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ham, Tallagh, Lucan, Lusk, Dunboyne, Barretstown, Collon, and Baltinglass. In all these petty actions, except those near Dunboyne and Barretstown, and in all the attacks of towns, except that of Prosperous, the insurgents were defeated, though Kilcullen was abondoned to them after their defeat. In these and other conflicts in the course of the rebellion, the number of the killed and wounded of the rebels is extremely uncertain, and almost always vastly exaggerated in the public prints. The action near Dunboyne, eight miles from Dublin, in the county of Meath, was the surprise of a small party of the regiment of Reay fencibles by a body of rebels, who seized the baggage of two companies of the king's troops escorted by the above party; and that near Barretstown was also a surprise of a small body of the Suffolk fencibles, who lost all their baggage in their march to Kildare. The engagement in the neighbourhood of Baltinglass, twenty-nine miles from Dublin, southward, was one of the most considerable of the skirmishes which happened at this time. A body of at least four or five hundred insurgents were on the 24th, at one o'clock, attacked in the town of Stratford-upon-Slaney, near Baltinglass, on one side by a small body of troops composed of thirty of the Antrim militia, under lieutenant Macau. ley, and twenty of the ninth dragoons, under cornet Love; and on the other by a party of

yeomen, commanded by captain Stratford. By this double attack they were totally routed, with the slaughter perhaps of near a hundred; while of the loyalists none were killed, but several wounded.

The attack of Prosperous, a small town in the county of Kildare, intended for a seat of cotton manufactures, seventeen miles distant from Dublin, was made an hour after midnight, on the night of the 23d, or morning of the 24th, by a large body of men, supposed to be conducted by John Esmond, a Romish gentleman, first lieutenant of a troop of yeoman cavalry. The small garrison was assailed by surprise. The barrack was fired, and twenty-eight of the city of Cork militia, with their commander, captain Swayne, perished in the flames, and by the pikes of the enemy. Nine men also of a Welch regiment of cavalry, stiled ancient Britons, were slaughtered in the houses where they had been billetted, and five were made prisoners, Many of the perpetrators of this atrocious butchery were, by the trembling loyalist inhabitants, recognized to be the same who on the preceding day had surrendered to captain Swayne, and, in the presence of a Romish priest, had expressed the deepest contrition for having engaged in the conspiracy of United Irish, and made most solemn promises of future loyalty—a melancholy instance of dissimulation, practised elsewhere in

similar circumstances! Here, as in all other places where the insurgents had success, in the early part of the rebellion, while their hopes were high, a tumultuous and frantic exultation took place, with congratulations of Naas and Dublin being in the possession of their associates; the conveyance of such false intelligence, to inspirit their followers, being a part of the policy almost constantly practised by the leaders of the revolt. Loud shouts were heard, especially from a multitude of women, who always followed the men on such occasions, of down with the Orangemen! and, which marked the object of insurrection at its very commencement in the minds of the common people, down with the heretics! They accordingly murdered with deliberate ceremony, and mangled their bodies in a horrid manner, two gentlemen of the names of Stamer and Brewer, and an old man who had been serjeant in the king's army. That a slaughter of the remaining protestant inhabitants would have been perpetrated, is highly probable, if it had not been prevented by the approach of a body of troops, through fear of whom the rebels fled. Richard: Griffith, Esq. with part of his troop of yeomen cavalry, and forty of the Armagh militia, who had repulsed the assailants at Claine, pursued them almost to Prosperous, three miles distant, which caused much terror to the rebels in possession of that town.

The attack of Naas, the most considerable of the military stations assailed by the insurgents, at the very commencement of the rebellion, was an hour and a half later than that of Prosperous. In this town, fifteen miles south-westward of Dublin, were posted a part of the Armagh militia, detachments of the fourth regiment of dragoon guards and of the ancient Britons, under the command of lord viscount Gosford, colonel of the Armagh regiment. The surprise of this post was prevented by the vigilance of the garrison. The approach of near a thousand insurgents, under the conduct of a chief named Michael Reynolds, being announced by a dragoon, the troops had time to form according to a preconcerted plan. Repulsed in their first onset at the county gaol, which stands in this town, the rebels possessed themselves of all the avenues, and made a general assault in almost every direction. Unable to make an impression on the troops, they fled on all sides after about forty minutes of irregular firing, and were pursued with slaughter by the cavalry. Of the king's forces, two officers and some privates were slain; of the rebels about thirty were found dead in the streets, and a greater number, perhaps near a hundred, may have been slaughtered in the roads and fields in the pursuit. In the course of the day the inhabitants of Naas beheld such scenes, as were afterwards exhibited elsewhere on a larger scale, and

with much higher colouring, the terrified loyalists of the neighbouring towns and country, men, women, and children, who had abandoned their possessions to the rapacity of the foe, flocking into this place of arms with the troops who retreated from the inferior posts. The little garrison of Claine arrived here in the morning, where lieutenant Esmond, taking his place in Captain Griffith's troop, apparently unconscious of the affair of Prosperous, was arrested. The troops who had fought at Kilcullen arrived not before nine in the evening; the fugitive loyalists who accompanied them were obliged to remain in the street all night, yet they fared much better than many people afterwards in similar situations, as they were supplied with provisions from the military stores while they continued in this town, which was during some time after in a state of alarm.

In the action at Kilcullen, which had taken place at seven in the morning, the inefficacy of cavalry against embattled pikemen was two clearly shewn. A body of about three hundred rebels having taken post at the church of Old Kilcullen, general Dundas without waiting for his infantry, ordered his cavalry, consisting of forty men of the light dragoons and Romney's to charge, and, in this service, three times repeated, they were repulsed with the loss of captains Erskine and Cooks, and twenty privates, beside