of
the campaign will always be specially memorable for the attack made
on the little town of Prosperous, in the county of Kildare. It was
cleverly made in the early morning; the garrison, taken unawares, were
nearly all killed; the Commander, Captain Swayne, being amongst the
victims. It was soon afterwards found out that the leader of the
rebels was Dr. Esmonde, a gentleman of good family, and first
lieutenant in a regiment of yeomanry stationed a few miles off, who
had been dining with Captain Swayne the previous evening. He appeared
in his regiment the next day, but was identified by a yeoman who had
seen him at Prosperous; arrested, tried, and hanged as a traitor.

A Nationalist has recently referred to him as a martyr to the cause of
Irish liberty.

By the month of June Wexford had become the centre of the rebellion.
In that county it had assumed an essentially religious character
(there being, however, a few exceptions on each side), and in no
other part of Ireland was the war so terrible either on account of its
magnitude or barbarity. The passions of the ignorant peasantry were
inflamed by all Protestants being spoken of as Orangemen and a report
being diligently circulated that all Orangemen had sworn to destroy
the Catholic Faith--exactly the same course that was followed a
hundred years later. Roman Catholic priests, wearing their sacred
vestments and carrying crucifixes, led the rebel forces; and the
ignorant peasants, believing them to be endowed with miraculous
powers, followed them with the blind adherence that only fanaticism
can inspire. And yet--so strangely contradictory is everything in
Ireland--there is clear evidence that amongst those priestly agitators
many were at heart deists, who were making use of religion in the
hope of furthering Jacobinism. Many Protestants saved their lives by
apostatizing, or by allowing their children to be rebaptized; it is
but fair to add, however, that several of the older priests, shocked
at the conduct of the rebels, concealed heretics in their houses and
churches; and that all through the war many priests, in spite of the
difficulty of their position, remained loyal and did what they could
to aid the king's troops.

The rebels for some weeks held command of the town and county of
Wexford, their chief camp being at a place called Vinegar Hill. The
country around was searched and plundered; the Protestants who were
captured were brought into the rebel camp, and