the first victims of the higher classes; Messrs.
Grogan, Harvey, and Colclough were hanged the following day. A mixed
commission was now formed of the magistrates, who were principally
Orangemen, and the military, whose virulence was equally great. The Rev.
Mr. Gordon, the Protestant clergyman whose account I have principally
followed, as above all suspicion, declares that "whoever could be proved
to have saved an Orangeman or royalist from assassination, his house
from burning, or his property from plunder, was considered as having
influence amongst the revolters, and consequently as a rebel commander."
The reward for their charity now was instant execution. The Rev. John
Redmond, the Catholic priest of Newtownbarry, had saved Lord Mountmorris
and other gentlemen from the fury of the exasperated people, and had
preserved his house and property from plunder. He was now sent for by
this nobleman; and, conscious of his innocence, and the benefits he had
rendered him, he at once obeyed the summons. On his arrival, he was
seized, brought before the court, and executed on the pretence of having
been a commander in the rebel army. He had, indeed, commanded, but the
only commands he ever uttered were commands of mercy. Well might Mr.
Gordon sorrowfully declare, that he had "heard of hundreds of United
Irishmen, during the insurrection, who have, at the risk of their lives,
saved Orangemen; but I have not heard of a single Orangeman who
encountered any danger to save the life of a United Irishman." With
equal sorrow he remarks the difference in the treatment of females by
each party. The Irish were never once accused of having offered the
slightest insult to a woman; the military, besides shooting them
indiscriminately with the men, treated them in a way which cannot be
described, and under circumstances which added a more than savage
inhumanity to their crime.

The next act of the fatal drama was the execution of the State
prisoners. The rising in Ulster had been rendered ineffective, happily
for the people, by the withdrawal of some of the leaders at the last
moment. The command in Antrim was taken by Henry McCracken, who was at
last captured by the royalists, and executed at Belfast, on the 17th of
June. At Saintfield, in Down, they were commanded by Henry Monroe, who
had been a Volunteer, and had some knowledge of military tactics. In an
engagement at Ballinahinch, he showed considerable ability in the
disposal of his forc