nce and daring spirit, became the leader
of all the lawless and disaffected parties in his native County of
Limerick, and, indeed, of all Munster.

The parties within the old ruin now made their appearance on the hill,
and every man of them going to the head of his own body, they marched
first to Hospital, a contiguous village, where they boldly beat a drum,
the sound of which called up, as by enchantment, such a concourse of
armed men as frightened the parties themselves. They marched from that,
westwards, to Knockany, where they dug up several extensive fields
(of grass) belonging to Mr. O'Grady. They marched on then, in the
same direction, towards the residence of the Bolands, their numbers
increasing as they went along, by voluntary and involuntary parties.

The Bolands, ever on the watch, soon learned that they were to be
visited that night by those parties whom they had so long defied, but
they never calculated that they Should be attacked by such a strong
force as they now learned was approaching them--for it is believed
that the actual number could not have been less than five thousand men,
contributed by the Counties of Limerick Clare, Kerry, Cork, Waterford,
Tipperary, and Kilkenny.

However, they were not daunted, but immediately put themselves in order
of battle. They first sent out (off their premises) all their servants,
men and women, lest there should be a spy or a traitor among them. They
then carried up all their arms and ammunition to the top floor of their
(two-story, long, thatched) house. The father and the younger sons
planted themselves at one of the window's facing the front. The elder
son and the family tutor, a young man of the neighborhood, who would
not abandon them in their hour of danger, took their stand at the
window which looked directly at the narrow strong door of the wall which
inclosed the house. The two daughters, with their mother, took up their
places between the two windows, under cover of the wall, and having been
well practiced for som, weeks previous, stood prepared to load and hand
up the arms to their heroes when the occasion should arrive. About the
hour of one o'clock in the morning, the barking of dogs, and an odd
random shot, gave the Bolands certain and unmistakable notice that their
hour of terror was at hand. And soon they could hear a monotonous sound
of moving feet and suppressed voices, under the outer walls of their
fortress. A horn was then sounded, and the be