leader."-Letter from Dr. Caulfield to Dr. Troy.

Taylor's character of this unhappy gentleman is extremely favourable, and excites regret that he should have been led astray : :-" Esmond Kyan, rebel captain of artillery, was the youngest son of the late Howard Kyan, of Mount Howard, in the county of Wexford, Esq., and his mother aunt to Sir Thomas Esmond, Bart. He was about fifty years of age, five feet high, and rather a handsome man. He had lost his left arm some years before by an accident, and a cork one was substituted in its stead. He was liberal, generous, brave, and merciful; and having received a severe wound in his left arm, above where the cork one was joined, and being tired of a rebellious life, he went to Wexford to surrender to the commanding officer, and endeavour to obtain pardon for the past."

found guilty of death; which sentence was put into execution on the morning of the 28th. His head was cut off and placed on the Sessions2ouse, and his body thrown into the river. On the evening of the same day was executed John Colclough of Ballyteigue. He was a gentleman of great respectability, and bore a very good private chiaracter. He was about thirty years old, of prepossessing aspect, and polished manners.*

*To these unfortunate gentlemen a melancholy interest is attached-and the retreat selected by the fugitives has an air of romance that makes it interesting :"The arrest of B. B. Harvey and John Colclough was attended with some curious circumstances which I shall relate. On the flight of the rebels from Wexford, the 21st of June, they retreated to the largest of the Saltee Islands, which Mr. Colclough rented from Mr. Grogan.

"Doctor Waddy, a physician, who served in the yeomanry, having got intelligence of their retreat, applied to General Lake for a proper party, and an armed vessel, to go in quest of them, which he readily obtained.

"About three o'clock on Sunday evening, the 23rd of June, he set sail in the Rutland cutter of ten guns, commanded by Captain Willoughby, with Lieutenant Turner, of the Queen's, a detachment of his regiment, and a man-of-war's boat, with a party of sailors well armed. The island is about six leagues from Wexford, and four or five miles from the southern coast of the country. The weather was so tempestuous, that they were obliged to reef their sails; and the wind being adverse, they did not descry the island till about four o'clock in the morning, and could not cast anchor alongside it till eight. When they were approaching it they saw a small boat pass from the island to the mainland. As it is surrounded with high precipices, and is inaccessible but in one place, and as they expected to be opposed by a party of armed rebels, who, it was believed, had accompanied Harvey and Colclough, Captain Willoughby prepared to cover their landing with the cutter's guns, and they were attended for the same purpose by the man-of-war's boat. On landing, they repaired to the only house on the island, occupied by one Furlong, who rented it from Mr. Colclough. They found there an excellent feather-bed, with fine sheets which were warm, a handsome tea equipage, some genteel wearing apparel, belonging to both sexes, particularly a pair of pantaloons, which Dr. Waddy had seen on Mr. Colclough before the rebellion; and near the house some silk shoes and other articles, hid in high ferns. They searched every suspected spot in the island, particularly a place called the Otters' Cave, but in vain, though they had not a doubt of their having been there, as they had found, among other things, a chest of plate in a concealed place belonging to Mr. Colclough,

"The Doctor resolved to make another effort, by going round the island in a boat, for the purpose of reconnoitring the sides of it. In doing so he perceived on the edge of a high precipice, one rock lighter-coloured than the adjoining one; and as the earth near it seemed to have been recently stirred, he suspected that they had been making preparations there for their concealment. He therefore again ascended the island, and found that the approach to the place which he wished to explore was steep, serpentine, and through some crags. The light-coloured stone covered the mouth of the cave, and above it there was an aperture to let in the light. The doctor called out to Colclough, and told him, that if he did not surrender immediately, and without resistance, he should receive no quarter. Colclough asked, 'Is that Dr. Waddy?' and on his saying 'Yes,' he said he would surrender; and soon after, he, at the doctor's desire, gave up his arms through the hole of the cave. The doctor threw down the precipice the stone which covered the mouth of it, which fell with a monstrous crash; on which Mr. and Mrs. Colclough came forth, dressed in the meanest habits of peasants, for the purpose of disguising themselves. Then B. Harvey came out, saying, My God! my God!' and so pale and weak from fatigue and anxiety of mind, that the doctor was obliged to support him. He as had a chest of plate concealed, which he gave in charge to the doctor and his part." -Musgrave.

A wealthy maltster named Prendergast, was executed the same day, and in the evening Mr. Colclough suffered.* On this occasion the entreaties of his widowed partner were attended to, mutilation was dis pensed with, Mrs. Colclough received the body of her husband, and in the poet's words

She laid him in his father's grave,"

and had the melancholy satisfaction of giving sepulture to the body of a beloved husband.

Another rebel, whose better qualities probably deserved an extension of mercy more than any other of the convicted, was Kelly of Killan. He had led the attack on Ross, exhibited unbounded gallantry in action, and great humanity, when any opportunity to exercise it was presented. By a strange perversion, his good properties were pleaded in aggravation of disloyalty, and one who had every claim to commiseration was sacrificed to the turbulent spirit of the times.t "He was taken prisoner from his bed, tried and condemned to die, brought on a car to the place of execution, his head cut off, and his body after the customary indignities thrown into the river. The head, however, was reserved for another exhibition. It was first kicked about the Custom-house Quay, and then brought up into the town, thrown up and treated in the same manner opposite the house in which his sister lodged, in order that she might witness the savage sport and horrid spectacle; and afterwards placed over the door of the Courthouse beside that of Captain Keugh."+

* "Harvey and Grogan suffered execution together on the 28th; Colclough, alone, in the evening of the same day. Colclough was a man of very amiable character, of a naturally good understanding enlarged by culture, and of engaging manners. By education and profession, a Romanist, he was a Protestant in principle. Influenced in his matrimonial selection solely by the personal merit of the object, he married a lady of a congenial soul, whose endowments of mind, and amiable qualities, fully justified the wisdom of his choice. So void was he of religious bigotry, that he recommended to his wife not to conform to his mode of worship, since to follow the dictates of her conscience in adhering to the Protestant religion (in which she ha been educated), would be more pleasing to him."—Gordon.

"This young man was worthy of a far better cause and better associates-his courage and humanity being equal and conspicuous. But a display of humanity by a rebel, was in general, in the trials by court-martial, by no means regarded as a circumstance in favour of the accused."-Ibid.

Plowden's Historical Review.

In his defence, Keugh principally relied on the exertions he had used, when in command, to save the Protestant prisoners. The annexed statement, however, is not favourable to his humanity :- My uncle, Capt. B., had married the heiress of Dr. Jacob, and became possessed of a good property in Wexford. Dr. Jacob had colonized his estate with Protestants of a respectable class, who were thriving and industrious. It was on the morning of Whit-Sunday, when the coach was coming round to take the family to church, that tidings reached them of the outbreak of the previous night-and providential it was that the news came when the people were assembling for divine service. Had they been engaged in their customary avocations, or on their way to fair or market, they must have been cut off in detail. They were this enabled to escape to Ross and other places across the Black-stair mountain. My uncle and his family made their way to Enniscorthy, where his military ex

HISTORY OF THE

Before we turn to the other insurrectionary movements, which were simultaneously occurring with the Wrexford outbreak, to preserve a connection in detail, we will follow the career of the rebel armies of this blood-stained county, and trace their ulterior movements from the hour of their first defeats, until that of their final dispersion.

perience proved useful during the attack on that town on Tuesday morning. On the evacuation of the place in the evening by the troops, he accompanied them to Wexford-and on that town being given up by the king's forces and occupied by the rebels, he found means to shelter himself and his family in a lodging of the poorest description in one of the bye-lanes; and there they lived for some time, chiefly dependant for the necessaries of life upon a few of his Roman Catholic tenantry, who brought milk and such humbler articles of food as could escape suspicion. A young man named Kelly, a rebel captain, took a principal share in protecting the family; and it was not until something called him from the town that my uncle was taken from his concealment, and was on the very point of being put to death on the bridge, when he was saved by mere accident. In return, he preserved the life of Kelly when the tables turned. When Captain Bmet by Keugh, the rebel leader. They had been brother officers in America, and was on his way to execution, they were my uncle said to him, Keugh, if you cannot save my life, at least let me die a soldier's death, and be shot, not piked.'

"The will of the people must be done, Sir,' was Keugh's answer, rs he turned coolly away."-MS. Journal of a Field Offver.

CHAPTER XVI.

ATTACK ON HACKETSTOWN-AFFAIR AT BALLYELLIS-REPULSE AT BALLYRAHEEN - REBELS DRIVEN FROM THE WHITE-HEAPS AND AFTERWARDS DEFEATED AND DISPERSED AT BALLYGULLEN.

ONE of the rebel columns which had escaped from Vinegar-hill, and retired in a northerly direction, being joined by a strong body of Wicklow rebels, under the command of the two Byrnes of Ballymanus, determined to attack Hacketstown, then garrisoned by a yeomanry corps, under Captain Hardy, and forty of the Antrim regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Gardiner. Alarmed by the appearance of numbers of the peasantry assembling on the adjacent high grounds, an attack was apprehended-and the corps immediately in the vicinity of the town were called on to aid in its defence. Early on the 25th, an infantry and cavalry corps, reinforced the garrison; and, although under two hundred men, it boldly marched out to receive the rebels, who, as it was reported, were rapidly advancing.

The royalists took a position outside the town, which on the approach of the insurgents was found untenable. Although, north and south, the rebel leaders never exhibited a particle of military talent, still, to the commonest understanding it was evident, that by extension, a handful of men must be surrounded and destroyed by dense masses, no matter what advantages they might possess in superiority of discipline and courage. Accordingly, when in presence of the little garrison, the rebels deployed right and left; and to prevent their flanks from being turned, the loyalists fell back upon the town, the cavalry retreating by the Clonmore road, and hence becoming afterwards non-combatant.

In the course of this short history, we have repeatedly borne testimony to the Irish yeomanry of '98, as a daring and devoted body, whose fidelity was incorruptible, and courage boundless. The memory of none should be held in more sacred estimation-for reckless of the consequences involved, in every trial private considerations were thrown to the winds, and the yeomen took the post of danger. To their efficiency, the brief duration of the rebellion may be traced, for by them partial insurrections were put down, and others entirely prevented. As in every community, civil or military, unworthy members will be found, and the misconduct of the few will bring obloquy upon the many, to the Irish yeomanry cruelty and abuse of power have been charged. But in the aggregate, and "take them for all in all," in the emergency of an empire, as a body they will never be surpassed for unqualified bravery and unbounded devotion.

In their organization a sad mistake had been committed; half their number were cavalry, and consequently they were totally inefficient. In a close country, horsemen cannot act ; and no surface in Europe is more overspread in every direction with morass63. Hone, whatever service