by the hands of a treacherous and revengeful foe, after we shall have put ourselves into their power: let us rather, while they fancy us sunk in despondence, rush on their entrenchments, and die, as we have lived, the terror of our barbarian enemies." His magnanimous spirit was caught by the assembly. Next day an assault, rendered furious by desperation, was unexpectedly made upon the assailants. It was pointed at the quarter where O'Connor commanded in person. The onset was impetuous, irresistible; the rout instantaneous! O'Connor was obliged to mingle half naked with his flying troops, who were pursued with terrible slaughter. The other Irish chieftains, witnesses of the disaster of their leader, retired with the utmost precipitation, leaving the British masters of the field, of an immense booty, and of provisions sufficient to support them during a whole year. The Danish fleet also withdrew, leaving the sea as well as the land open to the successful adventurers.

Mean time Fitzstephen was closely besieged by the Wexfordians in the fortress of Carrick, which he himself had built near their city. Though supported by only a very slender garrison, he repeatedly repulsed them with great slaughter. Unable to storm the fortress, the Wexfordians had recourse to the most execrable, perfidious, and despicable means of success, perhaps ever recorded in the annals of any country. In a parley they assured Fitzstephen that Roderic O'Connor had taken Dublin by storm, and that he had put the whole garrison to the sword: They represented to him that it would be vain to think of resistance when he should approach to make the same execution at Carrick: They declared themselves to be impressed with such respect for his virtues, that, if he would but surrender himself to them, they would ship him and his followers for Wales, in order that they might escape the resentment of the vengeful prince. Two bishops, dressed in their pontifical robes, solemnly swore to their truth, laying at the same time their hands on the cross, on the host, and on the adored relics of saints. Fitzstephen fell a victim to their perfidy. He accepted their terms, and was immediately thrown into chains; while many of his companions expired under the horrible and inhuman tortures which the malignant fury of their captors inflicted on them.

Strongbow, who, the day previous to that on which he routed O'Connor before Dublin, had received from Donald Kevanah, one of the few Irish chieftains who continued firm in his attachment to the English, intelligence of the danger of Carrick, marched immediately to its relief. He narrowly escaped destruction from an ambuscade, in passing through a defile in the territory of Hi-drone, in the modern county of Carlow. At no great distance from Wexford, he received the mortifying information of Fitzstephen's captivity, together with a threat from the captors, who had burned their city and retired to an islet in the harbour, that, if he attempted any thing against them, they would without mercy put their few remaining prisoners to death. Alarmed for their safety, he immediately turned aside from Wexford, and directed his course towards Ferns, the regal seat of the monarchs of Leinster, where, after he had punished several of his enemies, and established some useful regulations, he received a special summons from Henry to appear and answer for his conduct: a summons which he did not think it prudent to disobey; but, appointing governors in his absence, repaired instantly to England.

Inconsiderable as the restoration of Dermod, a criminal and exiled prince, to his principality, may at first view appear, yet, as the consequences of the invasion occasioned by his application to a few Welch adventurers, were far from being unimportant, we have been particular in tracing the progress of his arms and those of his allies. History, not satisfied with merely relating facts, disdains not to descend to the most minute and remote occurrences, estimating their importance, not by their real magnitude, but by the effects they are likely to have produced on the state of the period to which her attention is more immediately directed, and by the light which they may throw on the subject of her consideration.

We shall now endeavour to pursue the progress of the English arms and policy, during a period more brilliant, indeed, but productive, for a considerable length of time, of consequences less obvious, and of advantages less solid, than reasonably might have been expected to follow the successful period we have just had under our observation. Considered as an alien

from the constitution of that country of which it has become a member, depressed by the iron hand of power, through the insolence and rapacity of governors unacquainted with the genius, the manners, and the disposition of its people, unhappy Ireland has been upwards of six centuries the scene of bloodshed and desolation. The contracted views of those placed at the head of its administration, by causing them to be treated in general as objects of suspicion, rather than with the liberality due to a free people living under the protection of a free government, have, instead of bringing the Irish to be peaceable and useful members of that community to which they appertain, rendered them turbulent and involuntary subjects, ready at all times to arm against those whom they esteem their oppressors, and to plunge themselves into all the miseries, the inconceivable hor rors, of a civil war.

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CHAPTER II.

HENRY, previous to the recal of Strongbow, had been engaged in a dangerous contest with one of his own subjects, Becket, whom he had raised to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Instigated by the pope, Adrian III. the same who granted to Henry the sovereignty of Ireland, the archbishop had pertinaciously opposed the constitutions of Clarendon, whereby the civil was declared independent on the ecclesiastical authority. Incensed by his insolence and ingratitude, Henry, amongst other passionate exclamations, was overhead to complain that no one had attempted to rid his sovereign of the turbulent and refractory prelate. Four of his knights, zealously attached to the person of their monarch, imagining they could not better display their promptitude in his service, silently quitted France, where Henry then was, and making all speed to England, assassinated the archbishop in church, while performing his duty at the altar. Henry was stunned by the intelligence of this atrocious deed, which threatened to arm the papal power for his destruction. By his great abilities, however, he frustrated the designs of his enemies at the court of Rome, and having brought matters to an accommodation, he at length found leisure to attend to the state of Ireland, and, after his return to England, had summoned Strongbow, as we formerly observed, to appear and answer for his conduct.

The earl waited on the king at Newnham, near Gloucester, and surrendering to him his territory round Dublin and his

maritime fortresses, was, by the intercession of his uncle, Hervey de Mountmorres, received into the royal favour, and permitted to retain all his other Irish possessions under Henry and his heirs for ever.

Henry, now determined to push his personal expedition to Ireland with the utmost vigour, accompanied by the earl, proceeded through South Wales to Pembroke, seizing the castles of many Welch chieftains in his route and at length having completed his preparations, set sail from Milford Haven with a fleet of two hundred and forty vessels and about five thousand men. He arrived in the harbour of Waterford, on the feast of St. Luke, in October, one thousand one hundred and seventytwo. Destitute of a common interest to unite them in their own defence, and already dispirited by the successes of the first adventurers, the Irish made little or no resistance to the king of England. His progress resembled more the procession of a triumphant prince through his own dominions than the march of an invading army. The chieftains flocked eagerly from all quarters to make their obeisance: he had only to accept their homage. The men of Wexford waited on him soon after his landing, and delivered up their prisoner, Fitzstephen, whom they represented as a traitor. He was afterwards pardoned; and surrendering to Henry the town of Wexford, was reinstated in his other possessions. The grandeur of Henry, his condescension, his munificence, seem to have made great impression on the minds of the Irish chieftains, his new subjects, whom he magnificently entertained during the feast of Christmas in an immense fabric erected for the purpose in the suburbs of Dublin; while William Fitzandelm and Hugh de Lacey were dispatched with a body of troops against O'Connor of Connaught, and O'Nial, the powerful prince of Ulster, who declined submission.

As the inclemency of the season prevented the reduction of these monarchs, Henry summoned the clergy and the lords who had made their submission to meet at Cashel, in order to take into consideration the affairs of the church, the ostensible object of his invasion. By this convention Henry was solemnly acknowledged sovereign of Ireland: The clergy were declared independent of the civil magistrate in criminal cases, and their

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