of
the tribunals in peaceable cities, we may imagine what must have been
the excesses of the soldiery in the open country. In the south,
Sir William St. Leger directed a series of murderous raids upon the
peasantry of Cork, which at length produced their natural effect. Lord
Muskerry and other leading recusants, who had offered their services
to maintain the peace of the province, were driven by an insulting
refusal to combine for their own protection. The 1,100 indictments
of Lord Cork soon swelled their ranks, and the capture of the ancient
city of Cashel, by Philip O'Dwyer, announced the insurrection of the
south. Waterford soon after opened its gates to Colonel Edmund Butler;
Wexford declared for the Catholic cause, and Kilkenny surrendered to
Lord Mountgarret. In Wicklow, Coote's troopers committed murders such
as had not been equalled since the days of the pagan Northmen. Little
children were carried aloft writhing on the pikes of these barbarians,
whose worthy commander confessed that 'he liked such frolics.' Neither
age nor sex was spared, and an ecclesiastic was especially certain
of instant death. Fathers Higgins and White of Naas, in Kildare, were
given up by Coote to these 'lambs,' though, each had been granted a
safe-conduct by his superior officer, Lord Ormond. And these murders
were taking place at the very time when the Franciscans and Jesuits of
Cashel were protecting Dr. Pullen, the Protestant chancellor of that
cathedral and other Protestant prisoners; while also the castle of
Cloughouter, in Cavan, the residence of Bishop Bedell, was crowded
with Protestant fugitives, all of whom were carefully guarded by the
chivalrous Philip O'Reilly.

In Ulster, by the end of April, there were 19,000 troops, regulars and
volunteers, in the garrison or in the field. Newry was taken by Monroe
and Chichester. Magennis was obliged to abandon Down, and McMahon
Monaghan; Sir Phelim was driven to burn Armagh and Dungannon and to
take his last stand at Charlemont. In a severe action with Sir Robert
and Sir William Stewart, he had displayed his usual courage with
better than his usual fortune, which, perhaps, we may attribute to the
presence with him of Sir Alexander McDonnell, brother to Lord Antrim,
the famous _Colkitto_ of the Irish and Scottish wars. But the severest
defeat which the confederates had was in the heart of Leinster, at the
hamlet of Kilrush, within four miles of Athy. Lord Ormond, returning
from a second