5, and was defended by General Johnston and about 1,600
men against thousands of rebels. Again and again the garrison, beaten
back for a time by sheer weight of numbers, rallied and steadily faced
the enemy. Lord Mountjoy was killed as he led a charge of militia. The
rebels fought desperately, but as a mere mob. After a fierce struggle of
ten hours they turned and fled through the burning town. No quarter was
given. At least 2,000 of them were slain. The loss on the loyalist side
was 230. During the battle some rebels fled to Scullabogue House, where
their army had left 224 prisoners, nearly all protestants, under a
strong guard. They declared that the day was lost, that the garrison
were slaughtering the catholics, and that Harvey had ordered that the
prisoners should be killed. Thirty-seven were massacred at the hall
door, and 184, including some women and children, were shut into a barn
and burned to death. Out of the whole number only three escaped.

[Sidenote: _BATTLE OF ARKLOW._]

After his defeat at New Ross, Harvey, who tried in vain to check the
savagery of his followers, was deposed from his command, and was
succeeded by a priest named Philip Roche. The rebels at Gorey had been
wasting their time. They were largely reinforced, and on the 9th some
10,000 men attacked Arklow. Its capture would have thrown open the road
to Dublin. The garrison under General Needham numbered about 1,500, and
had some cannon. Mainly owing to the splendid courage of the Durham
fencibles they defeated the rebels, who were much discouraged by the
fall of one of their priests, for they believed that he and some of
their other priestly leaders could not be harmed by shot or sword. Their
defeat decided the issue of the rebellion. It was almost confined to
Leinster. Connaught remained quiet, and it scarcely touched Munster. In
Ulster, the chief seat of the conspiracy, there were only two outbreaks,
in Antrim and Down, which were easily suppressed. Severity had nipped
rebellion in the bud. Nor was this the only reason for the comparative
inaction of the province. The presbyterians, whose republican sympathies
had led them to look to France and seek the support of the catholics
against England, found France fail them again and again; and they were
bitterly incensed against the catholics on hearing how in Wexford they
made the rebellion a religious war and were torturing and massacring the
protestants. Nor were French politics any longer su