plain path which duty points to, and compromises the safety of those committed to his charge, there can be no extenuation. For Swayne's folly there can be no apology-his pickets should have been doubleda cart―a ladder-drawn across the street would have marked sufficiently where those who came to surrender arms might approach with full security. A step beyond it, if the challenge failed, the advanced sentry shot the intruder, and the garrison was at once alarmed. So much for Swayne-his weakness was inexcusable-he died its victimignobly, certainly, but still by the weapon of a foeman: Esmond met the doom he merited-a halter.

Musgrave's account of the surprise is, I believe, perfectly authentic. "About two o'clock on Thursday morning, the 24th of May, the two sentinels were surprised and killed; and both the barracks were assaulted while the soldiers were fast asleep. The barracks of the Cork company consisted of a hall, an apartment on each side, the same in the next story, and under-ground offices. A party of the rebels rushed into Captain Swayne's apartment, which was on the ground-floor, and murdered him. Some soldiers, who slept in the opposite apartment, alarmed at the noise, came forth with their firelocks and expelled those ruffians from the barrack after having killed two or three of them.

"The house was at that time surrounded with a great number of rebels variously armed. A fierce conflict ensued between the assailants and the besieged; but it was soon put an end to by the following malignant device of the former. There was a great quantity of straw in the underground office, to which the rebels set fire-and to increase the flame, introduced some faggots into it. The soldiers were soon in a state of suffocation; and the heat being so great that they could not endure it, they retreated to their comrades in the upper story-but the flames and smoke soon reached them there, as the rebels continued to introduce lighted faggots into the apartments under them. Enveloped with thick smoke, and overcome with heat, some of them leaped out of the windows, but were immediately received on the pikes of the assailants, who gave a dreadful yell whenever that occurred.

"At last, the barrack being in a state of conflagration, the soldiers resolved to rush forward and fight their way through their assailants; but they, who were very numerous, formed a half-moon round the front of the barrack, and received them on their pikes, so that but few of them escaped."

Nothing could have been more detestable than Esmond's treachery. He wore the royal uniform, and yet was false to the monarch to whom he had sworn allegiance. When men of desperate fortunes swerve from the paths of honour, poverty may be pleaded to extenuate, though not excuse. Esmond had no plea to offer he was wealthy, well born, and respected. He might have proved a rebel, but why play the traitor? When in the house of God, loyalty was on his lips, while the heart was contemplating bloodshed. Even the tie a savage venerates could not turn him from his truculent design-and while he had devoted him to death, he shared his victim's hospitality-dined with Captain Swayne "at an inn on the 23rd day of May, and continued

to enjoy the glow of social mirth with him, till a few hours before the perpetration of that bloody scene, which he had for some time meditated."

The work of death at Prosperous was interrupted by intelligence conveyed to the insurgents, that at Clane, three miles off, their friends had been defeated-for although partly surprised, that little garrison succeeded in beating off their assailants.

Clane was occupied by a company of the Armagh militia and some yeomanry cavalry. Early on the morning of the 24th, a large body of armed rebels stole into the street. Fortunately there was just time to beat to arms, although such of the soldiers as were at single billets in the town, were attacked as they issued from the houses where they had been quartered, and several of them killed and wounded before they could join their comrades. The guard, however, with great gallantry held the rebels in check, until their comrades hastily turned out and formed. A few well-directed volleys routed the rebels, and they were driven with considerable loss from the town; but deeming pursuit imprudent, the royalists returned, and again formed in the

street.

At five in the morning the rebels made a second attempt, and, supported by a column of pikemen and musketeers, a party, mounted on the horses and furnished with the arms of the Ancient Britons, whom they had cut off at Prosperous, charged boldly into Clane. A rolling volley from the royalists brought down half the party, and dispersed the rest. They retired at a gallop upon the rebel column, which, from previous success and superior numbers, cut a strange but formidable appearance.

"As they

An affair highly honourable to the royalists resulted. were not strong enough to attack so numerous a party, and thinking it dishonourable to retreat, the captain, Griffiths, in concurrence with the militia officers, resolved to take post on an elevated spot near the Commons, where they could not be surrounded or outflanked; and there they waited for the enemy, who began a smart fire on them, but without effect, as the elevation was too great. Our troops, having returned the fire, killed and wounded a considerable number of them, on which they fled in great dismay, and were charged by the captain and his sixteen yeomen, who cut down many of those whose heads were ornamented with the helmets of the Ancient Britons, or the hats of the Cork regiment."

A disorderly flight succeeded-the rebels totally disbanding, and throwing away their own ruder weapon, the pike, with the fire-arms and sabres they had captured in the morning, and held in but brief possession.

On re-entering Clane, Captain Griffiths was privately informed by a soldier named Philip Mite,* that his own treacherous lieutenant had actually commanded at the rebel surprise of Prosperous. Having been

*The detestation of the lower Irish to an informer is proverbial; and no matter how black the crime, those who assist in bringing the offender to justice are held up

ordered to march to Naas, at the moment when the troop were mounting, Esmond, in full accoutrements, joined it. The rash confidence that his treason was unsuspected, proved ruinous to the unhappy man. He was arrested, forwarded to Dublin, tried, convicted, and hanged on Carlisle bridge, on the 14th of June.

Το

The insurrectionary occurrences at Ballymore Eustace and Dunlavin, simultaneously with those we have described, offer fearful pictures of the atrocious spirit with which a civil war is carried through. the former town, a strong detachment of dragoons and militia, under the command of Captian Beevor, had proceeded to enforce a surrender of arms. An immense quantity were consequently given up-and under a belief that the peasantry had renounced their rebellious intentions, Captain Beevor, who was living at free quarters, determined to relieve the peasantry from the burden of supporting the troops,—and, retaining only forty men, sent off the remainder of his garrison. This act was more creditable to his humanity than his prudence.

On the night of the general insurrection, he was roused at midnight by an outcry, and two men instantly sprang into his bed-room, one discharging a pistol without effect. Him the Captain shot. While reaching for a second pistol, the other assassin closed to prevent it. A struggle ensued, and the captain had well nigh been forced out of the room to the staircase, where several pikemen were waiting to despatch him.

In this perilous situation, by a desperate effort of strength, Captain Beevor overpowered the ruffian, and dragged him back into the bedchamber. There, a cowardly or treacherous yeoman was standing with a drawn sword, an idle looker-on, and never attempted to assist his officer. Lieutenant Patrickson, however, rushed into the apartment, and ran the rebel through. Thirty dragoons had, in the meantime, got together and joined their captain-the other poor fellows being cut off, and killed or wounded in the attempt. Although the rebels fired several houses, and, under cover of the smoke, persevered for two hours in their attack upon the barrack, they were eventually repulsed by the small and gallant band, and driven from the town after sustaining a heavy loss.*

to execration for life. The following anecdote will shew how the people cherished their feeling on the subject:

"Nine years after (in 1807), I marched into Naas, and while sitting at the window of the Hotel, I heard this conversation-several men and women were on the spot, when one came hastily up and announced that Phil. Mite's mother had just been drowned in the Liffey-there was an immediate rejoinder of 'The devil's cure to him! what better could he expect after hanging the fine gentleman?'-here one of the party caught a glimpse of my uniform, and they made off."-MS. Journ. of a Field Officer.

"Next morning they took a rebel prisoner, who gave the following information, as to their number and their mode of attack :-The soldiers were quartered in eight different houses, each of which was to be attacked at the same moment by the signal of a gun fired in the churchyard. The number of the assailants were 800. They lost three captains, and near 100 men. Captain Beevor's servant was shot in his bed. He, Lieutenant Patrickson, Cornet Maxwell, and all the privates of the dragoons and the militia, displayed singular spirit and intrepidity against so great a superiority of numbers."-Musgrave's Memoirs.

The insurrection in the vicinity of Dunlavin produced a sad and terrible example of the extent to which stern necessity will urge men's actions, when civil relations are overturned, and the only alternative is the sword. When the rising took place in the neighbourhood of Dunlavin, the Wicklow light company and a cavalry troop of yeomanry garrisoned the place. The rebels were advancing in force, and the royalists marched boldly out to meet them. Numbers prevailedand after losing a few men, the little garrison fell back and reoccupied the town. A double danger was impending. Without, the rebels, in twenty-fold numbers were threatening an instant attack; within, the disaffected prisoners in custody, in gross amount exceeded the garrison. Now, mark the horrors attendant upon civil war-and thus Musgrave narrates the transaction :

"The officers, having conferred for some time, were of opinion, that some of the yeomen who had been disarmed, and were at that time in prison for being notorious traitors, should be shot. Nineteen therefore of the Saunders-grove corps, and nine of the Narromore, were immediately led out and suffered death.

"It may be said, in excuse for this act of severe and summary justice, that they would have joined the numerous bodies of rebels who were moving round, and at that time threatened the town. At the same time they discharged the greater part of the prisoners, in consideration of their former good characters."

Gracious God! what a picture of the times! Eight-and-twenty men led out of prison, "unannealed and unforgiven," and coolly shot to death by those whom they had once known in social intercourse! A horrible alternative!-and yet who will deny that martial law and existing circumstances might not possibly have justified the act? Although but one plea-a doubtful one, I think, can be offered to extenuate it. The man who differs from another politically-no matter how wild and how false his opinions may be may claim a charitable construction; no matter how imprudent, he may be honest: but he who bands himself with men professing principles opposite to his own-swears fealty to a cause he secretly opposes-avows publicly to support, what in private he is bent on overturning-the first may be an enthusiast or fool-the latter, of necessity a villain without the pale of pity. Circumstances might have required, and martial law justi fied the act-but who can now contemplate the instant execution of eight-and-twenty fellow-men, and not shudder at the horrors of civil

war?