little conscious how soon and with what terrible
certainty the lion's paw was about to come down
upon them, still entertained the most extravagant
hopes. The burly vociferating priests,
who urged them to sweep Ireland free of
heretics, and sold them Gospels to preserve
them from sword and bullet, kept them blind to
all sense of danger, assured them that three
hundred thousand pikemen would soon
beleaguer Dublin, and that twenty thousand
French blue-coats were on the point of landing
at Bantry to drive out the English, and plant
the green flag on Dublin Castle. Father
Murphy was to lead them to glory; Father
Roche was to shout " Erin-go-bragh" at the
lord-lieutenant's table; Garret Byrne and his
men were to camp in the Phoenix Park, and
swing General Lake on the highest gibbet.
Father Clinch would catch the Protestant bullets
in his hand, and give them to the boys to pepper
the red-coats with. Viva-là! No more singing
" Croppies lie down" in heretic barracks;
no more roaring " Boyne Water" at fox-hunting
dinners. It was death or liberty now; Ireland
for the Irish, and the heretics to their own hot
quarters. Not a soul with the " black drop" in
him should remain alive. So yelled the half-
naked thousands in the windmill camp outside
Enniscorthy.

Meanwhile, and with terrible precision, the
Ninth Dragoons and Hompeschs's Hussars
closed round the swarming ant-hill. On the one
side were half-naked, hairy-chested, yelling
peasants, with scythes, hay-knives, scrapers,
currying-knives, adzes, old rusty bayonets fixed
on poles, or spears sharpened into swords,
and armed with hooks; on the other, the stiff
firm Fencibles, the militia, and the stout, clumsy
yeomanry cavalry, moving like automatons with
mathematical accuracy, sabres in a line,
pigtails in a row, cartouche-boxes level as a die.
The rebels had muskets, and could skirmish,
and détour, and extend, and contract their
lines; but they could not fire volleys, and, being
ignorant of artillery practice, they could neither
point their light guns with accuracy, nor keep up
a steady, continuous fusillade. Their artillerymen
were generally prisoners not to be
depended upon, and they had taken no care to
drill themselves or to preserve discipline. They
were furious in the attack, and, like most of the
Celtic races, desponding after repulse. At
bay, behind stone walls and hedges, in defiles,
or on the mountain-side, they were dangerous;
but even against a single brigade of a regular
army they were no more to be dreaded than a
mob of mischievous boys. Crowded in masses
of thousands, with no great mind to direct
them or to inspire them with confidence, with
no real leader, and scattered into separate
detachments, they could neither attack with
success nor rally when broken. Not the horsewhip
of Father Murphy nor the pistol-shots of Father
Clinch could reduce to order those once-routed
masses in the huge frieze great-coats.

On the 16th of June, General Lake resolved
to relieve Wexford and Enniscorthy, and rescue
the royalist prisoners. The general's orders
were, that General Dundas and General Loftus
should unite forces at Carnew, while General
Johnson and Sir James Duff should drive
the rebels from Carrickbyrne Hill, and taking
a position near Old Ross, patrol the country
towards the Black Stair Mountain. Sir
Charles Asgill was to occupy Gore's Bridge,
Borris, and Graigenamena; General Moore was
to land at Ballyhack Ferry, and unite with General
Johnson at Foulkes's Mill. In the mean time,
the gun-boats and armed vessels were to enter
Wexford harbour to assist in the attack on the
town; and the gun-boats from Waterford were
to support General Moore and his corps at
Clonisher. The columns of attack consisted of
portions of the Dublin, County Sligo, Royal Meath,
and Roscommon Militia, the 89th Regiment of
Foot, the Suffolk Fencible Infantry, the 5th
battalion of the 60th Regiment, the 1st
battalion Light Infantry, and the 4th Light
Battalion; while the base of the hill was to be
secured and swept by the 9th Dragoons, the
Dunlavin Yeomanry Cavalry, and Hompeschs's
Hussars. The Irish Royal Artillery were also to
co-operate with howitzers.

The columns of attack reported themselves
on the evening of the 20th as in readiness for
the advance at daybreak. Two brigades were,
however, missing—General Moore's
(subsequently the hero of Corunna) and General
Needham's. On his march to Taghena, Moore
had been attacked near Foulkes's Mill, had
driven back the rebels who assailed his cannon
at a bridge, and followed them into
Wexford. As for Needham, fearful of surprise in
the deep covered ways, and embarrassed with
four hundred carts full of military supplies, he
arrived too late to join in the attack on the hill;
which could not be delayed, as the rebels were
threatening to send reinforcements to
Enniscorthy, which was being stormed by Johnson's
brigade.

About seven o'clock on the 21st of June the
great bell of the windmill beat out its alarm.
Sir James Duff and the red-coats were advancing
by the Ferns road, General Johnson having
reported his arrival on the opposite side of the
Slaney, near Enniscorthy. General Loftus and
his light infantry supported either flank of
Duff's brigade as he advanced up the hill under
a shower of howitzers. The men in the frieze
coats grasped their pikes and muskets, and
waited grimly behind their brass guns and the
high clay banks round the windmill; along
the south-east ridge of the hill the rebels
yelled and beat their drums. Many of them
wore the brass-plated and red-tufted shakos
and the helmets of murdered yeomanry and
militia. General Loftus then took a narrow road
to the left, diverging from the main one, and
occupied a green knoll in a small field enclosed
with stone walls. He rapidly broke gaps in the
wall, the artillerymen, unlimbering the guns
from the horses, lifted them over one by one, and
opened fire on the lower ranks of the enemy
—a double forest of pikes—mowing down nearly
a hundred with the first shower of grape-shot.
At the same time, with colours flying and drums