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expressed a desire to depart, and they were permitted to take their entire property, without question. Callan and Gowran were at the same time and as peaceably secured. Clonmel, Carrick, and Dungarvan, were seized by Butler of Kilcash, second brother to the earl of Ormonde, in a manner so orderly and free from violence or plunder, as seemingly to deprive rebellion of its horrors. The impression made by this unusual conduct upon the surrounding country, led in one instance at least, to a dangerous confidence. Theobald Butler, the baron of Ardmaile, seeing the facility with which places were to be taken, privately assembled a large gang of his own people, and proceeded to take possession of Fethard. Hacket, the sovereign of the town, suspecting nothing, without any hesitation admitted him with a few friends; he was seized in his own house, and the keys of the town taken by Butler, who let in his undisciplined rabble to the number of a thousand, with clubs, pikes, and skeans. There were nine English in the town, these were seized and confined, and their entire property collected and shut up in the castle. Happily, the account of this transaction came to the ears of lord Dunboyne, who the next day came and dispersed the rabble, and restored the Englishmen to their freedom and property. They were then sent off to Youghal, and other places at their own choice. Of these, two were protestant clergymen, one Mr Hamilton, was sent to the countess of Ormonde, by whom he was protected with his family; the other (Mr Lowe, vicar of Cloyne,) made a less fortunate selection. He made it his desire to be conducted to the house of a Mr Mockler, who was his landlord, in the vicinity. He was under the delusive expectation that the rebellion would presently pass away, and that there was no occasion to remove far from home. He was kindly received by Mr Mockler. Some little time after, Mockler had occasion to go to Clonmel, and Lowe, for what reason is not known, accompanied him to Fethard. On parting company, Mr Mockler trusted him to the protection of a Mr Byffert, a person who was considered safe. At night, a carpenter of the name of MacHugh, with some others, attacked him in his bed, murdered him, and carried him out in the quilt to the bridge of Crompe, where they threw him into the river. Mr Mockler and Mr Byffert had an active search for the murderer, and MacHugh was soon caught and committed to prison. He escaped, but thinking himself safe in the general license of the time, returned and was again seized, on which he confessed the murder and was executed.

From such enormities this part of the country was kept comparatively free, by the humanity and firmness of the noblemen who headed the rebellion there. The Tipperary gentlemen and those of the surrounding baronies, met in the beginning of January, to consult upon the means of raising an army. It was agreed that every gentleman should raise as many cavalry and as well equipped as they could; that these levies were then to be formed into regular troops, and their pay provided for. Lord Skerrin was chosen lieutenant-general, and the command in chief offered to lord Mountgarret. He took the command, drew together a large body of men, and marched into Tipperary, where a junction with lord Skerrin placed him at the head of

nearly eight thousand men. To these, additional numbers were added under different leaders from the county of Limerick.

Lord Mountgarret, at the head of this numerous but not well appointed force, held on his way towards the county of Cork. He sat down on the way before the castle of Cnockordane, which quickly surrendered on capitulation. It is a frightful feature of the history of this rebellion, that it is thought necessary by the historian to assure us emphatically that the capitulation was "honourably observed."*

Having entered the county of Cork, he was observed by Sir William St Leger, who did not think fit to attack him, but desired a conference. This was a ruse de guerre. While Sir William kept the rebel lord in conference, he contrived to have his arms and military stores removed from Doneraile and other depots in the vicinity, which would otherwise have fallen into the hands of the rebels. Lord Mountgarret now appeared to have the whole country at his disposal, when an obstacle on which he had least calculated arose. Lord Fermoy, whose influence in this county was as considerable as that of Mountgarret in his own, refused to submit to his command, and was supported by all the principal gentry of the county. On this lord Mountgarret turned and marched back to Kilkenny.

It was thought, and we cannot doubt it, that this incident gave a turn to the rebellion. Had lord Mountgarret at the time pursued his own success, there was nothing to resist him, he must have seized on Munster with all its places of strength, and would have been in a condition to follow up the same course all over Ireland, before the capricious and grudging hand of government would or could have raised any sufficient defence. The gentry of Cork disagreed among themselves, and when the pretensions of Mountgarret were questioned, other pretensions were discussed, and, before any thing could be agreed, the efforts of St Leger, the Boyles, and the Barrys, began to be effective in putting the country into a defensible state; their raw levies were armed, disciplined, and inured to military hardships and privations, and the time for a combined opposition passed away. It was in this interval that the siege of Drogheda already related, took place.

The next memorable incident of lord Mountgarret's history, is the battle of Kilrush, within a few miles of Athy. He had taken a position near the bridge of Mageny, when the English troops under the command of the earl of Ormonde, were observed marching up at some distance. Mountgarret had his unbroken army of something above eight thousand men, commanded under him by lords Skerrin, Dunboyne and others, and the advantage of a peculiarly strong posi tion. The movements of the English was such as to show that their commander was fully aware of the advantages of his enemy. The earl of Ormonde in fact had decided against the attack, but came to the resolution of passing on towards Dublin; he anticipated an effort to intercept his march, and for this he made his dispositions. These we shall relate further on. His troops had not marched far when lord Mountgarret saw his advantage, and came to the resolution of

Carte.

not throwing away the occasion for a decisive blow; three miles further on there was a pass through which they must march, and there he determined to meet them. For this purpose leaving the enemy on the left, Mountgarret led his army round the bog of Killika, by which the pass near Ballysovanan was approachable by a short cut, and not being encumbered with baggage, it was his hope to secure the pass before the earl of Ormonde could come up. In the mean time the enemy was not idle, and a column of cavalry led by Sir T. Lucas, came onward at a brisk pace. After a couple of miles hasty march. ing, Mountgarret approached the pass, a low hill had for some time shut out the view of the English troops, and he had not perceived the progress they had made, his mortification was therefore great when he found that Lucas had outmarched him; the pass was seized, and he was forced to halt. He had yet the advantage of a strong position, and if his soldiers were to be trusted the enemy had nothing to hope from an attack, they could at best escape.

But the earl of Ormonde had little notion of such an alternative, his movements told of battle. He was drawing up his little army and making the most masterly arrangements at the foot of the hill, within two musket shots of Mountgarret and his people. It could be seen that he was sending off his messengers, and disposing his companies and his baggage in the places best adapted for their respective

characters.

Seeing all this Mountgarret drew up his men in two divisions, rather with the design of maintaining his strong position, than of attacking his enemy; and while he was thus engaged, Sir C. Coote, and Sir R. Grenville, came up with their companies, and Sir T. Lucas took a position on the left of his position with the cavalry. These had no sooner fallen into their places, than the earl of Ormonde with his four companies came on to the charge at a rapid pace. Their approach was for a few minutes retarded, and they were thrown into some confusion, by an unexpected obstacle. When they had cleared about half the distance between them and the Irish, they came upon a hedge and a hollow way which obstructed their advance. They were however suffered to retrieve their order of attack, by moving round these impediments so as to form inside the hedge. The fight now commenced with a distant firing, which did no damage to either side. This had not lasted above half an hour when a gap was found at some distance in the hedge, through which Sir T. Lucas and Sir R. Grenville were enabled to lead the cavalry, so as to charge Mountgarret on the left. The Irish did not stand the charge, but turned and fled in great confusion towards the bog which lay at the foot of the hill; the cavalry which had been posted to protect their flanks, stood for another charge led by Grenville, on which they turned and joined their companions.

Mountgarret commanded in the right wing, which was composed of his best men, and yet stood their ground. Against these lord Ormonde led his troop of volunteers and three hundred foot commanded by Sir J. Sherlock; they fired several vollies as they came up the hill, which were received with steadiness; but as they were on the point of crossing their pikes, Mountgarret's best men turned

and fled over the hill for their lives, nor stopped to breathe till they reached the bog where they found their comrades.

In this battle Mountgarret lost seven hundred men, and as they were cut down chiefly in their flight, the loss on the other side was but twenty. After such a defeat, it is probable that he retained no great reliance on the efficiency of this unwieldy and undisciplined mob, which could be beaten against all possible disadvantages by a handful of soldiers.

He returned to Kilkenny, in the hope of effecting a more organized as well as extensive resistance. He was there appointed president of the supreme council organized in this year (1642), to methodize their proceedings and supply the place of government to the country. Of this we shall give a brief account in the next memoir, which may be considered as the commencement of a new chapter of events.

He did not however allow the civil station which thus enlarged his influence in a party, whieh at this time, as we shall hereafter show more at large, was fast attaining weight both in counsel and arms, to detain him from enterprise in the field. The insurrection had assumed a more specious character both from the accession of intrinsie advantages, and still more, from the occurrences of English history, which must at the time have had considerable effect in confusing the question of authority. When it became doubtful in whom was vested the powers of the sword and balance, rebellion must have assumed a fairer name, and lifted up a prouder front—another act of this bloody tragedy was now to commence.

On the 18th of March, 1642, lord Mountgarret took his share in the battle of Ross, between Preston and the earl of Ormonde. In the following year his name occurs in the capture of Borras. He was also with lord Castlehaven, and many other of the rebel lords, at the siege of Ballynakil. This siege commenced in November 26th, 1641; and is chiefly memorable for the extreme sufferings of the garrison and inhabitants, who were left to their own miserable resources, and held out with the most slender subsistence, and even without arms. At their surrender, upwards of one hundred and fifty had perished rather from want and disease, than the weapon of the foe. On this occasion, as on every other, lord Mountgarret is to be distinguished not less for his humanity, and for his attention to the relief of distressed protestants. The offices of humanity were at the time rendered difficult, by the continual increase of angry and fanatic passions. Though the high-born, and the educated, continued in a measure proof against the evil contagion of disorder which loosened all the ties, and dissolved all the ordinary ruling sentiments of civil life-the ignorant who are the slaves of prejudice and impulse, and the blind instruments of design, soon acquire the temper of their habits, and a moral tone from their own deeds. The long continued prostration of all the barriers of control -the emulation in crime the triumphs of animal ruffianism; and the fearful excitement which undisciplined spirits diffuse and reflect by mere aggregation, continued to increase beyond any thing recorded by history: so that among the brutal rabble of parties who reaved and butchered each other as they found opportunity, the common features of humanity seemed to have been effaced. In proof of this we need

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cite no description of the general historians; but the dreadful facts are registered with no sparing pen. From this dark and awful stain upon their history, the prominent and elevated leaders on both sides, are for the most part to be honourably exempted. The unhappy conjunction of events, and the ill-concerted policy that drove so many brave and honourable nobles and gentlemen into the arms of rebellion, were in some measure countervailed by the constant influence of their wisdom and humanity. But it was otherwise than fortunate for these noble but misdirected men, who were, when all was over, in many instances harshly dealt with. Neither the difficulties in which they had been placed by a feeble and corrupt government, nor the forbearance and moderation they had exercised, nor the general confusion of authorities which had in some measure sanctioned the course they followed, were admitted to palliate their offences against a government itself made lawful only by rebellion.

Lord Mountgarret was an actor throughout these disastrous scenes. He did not long survive their termination. After his death, which happened in 1651, he was excepted from pardon by Cromwell's act for the settlement of Ireland in 1652. He was buried in St Canice church in Kilkenny,

Owen O'Neile.

DIED A.D. 1648.

IN writing the lives of numerous persons, of whom most are to be chiefly distinguished for the several parts which they sustained in the same succession of events, it would be as vain as it would be embarrass

ing to preserve the unbroken order of history. We are at every fresh life compelled to look at the same main events, with the choice of changing the aspect and suppressing or expanding the details, as they become more or less the appropriate accessories to the principal figure, which is to occupy the foreground of narration. Something, however, we have effected to counterbalance this necessity, by the adoption of a double order of arrangement; following the succession of deaths as a general guide, to keep a just preservation of the course of generations on a smaller scale we have endeavoured to be guided by the succession of events; in this, placing the contemporary individuals as nearly as we might, so as to preserve the true sequence of their historical existence. Thus though often entangled in the necessary repetition of minor incidents, without any regard to order, the greater and more cardinal events will be found in their true places, and comparatively freed from the encumbrance of needless repetition.

The same necessity of preserving a biographical form, renders it expedient and necessary to introduce some persons and some historical facts not strictly within the scope of mere biography, in lives which rather admit than require such adjuncts. To comprehend the large, varied, complicated, and sometimes confused as well as unconnected body of incidents, which form yet consistent portions of the same great state complex affairs, the reader must have before him some distinct

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