СНА Р.

XLIV.

The insurgent peasantry, who, after the departure of their messengers, had poured into Wexford from Vinegar-hill and Three-rocks, were, on full assurance given them that the terms procured by lord Kingsborough for the townsmen should be extended to them, persuaded with great difficulty to evacuate the town: otherwise a massacre of all who were deemed hostages could not have been prevented. But, instead of taking post on Three-rocks, according to the advice of this nobleman, till the terms should be ratified, they separated into two bodies, under full confidence of the ratification; one of which, under Philip Roche, took station at Sledagh, in the barony of Forth; the other, under Edward Roche, Fitzgerald, and Perry, at Peppard's castle. Of lord Kingsborough's dispatch, Lake, the chief general of the royal forces, deigned not to take any notice. To that of the townsmen he replied, that he could pay no attention to the proposals of rebels in arms; but to the deluded multitude he promised "pardon on the delivery of their leaders into his hands, the surrendry of their arms, and their returning with sincerity to their allegiance." On his arrival at Wexford, on the twenty-second, he found that general Moore had taken possession of the town, which was a fortunate circumstance, since Moore, actuated by humanity, and the honourable spirit of a true military officer, had used his utmost exertions to restrain his licentious troops. Thus the place, little damaged by either party, displayed a contrast to other towns in the county, which had felt the de

vastating

XLIV.

vastating violence of both. As the surrendry had CHAP. taken place, in reliance on lord Kingsborough's engagements, before the return of the messengers with the answer of Lake, those chiefs of the rebels, who were conscious of having acted with humanity, returned to their homes, or remained in the town, se cure, as they imagined, under the faith of capitulation. Thus these all fell into the hands of the army and suffered death; while the murderers, among whom was Dixon, escaped the vengeance due. By different management the rebellion might now have been for ever suppressed, if such was the object of the chief commander, the real criminals brought to justice, and vast mischief prevented which afterwards had place. Philip Roche, coming alone to Wexford to settle with his Majesty's generals the manner in which his troops were to surrender and disperse, was seized, maltreated in a manner quite shocking to human feelings, and committed to prison. As soon as they were made acquainted with their leader's fate, his followers, regarding their case as desperate, marched away to the county of Carlow, under the conduct of John Murphy, the priest who had first raised the flag of insurrection in the county of Wexford, commonly called Father John, as the title of father is generally prefixed to the names of priests in the south of Ireland.

day, June

Those insurgents, who had withdrawn to Peppard's Bloody Fricastle, had resolved, on hearing that no capitulation27983. would be admitted, to march to the Wicklow mountains; but, receiving intelligence that a number of

XLIV.

CHAP. Yeomen were slaughtering the people about Gorey, who were returning to their homes, they directed their course at full speed thither. General Needham had, by express, on the twentieth, commanded a few cavalry left in Arklow to march immediately to Gorey, where they should find, he informed them, a large force, with an officer under whose orders they should act. Hearing that their town was protected by a large force, the refugee loyalists of Gorey could not be restrained from returning home from Arklow; but, contrary to the general's promise, no force was there; and they were alarmed on the twenty-second by the rapid approach of a rebel column. They fled back toward Arklow, whither the small body of yeomen, after a vain attempt to obstruct the progress of the enemy, effected their escape with little loss. Some horsemen of the insurgents, pursued six miles; and, beside the wounding of others, put thirty-seven men of the refugees to death, in revenge for about fifty of their own denomination previously slain by the yeomen and supplementaries. Having finished the massacre, from which the denomination of Bloody Friday was given to that day by the people of that neighbourhood, the rebels, after a short repast, resumed their march to the Wicklow mountains.

Progress of
Father John.

The main body at Sledagh, about fifteen thousand, among whom were no longer men of education and property, directed its course to Scollagh-gap, an opening in the great ridge of Mount Leinster, which separates the counties of Wexford and Carlow. Their design was to raise an insurrection in the latter

county

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county and in that of Kilkenny, particularly among CHAP.
the colliers about Castlecomer, who had been in a
state of disturbance in 1793. Driving before them
the few troops who attempted to oppose their pro-
gress, they passed the gap, burned the little town of
Kiledmond, forced in like manner the pass of Gore's
bridge on the river Barrow, and took post on a long
mountainous elevation, called the ridge of Leinster,
five miles from Castlecomer. To this town they
descended early the next morning, and gained an
entrance with the slaughter of about fifty of their
opponents. But while a defence was still attempted
from some houses, and a number of others were in
flames, an army, under Sir Charles Asgill, arrived to
the townsmen's aid. To avoid the fire of his artil-
lery, which was levelled at the streets, to the danger
of the loyal combatants in the houses as well as of the
rebels, the latter retired to a small distance from
the town. This afforded an opportunity to the nu-
merous protestants, who had taken refuge here, to
retire with the army to Kilkenny: but they were
obliged to leave their effects a prey to the enemy,
who took possession of the place. Having plundered
Castlecomer, the insurgents, whose loss in this action
may have been about seventy, again took their station
on the heights. Disappointed in their hopes of
raising an insurrection, the spirit of which had now
evaporated in these parts; diminished by desertion to
between four and five thousand; and, which was
far the worst, exhausted of ammunition; they re-
solved to return through Scollagh to their own

1

XLIV.

CHAP. County. In the execution of this plan they were assailed on three sides at once by seventeen hundred men under Asgill and major Mathews, on the twentysixth of June, in the morning, at a place called Kilcomny. They fled with such celerity, that they regained the gap with little loss, except their plunder and cannon, which consisted of ten light pieces. They forced their passage with the defeat of some opposing troops, and directed their march northeastward by the Dwarf-woods near Ferns, to the mountains of Wicklow, reduced by desertion to a much less number, and deprived of their leader, Father John, who was taken after the battle, and hanged at Tullow.

Repulse at
Hackets-

town.

Slaughter at
Bailyellis.

On their arrival in these mountains, they found that their associates, under Perry and Fitzgerald, had been foiled, on the twenty-fifth, in an attack on Hackets-town. These, after the massacre of Bloody Friday, had united with the insurgents of Wicklow, under Garret Byrne, for the storming of this post. As they were destitute of artillery, and suffered a galling fire from the barrack, and from a fortified house in which Mr. Mac-Ghee, a protestant clergyman, had placed himself at the head of a few determined loyalists, they desisted at length, and retired to Blessington, with a loss of perhaps two hundred of their number. The loyalists also, as the town had been burned, abandoned the place, and retreated to Tullow. On their side were ten killed and twenty wounded.

These associated bands were, on the thirtieth of June descried on their march to surprise Carnew;

and