As soon as the two envoys had mand; and many companies were Tyrconnel departed, Tyrconnel set him- commanded by cobblers, tailors, and calls the self to prepare for the conflict footmen.*

Irish people to

arms.

country.

which had become inevitable; The pay of the soldiers was very and he was strenuously as-small. The private had no Devastasisted by the faithless Hamilton. The more than three pence a day. tion of the Irish nation was called to arms; and One half only of this pittance the call was obeyed with strange promp- was ever given him in money; and that titude and enthusiasm. The flag on half was often in arrear. But a far the Castle of Dublin was embroidered more seductive bait than his miserable with the words, "Now or never! Now stipend was the prospect of boundless and for ever!" Those words resounded license. If the government allowed through the whole island.* Never in him less than sufficed for his wants, it modern Europe has there been such a was not extreme to mark the means by rising up of a whole people. The which he supplied the deficiency. habits of the Celtic peasant were such Though four fifths of the population that he made no sacrifice in quitting of Ireland were Celtic and Roman his potatoe ground for the camp. He Catholic, more than four fifths of the loved excitement and adventure. He property of Ireland belonged to the feared work far more than danger. Protestant Englishry. The garners, His national and religious feelings the cellars, above all the flocks and had, during three years, been exaspe- herds of the minority, were abandoned rated by the constant application of to the majority. Whatever the regular stimulants. At every fair and market troops spared was devoured by bands he had heard that a good time was at of marauders who overran almost every hand, that the tyrants who spoke barony in the island. For the arming Saxon and lived in slated houses were was now universal. No man dared to about to be swept away, and that the present himself at mass without some land would again belong to its own weapon, a pike, a long knife called a children. By the peat fires of a hun- skean, or, at the very least, a strong dred thousand cabins had nightly been ashen stake, pointed and hardened in sung rude ballads which predicted the the fire. The very women were exdeliverance of the oppressed race. The horted by their spiritual directors to priests, most of whom belonged to carry skeans. Every smith, every carthose old families which the Act of penter, every cutler, was at constant Settlement had ruined, but which were work on guns and blades. It was still revered by the native population, scarcely possible to get a horse shod. had, from a thousand altars, charged If any Protestant artisan refused to every Catholic to show his zeal for the assist in the manufacture of impletrue Church by providing weapons ments which were to be used against against the day when it might be his nation and his religion, he was flung necessary to try the chances of battle into prison. It seems probable that, in her cause. The army, which, under at the end of February, at least a hunOrmond, had consisted of only eight dred thousand Irishmen were in arms. regiments, was now increased to forty Near fifty thousand of them were eight and the ranks were soon full to soldiers. The rest were banditti, whose overflowing. It was impossible to find violence and licentiousness the Governat short notice one tenth of the number

of good officers which was required. Commissions were scattered profusely among idle cosherers who claimed to be descended from good Irish families. Yet even thus the supply of captains and lieutenants fell short of the

old Irish families is mentioned in Petty's Political Anatomy of Ireland. See the Short View by a Clergyman lately escaped, 1689; Ireland's Lamentation, by an English Protestant that lately narrowly escaped with life from thence, 1689; A True Account of the de-State of Ireland, by a person who with great difficulty left Dublin, 1689; King, ii. 7. Avaux confirms all that these writers say about the Irish officers.

*The connection of the priests with the

*Printed Letter from Dublin, Feb. 25. 1689; Mephibosheth and Ziba, 1689.

ment affected to disapprove, but did | Cape of Good Hope were realised in not really exert itself to suppress. The Leinster. Nothing was more common Protestants not only were not protected, than for an honest man to lie down rich but were not suffered to protect themselves. It was determined that they should be left unarmed in the midst of an armed and hostile population. A day was fixed on which they were to bring all their swords and firelocks to the parish churches; and it was notified that every Protestant house in which, after that day, a weapon should be found should be given up to be sacked by the soldiers. Bitter complaints were made that any knave might, by hiding a spear head or an old gun barrel in a corner of a mansion, bring utter ruin on the owner.*

in flocks and herds acquired by the industry of a long life, and to wake a beggar. It was however to small purpose that Keating attempted, in the midst of that fearful anarchy, to uphold the supremacy of the law. Priests and military chiefs appeared on the bench for the purpose of overawing the judge and countenancing the robbers. One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear. Another declared that he had armed himself in conformity to the orders of his spiritual guide, and to the example of many persons of higher station than himself, whom he saw at that moment in Court. Two only of the Merry Boys, as they were called, were convicted: the worst criminals escaped; and the Chief Justice indignantly told the jurymen that the guilt of the public ruin lay at their door.*

When such disorder prevailed in Wicklow, it is easy to imagine what must have been the state of districts more barbarous and more remote from the seat of government. Keating appears to have been the only magistrate who strenuously exerted himself to put the law in force. Indeed Nugent, the Chief Justice of the highest criminal court of the realm, declared on the bench at Cork that, without violence and spoliation, the intentions of the Government could not be carried into effect, and that robbery must at that conjuncture be tolerated as a necessary evil.†

Chief Justice Keating, himself a Protestant, and almost the only Protestant who still held a great place in Ireland, struggled courageously in the cause of justice and order against the united strength of the government and the populace. At the Wicklow assizes of that spring, he, from the seat of judgment, set forth with great strength of language the miserable state of the country. Whole counties, he said, were devastated by a rabble resembling the vultures and ravens which follow the march of an army. Most of these wretches were not soldiers. They acted under no authority known to the law. Yet it was, he owned, but too evident that they were encouraged and screened by some who were in high command. How else could it be that a market overt for plunder should be held within a short distance of the capital? The stories which travellers told of the savage Hottentots near the The destruction of property which *At the French War Office is a report on took place within a few weeks would the State of Ireland in February 1689. In that be incredible, if it were not attested by report it is said that the Irish who had en- witnesses unconnected with each other listed as soldiers were forty five thousand, and that the number would have been a hundred and attached to very different inthousand if all who volunteered had been ad- terests. There is a close, and somemitted. See the Sad and Lamentable Condi- times almost a verbal, agreement bedition of the Protestants in Ireland, 1689; tween the descriptions given by ProHamilton's True Relation, 1690; The State of Papist and Protestant Properties in the King-testants, who, during that reign of dom of Ireland, 1689; A true Representation terror, escaped, at the hazard of their to the King and People of England how Mat- lives, to England, and the descriptions ters were carried on all along in Ireland, licensed Aug. 16. 1689; Letter from Dublin, given by the envoys, commissaries, 1689; Ireland's Lamentation, 1689; Compleat and captains of Lewis. All agreed in History of the Life and Military Actions of Richard, Earl of Tyrconnel, Generalissimo of all the Irish forces now in arms, 1689.

* See the proceedings in the State Trials. + King, iii. 10.

*

Any estimate which can now be framed of the value of the property destroyed during this fearful conflict of races must necessarily be very inexact. We are not however absolutely without materials for such an estimate. The Quakers were neither a very numerous nor a very opulent class. We can hardly suppose that they were

declaring that it would take many years | Grub Street could scarcely caricature. to repair the waste which had been When Lent began, the plunderers wrought in a few weeks by the armed generally ceased to devour, but conpeasantry. Some of the Saxon aris- tinued to destroy. A peasant would tocracy had mansions richly furnished, kill a cow merely in order to get a pair and sideboards gorgeous with silver of brogues. Often a whole flock of bowls and chargers. All this wealth sheep, often a herd of fifty or sixty disappeared. One house, in which kine, was slaughtered: the beasts were there had been three thousand pounds' flayed; the fleeces and hides were worth of plate, was left without a carried away; and the bodies were left spoon.† But the chief riches of Ire- to poison the air. The French amland consisted in cattle. Innumerable bassador reported to his master that, flocks and herds covered that vast ex-in six weeks, fifty thousand horned panse of emerald meadow, saturated cattle had been slain in this manner, with the moisture of the Atlantic. and were rotting on the ground all over More than one gentleman possessed the country. The number of sheep twenty thousand sheep and four thou- that were butchered during the same sand oxen. The freebooters who now time was popularly said to have been overspread the country belonged to a three or four hundred thousand.* class which was accustomed to live on potatoes and sour whey, and which had always regarded meat as a luxury reserved for the rich. These men at first revelled in beef and mutton, as the savage invaders, who of old poured down from the forests of the north on Italy, revelled in Massic and Falernian wines. The Protestants described with contemptuous disgust the strange gluttony of their newly liberated slaves. Carcasses, half raw and half burned to cinders, sometimes still bleeding, sometimes in a state of loathsome decay, were torn to pieces, and swallowed without salt, bread, or herbs. Those marauders who preferred boiled meat, being often in want of kettles, contrived to cook the steer in his own skin. An absurd tragicomedy is still extant, which was acted in this and the following year at some low theatre for the amusement of the English populace. A crowd of half naked savages appeared on the stage, howling a Celtic song and dancing round an ox. They then proceeded to cut steaks out of the animal while still alive, and to fling the bleeding flesh on the coals. In truth the barbarity and filthiness of the banquets of the Rapparees was such as the dramatists of

*King, iii. 10.; The Sad Estate and Confrom a Worthy Person who was in Dublin on dition of Ireland, as represented in a Letter Friday last, March 4. 1689; Short View by a Clergyman, 1689; Lamentation of Ireland, tions of Richard, Earl of Tyrconnel, 1689; 1689; Compleat History of the Life and AcThe Royal Voyage, acted in 1689 and 1690. This drama, which, I believe, was performed curious of a curious class of compositions, at Bartholomew Fair, is one of the most utterly destitute of literary merit, but valu able as showing what were then the most successful claptraps for an audience composed of the common people. "The end of this play," says the author in his preface, “is chiefly to expose the perfidious, base, cowardly, The account and bloody nature of the Irish." which the fugitive Protestants give of the wanton destruction of cattle is confirmed by Avaux in a letter to Lewis, dated April 1689, and by Desgrigny in a letter to Louvois, dated May 17. 1690. Most of the despatches written by Avaux during his mission to Ire

27

land are contained in a volume of which a very few copies were printed some years ago at the English Foreign Office. Of many I have also copies made at the French Foreign Office. The letters of Desgrigny, who was employed in the Commissariat, I found in the Library of the French War Office. I cannot too strongly express my sense of the liberality and courtesy with which the immense and admirably arranged storehouses of curious infor mation at Paris were thrown open to me.

more than a fiftieth part of the Pro- | was the fate of the towns, it was evitestant population of Ireland, or that dent that the country seats which the they possessed more than a fiftieth part of the Protestant wealth of Ireland. They were undoubtedly better treated than any other Protestant sect. James had always been partial to them: they own that Tyrconnel did his best to protect them; and they seem to have found favour even in the sight of the Rapparees.* Yet the Quakers computed their pecuniary losses at a hundred thousand pounds.†

the South

Protestant landowners had recently fortified in the three southern provinces could no longer be defended. Many families submitted, delivered up their arms, and thought themselves happy in escaping with life. But many resolute and highspirited gentlemen and yeomen were determined to perish rather than yield. They packed up such valuable property as could easily be carried away, burned whatever they could not remove, and, well armed and mounted, set out for those spots in Ulster which were the strongholds of their race and of their faith. The flower of the Protestant population of Munster and Connaught found shelter at Enniskillen. Whatever was bravest and most truehearted in Leinster took the road to Londonderry.*

London

out.

In Leinster, Munster, and ConThe Pro- naught, it was utterly impossitestants in ble for the English settlers, unable to few as they were and dispersed, resist. to offer any effectual resistance to this terrible outbreak of the aboriginal population. Charleville, Mallow, Sligo, fell into the hands of the natives. Bandon, where the Protestants had mustered in considerable force, was re- The spirit of Enniskillen and Londuced by Lieutenant General Macarthy, donderry rose higher and higher Enniskil an Irish officer who was descended to meet the danger. At both len and from one of the most illustrious Celtic places the tidings of what had derry hold houses, and who had long served, under been done by the Convention a feigned name, in the French army.‡ at Westminster were received with The people of Kenmare held out in transports of joy. William and Mary their little fastness till they were were proclaimed at Enniskillen with attacked by three thousand regular unanimous enthusiasm, and with such soldiers, and till it was known that pomp as the little town could furnish.† several pieces of ordnance were coming Lundy, who commanded at Londonto batter down the turf wall which derry, could not venture to oppose himsurrounded the agent's house. Then self to the general sentiment of the at length a capitulation was concluded. The colonists were suffered to embark in a small vessel scantily supplied with food and water. They had no experienced navigator on board: but after a voyage of a fortnight, during which they were crowded together like slaves in a Guinea ship, and suffered the extremity of thirst and hunger, they reached Bristol in safety. § When such

"A remarkable thing never to be forgotten was that they that were in government then "-at the end of 1688-" seemed to favour us and endeavour to preserve Friends." History of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers in Ireland, by Wight and Rutty, Dublin, 1751. King indeed (iii. 17.) reproaches the Quakers as allies and tools of the Papists.

citizens and of his own soldiers. He therefore gave in his adhesion to the new government, and signed a declaration by which he bound himself to stand by that government, on pain of being considered a coward and a traitor. A vessel from England soon brought a commission from William and Mary which confirmed him in his office.

To reduce the Protestants of Ulster to submission before aid could arrive

beries and Losses sustained by the Protestants of Killmare in Ireland, 1689.

* A true Representation to the King and People of England how Matters were carried on all along in Ireland by the late King James, licensed Aug. 16. 1689; A true Account of the Present State of Ireland by a Person that with Great Difficulty left Dublin, licensed June 8. 1689.

† Hamilton's Actions of the Inniskilling Men, 1689.

Walker's Account, 1689.

marches

with an

sand Protestants, of both sexes and of every age, were crowded behind the bulwarks of the City of Refuge. There, at length, on the verge of the ocean, hunted to the last asylum, and baited into a mood in which men may be destroyed, but will not easily be subjugated, the imperial race turned desperately to bay.*

termines

from England was now the chief object | and, as the foes drew nearer, all LisRichard of Tyrconnel. A great force burn and Antrim together came pourHamilton was ordered to move north- ing into Londonderry. Thirty thouinto Ulster ward, under the command of army. Richard Hamilton. This man had violated all the obligations which are held most sacred by gentlemen and soldiers, had broken faith with his most intimate friends, had forfeited his military parole, and was now not ashamed to take the field as a general against the government to which he was bound to render himself up as a Meanwhile Mountjoy and Rice had prisoner. His march left on the face of arrived in France. Mountjoy James dethe country traces which the most care- was instantly put under arrest to go to less eye could not during many years and thrown into the Bastile. Ireland. fail to discern. His army was accom- James determined to comply with the panied by a rabble, such as Keating invitation which Rice had brought, and had well compared to the unclean birds applied to Lewis for the help of a of prey which swarm wherever the French army. But Lewis, though he scent of carrion is strong. The gene- showed, as to all things which conral professed himself anxious to save cerned the personal dignity and comfrom ruin and outrage all Protestants fort of his royal guests, a delicacy even who remained quietly at their homes; romantic, and a liberality approaching and he most readily gave them protec- to profusion, was unwilling to send a tions under his hand. But these pro- large body of troops to Ireland. He tections proved of no avail; and he saw that France would have to mainwas forced to own that, whatever power tain a long war on the Continent against he might be able to exercise over his a formidable coalition: her expenditure soldiers, he could not keep order among must be immense; and great as were the mob of campfollowers. The coun- her resources, he felt it to be important try behind him was a wilderness; and that nothing should be wasted. soon the country before him became doubtless regarded with sincere comequally desolate. For, at the fame of miseration and good will the unfortuhis approach, the colonists burned their nate exiles to whom he had given so furniture, pulled down their houses, princely a welcome. Yet neither comand retreated northward. Some of miseration nor good will could prevent them attempted to make a stand at him from speedily discovering that his Dromore, but were broken and scat- brother of England was the dullest and tered. Then the flight became wild and most perverse of human beings. The tumultuous. The fugitives broke down folly of James, his incapacity to read the bridges and burned the ferryboats. the characters of men and the signs of Whole towns, the seats of the Protest- the times, his obstinacy, always most ant population, were left in ruins offensively displayed when wisdom enwithout one inhabitant. The people of joined concession, his vacillation, alOmagh destroyed their own dwellings ways exhibited most pitiably in emerso utterly that no roof was left to shel-gencies which required firmness, had ter the enemy from the rain and wind. The people of Cavan migrated in one body to Enniskillen, The day was wet and stormy. The road was deep in mire. It was a piteous sight to see, mingled with the armed men, the women and children weeping, famished, and toiling through the mud up to their knees. All Lisburn fled to Antrim;

He

made him an outcast from England and might, if his counsels were blindly followed, bring great calamities on France.

* Mackenzie's Narrative; Mac Cormack's Further Impartial Account; Storey's ImparApology for the Protestants of Ireland; Lettial History of the Affairs of Ireland, 1691; ter from Dublin of Feb. 25. 1689; Avaux to Lewis, April 1. 1689.