thus narrates the occurrences before the attack, and also the assault upon the rebel position :

"Captain Preston, now Lord Tara, then followed the Reay fencibles, who had proceeded two miles on their march, and informed the commanding officer that he would engage to find out the rebels in two hours, if he would only consent to stay; but having refused to comply, he then informed him that he (Captain Preston) would proceed to Dublin, and obtain an order from the Lord Lieutenant for the Reay fencibles to return, before they could proceed half-way on their march. On which Captain M'Clean consented, and gave him two hundred and ten men, and one battalion gun, the whole commanded by Captain Blanch; and these were joined by the yeomanry, commanded by Lord Fingal and Captain Preston.

"After going some time in quest of the rebels, they found them very strongly posted on Tara-hill, where they had been four hours, and about four thousand in number, while the country people were flocking to them in great multitudes from every quarter. They had plundered the houses, in all the adjacent country, of provisions of every kind, and were proceeding to cook their dinners, having lighted nearly forty fires, and hoisted white flags in their camp.

"The hill of Tara is very steep, and the upper part surrounded by three circular Danish forts, with ramparts and fosses; while on the top lies the church-yard, surrounded with a wall, which the rebels regarded as their citadel, and considered as impregnable.

"The King's troops, including the yeomanry, might have amounted to about four hundred. As soon as the rebels perceived them, they put their hats on the tops of their pikes, sent forth some dreadful yells, and at the same time began to jump, and put themselves in singular attitudes, as if bidding defiance to their adversaries. They then began to advance, firing at the same time, but in an irregular

manner.

"Our line of infantry came on with the greatest coolness, and did not fire a shot until they were within fifty yards. One part of the cavalry, commanded by Lord Fingal, was ordered to the right, the other to the left, to prevent the line from being outflanked, which the enemy endeavoured to accomplish. The rebels made three desperate onsets, and in the last laid hold of the cannon; but the officer who commanded the gun laid the match to it before they could completely surround it, prostrated ten or twelve of the assailants, and dispersed the remainder. The Reay Fencibles preserved their line, and fired with as much coolness as if they had been exercising on a field-day.

"At length they routed the rebels, who fled in all directions, having lost about four hundred in killed and wounded. In their flight, they threw away their arms and ammunition, and every thing that could encumber them. Three hundred horses, all their provisions, arms, ammunition, and baggage, fell into the hands of the victors, with eight of the Reay fencibles whom they had taken prisoners two days before, and whom they had employed to drill them.

"It was to be lamented, that the Reay fencibles lost twenty-six men in killed and wounded, and the Upper Kells infantry six men.

"The King's troops would have remained on the field all night, but that they had not a cartridge left, either for the gun or small arms. The prisoners, of whom they took a good many, informed our officers, that their intention was, to have proceeded that night to plunder Navan, and then Kells, where there was a great quantity of ammunition, and little or no force to protect it; and that when they had succeeded, they expected, according to a preconcerted plan, to have been joined by a great number of insurgents from Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Monaghan, and Cavan."

The defeats of the insurgents, and their complete dispersion at Tarahill and on the Curragh were highly advantageous, as they opened the communications north and south with the metropolis, which had been seriously interrupted.

Many partial affairs took place at this time between the loyalists and the rebels in Kildare, and barbarities on the one side produced on the other, a terrible retaliation. The insurgents burned and murdered as they went along; the troops and yeomanry shot and hanged liberally in return. The record of crimes inhumanly committed, and ruthlessly revenged, would only disgust a reader; and it will be only necessary to observe that at Maynooth, Ballytore, the neighbourhood of Clonard, and at Narraghmore, there were tumultuary risings, and collisions between the royalists and rebels. In the vicinity of the latter village, a small party of the Tyrone militia dispersed a body of insurgents. The affair would have been too trifling to warrant record, had it not furnished an example of Amazonian courage and military gallantry :

"Lieutenant Eadie placed his men behind a low wall, and when the savages came within thirty yards, gave them a volley which killed many of them, and they fled, leaving their prisoners behind them. They were, however, rallied and brought back to the fight, by a heroine, whose spirit and bravery would have immortalized her name in a good cause.

"In turn, the rebels attacked Lieutenant Eadie's little party, for many hours. He kept on the defensive, until at length he completely routed his foes, taking the heroine prisoner. She was stripped of her ridingcoat and cap; and Lieutenant Eadie, admiring her bravery and beauty, gave her her liberty."

While thus Kildare had exhibited for nearly a week one wide blaze of general insurrection, another county, which in the annals of rebellion assumed afterwards a sanguinary pre-eminence, remained in ominous tranquillity. The storm burst at last-and in crime and bloodshed, Wexford left every other scene of tumultuary violence completely in the shade.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHANGE IN THE HABITS AND MANNERS OF THE PEASANTRY-ANECDOTE-STATE OF WEXFORD IN '97 AND '98-INSURRECTION BREAKS OUT-FATHER MURPHY, OF BOULAVOGUE-ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE REBELS.

It was a very singular fact, that the outbreak of the Irish rebellion was preceded by a moral reformation in the peasantry-a strange preliminary to be followed by such consequences. For months before the explosion took place, intoxication was rarely observed, and men who had been habitually drunken, suddenly became reclaimed. The temper of the peasantry, naturally pugnacious, underwent a change; the fairs and markets were undisturbed by quarrelling; and factions, who had been at feud for a century, smoked the pipe of peace together, and met at dance and wake without the customary interchange of broken heads. Another alteration in the demeanour of the peasantry was remarked. The deferential manner, with which they generally addressed their superiors, was no longer visible in their bearing; and occasionally, in ebriety or unguarded anger, they darkly hinted that a change in property and government was at hand. One other symptom of the times was the universal disinclination evinced by the lower classes to pay any of their debts or engagements. They seemed to regard the approaching outbreak as an event that would change the established order of every thing, and, by one sweeping operation, obliterate the past, and for the future equalize rank and property.

This change in deferential manner was particularly observable in domestic servants; and those whose habits and conduct had hitherto been industrious and humble, became impatient of restraint, and insolent if admonished. An amusing old lady but recently dead, to instance this fact, used to narrate the following anecdote :—

Her husband was a gentleman of independent fortune, a most excellent landlord, truly liberal in his opinions, and one of the few, in those unhappy days, at whose hospitable board Protestant and Catholic met without distinction or distrust. He was, also, a brave man, and an uncompromising loyalist; and when the county became disturbed, assisted Lord to raise a corps of yeomanry cavalry,

in which he himself acted as adjutant and lieutenant; and for both of which duties he was eminently qualified, having been many years an officer of dragoons. On the 17th of May, he received some important intelligence which determined him to communicate in person with the Government; and he set out for the capital, having obtained a sergeant's guard of Highland Fencibles, to protect his house and lady during a brief sojourn in the metropolis.

The butler of the family had been left an orphan, and was brought up from infancy by the lady of the mansion. His manner had latterly become uncivil, and his household duties were carelessly performed,