led the mastheads. Boats came off from the quays, At To maintain the fiction of a united Ireland, Protestant gentlemen of liberal sympathies were offered the alternative of joining the patriot army. Cornelius Grogan, a gentleman of large fortune in the neighbourhood, took the United Irish oath, as he represented afterwards, 'to save his property.' Mr. Colclough and Bagenal Harvey, who had been imprisoned by order of Government for their revolutionary sentiments, were released and promoted to honour. Colclough drove through the town with his wife, with green ribands flying. Bagenal Harvey accepted high command in the rebel army. Vinegar Hill the spirit was savage from the first, in consequence of the fight at Enniscorthy. At Wexford, where there had been no resistance, the thirst for blood had not yet been awakened. A few obnoxious gentlemen were piked and shot under special provocation: others were sent out to receive their deserts on Vinegar Hill. The feeling in Wexford for the first few days was chiefly of triumph and exultation. Victorious Ireland desired rather to show her zeal for saving souls than destroying bodies, and frightened heretics were dragged or led in batches to the Catholic chapels, to be converted into Christians. Father John meanwhile had his eyes on larger objects. Wexford was now secured, but a local rising could not hope for permanent success. If the insurrection was to triumph, it must spread: it must CHAP. 1798. May 31. X. 1798. May 31. BOOK envelope Ireland. Nothing had really been done till Dublin especially had been wrested from the invader. The effect was now showing itself of the organisation of past years. The people everywhere were prepared to rise, and the rebel army had only to show itself to be swollen by the local levies. More extended operations had now become necessary. The object was the deliverance of Dublin. The number of armed men who could be counted upon was practically unlimited. A second permanent camp was established at Three Rocks, and the movable forces were divided into three great bodies. The first, under Bagenal Harvey, with Father Roche as second in command, was directed to take New Ross, force the passage of the Barrow, and raise Kilkenny and Waterford. The second division was ordered to move up the Slaney from Enniscorthy, take New Town Barry, sweep the loyalists out of the north of the county; and then, advancing through Carlow into Kildare, threaten Dublin on the west. The third division Father John reserved for himself and his friend, Father Michael. His intention was to march north through his own. county, where his force would grow like an avalanche. After taking Gorey he proposed to force Arklow, and make his way along the sea-road into Wicklow, where the levies of the county were waiting to join him. With Wicklow in their hands on one side, Kildare on the other, and the central plain of Ireland on fire behind them, the rebels calculated, not without reason, that Dublin could not long hold out against them. SECTION IV. I. 1798. June. HITHERTO the defence of Ireland had fallen almost CHAP. entirely on her own people. Camden had applied repeatedly for reinforcements. The Government had sent a regiment of cavalry, which was comparatively useless. Portland said, in reply to remonstrances, that he understood the insurrection to be too inconsiderable to require a large addition to the number of the troops. He had been taught to believe that the danger was from the North. So long as Ulster was quiet he attached little consequence to disturbances in the rest of the island. The mistake was inexcusable, for Abercrombie had told him that ten thousand British troops would be required if the South was to be disarmed, and now the South was in the field. Lord Camden's position was thus cruelly difficult. He might hear at any moment that a French army had landed. The Dublin mob were only held in check by the presence of an overwhelming garrison, which by its concentration left the country exposed. At any moment also he might hear of what he dreaded even more than the French-the rising of the Presbyterians. From 1791 to 1797 Ulster had been the chief seat of political discontent. It was at Belfast that the taking of the Bastille had been celebrated with such passionate sympathy. It was among the Scotch-Irish artisans that Jacobin principles had taken earliest root. Down and Antrim had furnished the emigrants who fought at Bunker's Hill and Lexington. It seemed incredible that when the long BOOK X. 1798. June. talked-of crisis had come Ulster would take no part in it. The Viceroy's friends in the revolutionary committee continued to apprise him of its secret workings. A week had passed since the fatal 23rd. 'The bleach-greens were still strewed with linen,'' the artisans were still at their looms.' The informers reported that the friends of liberty were less enthusiastic. The doings of France in Switzerland were giving dissatisfaction. There were murmurs at French tyranny in the West Indies. The Orangemen were an alarming feature to the rebel mind. Though the Viceroy had not employed them hitherto, he might be less scrupulous if there was open insurrection, and they confessed to serious fear of the Orangemen. Most of all, an alteration had been worked in their minds by the Popish tinge of the rebellion, the Catholics in the South making the rising a matter of religion." Still, entire quiet in a part of the country which had been so violently demonstrative was 'unaccountable.' The Ulster men, who were naturally more deliberate and determined than the Southerners, were the less likely to have changed their minds completely and suddenly. Camden could not yet venture to withdraw or even weaken the Northern garrisons. When the news arrived of the capture of Wexford either he or General Lake divined the course which the rebels were likely to take afterwards. It was essential, if possible, to enclose and trample out the insurrection within the limits of the county where it was for the present victorious; and, shorthanded as he was, the Viceroy immediately made such efforts 1 Camden to Portland, June 2.' 'Cooke to Wickham, June 2, 1798. S. P. O. as his resources allowed. Fresh regiments were It 1 Camden to Portland, June 4, strength, stature, and ferocity.'Gordon's History of the Rebellion, 1798.' 2 A man of extraordinary p. 130. CHAP. I. 1798. June. |