d armed with great expedition. As there was a scarcity
of swords and pikes, smiths were employed to make weapons by fastening
scythes on poles. All the country houses round Lough Erne were turned
into garrisons. No Papist was suffered to be at large in the town;
and the friar who was accused of exerting his eloquence against the
Englishry was thrown into prison, [129]

The other great fastness of Protestantism was a place of more
importance. Eighty years before, during the troubles caused by the last
struggle of the houses of O'Neil and O'Donnel against the authority of
James the First, the ancient city of Derry had been surprised by one of
the native chiefs: the inhabitants had been slaughtered, and the houses
reduced to ashes. The insurgents were speedily put down and punished:
the government resolved to restore the ruined town: the Lord Mayor,
Aldermen, and Common Council of London were invited to assist in the
work; and King James the First made over to them in their corporate
capacity the ground covered by the ruins of the old Derry, and about six
thousand English acres in the neighbourhood, [130]

This country, then uncultivated and uninhabited, is now enriched by
industry, embellished by taste, and pleasing even to eyes accustomed to
the well tilled fields and stately manor houses of England. A new city
soon arose which, on account of its connection with the capital of the
empire, was called Londonderry. The buildings covered the summit and
slope of a hill which overlooked the broad stream of the Foyle, then
whitened by vast flocks of wild swans, [131] On the highest ground stood
the Cathedral, a church which, though erected when the secret of Gothic
architecture was lost, and though ill qualified to sustain a comparison
with the awful temples of the middle ages, is not without grace and
dignity. Near the Cathedral rose the palace of the Bishop, whose see
was one of the most valuable in Ireland. The city was in form nearly an
ellipse; and the principal streets formed a cross, the arms of which
met in a square called the Diamond. The original houses have been either
rebuilt or so much repaired that their ancient character can no longer
be traced; but many of them were standing within living memory. They
were in general two stories in height; and some of them had stone
staircases on the outside. The dwellings were encompassed by a wall
of which the whole circumference was little less than a mile. On the
bastions w