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might have been profitable to needy or greedy dependants of any general officer, I mean not at present to examine. The disclosure of certain facts I defer to another opportunity. I shall here give only one instance of the consequences of this late espionage-an instance which could, I believe, have had no connexion with profit to the receivers of information, but which may serve to shew that even active loyalty could not secure a man against private malice, in the district of Gorey for a certain time:-Captain Atkins, of Emma-vale, near Arklow, who, at no small trouble and expence, had embodied and disciplined a troop of yeoman cavalry, and had exerted himself greatly in support of government, was, without any known cause, most disgracefully deprived of his command by a general officer, and dismissed from the service of his king and and country! This worthy gentleman strained every nerve to procure a court-martial to examine his conduct; and, after a length of time, succeeded, by the powerful interest of a nobleman, in spite of the most artful evasions. On his trial, captain Atkins (to whom, for the killing of the ravager Hacket, the public is more indebted than to some general officers) was most honourably acquitted, as no charge could be produced against him.

CHAP. VI.

French Invasion-Killala-Ballina-Castlebar-Battle -Cornwallis-March of the French - Battle of Coloony-Of Ballinamuck-Of Granard—Of Wilson's Hospital -Attack of Castlebar Battle of Killala-Narrative of transactions there-Character of the Invaders-Of their officers-Imaginary bank— Temporary police-Embassy-Conduct of the Connaught rebels-Military disorder Treatment of French officers-Trials - Tone-Tandy - Naval Victory-Second fleet at Killala-Death of ToneReflexions-Priests-Effects of rebellions-Union

Conclusion,

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SUCH usage might seem calculated to convert Irish loyalists into rebels; but not even the extremity of maltreatment could produce this effect on protestants, who were convinced that their existence must terminate with that of the government, and who might rather choose, if dire necessity should so require, to die by the hands of the royal soldiery, which was the case with too many, than by those of their unfortunately bigotted countrymen. This attachment of the Irish protestants to the British government was little known in France, where

the directory, and the nation in general, had been persuaded, by the commissioners of the united conspiracy, into a belief of so universal a disaffection in Ireland, that, on the appearance of a powerful armament from France on its coasts, the whole country would rise in arms to aid its efforts for the subversion of the British

government in this island. The neglect of attempting, in this prepossession of mind, to send succours to the Irish insurgents, while the Wexfordian rebels were in force, is a proof that (most fortunately for the British empire) the government of France was then very feebly administered. If, according to the advice of lord Edward Fitzgerald, the French directory had sent a number of swift vessels to different parts of the coast, with officers, troops, arms, and ammunition, some of them very probably might have eluded the vigilance of the British cruisers, and landed the succours; which must, by inspiriting the rebels, have greatly augmented their force, independently of the actual accession of strength by the council of accomplished leaders, and the prowess of trained soldiers. What effects might thus have been produced, we may in some degree conjecture from the impres sion made on the kingdom by a contemptibly small body of French troops, landed after the complete suppression of the rebels, in a part of the island quite remote from the scene of rebel

lion, and until then exhibiting no signs of disaffection.

This was the ill-timed expedition of general Humbert, who, on the 22nd of August, two months after the dislodgment of the rebels from the county of Wexford, landed at the bay of Killala, in the county of Mayo, with a thousand and thirty private soldiers, and seventy officers, from three frigates, two of forty-four, and one of thirty-eight guns-which had sailed from Rochelle on the 4th of the same month, with design to invade the county of Donegal, in which they were frustrated by contrary winds. The garrison of Killala, consisting of only fifty men, of whom thirty were yeomen, the rest fensible soldiers of the prince of Wales's regiment, after a vain attempt to oppose the entrance of the French vanguard, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, fled with precipitation, leaving two of their number dead, and their two officers prisoners (lieutenant Sills, of the fensibles, and captain Kirkwood, of the yeomen) together with nineteen privates. To compensate, as far as possible, by the vigour of his operations, for the smallness of his number, seems to have been an object with the French general. He sent on the next morning toward Balliná, a small town situate seven miles to the

* In this name the accent is laid on the last syllable.

south of Killala, a detachment, which, retreating from some picquet guards, or reconnoitering parties, of loyalists, detached from the garrison of the former on the following day, led them to a bridge, under which lay concealed a serjeant's guard of French soldiers. By a volley from these, a clergyman, who had volunteered on the occasion, and two carabineers, were wounded, the first mortally. This clergyman was the Rev. George Fortescue, nephew to lord Clermont, and rector of Ballina. The French advancing to this town, took possession of it in the night of the 24th; the garrison, under colonel Sir Thomas Chapman, and major Keir of the carobineers, retreating to Foxford, ten miles to the south, leaving one prisoner, a yeoman, in the hands of the enemy.

The marquis Cornwallis had completely planned, and after unavoidable delays from the situation in which he had found affairs, was on the point of putting into execution such an arrangement of his majesty's forces in Ireland as to enable him to assemble, with great expedition, a respectable body of troops in any part of the kingdom where expediency should require. Though this disposition could not as yet be effected, a force, which was very reasonably thought to be more than sufficient for the purpose, was in a few days collected in the quarter attacked by the invaders. Major-general Hutchin

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