ignorant of his followers to be invulnerable by bullets or any other kind of weapon; to confirm them in which belief he frequently fhewed them mufket balls, which he said he caught in his hands as they flew from the guns of the enemy. Though I was well acquainted with the extreme credulity of the lower claffes of my Romanift countrymen, I could not give credit to this account until I found it confirmed beyond a doubt by various concurring teftimonies. The fame divine protection was believed to be poffeffed by Father John, the famous fanatic already mentioned.

This battle, though not altogether the moft bloody, was perhaps the most important of this war, fince it probably decided the fate of Ireland. As the rebels were not purfued, for a purfuit would have been very hazardous, particularly near the clofe of the evening, which was the time of their retreat, they carried away moft of their wounded, fo that their lofs could not be afcertained, but may have amounted to three or four hundred. The lofs of the Durham regiment, out of three hundred and fixty men, of which it con-fifted, was twenty privates killed and wounded. One of its officers only received a hurt, captain Holmes of the grenadier company, the corner of whofe eye was grazed by a mufket ball, which caused an effufion of blood and a moft excruciating pain. This he fupported with furprizing fortitude, remaining at his poft, and continuing to perform his duty. The lofs of men fuftained by the rest of the army I could not accurately

learn;

learn; but it was very fmall, much less than might have been expected; for though the weight of the combat lay on the Durhams, the action was every where warm, and the defence bravely maintained.

As the repulfe at Arklow decided the fate of the rebellion, fo it fortunately left undecided a quef tion how far the Romanifts would have carried religious animofity if the infurrection had been fuccefsful. The violent acts of the infurgents in Gorey and its neighbourhood were not near fo great as in the fouthern parts of the county. Of the latter I fhall speak hereafter. The former might, by an advocate of their caufe, be coloured with a pretext of retaliation, fince acts of the fame kind had been committed by the loyalifts, as the burning of houfes, the quartering of men on families for fubfiftence, imprisonments, trials of prisoners by court-martial, the fhooting of prisoners without any trial, and the infulting of others by cropping the hair and covering the head with a pitched cap. But an opinion is entertained, I fear indeed with too much foundation, that if the post of Arklow had been taken, and thus a wide prospect opened for the fuccefs of the rebellion, the proteftants remaining in the power of the rebels in the county of Wexford were to be maffacred, with few exceptions. Many alfo believe that the perfons excepted from this firft maffa cre were deftined for an ultimate flaughter on the final fuccefs of the infurgents, and that even the leaders of the rebels who were proteftants, were to be included

cluded in this profcription. The war from the beginning, in direct violation of the oath of United Irishmen, had taken a religious turn, as every civil war in the fouth or weft of Ireland muft be expected to take, by any man well acquainted with the prejudices of the inhabitants. The terms protcftant and orangeman were almoft fynonymous with the mass of the infurgents; and the proteftants whom they meant to favour, were generally baptized into the Romish church by the priests of that communion. But whatever degree of religious: bigotry or party hatred had been hitherto difcovered by the infurgents in general, many individuals had evinced much humanity in their endeavours: to mitigate the fury of their affociates.

The rebels had burned only a very small part of the town of Gorey, and only two houses of gentlemen in its immediate vicinity, thofe of Ramffort and Clonattin; the former, the manfion of Stephen Ram, Efq. the latter, that of colonel Abel Ram, of the Wexford regiment of militia. Asthe owner of the latter was bravely fighting against the infurgents, its deftruction can caufe no furprise, though it was much regretted by many among them, because his father and himfelf in fucceffion had been remarkable for their humanity and generofity to their tenants. The very amiable character of the females who had dwelt in the formerlady Charlotte Ram, fifter of the earl of Courtown, and her daughters, who poffe's the difpofition of the Stopford family-might have been expected to

fave it from the flames, fince the veneration of the infurgents for a character of extraordinary beneficence, even when the perfon poffeffed of it was in direct oppofition both to their political and religious principles, was demonftrated in a manner which the modefty of the perfon concerned permits

me not to mention.

Repulfed at Arklow, the rebels were obliged to adopt a defenfive plan. They hoped to maintain at least some of their pofts until the arrival of a French army fhould alter the ftate of affairs. They intended not, however, to omit any opportunity of annoying their opponents in the interim; and the main body of their force, pofted at Gorey, moved away twelve miles, to a place called Mountpleafant, near the town of Tinnehely, in the county of Wicklow. This town and neighbourhood had hitherto been protected by the activity of the proteftant inhabitants, who, in the preceding April, had embodied themselves, to the number of a hundred and fifty-one, under the title of the TrueBlues of Tinnehely, choofing Henry Morton, Efq. the next refident magiftrate, for their leader; and uniting with the Shilela company of yeoman infantry under captain James Morton, in conjunction with whom they performed regular and active duty both day and night. The town was now, on the 17th of June, burned, and many houfes in the country around; many perfons were put to death with pikes, under the charge of being orangemen; and many more would have fuffered if they had not been spared, at the humane interceffion of a

Romanift

Romanist lady, a Mrs. Maher, in that neighbourhood. The True-Blues, who had retreated to Hacketftown, fix miles diftant, returned, accompanied by other companies and troops of yeomen, (the whole forming a body of about five hundred men,) to attack the rebels; but finding them furnished with cannon, and their number formidable, they again retreated to the fame poft. On the following day, the 18th of June, a confiderable. body of troops, which had arrived from Baltinglass, under the command of lieutenant-general Dundas, furnished with a train of artillery, marched from Hacketstown, where the True-Blues were. left as a garrison, and went to attack the rebels at Tinnehely; but these had retreated, and taken poft on Kilcavan hill-a lofty eminence two miles diftant from Carnew. This army of infurgents, atwhofe head was Garret Byrne, of Ballymanus, a Romish gentleman of the county of Wicklow, had intended to furprise Hackettown, but were prevented by the arrival of the troops under Dun-. das. Thefe troops, forming a junction with thofe of general Loftus from Tullow, marched to. attack the rebels on Kilcavan. To furround and oblige the whole body to furrender, was thought by many a matter of eafy accomplishment; bụt this was judged by general Lake, who commanded the combined forces on that occafion, either not practicable or not advisable; for, after a cannonade on both fides with little execution, and tremendous fhouts of defiance from the rebels, with their hats raised on pikes, according to their con

ftant