is the original guilt of causing them to be
charged?

Father Murphy[582] was killed in an attack on Carlow, and his death
threw the balance strongly in favour of the Government troops, who
eventually proved victorious. After the battle of Ross, the Wexford men
chose the Rev. Philip Roche as their leader, in place of Mr. Bagenal
Harvey, who had resigned the command. The insurgents were now guilty of
following the example of their persecutors, if not with equal cruelty,
at least with a barbarity which their leaders in vain reprobated. The
prisoners whom they had taken were confined in the jail, and every
effort was made to save them from the infuriated people. But one savage,
named Dixon, would not be content without their blood; and while the
army and their leaders were encamped on Vinegar Hill, he and some other
villains as wicked as himself found their way into the jail, and marched
the prisoners to the bridge, held a mock trial, and then piked
thirty-five of their victims, and flung them into the water. At this
moment a priest, who had heard of the bloody deed, hastened to the spot;
and after in vain commanding them to desist, succeeded at last in making
them kneel down, when he dictated a prayer that God might show them the
same mercy which they would show to the surviving prisoners. This had
its effect; and the men who waited in terror to receive the doom they
had so often and so mercilessly inflicted on others, were marched back
to prison.

The camp on Vinegar Hill was now beset on all sides by the royal troops.
An attack was planned by General Lake, with 20,000 men and a large train
of artillery. General Needham did not arrive in time to occupy the
position appointed for him; and after an hour and a-half of hard
fighting, the Irish gave way, principally from want of gunpowder. The
soldiers now indulged in the most wanton deeds of cruelty. The hospital
at Enniscorthy was set on fire, and the wounded men shot in their beds.
At Wexford, General Moore prevented his troops from committing such
outrages; but when the rest of the army arrived, they acted as they had
done at Enniscorthy. Courts-martial were held, in which the officers
were not even sworn, and victims were consigned to execution with
reckless atrocity. The bridge of Wexford, where a Catholic priest had
saved so many Protestant lives, was now chosen for the scene of
slaughter; and all this in spite of a promise of amnesty. Father Roche
and Mr. Keogh were