He broke into the house.

the scarce sober leaders.

He announced the morning light to He ran out from them, first to the front, and then to the back lawn, and shouted away the sleep from the yet slumbering multitude. With the earliest blush of a lovely morning, all was stir and bustle, where but a moment previous all had been forgetfulness and silence.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE banners were quickly snatched up their bearers, waving tuem to and fro, loudly repeated the names of the parishes to which each belonged, as the shortest method of mustering their followers. In broken groups the natives of different districts rushed to obey the summons. The principal leaders mounted their horses. Amongst them the dingy sables of four priests contrasted oddly with their martial weapons.

The person who had been appointed commander-in-chief, a Protestant gentleman of considerable property in the country, and much deficient, by the way, in the mental endowments necessary for his new station, had begun, according to previous plans, to divide his forces for the attack, when Sir William Judkin observed a horseman bearing a white handkerchief on a pole, prepare to set out towards the town. He guessed his purpose.

"You go with a flag of parley, Sir ?"

"With a summons to surrender, Sir William. Which, if they're wise they'll listen to."

"I am with you, if you do not object."

66

""Tis a mission of some danger; but your company is welcome, since you offer."

Sir William thanked this person, who seemed a man somewhat above the middle rank. A green ribbon round his hat, and another crossing his shoulder, bespoke a leader of importance. A brace of pistols, and a sheathed sabre, most probably the spoils of conquest, were thrust into a strap that encircled his waist.

At a brisk pace they advanced to the town. They were within a quarter of a mile of one of the gates, and could see the soldiers drawn out before the barriers, as they had been stationed during the night, ready for encounter.

"Halt, and give the counter-sign!" cried a sentinel in advance. "A flag to your general," answered the herald, waving his emblem of office. Almost before he heard the explosion that sent the bullet through his brain, he fell dead from his saddle. Sir William fired in return, missed his man, and then galloped back, while a volley from the line that covered the gate followed his retreat. As he rode up to Corbet-hill House, he could see that many balls which had missed and passed him, had made victims among the stragglers at the bottom of the eminence.

"Where's my master, Sir ?" cried a stripling of sixteen, catching at his bridle as he rode on. "Where's Mr. Furlong, that went wid the flag?"

"Shot, my man!" and Sir William broke from him, but not before he heard

"Why, then, may the Orange conquer us! but I'll have the best blood among 'em for my masther's." And the lad, peering at the flint of his pistol, mingled with the crowd.

It had been loosely planned by the leaders, while inspired by the libations of the preceding night, that their force should be divided into three bodies, destined to assault Ross, simultaneously, at three distinct points. But the attempt to carry this resolution into effect was attended with no little difficulty. They were, in truth, but the heads of a mob, yet unreduced to any thing like order, yet unconscious of good to be derived from previous arrangement, and who could form no idea of attack, save that inspired by wild impulse, and obeyed by one furious rush upon their foes. When, therefore, the captains spoke of precaution, and of a plan, they were only understood to be actuated by doubts of success as to the issue of a bold onset. A vague notion of danger, already apprehended, began to pervade the assemblage.

The leaders themselves, mostly pushed into reputation and ascendancy by the personal prowess that had urged them to head their followers through the thickest danger, but otherwise unfitted for command, proved as incompetent to execute their purpose, as did the rude force to understand it. A necessity for a divided yet regular attack had been half-impressed on their minds. But they came to their preparatory task without reflection, and consequently could not apply themselves to arranging, in detail, the crude materials which were to be directed to their object.

When Sir William Judkin approached the position he had just left, the attempted preparations for the coming fight produced. therefore such a scene of tumult, as already boded the impractica

bility of acting upon any cool plan. The commanders vociferated orders often different to one and the same baud; or cursed, or imprecated, or used violence to enforce them. The men as loudly exhorted each other, or rejected the authority which enjoined movements they could not comprehend, or were afraid to obey. Mingliug and hustling, and dividing, and mingling again, the unmanageable mass wavered over the brow of the eminence. While from the out-posts of their watchful enemies, well-directed volleys often brought down numbers amongst them, increasing, doubtless, the general disinclination to onset.

At this moment Sir William Judkin spurred into the middle of the concourse.

"All accommodation is at an end!" he shouted. has been insulted!-your messenger shot by my side! them, Wexford boys! if only for revenge!"

"Your flag Down upon

This appeal, seeming to advise the only mode of proceeding that could be relished, partially supplied the impulse that was wanted. The motive for immediate vengeance passed from tongue to tongue. A resolved and desperate shout followed. As if by general assent, a great number flung aside their coats, shoes, and stockings. And before the uncombined movement could be checked, seven thousand screaming men, those with fire-arms leading the van, while the black-headed pikes bristled high over the heads of their main body, were rushing down the hill upon Ross.

Confusion and dismay ensued amongst the chief leaders, left behind, with nearly two-thirds of their whole force. All their plans were thus accidentally dirarranged, and they stood powerless. The person called commander-in-chief exerted his voice to arrest the progress of the impetuous detachment; but he was not heeded. Some of his inferior officers, seeing it useless to remonstrate any longer, hastened down from Corbet-hill, to place themselves at the head of those whom they could not control. Others, still hoping to connect with the sudden diversion, a simultaneous attack upon the town, at three points, laboured to divide and separately to direct the great body around them. But their agitation and unassured manner quickly communicated itself to their followers. Their want of judicious method added to the impression. At the ill-judged cry of "Down, Wexford meo, or all is lost!" they were left almost alone on the height, the distracted mob flying with their backs to Ross so that of twenty thousand, destined the previous evening to seize upon the town, little more than eight thousand engaged in the affair.

And at the head of these eight thousand. driven onward by his seconders, rather than leading them, did Sir William Judkin now spur his horse.

The mad shouts of the assailants sank into silent purpose, as they drove through the way leading to the verge of the descent, at the bottom of which Ross was situated. The advanced sentinels fled before them. They heard the gallop of horse coming on. They paused. Dragoons swept around a curve of the road, and charged at a gallop. With a renewed yell the insurgents rushed to meet them. Fire-arms were discharged on both sides. Numbers of the peasant force fell. They pressed over the bodies of their companions, now showing a front of pikes. Again the dragoons fired, then wheeled round, and rapidly retreated. Their foes quickened their tramp to

a race.

The horsemen, in sweeping upon the town, dispirited, by their flight, the advanced body of infantry at the gate, who faced about, not waiting the assailants. Sir William Judkin saw his men come close upon the entrenched and barricaded entrance. Here, cannon opened upon them, each shot making a path through the thickly-wedged mass, and promising to protect the dragoons who, hard pressed by bare-footed foes, almost as fleet as the beasts they bestrode, and not able to cross the deep trench before them, wheeled to the right, down a narrow way, leading into the centre of the suburb before described as stretching from the Fair-gate up the heights over the town.

"Surround them in the Boreen-na-Slaunagh!" shouted Sir William. Answered by a fierce cry, he led part of his adherents over a fence near at hand, and was followed at a speed that put his horse to his mettle.

The result answered his expectations. He and his detachment were on the narrow road before the dragoons. The remaining force pressed them in the rear.

"Now, my boys, no quarter! Some of them are Talbot's hangmen !"

His advice was scarcely necessary. The dragoons could but once draw their triggers, when, except two, who broke in desperation through the throng, and galloped, at peril of their necks, down almost a precipice into the town, they were piked to death in a few minutes. Even their horses, as if identified with themselves, shared the hate, the rage, and the deadly thrusts which so quickly dispatched the riders. And while still engaged in their work of slaughter, the exulting yells of the victors rang with ominous effect through the town below.

"To the Three-bullet-gate, my gallant boys!" again cheered their young leader. Again an answering shout prefaced their return to that important point: and they bounded upward with unslackened speed.

The cannon did not now roar at them, as a second time they thronged to its mouth. An officer, visibly of rank,-a commander of title, indeed,-appeared on horseback between them and the trench, waving his sword in token of parley. The insurgent body suddenly halted close to him.

"What is it you seek, my lads?" he began. While he spoke, a bare-legged boy advanced closer than the others, as if stupidly attending to his address. "Why do you thus foolishly oppose the King's forces? State your demands to me, and if a compromise can be effected, we will avoid the shedding of blood-”.

Ere the last words were wafted from his lips, the strippling's aspect changed into the fierce wildness of the tiger. Snatching a pistol from his bosom, he shot the noble mediator through the heart, who instantly tumbled into the trench.

"Now, masther, there's a life for your life!" cried the young assassin, bounding high in ecstasy. "It wasn't to see you killed widout a life for it, that you brought me up undher your roof."

The field-pieces on the trench flashed and bellowed; the infantry drawn up behind it sent in their accompanying volleys; guns from the hill-side within the town supported both. Numbers of the insurgent throngs paid forfeit for the much-regretted (and still-regretted) life thus treacherously taken.

But the maddened assailants, mounting upon the heaps of slain which rapidly filled the trench, only redoubled their efforts to possess the gate. They were repulsed three times, steadily, and with great loss. A fourth time had the gunners loaded to sweep back a fourth assault, and their matches were approaching the guns, when from a wall to the right of the gate, and to which the trench ran, jumped a band of almost naked men, who to gain this point had taken an unobserved circuit. Before they could be aware of their danger, the cannoneers lay stretched under their carriages. In another instant the guns were wheeled round and discharged upon their own infantry. At the same time, the main force of the insurgents easily crossed the trench, over the dead bodies that filled it, and, pike in hand, followed up the unexpected salute by a charge. Their fury, their numbers, and their fearful weapon, could not be resisted. As the retreating soldiers descended the steep street into the middle of the town, the cannon was once more discharged upon them. The screaming foe