when Richard, earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow, on account of his feats of archery, distinguished no less by his affability and generosity than by his military talents, but who was estranged from the royal favour and of dissipated fortune, was pointed out to him as likely to close with his proposals.

He accordingly pressed Richard to espouse his cause, and even promised to give him his daughter Eva in marriage, and to make him heir to his dominiOvercome by such seducing offers, the earl promised to assist him with a considerable force in the en- suing spring, provided he could obtain from Henry his particular licence and approbation.

ons.

Conceiving that by this negociation he had effectually secured the recovery of his territories, Dermod immediately proceeded to St Davids in South Wales, intending to return by that course privately to Ireland, and there to await in silence the arrival of his ally with a force to support him. During his journey, he had the good fortune to add to his adherents, Robert Fitzstephen, governor of Cardigan, a magnanimous, brave, and skilful soldier, eminent for loyalty, whom Rice-ap-Griffith, a Welch chieftan, who commanded

in the country about Pembroke, had imprisoned, that he might not be in a situation to oppose an intended revolt against Henry. To Fitzstephen and to his maternal brother, Maurice Fitzgerald, Dermod bound himself to cede the town of Wexford, with a large portion of land, as soon as he should be fairly re-established.

After receiving their solemn protestations to join him in the spring with their followers, he set sail with his Irish train and a few Welch adventurers, and landed without being observed on the Irish coast, about the end of the year one thousand one hundred and sixtynine.

Punctual to his engagements, Fitzstephen, together with Maurice de Prendergarst, sailed from Wales in the beginning of May one thousand one hundred and seventy; and making his appearance on the Southern coast of Wexford, disembarked his forces, consisting of forty knights, sixty men in armour, and five hundred archers, in the bay of Bannow, twelve miles from the town of Wexford, which, after he had been joined by Dermod, surrendered to his arms, though not before the garrison had sustained a vigorous assault.

Having received a further reinforcement by the arrival of Fitzgerald, Dermod's power was so considerably increased, that he was enabled to reduce the lord of Ossory, whose territories, together with those of Decies and Glandelagh, he had ravaged and laid waste : and even O'Connor, who made his appearance against, him with a numerous army, consisting of the troops of Connaught, Breffney, Thomond, and some lords of Leinster, afraid to risk a battle, was obliged to come to an accommodation, and to acknowledge him as king of Leinster; on condition that he did homage for his dominions, that he introduced no more British adventurers into Ireland, and that he delivered up his favourite son as an hostage for the performance of the treaty.

After receiving the submission of Dublin, and giving his daughter in marriage to Donald O'Brien, prince of Thomond, who consequently renounced his allegiance to O'Connor and united his fortunes to those of his father-in-law, Dermod began, notwithstanding the late treaty, to aspire to sovereign power, and to plot the downfal of the king of Connaught.

To secure the accomplishment of this great object,

he dispatched pressing solicitations to the earl of Pembroke to hasten his preparations, who accordingly, notwithstanding a peremptory mandate from Henry to desist from the enterprise, set sail with an army of between two and three hundred knights, and about thirteen hundred archers, and arrived in the vicinity of Waterford, in the month of August, one thousand one hundred and seventy-one. In conjunction with Raymond le Gross, a nephew of Fitzstephen, whom he had sent before him with the vanguard, he advanced immediately to the attack of that city. Though twice repulsed by the garrison, he returned a third time to the assault with determined valour, and having succeeded in making a breach, rushed with irresistible impetuosity into the town, putting all without distinction to the sword, till the arrival of Dermod put a period to the slaughter. After consummating the nuptials of the earl with Eva, Dermod's daughter, according to their original stipulation, the two chieftains marched with their united forces to chastise an insurrection of the citizens of Dublin, and to oppose O'Connor, who had assembled an army of about twenty thousand men. Intimidated by the formidable appearance of the British troops, the forces of the king of Connaught returned home. Dublin

was taken by assault, and many of the inhabitants slaughtered or drowned in the Liffey; while Hesculf Mac-Torcal, the governor, with several others, having escaped on board some ships, fled to the Hebudes. Strongbow was invested with the lordship of Dublin, whence he marched into Meath, carrying slaughter and devastation in his train.

The Irish, accustomed only to desultory warfare, incapable of making a long continued effort to resist their enemies, and not politic enough to unite in their own defence, appear, after various vicissitudes of fortune, to have been unable to cope with the steady valour and discipline of the British adventurers, who rapidly gained fresh confederates and fresh ground in the island. Henry, however, who indeed had forbid Strongbow's departure for Ireland, grown jealous of his success, issued a mandate, enjoining all his subjects in that country instantly to return home under penalty of high treason, prohibiting all supplies to be conveyed to them from his own kingdom, and expressed in high terms his disapprobation of their proceedings. Deprived, by this jealous act of his sovereign, of all assistance from abroad, deserted, in consequence, by many of his knights and their followers, who obeyed the order of their so