the Irish, was as impolitic as it was unprincipled; for surely, said the monarch of Ireland, Englishmen cannot suppose that Ireland will surrender her rights to a foreign power, without a dreadful and sanguinary struggle.

test.

Fitzstephen, the English general, refused to desert his Irish ally, and determined to abide the event of the conRoderic still hesitated, before he would proceed to force; and at the moment he could have crushed this infant effort of the English, to subjugate his country, he was solicited by the clergy to enter into a treaty with Dermod; the principal condition of which was, that he should immediately dismiss the British, with whom again he was never to court an alliance. Soon after this treaty, we find the English general, Fitzstephen, building a fort at Carrig, remarkable for the natural strength of its situation. Dermod, supported by his English allies, proceeded to Dublin, laid waste the territories surrounding that city, with fire and sword. The citizens laid down their arms, and supplicated mercy from the cruel and malignant enemy. It is the duty of the historian to record, that the inhabitants of this devoted city found refuge in the mercy of the English general, who interposed to allay the fury of Dermod's vengeance. Dermod was not inattentive to every opportunity which afforded him a pretext to violate the treaty, into which force alone obliged him to enter with the Irish monarch. He defended the son-in-law of Donald O'Brien, prince of Thomond,, against the efforts of Roderic to reduce him to obedience, and again solicited the aid of his English allies, to assert the rights of his family, against the ambition and pretensions of the Irish monarch. The English generals cheerfully obeyed the invitation; and Roderic, alarmed by the rumours of the formidable strength of the allied forces, declined, for the present, to curb the licentiousness of the prince of Tho

mond, or to dispute the rights of Dermod to the sovereign ty of Leinster.

The son of Dermod was then in the power of Roderic, as an hostage for the allegiance of his father. He threatened Dermod with the destruction of his child, if he did not instantly return to his obedience, dismiss his English allies, and cease to harass and disturb his unoffending neighbours.

Dermod defied the power of Roderic, was careless of the fate of his son, and openly avowed his pretensions to the Sovereignty of Ireland. The head of the young Dermod was instantly struck off by order of Roderic. The English

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continued to spread through the country the wide wasting calamities of a sanguinary war; their thirst of blood seemed to increase with the number of their victims, and their spirit of destruction with the bountiful productions of nature, which covered the country around them. length the jealousy of the British sovereign awoke, and suspended the fate of this unhappy people; and the meanest passion of the human mind prompted Henry to take those measures which justice should have dictated.

Henry issued his edict, forbidding any future supplies of men or of arms to be sent to Ireland, and commanding all his subjects there instantly to return. Strongbow immediately dispatched Raymond to his sovereign, to endeavour to allay his jealousy, and to impress his sovereign with the conviction, that whatever they had conquered in Ireland, was conquered for Henry, and that he alone was the rightful possessor of all those territories which had submitted to the arms of Strongbow. Raymond was received with haughtiness and distrust by the English monarch, who refused to comply with his solicitations. period bishop Becket was murdered; a circumstance which

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to Henry was a source of bitter affliction. The king of Leinster died, amidst the triumphs of his allies, despised by the English, who took advantage of his treason, and execrated by the Irish as an infamous and unprincipled exile. The death of this prince was immediately followed by an almost total defection of the Irish from the earl Strongbow. The earl was compelled to shut himself up: cut off from supplies, and dejected in spirits, he was thus precipitated from the summit of victory, to the lowest gradation of distress. This cheering fact flew through Ireland; and the Irish chieftains crowded from all quarters, went from province to province, animating the people to one bold and general effort against the common enemy of Irish liberty.

Laurence, archbishop of Dublin, distinguished himself on this occasion by the zeal and vigour of his patriotism. The sanctity of his character gave weight to his representations. His appeals to the insulted spirit of Irish independence were heard with rapture; and an army, composed of men determined to assert the rights of Ireland, rose up at his call. Dublin was surrounded on all sides, the harbour blocked up, and Strongbow, with an army, which had a few weeks back been desolating the fields of Ireland, was threatened with annihilation by a powerful and indignant monarch. Roderic encamped his troops at Castlenock, westward of Dublin. O'Rourke of Leitrim placed himself north of the harbour, near Clontarf. The lord of O'Kinselagh occupied the opposite side, while the prince of Thomond advanced to Kilmainham, within less than a mile from the walls of the metropolis. Even Laurence, the archbishop, appeared in arms, animating his countrymen to the defence of their liberties against the cruel and desolating invasion of foreign adventurers. The English army might now have paid the forfeit of the injustice and the cruelty which they practised on the Irish, had the latter

been animated by one spirit, or directed by one absolute commander. Strongbow took advantage of jealousies and rivalships which existed in the Irish army, and driven by the desperation of his circumstances, boldly rushed upon the besieging army, and succeeded in dispersing a force which threatened the besieged with annihilation. So confident was the Irish monarch of expelling from his country that proud and insolent force which dared to invade its shores, that he rejected with disdain the overtures of Strongbow, who proposed to acknowledge Roderic as his sovereign, provided the latter would raise the siege. Nothing short of Strongbow's departure from Ireland, with all his forces, would appease the insulted majesty of Ireland. So humiliating a condition served but to rouse from despair the brave and intrepid spirit of Strongbow. He made one effort more, which succeeded in rescuing himself and his faithful followers from the most distressing difficulties. Strongbow immediately proceeded to Wexford and Waterford, and devoted some time at Ferns to the exercise of his sovereign authority as undisputed king of Leinster. Here he distributed rewards among his friends, and inflicted punishments on the disaffected. Strongbow was at length summoned to appear before the British monarch, who having conquered all the difficulties with which he had to combat, both from foreign and domestic enemies, was alarmed at the triumphs of his English subjects in Ireland. The earl obeyed. He appeared before his sovereign, and justified his conduct; he surrendered Dublin, with all the maritime forts and towns, to Henry. Strongbow was suffered by the monarch to retain all his Irish possessions, to be held by the British sovereign and his heirs. O'Rourk of Breffney made a vigorous attack on Dublin, which was bravely defended by Milo de Cogan, one of the boldest. and the most intrepid of the English adventurers. O'Rourk lost his son in the attack; a source of bitter affliction to the Irish army. Those extraordinary successes, by an army

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who were reduced to the greatest extremity, impressed the people of Ireland with dreadful anticipations of that force, which the English monarch had determined to march inté their country. The artifices adopted by Henry were not less calculated to conciliate, than the fame of his arms and his talents were to intimidate. He affected to be incensed. at the depredations committed by his English subjects on the unoffending people of Ireland, and promised this credulous nation that he would inflict on their oppressors the most exemplary punishment. Such professions induced numbers to proffer their submission to Henry, and to cooperate with this artful monarch in the conquest of their na tive land. Not less auxiliary to the designs and speculations of Henry were the malignant jealousies of the Irish chieftains towards each other. Each seemed to think only for his own ambition, for his own aggrandisement; all sa crificed their common country to the miserable passions of envy, of jealousy, or of rivalship. Henry, with his accustomed talent, seized the opportunity which Irish folly afforded him, and determined to invade Ireland, with such a force as would ensure an easy conquest of this beautiful and fertile country. He collected a fleet of 240 ships, which conveyed an army consisting of 400 knights and 4000 soldiers, headed by Strongbow.

William Fitzansdelm, Hugh de Lacy, and Robert Fitzbernard, with this powerful force, arrived in Waterford, in October, 1172. The fame of this celebrated expedition, the magnitude of the undertaking, the well known talents of its leader, his artful and dexterous nego tiations with the respective Irish chieftains, the misfortunes which flowed from struggles with comparatively petty adventurers;-all these circumstances concurred to induce the various Irish chieftains to volunteer in doing homage to the English monarch. The same sentiment seemed to influence the minds of all; and we are therefore told that Dermod