set out on another excursion to Ballimurrin. In their course they shot some straggling men, and burned two houses on finding two men killed near them. They were thus employed in scouring the country, when informed of the defeat at Oulard, and this determined them without hesitation to retreat with all speed homewards.

THE great suspense felt by the inhabitants of Wex-ford, during the whole of this day, on account of so sudden an insurrection, now grew into serious alarm, such as unexpected news like this must inspire. The lamentations of the unfortunate widows and orphans of the soldiers who had fallen in the encounter, increased the general consternation. These, clapping their hands, ran about the streets quite frantic, mix-. ing their piteous moanings with the plaintive cries of their children, and uttering their bitterest maledictions against the yeomen, whom they charged with having run away, and left their husbands to destruction-Letters were dispatched to Duncannonfort and to Waterford, with these disastrous accounts, and requesting reinforcements.

Nor was

THOSE of the North Cork militia then in the town,vowed vengeance against the prisoners confined in the goal; particularly against Messrs. Harvey, Fitzgerald, and Colclough, so lately taken up; and so explicitly and without reserve were these intentions manifested, that I myself heard a serjeant and others of the regiment declare, that they could not die easy, if they should not have the satisfaction of putting the prisoners in the gaol of Wexford to death, particularly the three gentlemen last mentioned. this monstrous design harboured only by the common soldiers; some of the officers declared the same intentions. I communicated all to the goaler, who informed me that he had himself heard the guards on the goal express their hostile intentions. He was so alarmed and apprehensive of their putting their threats into execution, that he contrived means to get them out, then locked the door, and determined to defend his charge at the risque of his life. He then, with a

humanity and presence of mind, that would have become a better station, communicated his apprehensions to all the prisoners, whom he advised to remain close in their cells, so as to avoid being shot in case of an actual attack. He armed the three gentlemen, and formed so judicious a plan of defence, that in the event of their being overpowered, their lives could not be had at a cheap rate. A number of soldiers went round the goal several times, as if to reconnoitre, and were overheard threatening the prisoners with certain destruction, if they could but get in: and I verily believe that, had it not been for the indefatigable exertions of the goaler, the prisoners would have been all massacred; and dreadful it is to think what consequences must have ensued! The alarms of the three gentlemen already named were so much encreased by these circumstances, as well as by other reports, that they made every disposition of their properties, as if on the point of death.

THE rising of the people, in the county of Wexford, took place in the direction from Carnew to Oulard, for fear, as they alleged of being whipped, burned, or exterminated by the orangemen; hearing of the numbers of people that were put to death, unarmed and unoffending, through the country ;-the deliberate massacre and shooting of eight and twenty prisoners in the ball-alley of Carnew, without trial, and some under sentence of transportation, who stopped there on their way to Geneva; among these was a Mr. William Young, a protestant, who was ordered to be transported by a military tribunal. At Dunlavin, thirty-four men were shot without trial, and among them the informer on whose evidence they were arrested. Strange to tell, officers presided to sanction these proceedings! A man escaped by feigning to be killed, he was one out of eighteen of the corps of captain Saunders, of Saunders-grove, Baltinglass. These reports, together with all the dreadful accounts from the county of Kildare, roused their minds to the utmost pitch of alarm, indignation and fury. They were forming from the evening of the 26th during

the whole of the night, in two bodies. One assembled on Kilthomas-hill, against whom marched from Carnew, on the morning of the 27th, a body of yeomen cavalry and infantry, who proceeded boldly up the hill, where the insurgents possessed a strong and commanding situation, if they knew how to take advantage of it; but they were panic-struck, and fled at the approach of the military, who pursued them with great slaughter. They spared no man they met, and burned at least one hundred houses in the course of a march of seven miles.

THE Rev. Michael Murphy had been so alarmed on hearing of the rising of the people, that he fled into the town of Gorey early on Whitsunday; on his arrival not finding Mr. Kenny with whom he had lodged there he was induced to return for him and his family, for which purpose not being able to procure a driver, he himself led a horse and car and pursued a bye road, to get, if possible, unobserved into Ballecanow, by which means he did not meet some yeomen and others that had gone on the high-road to Gorey after they had torn up the altar, broken the windows, and otherwise damaged the roman catholic chapel, uttering the most violent threats against the priest and his flock, which specimens were very unlikely to remove the dreadful reports of the intended extermination of the catholics. These depredations had so much weight on the rev. Michael Murphy as to induce him to alter his original intentions not to fly to such men for protection, and he was then led on by the multitude to Kilthomas-hill; the rev. John Murphy had from similar unforeseen occurrences joined the insurgents. These two clergymen had been remarkable for their exhortations and exertions against the system of united Irishmen, until they were thus whirled into this political vortex, which, from all the information I have been able to collect, they undertook under the apprehension of extermination.

THE Rev. John Murphy was acting coadjutor of the parish of Monageer, and impressed with horror

at the desolation around him, took up arms with the people, representing to them that they had better die courageously in the field, than to be butchered in their houses. The insurgents in this quarter now began their career, by imitating the example that had been set before them. They commenced burning the houses of those who were most obnoxious to them. Every gentleman's house in the country was summoned to surrender their arms, and where any resistance was offered, the house was attacked, plundered and burnt, and most of the inhabitants killed in the conflict. The Camolin cavalry were the first that attacked these insurgents: in the action lieutenant Bookey and some privates lost their lives. The rest retreated to Gorey. On the 27th of May, captain Hawtrey White, led out two troops of horse from Gorey, determined to revenge the deaths of their companions. They came in sight of the insurgents on the north-side of the hill of Oulard; but they appeared in such force that they thought it not prudent to attack them, but returned to Gorey, burning the houses of suspected persons, and putting every straggler to death on their way. Numbers were called to their doors and shot, while many more met the like fate within their house, and some even that were asleep.

THUS it appears that the insurrection broke out at first, in a line from west to east, pretty nearly across the middle of the county, unsupported by the inhabitants either north or south of that direction. These were the tracts whose natives appeared most peaceably inclined, and who thought to avoid joining in the insurrection. The yeomanry of the north of the county proceeded on the 27th against a quiet and defenceless populace sallied forth in their neighbourhoods, burned number of houses and put to death hundreds of persons who were unarmed, unoffending and unresisting, so that those who had taken up arms had the greater chance of escape at that time.

On the evening of the 26th, captain John Grogan, perceiving from a height near his house, several houses on fire between Enniscorthy and Oulard, assembled as many of his yeomen as he could muster, and proceeded with them to Enniscorthy, whence he accompanied captain Solomon Richards, of the Enniscorthy cavalry, to meet the insurgents, who were commiting great devastation throughout the country, in retaliation, as they alleged, for what they had previously suffered. In fact, there seemed to exist between the parties an emulation of enmity, as they endeavoured to outdo each other in mischief, by burning and destroying on both sides those whom they deemed their enemies. The roman catholic chapel of Boolevogue was burnt, as was the house of the Rev. John Murphy, already mentioned; and several houses were set on fire and some of the inhabitants consumed within them: no man that was seen in coloured clothes escaped the fury of the yeomanry.

AFTER the battle of Oulard the insurgents encamped for the night at Carrigrew, from whence they set out at seven o'clock on Monday morning, the 28th, to Camolin, from thence to Ferns, where meeting with no interruption, or any military force to oppose them, they crossed the Slaney by the bridge at Scarawalsh, halted for some time on the hill of Balliorril, and from thence they proceeded to attack Enniscorthy, where they arrived about one o'clock, driving before them a great number of cattle with a view of overpowering the yeoman infantry that had proceeded to the Duffrey-gate, where the attack commenced. The assailants posting themselves behind the ditches that enclose the town-parks, kept up a severe but irregular fire of musketry, intermixed with pikemen, who were twice charged by the Enniscorthy cavalry along the two roads leading into the town, with little or no effect. The battle lasted with various success for four hours. Captain Snowe not considering it prudent to quit his situation on the bridge to support the yeomen at the Duffrey-gate, who then fell down by