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On the night of their repulse they plundered the village of Carbery, in the county of Kildare, and marched the following morning by Johnstown to a place called Summerhill, near Culmullin, in the county of Meath. Here, after having eluded the pursuit of some parties of soldiery, particularly that of colonel Gordon, of the Inverness fensibles, who had marched to seek them from Trim, they were attacked by colonel Gough, with a body of troops from Edenderry, and obliged to fly with precipitation and the loss of their plunder. Totally disappointed in their hopes of assistance to their cause in the county of Meath, which had been so agitated by defenderism and rebellion, they by a circuitous and rapid march made their way to the river Boyne, which they crossed near Duleek into the county of Louth. Finding themselves overtaken on the 14th, by the cavalry of majorgeneral Wemys and brigadier-general Meyrick, who were pursuing them with two divisions of the army, they made a desperate stand between the Boyne and the town of Ardee. On the arrival of the infantry and artillery to the assistance of the cavalry, who had been endeavouring to keep the rebels at bay, they broke, and fled, with some loss, into a bog. Some of these adventurers directed their flight hence to Ardee, and dispersed; but the main body, repassing the Boyne, marched with great celerity

towards Dublin, perhaps with design to regain the Wicklow mountains. Being hotly pursued by captain Gordon of the Dumfries light dragoons, with a body of cavalry followed by infantry, they were finally dispersed, with some slaughter, at Bally boghil, near Swords, in the county of Dublin, whence they severally endea voured, by devious ways, to reach their homes, or places of concealment.

CHAP. V.

Dublin-Executions-Wexford-Executions-Grogan

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-Harvey-Colclough-Father Murphy-Father John

Redmond-Prosecution-Cornwallis-ProtectionsAmnesty Act-Surrender of Conspirators—O'Connor's Letter-Prosecutions checked-Babes of the WoodHolt and Hacket-Devastations-Huntley's Highlanders Skerrett-Robberies-Damages-Compensutions-Retrospect -Griffith-Coercion-Violences— Religious Animosity-Ingenuity of Peasants-Exaggerated Accounts-Population-Strength of the Irish : Government-Espionage continued.

WHILE a bloody and desolating civil war (which I consider as terminated in the final dispersion of the Wexfordian, rebels) had been raging in the county of Wexford, and occasionally afflicting the county of Wicklow, and petty rebellions had been elsewhere formed, the capital, vigilantly guarded by a large military force, enjoyed a peace not otherwise interrupted than by alarms of plots within and hostilities without. The chief part of this military force consisted of its own citizens, formed into yeoman conipanies, whose conduct on this occasion merits the highest praise. Fortunately the grand and royal canals, the former on the southern, the latter on the northern side, surrounded the city;

and, being fifty feet broad and twelve deep, formed a fortification of the nature of a wet ditch, the numerous bridges of which were palisaded, and guarded both night and day.

Trials and executions, which every where followed the suppression or discovery of conspiracies, had early commenced in the capital. Among many others, a rebel officer, a protestant named Bacon, a reputable taylor, an inhabitant of Great Ship-street, being apprehended disguised in female apparel, proceeding in a chaise to the country to join his men, or, as some say (with great probability) to conceal himself from both rebels and loyalists till the storm should subside, was executed on the 2d of June near Carlislebridge. On the 14th was executed, on the same scaffolding, lieutenant Esmond, found guilty of being leader in the attack on Prosperous, already related. On the 12th of July, Henry and John Sheares were brought to trial, condemned, and soon after put to death. The trial of John M'Cann, who had been secretary to the provincial committee of Leinster, followed on the 17th; that of Michael William Byrne, delegate from the county committee of Wicklow; and that of Oliver Bond, on the 23d. The two former were executed; but the third was reprieved, as a judicious, and indeed necessary system of mercy had been adopted since the arrival of the marquis Cornwallis, as lord lieutenant of Ireland.

While a few trials for treason were held by jury in the metropolis, by the more summary mode of court-martial were great numbers tried in other places, particularly the town and county of Wexford. On the possession of the former by his majesty's forces, on the 21st of June, immediate search was made for the ostensible chiefs of the rebels, most of whom had sought places of concealment. Some surrendered in confidence of an imaginary capitulation. Matthew Keugh, as I have already mentioned, made no attempt to escape, hoping mercy on account of his having been formerly in danger among the rebels, and for the services which he had rendered in their evacuation of the town. But no mercy on such accounts was, in those times, to be found. On the 25th, nine of these leaders were executed, among whom were Keugh and Philip Roche. The bridge was the general scene of execution, as it had been of massacre. The head, after death, by hanging, separated from the body, which was commonly thrown into the river, as had been the bodies of the massacred protes tants, was fixed aloft on the court-house.

Among the persons who suffered for treason on the bridge, were Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, Cornelius Grogan, and John Henry Colclough. Grogan, a man of an estate in land of eight thousand pounds a year, and much accumulated wealth, but of a timid spirit, had unfortunately

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