ther act of treachery, charged with fury and
drove the mass from the plain with the loss of more than 200 killed.
Thus, here again, events made for animosity and bloodshed. Protestants
remembered the foul play at Prosperous; the rebels swore to avenge the
treachery at the Curragh.

* * * * *

News of the first of these events sped across the Irish Sea on 25th and
26th May. They reached Pitt just before or after his Whitsunday duel on
Putney Heath. Thick and fast came the tales of slaughter. On 29th May
Camden wrote in almost despairing terms--The rebellion was most
formidable and extensive. It would certainly be followed by a French
invasion. It must be suppressed at once. The Protestants and the
military were mad with fury, and called aloud for a war of
extermination. The strife would be marked by unheard-of atrocities. For
the sake of human nature, Pitt must at once send 5,000 regular troops.
Camden added that cavalry were useless against lines of pikemen, a
phrase which tells of the dogged fury of the peasantry. Nevertheless,
his assertion that the rebellion was extensive proves his lack of
balance. The saving facts of the situation were that the Ulstermen had
not yet moved; that Connaught and Munster were quiet; and of Leinster,
only Kildare, Wexford, and parts of Carlow and Wicklow were in arms. In
Dublin murder was rife, but the pikemen did not muster.

Pitt's reply of 2nd June to Camden is singularly cool. In brief and
businesslike terms he stated that, despite the difficulties of the
situation, he had already prepared to despatch 5,000 men; but Camden
must send them back at the earliest possible moment in order not to
disarrange the plans for the war. Still more frigid was the letter of
George III to Pitt. The King lamented the need of sending troops to
Ireland, as they would thereby be cut off from "active service." Camden
(he wrote) must really not press for them unnecessarily. However, as the
sword was drawn in Ireland, it must not be sheathed until the rebels
submitted unconditionally. Eleven days later the King wrote to Pitt that
the new Lord Lieutenant "must not lose the present moment of terror for
frightening the supporters of the Castle into an Union with this
country; and no further indulgences must be granted to Roman Catholics,
as no country can be governed where there is more than one established
religion."[499] The thinness of the King's thought is in par