CHAPTER XXII.

THE LAST FLICKER OF THE FLAME.

A.D. 1798.

JUST when Cornwallis's policy of pacification was beginning to bear fruit, a fresh danger appeared in the west. The French Government, on learning that an insurrection had actually taken place in Ireland, again turned their attention to a descent upon the Irish coast. Hoche was dead, and Buonaparte's eyes were fixed on Egypt, so that the Irish refugees had lately clamoured for assistance in vain. Now their expectations again were high. General Humbert was at Rochelle with about a thousand men. General Hardi was at Brest with some three thousand more. Humbert was anxious for an opportunity to distinguish himself. He hastened to obey the orders of the Directory with the small force at his command, leaving General Hardi to follow as quickly as might be.

He embarked his troops towards the middle of August, with a few guns and a considerable stand of arms. On August 22nd he anchored in Killala Bay. Having got possession of Killala, he was joined by many of the peasantry, who flocked to his standard and re

ceived the arms which the French had brought with them. Then leaving two hundred men to hold the town, he pushed on to Ballina with about eight hundred French soldiers, and a tumultuous rabble of his Irish allies. At the first news of the appearance of the French, the viceroy had sent Lake into the west. Lake had concentrated all the forces he could collect at Castlebar. He had between three and four thousand men with him, chiefly Irish militia, and several guns. Humbert, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, attacked him on the 27th. After some desultory firing the French charged with the bayonet. The Galway volunteers and the Kilkenny and Longford militia fled headlong. The position was lost, and Lake retreated precipitately to Tuam, leaving his guns behind him. There seems but little doubt that the two militia regiments had been tampered with, and that their flight was due to treachery. At any rate, considerable numbers of both regiments appeared in the enemy's camp after the battle, and joined the invading force.

Cornwallis was himself hurrying to the front with the troops from Dublin, and had reached Kilbeggan when he received intelligence of the disaster at Castlebar. He at once advanced to Athlone, which he found in a panic, and thence pushed on and joined Lake at Tuam. He was shortly afterwards reinforced by two regiments of the line, and felt strong enough to take the offensive. Humbert, meanwhile, with his handful of troops had not ventured to penetrate any further into the country, and having called up the garrison he had left at Killala,

moved eastward into Sligo, attended by an ever-increasing multitude of half-armed peasants, in the hope that General Hardi would soon arrive with his larger force. Lake followed him in hot pursuit, while Cornwallis moved in a parallel direction rather more to the south. Hearing that the people were "out" in the county of Longford, Humbert crossed the Shannon at Ballintra, and hurried on towards Granard. Lake was close behind him, and Cornwallis, crossing the river at Carrick, closed in upon him from the south-west. Humbert turned to bay at Ballinamuck, and finding himself surrounded by an army of 20,000 men, surrendered at discretion. The insurgent peasantry immediately dispersed, pursued in all directions by the soldiers, and slaughtered without mercy. Castlebar and Killala, which were in the hands of the rebels under the command of French officers, were shortly afterwards reoccupied by the royal troops, not without some fighting at the latter place. Court-martials and executions followed, and a considerable harrying of the surrounding country.

It is remarkable that in Connaught, where there had been no free-quartering, no torture, and no pitch-caps, according to the testimony of the Bishop of Killala, who was a prisoner in that town during the French occupation, "not a drop of blood was shed by the rebels except in the field of war;" and the poor ignorant peasantry appear, according to the same authority, to have joined the French more for the sake of the smart uniforms and the rations which were provided for them, than from any spirit of disaffection to the Government.

There was yet one more scene before the drama of '98 was closed. Hardi's expedition sailed from Brest on September 20th. It consisted of the Hoche (a seventyfour), eight frigates and a schooner. Tone, the indefatigable, was on board the Hoche-no longer lighthearted and sanguine, but desperate and desponding. The Hoche, two frigates, and the schooner arrived outside Lough Swilly, on October 10th. On the following morning an English squadron under Admiral Warren. hove in sight, and bore down upon them. The frigates and the schooner slipped away, and after a long chase the frigates were captured. The Hoche for six hours. fought four men-of-war as big as herself, until, raked from stem to stern, she lay a disabled wreck upon the water. Tone commanded one of the batteries, fighting with desperation and courting death, but was untouched by the leaden hail which swept around him. At length the Frenchman struck and was carried into Lough Swilly. The French officers, with Tone amongst them, were hospitably entertained at Lord Cavan's. At his table Tone was recognized by Sir George Hill, an old college friend, and was sent in irons to Dublin.

A court-martial was held. General Loftus presided. Tone pleaded his commission in the French army, but his plea was not listened to. He begged that he might be shot like a soldier, and not hung like a dog; but his request was refused. On the morning fixed for his execution, he cut his throat in prison. The wound was not mortal. It was dressed; and he was remorselessly ordered to the scaffold. In the mean time Curran had

moved in the King's Bench for a writ of Habeas Corpus on the ground that as the prisoner held no commission in the English army, the court-martial had no jurisdiction to try him while the courts were sitting in Dublin. The writ was granted, and arrived in time to arrest the execution. The real object of the application was gained, and Tone was allowed to die a lingering death in prison.