The unprincipled fugitive resolved upon applying for aid to the English king, Henry II., and with that intention proceeded to Aquitaine, where Henry was pursuing his plans of aggrandizement. His proposals to Henry may be easily conjectured; he offered to hold his kingdom of him as a fief, if restored to it by his assistance. Henry, who had previously entertained designs upon Ireland, and had actually obtained a grant of it from Adrian, the pope, an Englishman, accepted the terms. Embroiled, however at the time with the barons in France, and with the formidable Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, all the help he could afford his new liegeman was letters patent, by which he made known to all his loving subjects that he had received Dermot into the bosom of his grace and benevolence, and had granted to them his license and favour to lend their aid towards his restoration.

With this document Dermot hastened back to Bristol, where, however, all his negociations were for a long time fruitless; but as he began to despair, he chanced upon a fit instrument for his purposes, Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow, a brave man, of ruined fortune and adventurous disposition: he secured Strongbow by a promise of his daughter Eva in marriage, and the succession to the throne of Leinster. Soon after Dermot was fortunate enough to engage in this enterprize Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzstephen; they were the sons of Nesta, mistress of Henry I., and subsequently of the constable, Stephen de Marisco, the father of Robert. Gerald, Lord Carew, and governor of Pembroke, whom she had married after her separation from her royal lover, was the father of Maurice Fitzgerald. The circumstances and tempers of these halfbrothers corresponded with Pembroke's, and disposed them to a ready acceptance of Dermot's offers, which were set off with a promise of the surrender of the town of Wexford and a considerable tract of land adjoining.

Having succeeded thus far, Dermot set out for Ireland

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to pave the way for the invasion. He proceeded privately to Ferns, and soon found himself able to take the field without waiting for his allies. It appears that he was assisted by a handful of Welsh auxiliaries; and it is probable that his haste in using them was owing to a hope of being able to dispense with the services of the other adventurers, and of thereby cheating them of their promised rewards. In this precipitate attempt Dermot was disappointed, and forced to retire to his woods by Roderic and O'Ruarc, who, upon his renouncing all claim to the province of Leinster, and delivering hostages, consented to grant him a small tract, to be held from the monarch. This impolitic concession gave the traitor time to bring those designs to maturity, which could have been at once arrested, if the advantages which had been gained over him had been vigorously followed up.

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE ENGLISH INVASION, 1171, TO RODERIC O'CONNOR'S ABDICATION, 1182.

THE month of May disclosed to his opponents the error they had committed, when Dermot's Anglo-Norman allies appeared. This force consisted of thirty knights, sixty men in coats of mail, and 300 Welsh archers, commanded by Fitzstephen and Hervey de Mountmorris, uncle of Strongbow. They landed near Wexford. At the same spot, on the next day, a Welsh gentleman, named Maurice Prendergast, arrived with ten knights and sixty archers. Dermot soon joined the invaders with 500 men, all he could muster. The whole force marched upon Wexford, which was inhabited chiefly by Dano-Irish. The citizens, to the number of 2000, went out to oppose them; but, dismayed by the shining equipments, the skilful array, the novelty of their wea

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pons, and the undaunted determination manifested through their scanty ranks, they fled back, and, burning the suburbs of the city, retired within its walls. Fitzstephen advanced to scale the walls, but the defenders, recovered from their panic, successfully repulsed him. He renewed the attack next day, and Wexford, without another struggle, capitulated. The lordship and demesne of the city were invested, according to promise, in Fitzstephen and Fitzgerald; and a tract of country, well known as the barony of Forth, was bestowed on Mountmorris.

After this dawning of good fortune, Dermot proceeded to Ferns, where he regaled his friends for three weeks, unmolested by the supine monarch or the apathetic princes. He then invaded Ossory with a force increased by the garrison of Wexford to 3000 men, and overran it; but Roderic showing at last some symptoms of resistance, the victor thought it prudent to keep quiet for a season. Meantime Roderic convoked a general assembly of the princes and chiefs at Tara, when it was determined that they should march an army to Dublin. Thither the Irish troops proceeded; but upon their arrival the northern princes returned home, leaving O'Connor and O'Ruarc to protect the interests of the realm. The desertion of the northerns was, however, happily imitated by Dermot's Irish retainers: the former deserted their country-the latter their king. The Normans, as became men, continued true to their employer and their adventure.

Roderic now invested Dermot at Ferns, where the latter was well defended by the nature of the place and his own contrivances, yet still better by the spirits he had summoned from Wales; but, instead of striking the blow which valour and wisdom demanded, he had recourse to a paltry negociation, having for its object the dissolution of the league between Dermot and his allies. The weakness manifested by this conduct, combined with his tampering with both parties, united them more firmly than ever; but the pusillanimous monarch persisted in his ef

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forts at an accommodation, till he effected one as disgraceful to himself as ruinous to his country: the terms were, that Dermot should acknowledge Roderic's supremacy, and deliver up his son as hostage, and that, in return, the kingdom of Leinster should belong to him and his heirs for ever. In a secret article the dismission of the strangers was settled on.

But Dermot had no intention of keeping the secret article, or any other, only as long as might be convenient. Upon the arrival of Maurice Fitzgerald with about 150 men, he took him as his colleague in the command of an army destined to punish the citizens of Dublin, to whom he had been long odious for his cruelties and his vices, and who had chosen a governor from among themselves. When fire and sword had glutted his vengeance, he condescended to accept the renewed allegiance of the city.

Dermot, notwithstanding the late settlement, marched into Munster to aid its king, who had taken advantage of Roderic's difficulties to throw off his allegiance; this movement compelled Roderic to evacuate the south, and retreat to Connaught.

Dermot's success enlarged his views, and encouraged him to look for the monarchy. In this bold enterprise Strongbow appeared essentially necessary; his promise was accordingly pressed upon him, which, after an interview with Henry, who was yet in Normandy, he prepared to fulfil, by sending over to Waterford, Raymond le Gros, with ten knights and seventy archers. Upon their landing they raised a fort, which was soon attacked by 3000 men from the city; these, after having driven back the foreigners, were ultimately defeated with great slaughter. By the advice of Montmorris, seventy of the prisoners, leading citizens, were thrown headlong into the sea, after having their limbs broken: this barbarous violation of the laws of nations, and of common justice, was never exceeded by the Irish in their most inhuman acts.

Strongbow was on the eve of embarking for Ireland, when he was reached by an order from his sovereign,

forbidding him to leave the kingdom. He set sail, nevertheless, accompanied by 200 knights and 1000 men, and landed near Waterford: being joined by Raymond, he captured the city, deluging the streets with blood.

Dermot, Fitzgerald, and Fitzstephen, arrived at the moment of victory. The king and the earl met with mutual satisfaction, and the immediate marriage of Eva with the latter cemented their interests.

After the nuptials the combined forces set out for Dublin, whose governor, Hasculf, had revolted; Roderic was also in arms at Clondalkin, near that city. Dermot, learning that the direct passage was thronged by the enemy, made a circuit, and took the city by surprise. Meanwhile Waterford was recovered by the king of Desmond, and the monarch marched into East Meath to confirm O'Ruarc in its possession. Dermot, leaving Dublin to the care of Miles Cogan, through whose instrumentality it was taken, entered Meath, and, as the fashion was, laid it waste. Roderic, able to do little more, sent deputies to Dermot to complain of his conduct, and to threaten him with the execution of his hostages if he did not desist. Dermot, who cared as little for his hostages as for his oath, answered that he would never rest till placed in the monarchy, which he claimed as being descended from Murkerta O'Brien. Roderic put his hostages to death, among whom were the son, grandson, and foster-nephew of Dermot.

About this time a synod, convened at Armagh, declared that the calamity of the English Invasion was a punishment brought upon the nation for its traffic in English slaves. The English, as their own historians unanimously confess, had been long in the habit of selling their children to the Irish, the great slave-market being held in Bristol. By a decree of this pious but simple assembly, all the English slaves were ordered to be set at liberty.

Shortly after this convocation Dermot died, impenitent, of a loathsome disease.

The Anglo-Normans were now in a precarious condi