ant, from his nominal command.

This success of the loyalists saved Waterford and Kilkenny from anything
more than local riots; and Moore, moving up from Fermoy and Clonmel,
soon threatened the rebel county from the west. The beaten peasants
glutted their revenge on Protestant prisoners near New Ross; and a
general massacre of prisoners at Wexford was averted only by the rapid
advance of Moore. Meanwhile, Father John, moving into County Wicklow
with a force some 30,000 strong, sought to break down the defence at
Arklow. But that important post on the River Avoca was stoutly held by
General Needham with some 1,500 men, mostly militia and yeomen. There,
too, the priests led on the peasants with a zeal that scorned death. One
of the peasant leaders rushed up to a gun, thrust his cap into it, and
shouted, "Come along, boys; her mouth is stopped." The next moment he
and his men were blown to pieces. Disciplined valour gained the day (9th
June), and John and his crusaders retired to Vinegar Hill. His
colleague, Father Michael Murphy, who had claimed to be able to catch
Protestant bullets, was killed by a cannon-shot; and this may have
decided the rebels to retreat.

The British Guards had now arrived, to the inexpressible relief of
Camden and his advisers. Beset by reports of a general rising in Ulster
and by the furious protests of loyalists against the inaction of Pitt,
the Lord Lieutenant had held on his way, acting with energy but curbing
the policy of vengeance, so that, as he informed Pitt, he was now the
most unpopular man in Ireland. Nevertheless, before he left her shores,
he had the satisfaction to see his measures crowned with success. The
converging moves of Lake, Needham, Dundas, and Johnstone upon Vinegar
Hill cooped up the rebels on that height; and on 21st June the royal
troops stormed the slopes with little loss. The dupes of Father John no
longer believed in his miraculous powers. The survivors broke away
southwards, but then doubled back into the mountains of Wicklow. The war
now became a hunt, varied by savage reprisals. Father John was hanged on
26th June. By his barbarities he had ended the dream of United Ireland.
Few of the malcontents of Antrim and Down obeyed the call to arms of the
United Irishmen early in June; and the risings in those counties soon
flickered out. Religious bigotry enabled Dublin Castle once more to
triumph.

Pitt was vehemently blamed by Irish loyalists for his apathy at the
cr