ngle
him out in the fray. The king ordered relief to be given to the
importunate friar; but the eager glance of the intrusive applicant so
disquieted him--agitated, doubtless, from the idea of his small force
being about to engage at such desperate odds--that he presently caused
the attendants to look for the friar, but he was nowhere to be found.
This caused him to array one Gib Harper in his armour, and appoint Lord
Alan Stewart general of the field. The fight commenced with a rapid
charge on the Scots by the Anglo-Irish under Bermingham. With him were
divers lords and a great army. The force was chiefly composed, however,
of yeomanry, or, as an ancient record says, 'the common people, with a
powerful auxiliary _dextram Dei_.' Bermingham, believing Lord Stewart
was Bruce, singled him out, and, after a terrible combat, slew him,
whereon the Scots fled. According to the _Howth Chronicle_, few escaped,
their loss being 1,230 men. Bruce's death is generally ascribed to John
Mapas, one of the Drogheda contingent. The _Ulster Journal_
states:--'There can be little doubt that the ancient Anglo-Irish family
of "Mape," of Maperath, in the shire of Meath, was descended from this
distinguished slayer of Edward Bruce.' The heiress of John Mapas, Esq.,
of Rochestown, county of Dublin, was married to the late Richard Wogan
Talbot, Esq., of Malahide. After the defeat at Dundalk, the small
remnant of the Scottish invaders yet alive fled northward, where they
met a body of troops sent by King Robert as a reinforcement to his
brother. They could not make head against the victorious troops of
Bermingham, so they made their way to the coast, burning and destroying
the country through which they passed."

[Illustration: BUTLER'S TOMB, FRIARY CHURCH, CLONMEL.]

[Illustration: CARRICKFERGUS.]

FOOTNOTES:

[337] _Crime_.--We really must enter a protest against the way in which
Irish history is written by some English historians. In Wright's
_History of Ireland_ we find the following gratuitous assertion offered
to excuse De Clare's crime: "Such a refinement of cruelty _must_ have
arisen from a suspicion of treachery, or from some other grievous
offence with which we are not acquainted." If all the dark deeds of
history are to be accounted for in this way, we may bid farewell to
historical justice. And yet this work, which is written in the most
prejudiced manner, has had a far larger circulation in Ireland than Mr.
Haverty's truthful