to the bridge; where he held a mock court-martial, and then put them to death one by one, and flung their bodies into the river. Ninety-seven had perished when he was induced to desist by a priest named Father Corrin, who insisted at the risk of his own life that the butchery should cease. News of the beleaguering of Vinegar Hill, and the defeat at Goff's Bridge, was now brought in, and the surviving captives were hurried back to prison. Next day the fugitive army passed through the town and fled to the north, and the evacuated city was shortly afterwards occupied by General Moore.

The various bodies of rebels dispersed rapidly about the country. Some found a refuge in the Wicklow mountains, where a few predatory bands had already established themselves. Others broke into Kilkenny, and were cut to pieces by Sir Charles Asgill. Others pushed northward into Meath and Louth, and were finally destroyed at Swords, while attempting to cut their way back to the protection of the hill country in Wicklow. They played the part of a dangerous and destructive banditti for a few weeks; so that order was not finally restored in the disturbed counties till the end of July.

CHAPTER XXI.

TRAMPLING OUT THE FIRE. A.D. 1798.

THE neck of the insurrection was broken by the capture of Vinegar Hill and the recovery of Wexford, and then ensued a reign of terror of the most merciless character. The brutality of the militia and yeomany had been bad enough before the outbreak: now that the rising was crushed, their ferocity knew no bounds. The rebels had slaughtered Protestants, who refused to be baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and burnt their houses, in the brief hour of triumph which they had enjoyed. The Protestants, when their turn came, showed less mercy and exacted a more terrible retribution. When the rebels had fled from Vinegar Hill, their hospital at Enniscorthy was burnt, and the wounded shot as they lay there in their beds. The same scene was repeated at Wexford. The soldiers, especially a regiment of imported Hessians, scoured the country, shooting all whom they came across, outraging women, destroying the Roman Catholic chapels, and completing the general desolation by burning and plundering the remaining homesteads. Loyalist and rebel suffered alike indiscriminately, without even the benefit of a court-martial. There was no stay to

inquire whether the victim were friend or foe. It was enough that he was found at large in the disaffected county. In the towns courts-martial were held, and executions quickly followed. Too often the innocent suffered with the guilty. The local magistrates, who had fled before the storm, returned to resume the old coercive system, and to wreak their vengeance upon the inhabitants.

General Lake remained for a few days in Wexford to start the execution of martial law, and then left for Dublin, leaving General Hunter to finish the work. The executions took place upon the bridge, where Dixon and his myrmidons had massacred the prisoners. There Father Roche was hung, with John Hay and Matthew Keogh alongside of him. So was Kelly, the leader of the rebel column which had penetrated into New Ross on the day of the battle. So was Bagenal Harvey, too late regretting the stirring of the fire which he had been unable to control. So was Colclough, another gentleman of considerable fortune, who had been confined with Harvey just before the outbreak, and whose only crime was that, having by the persecution of the Government become an object of interest with the rebels, he was unable to escape from the disaffected country, and compelled by his unwelcome admirers to take a command in Wexford. Cornelius Grogan, a timid old gentleman, and the owner of an estate worth £8000 a year, who had been compelled for his own. safety to act as commissary to their forces, was hanged with Bagenal Harvey. Father John, the rebel chief, had

escaped with the roving bands which had broken into Kilkenny. He was caught and hanged at Tullow. Father Redmond, a harmless priest, who seems to have been wholly innocent of any connection with the insurgents, was put to death at Gorey. To be a priest was proof of guilt.

In Dublin the disaffected were terrified by the reckless use of the lash. The suspected were flogged under the direction of John Claudius Beresford, in the riding-house in Marlborough Street, where his corps of yeomanry assembled for parade; and in the prison at the royal barracks, by command of Major Sandys. The triangles were set up in the royal exchange, which had been converted into a military depôt, and was the head-quarters of the yeomanry; and even at the entrance of Upper Castle Yard. Judkin Fitzgerald, the sheriff of Tipperary, continued his indiscriminate floggings, careless whether his victims were innocent or guilty. A wretched man, named O'Brien, cut his throat to avoid the sheriff's cato'-nine-tails. One of Fitzgerald's own captains of yeomanry gave his evidence in an action afterwards brought against the sheriff by a man whom he had flogged, named Wells; and said that "he had feared that, owing to Fitzgerald's conduct, the yeomen would not bear arms, and that his cruelty exercised in inflicting the torture would infuse a spirit of rebellion even into the most loyal." The authorities deliberately shut their eyes to these proceedings. Fitzgerald himself produced a letter in his defence, from Brigade-Major Bagwell, dated June 6, 1798, saying that "if he found any good to arise

from flogging he might go on with it, but let it not reach his ears." Fitzgerald was afterwards rewarded by the Government for his services with a baronetcy, and the damages recovered against him by Bernard Wright, amounting to £500, were reimbursed to him out of the public treasury.

In the mean time, public opinion had shown itself so hostile to Lord Camden's government, that Pitt, though he had steadily supported him all along, found it necessary to sacrifice him and to adopt a policy of greater moderation. Camden was recalled, and Lord Cornwallis was sent to replace him and to supersede Lake, combining in his own person the offices both of viceroy and commander-in-chief. Lord Castlereagh, once a delegate at the volunteer convention, and late member of the Opposition loud in demanding reform, whose father had in 1797 married Lord Camden's sister, and who had thereupon been appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal, had been for some weeks performing Mr. Pelham's duties, during the illness of the latter. By the new viceroy's desire, he continued to act, and in the following November, on Pelham's retirement, he was promoted to the post of chief secretary. This remarkable young man had just completed his twenty-ninth year.

Lord Cornwallis arrived in Dublin on the 20th of June-the day before the capture of Vinegar Hill. The new viceroy was well aware of the difficulties of his position. He had refused the viceroyalty on Lord Fitzwilliam's resignation, and it was only at the earnest request of Mr. Pitt, and from a strong sense of duty,