they abandoned all their artillery, amounting in all to thirteen pieces, of which three were six pounders, and a great quantity of rich plunder. This victory of course relieved Enniscorthy, which was immediately occupied by the king's troops. Many excesses were committed by the soldiers, particularly by the Hessian troops. Among others was the burning the house used by the rebels as an hospital, where a considerable number of sick and wounded were burnt alive. These atrocities reflect eternal disgrace on the perpetrators of them, and are even more unpardonable when committed by regular troops, than by a set of lawless banditti.

The town of Wexford was retaken on the same day as Enniscorthy. Brigadier-General Moore had been despatched thither by General Lake, and on the 20th, while on his march, he was attacked by upwards of six thousand rebels at Goff's-bridge, near Horetown. The action was well fought by both parties, and lasted from two in the afternoon till eight, when the rebels were repulsed with great slaughter. General Moore remained that night on the field of battle, and just as he was about to march forward next morning, Captain M'Namus, of the Antrim, and Lieutenant Hay, of the North Cork militia, who had been prisoners at Wexford, arrived with proposals from the insurgents to surrender the town, provided their lives and properties should be spared. General Moore forwarded these proposals to General Lake, but meantime he moved forward, and stationed his army within a mile of Wexford.

Since Wexford had fallen into the hands of the

insurgents, the condition of the Protestants and loyal inhabitants had been one of horrible fear and suspense. Upwards of two hundred and sixty were confined in the different gaols, and many more were prisoners in their own houses, exposed to daily insults, and under perpetual apprehensions of being murdered. At length on the 20th of June, the murder of the prisoners was resolved on, and commenced under the command of a monster named Thomas Dixon, who was by profession a seafaring man, captain and part owner of a trading vessel, and a leader among the rebels; aided and urged on by his still more inhuman wife. The prisoners were led from the gaol to the bridge, in parties of ten or fifteen at a time. There each victim was placed on his knees with two pikemen in front, and two others behind; and after being loaded with abuse, a signal was given by Dixon, or his wife, when the four ruffians plunged their pikes into his body, and, raising him from the ground held him suspended, writhing with pain, for some time, and then flung him over the battlements of the bridge into the river. Ninety-seven persons perished in that manner, between the hours of two and seven in the afternoon. At length these monsters, fatigued and satiated with blood, were with difficulty prevailed upon by Father Curran, or Corrin, a priest of Wexford, to stop the slaughter. This man, after having long and vainly supplicated the assassins to desist, announced the evening prayer, and called upon all present to join him in it, and when he had thus made them all kneel down, he dictated a

prayer, "that God should show the same mercy to them as they should show to the surviving prisoners." Many of the byestanders joined in it, which occasioned debate and delay, but the respite would have been short had not one Richard Monaghan arrived in great haste, announcing the approach of the king's troops, on which every man fled to consult his own safety, and the surviving captives then at the bridge were reconducted to prison. Next day General Moore entered the town, having rejected all offers of surrender, and found that the greater part of the rebels had left it in the opposite direction. The remaining prisoners, to the number of one hundred and fifty, were set at liberty. Order being now in some measure restored, the military authorities proceeded to pursue and punish, by courtsmartial, such rebel leaders as fell into their hands. Matthew Keugh, a Protestant, who was the commander in the town during the whole time it was in the possession of the rebels, was executed on the 25th of June, together with nine others, among whom was Father Philip Roche, who led the rebels at Arklow. Cornelius Grogan, Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, and John Henry Colclough were executed on the 28th; the two first in the morning, the last by himself in the evening. Mr. Grogan was a gentleman of ancient family, and very large landed estate. He does not appear to have been an United Irishman previous to the breaking out of the rebellion; but being a timid, weak-minded man, his fears induced him to take the oath of the association, and to accept the post of commissary-in-chief of the so

called patriot army, in the county of Wexford. Being rather advanced in years, he never accompanied his associates to the field, but remained in his own house in Wexford, where he was arrested.

Colclough had retired with his wife and child to one of the Saltee Islands, of which he was proprietor, five miles from the coast, and there took up his abode in a cave, which he had furnished and provisioned, and where he hoped to remain concealed, till the fervour of the prosecution should abate. But Harvey, who since he had been deposed from the command after the defeat at Ross, had been living in the neighbourhood of Wexford, knowing the place of his retreat, and wishing to avail himself of the same means of concealment, embarked so incautiously to follow him, as to afford a foundation for conjecture which led to a discovery. They surrendered without resistance, though they might have defended their retreat a long time with effect. They were led back to Wexford, and tried by a courtmartial.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Anthony Perry-Bloody Friday-Perry attacks Hackets-town-defeated-made prisoner, and executed-Father John Murphy penetrates into the County of Kilkenny-Burns Coolbawn-Numerous desertions from the Rebel ranks-Murphy taken and hanged-The Rebels are hotly pursued, and gradually disperse-Edward Fitzgerald, of New Park, and William Aylmer surrender-Holt and Hacket-Rising in the County of Down and in Cork-Misery and desolation caused by the Rebellion-The French land in Killala bay -take Killala, and Ballina-Shameful defeat and flight of the British at Castlebar-The Marquis of Cornwallis marches in person against the French, who lay down their arms-Rising in the County of Longford-Battle of Killala-Napper Tandy's proclamationsBompart's expedition destroyed-Theobald Wolfe Tone takenTried by Court-Martial, sentenced to be hanged-Kills himself.

1798.

WHILE the military were fully occupied in re-establishing order in the town of Wexford, Gorey, which had suffered so much since the breaking out of the rebellion, was again destined to become the scene of a bloody tragedy.

Anthony Perry was a Protestant gentleman of independent fortune, of amiable manners, and of good education. Seduced into the United Association long before the Rebellion broke out, he had acted with a degree of incaution, which created much suspicion in the minds of the neighbouring magistrates; he was consequently arrested, and confined in the gaol of Gorey a