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away from us this day our worthy friends, the Thompsons, with their three boys and a girl; a family whose real value we should hardly have known but for our captivity. Mr Fortescue embraced the same oppportunity. And the succeeding day, by the departure of general Trench with the Kerry officers to Castlebar, the town of Killalla was left to the defence of the prince of Wales's fencibles. The detachment that had been sent into Erris on the thirtieth of September, returned the seventh of the following month, after suffering and inflicting a good deal of misery.

"As the storm of war seemed now to have spent its force, the bishop began to try what he could do in order to render his situation at Killalla easy at least, if he could not restore the comfortable posture in which the invasion found him. His greatest inconve‐ nience was, that it was out of his power, as matters stood, to return to the exclusive use of his own house. The guard, which was relieved every day, being stationed in one of the offices at the castle, it became a duty of common politeness to offer a bed to the officer that commanded the guard. The same compliment could hardly be refused to another officer of the regiment, who coming later than the rest to Killalla, could not possibly find a lodging in the town. And these two officers naturally grew to be messmates in the family, the bishop wishing by every means in his power to shew his sense of the protection afforded to the town by his majesty's army. But the labour and weariness of living thus in a manner in public, and for

a constancy, may be easily conceived, at least it need not be described to any man that is fond of retirement and study. The messing indeed was laid aside, from the moment the gentlemen were aware of the bishop's inability to bear the annoyance of continual public dinners; but the bedchambers could not be refused ; a circumstance which precluded the exercise of hospitality towards the bishop's friends or his clergy, his own family being so numerous. Neither was it by any means clear to the people of Killalla, if they set themselves to repair the damages they had sustained by the war, that they would be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour. The winter was coming on; a multitude of rebels were scattered through the mountains, likely to be rendered desperate by want; and perhaps. too the French might find means to effect another and a more powerful invasion in the same place where they had landed before.

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"These reasons were often urged to the bishop by his friends in the capital, to induce him to remove with his family thither without delay; but he had fixed bis resolution to remain, where he was for that winter. After the losses he had sustained, his circumstances stood in the way of an expensive journey to Dublin; and if that had not been the case, he found by many trials, that his presence was likely to be useful to his country neighbours, either in assisting to obtain compensation for them, or clearing them from ill-founded charges of disaffection. From the rebels. in the mountains he apprehended no danger, as long

as the military were left to protect the town; and as to another attempt from the French in the very same quarter, and on the verge of winter, it was an event too far removed from probability to be a reasonable ground for retreating.

"But experience quickly proved, that what is not probable may nevertheless be very true. On the morning of the 27th of October, 1798, three of the same frigates which had brought over Humbert's army in August, in company with a fourth, carrying all together 2000 land forces, anchored in the bay of Killalla, precisely in the spot where they had made good their first landing. They formed a part of the armament, which, so happily for Ireland and the British empire, was destroyed by the glorious action off Rutland under the auspices of sir John B. Warren. The alarm was taken, the moment these ships appeared; for our late sufferings had taught us what might be expected from vessels of that size. Two officers of the prince of Wales's, captain Bull and lieutenant Leurry, were sent at different times by major Winstanley, to inquire what they were, and if friends, to deliver dispatches which had just come down to him from the capita!. A party under the orders of captain Frazer went to take their station behind Kilcummin head, under which the ships were moored, about a league from Killalla, to watch and make reports..

The officers not returning in the time expected,

the panic became universal. Every male inhabitant in the place crowded to Steeple-hill, anxiously looking out to the ships, and forming conjectures. An old sailor, who had often seen the like, pronounced them to be French by their white sails, and by their seeming to stand out of the water more than ours. At length a yeoman horseman appeared on the opposite hill, coming down in full gallop. To the spectators his out-stretched arms told the bad news even before his words: Captain Frazer had bid him say to the 'major, the ships were certainly French, and the enemy was landing.' It was discovered, after the fright was passed, that this pestilent fellow had truly reported only half his message: for he was charged to say, 'the enemy was not yet landed.' But either his wits were unsettled by terror, or he was carried away by the passion men feel for relating marvellous news, let it be ever so horrible.

"In half an hour, the town of Killalla had scarcely an inhabitant left, except the military. The occasion was so instant, that every body was in motion before they had time to reflect how they should go, or whether they ought to go at all: for the weather was cold and stormy, the road to the next town (Ballina) deep mud, especially near Killalla, and the last invasion had left to very few any other means of conveyance but their feet. Ou foot the bishop set out at the head of his whole household, except two sons who staid to preserve their father's property as long as they could. Two little daughters by his side waded through the

dirt. The other children got upon cars, with their mother and aunt, invalids, that had not been exposed to the air for the last two months; and one of them, Mrs Stock, liable on any cold to a sudden attack of the gout in her stomach, which had more than once threatened her existence. While they were on the road, gusts of wind, and at last a heavy shower of hail, unfortunately fell on them. All seemed to the bishop to be now over. He must expect to lose the mother of such a family, the companion with whom he had passed twenty years of his life in the sunshine absolutely uninterrupted by one transient cloud. He saw it, almost without a reflection. There is a pause of mind on the apprehended explosion of some enormous mischief, resembling the stillness that fills the At intervals-when horizon before a thunder clap. thought returned--what he was He raised his eyes, and adored in silence the uplifted hand of the Almighty. That hand, as he had soon the happiness to experience, was lifted, not to destroy,

but to save.

able to do he did.

"The procession reached Ballina about six in the evening, after a march of two hours, in the course of which they passed the Armagh militia, hastening to Killalla to join the prince of Wales's. And here the bishop and his family were much indebted to the bospitality of brigade-major Cunningham and his lady, that they did not suffer more by so unseasonable a flight. The house in which the major resided was colonel King's, in happier times one of the best and most

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