As major Hardy was ignorant of the great force of the rebels pofted at Gorey, he highly disapproved of the evacuation of Arklow, and commanded the garrifon inftantly to return from Wicklow to their poft, without even permiffion to taste any refreshment. It was augmented on the fixth by the arrival of the Cavan regiment of militia, and at one o'clock on the morning of the 9th by that of the Durham fenfibles. The arrival of this regiment, one of the best disciplined in the fervice of his Britannic majefty, was extremely critical, as it prevented the taking of Arklow by the rebels, the confequences of which would in all probability have been fo great and difaftrous that I fhudder at the thoughts of them. This regiment had been moft remarkably active and fuccessful, in the preceding year, in the county of Down, in difarming the United Irish, and thereby preventing rebellion in that part. When ordered fouthward, on account of the infurrection in Leinster, an ambufcade of feven thoufand men was placed in the county of Meath, to the north of Balbriggen, to furround and cut it to pieces on its march; but by the excellent difpofitions made by its leaders, colonel Skerrett, and lieutenantcolonel Bainbridge, it paffed this formidable ambufcade without lofs, and arrived fafely in Dublin; whence, after much deliberation, and a delay dangerous at fuch a crifis, it was fent to Arklow; carriages being wifely procured for the men, in the French republican fashion, that they might be brought unfatigued to the fcene of action. This

was

was fortunate; for their utmoft vigour, difcipline, and firmness, were foon put to a fevere trial.

A few hours after their arrival, one of those ludicrous incidents occurred, which, amid the calamities of war, ferve to exhilarate the spirits of military men. Two of the officers of this regi ment, paffing by the house of Mr. Miles O'Neile, in Arklow, where general Needham was quartered, and where a great breakfaft was prepared for the general and his guests, were mistaken by a fervant. for two of these guests, and informed that breakfaft was ready for them and their affociates. This intelligence being communicated, the Durham officers came inftantly in a body and devoured the whole breakfaft. One of them, captain Wallingtun, remaining behind the reft, affembled about him the drivers of the earriages in which the regiment had travelled from Dublin, to pay them feverally their dues. The general, at length arriving with his company of hungry guests, was at first aftonished when he faw his lodgings occupied with a crowd of wrangling coachmen; but foon being informed of the fate of his breakfaft, he burft into a rage, and drove out the intruders with fuch fury, that they, with their paymafter, tumbled one over another in the ftreet, in their hafte to escape.

More ferious objects in fome hours more engaged the attention of the troops. The rebels, who after the defeat of Walpole's army on the 4th of June, had wafted their time in burning the town of Carnew, in trials of prifoners for orange-men,

the

the plundering of houses, and other acts of like nature, at length collected their force at Gorey, and advanced to attack Arklow on the 9th, the only day in which that poft had been prepared for defence. Their number probably amounted to twenty-feven thousand, of whom near five thousand were armed with guns, the reft with pikes, which gave them in fome points of view the appearance of a moving foreft, and they were furnished with three ferviceable pieces of artillery. The troops posted for the defence of this, at that time, most important ftation, confifted of fixteen hundred men, including yeomen, fupplementary men, and thofe of the artillery. The rebels attacked the town on all fides, except that which is washed by the river. The approach of that column, which advanced by the fea fhore, was fo rapid, that the picket guard of yeoman cavalry ftationed in that quarter was in extreme danger, a party of the rebels having entered and fired what is called the fifhery, a part of the town on that fide, compofed of thatched cabins, before they could effect their escape, fo that they were obliged to gallop through the flames while the main body of this rebel column was at their heels. So great was the terror of this troop of yeomen that most of them stopped not their flight till they had croffed the river, fwimming their horfes, in great peril of drowning, across that broad ftream. The farther progrefs of the affailants was prevented by the charge of the regular cavalry, fupported by the fire of the infantry, who had been formed for the defence of

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the town, in a line compofed of three regiments, with their battalion artillery, thofe of the Armagh and Cavan militia, and the Durham fencibles The main effort of the rebels, who commenced the attack near four o'clock in the evening, was directed against the station of the Durham, whofe line extended through the field in front of the town to the road leading from Gorey.

As the rebels poured their fire from the fhelter of ditches, fo that the oppofite fire of the foldiery had no effect, colonel Skerret, the second in command, to whom major-general Needham, the first in command, had wifely given difcretionary orders to make the beft ufe of his abilities and profeffional skill, commanded his men to ftand with ordered arms, their left wing covered by a breaftwork, until the enemy leaving their cover should advance to an open attack. This open attack was made three times in moft formidable force, the affailants rufhing within a few yards of the cannons mouths; but they were received with fo clofe and effective a fire, that they were repulfed with great flaughter in every attempt. The Durhams were not only expofed to the fire of the enemy's fmall arms, but were alfo galled by their cannon. A piece of thefe, directed at first much too high, defignedly by a foldier, taken prifoner by the rebels, of the name of Shepherd, appointed to manage the gun, was afterwards levelled fo by Efmond Kyan, a rebel chief, that it broke the carriage of one of the battalion guns, and obliged the left wing of the regiment to shift its

ground

ground, by advancing twenty paces, to avoid being enfiladed by the fhot. One of the balls carried away the whole belly of a foldier, who yet lived fome minutes in that miferable condition, extended on the ground, and ftretching forth his hands to his affociates. Whatever talents general Needham may have poffeffed as a leader, of which I think it not neceffary to give my opinion, he difplayed for fome time the courage of a foldier, riding from poft to poft expofed to the enemy's fire. He, however, at laft, began to talk of a retreat. The refolution of colonel Skerret, on that occafion, faved Arklow, and, in my opinion, the kingdom. His reply to the general, when addreffed on the fubject of a retreat, was in words to this effect. "We cannot hope for victory "otherwise than by preferving our ranks: if we break, all is loft; and from the fpirit which I "have feen difplayed at this awful crifis by the "Durham regiment, I can never bear the idea of "its

its giving ground." By this magnanimous an-` fwer of the colonel, which had the full approbation of lieutenant-colonel Bainbridge and the other officers, the general was diverted fome time from his fcheme of a retreat, and in that time the bufinefs was decided by the retreat of the rebels, who retired in despair, when fruftrated in their moft furious affault, in which Father Michael Murphy, priest of Ballycannoo, was killed by a cannon fhot, within thirty yards of the Durham line, while he was leading his people to the attack. This pricft had been fuppofed by the more ignorant

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