CHAPTER VI.

CRUELTIES COMMITTED ON BOTH SIDES-ATTACK ON MONASTEREVEN-MURDERS BY THE REBELS, AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES-AFFAIR OF OLD KILCULLEN-SUBSEQUENT DISPERSION OF THE REBELS NEAR NAAS.

THE terrible occurrence at Dunlavin, where so many unhappy men were hurried from existence, was probably the most savage of the barbarous necessities forced upon the royalists, during the brief continuation of the insurrection. The character of the transaction appears additionally revolting, because it was the result of deliberation; and, although heated by a recent conflict, still common humanity might have suggested some alternative less horrible, than the wholesale execution of unresisting men.

Uncompromising severity does not always produce the intended. effect. On some, example may strike terror-in others it will excite undying hatred, and foster the worst spirit of the human heart—a thirst for vengeance. Of this truth, a retrospect of the events of these calamitous days gives evidence enough; and it is difficult now to determine to which side the excess of cruelty should be awarded. Assassination on one side, was met upon the other with military executions; the royalist extenuating the act under a plea of necessity, while the rebel proclaimed that his murders were committed only from revenge.

When admitting that a similar savageness of purpose might in many cases be charged against both sides, there, all comparison must cease. No matter what the acts might be, the causes which produced them were totally dissimilar. The royalist took arms for the protection of home and altar, which the fanaticism of Popery, or the accursed doctrines of the French revolutionists, were alike bent upon overturning. Allegiance to his king, and the maintenance of social order and an established government, urged the former to come forward; thousands perilled life and property from the purest motives-and, when the insurrection was suppressed, sheathed the sword, drawn in the support of a matchless constitution, unstained by any act save those which resistance to rebellion had imperatively demanded. Those who have led a soldier's life, and seen service in the field, know that men become the creatures of circumstances. Let the gentlest spirit—and such are frequently united to the boldest heart-one that would not tread upon a worm or harm a sparrow-let him crown a defended breach, and he will use the bayonet unscrupulously. The feelings are influenced by the times; and if the royalist were sanguinary and unsparing, he could point to the atrocities of the insurgents, and bring forward established facts, so truculent and unwarranted, as to place those who could commit them almost without the pale of mercy.

Making every allowance for the political colouring given to his history of these times by Musgrave, and recollecting that he felt and

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wrote as a partisan, Sir Richard Musgrave narrates two well-authenticated instances of unprovoked cruelty among the many that marked the rebel outbreak in Kildare, which will sufficiently exhibit to the reader the ferocious spirit of the insurgents from the moment they flew to arms:

"The following horrid circumstances," says the historian, "attended the murder of George Crawford and his grandchild, a girl only fourteen years of age. He had formerly served in the 5th Dragoons, retired on a pension, and was a permanent serjeant in Captain Taylor's corps of yeomen cavalry. He, his wife, and granddaughter, were stopped by a party of the rebels, as they were endeavouring to escape, and were reproached with the appellation of heretics, because they were of the Protestant religion. One of them struck his wife with a musket, and another gave her a stab of a pike in the back, with an intent of murdering her. Her husband, having endeavoured to save her, was knocked down, and received several blows of a firelock, which disabled him from making his escape. While they were disputing whether they should kill them, his wife stole behind a hedge, and concealed herself. They then massacred her husband with pikes; and her granddaughter, having thrown herself on his body to protect him, received so many wounds that she instantly expired. These circum-stances of atrocity have been verified by affidavit, sworn by Crawford's widow, the 20th day of August, 1798. The fidelity of a large dog, belonging to this poor man, deserves to be recorded-as he attacked these sanguinary monsters, and fought most bravely in defence of his master, till he fell by his side, perforated with pikes."

"The

The second murder occurred on the same night. About eleven o'clock, the Limerick mail was stopped by a numerous banditti-and a gentleman was slaughtered under circumstances which elicited a lively sympathy. The sufferer was Lieutenant William Giffard, of the 82nd regiment, son to Captain John Giffard of the Dublin regiment. savages having shot one of the horses so as effectually to prevent the coach from proceeding, demanded of Lieutenant Giffard who and what he was to which he answered, without hesitation, that he was an officer, proceeding to Chatham, in obedience to orders he had received. They demanded whether he was a Protestant; and being answered in the affirmative, they held a moment's consultation, and then told him that they wanted officers, that if he would take an oath to be true to them, and join them in an attack to be made next morning upon Monastereven, they would give him a command, but that otherwise he must die. To this the gallant youth replied, "That he had already sworn allegiance to the king, that he would never offend God Almighty by a breach of that oath, nor would he disgrace himself by turning a deserter and joining the king's enemies; that he could not suppose a body of men would be so cruel, as to murder an individual who had never injured them, and who was merely passing through them to a country from whence, possibly, he never might return; but if they insisted on their proposal, he must die, for he never would consent to it.' This heroic answer, which would have kindled sentiments of humanity in any breasts but

those of Irish rebels, had the contrary effect, and with the utmost fury they assaulted him. He had a case of pistols, which natural courage and love of life, though hopeless, prompted him to use with effect; and being uncommonly active, he burst from them, vaulted over a six-feet wall, and made towards a house where he saw a light, and heard people talking. Alas! it afforded no refuge! it was the house of poor Crawford, whom, with his granddaughter, they had just piked. A band of barbarians, returning from this exploit, met Lieutenant Giffardthere he fell, covered with wounds and with glory; and his mangled body was thrown into the same ditch with honest Crawford and his innocent grandchild.* Thus expired, at the age of seventeen, a gallant youth-the martyr to religion and honour-leaving a memory behind that will ever be respected by the virtuous and the brave."

A course of cowardly assassination thus commenced, was continued by the insurgents in their progress to attack Monastereven. Their numbers had increased to ten or twelve hundred men, and they were commanded by a ruffian called McGarry. Such Protestants, as they unfortunately met with, were put to death-and a solitary dragoon, seized as he crossed the Curragh, and inhumanly murdered. About four in the morning they approached the town, and made their preparations for attacking it.

On the 24th of May there was not a regular soldier in Monastereven; and an infantry company, with a troop of horse, both yeomanry, formed the little garrison. After a feint by the canal, and a movement by the high road, which was repulsed by a charge of cavalry, they pushed boldly into the town, and a warm conflict took place in the main street. The well-sustained musketry of the infantry threw the head of the rebel column into confusion-when the cavalry charged home, and the rout was complete. Fifty bodies were found lifeless in the town; and as the horsemen followed the flying rebels vigorously, as many more were cut up in the pursuit. The repulse of this attack was most honourable to the defenders of Monastereven-the gallant action was achieved by loyalists alone-and of the brave men who fought and bled that day fourteen of the troop were Roman Catholics.

The outbreak of the 23rd of May was attended with many acts of cruelty inflicted upon isolated families, who, either from mistaken confidence, or inability to reach a place of safety, exposed themselves to the fury of savages, whose natural truculence was often inflamed to madness by intoxication. Many individuals of great worth and respectability perished thus. Mr. Stamers, the chief proprietor of the town of Prosperous, was torn from the house of a lady where he had obtained a temporary shelter, and murdered in cold blood. Rathangan was, indeed, a scene of extensive butchery.-Mr. Spensert and Mr. Moore were slaughtered there, although they had surrendered their

* When Sir James Duff's moveable column entered Kildare, it passed close to the scene of slaughter, and poor young Giffard's body was removed from the ditch, and interred with military honours.

"Thus this worthy gentleman, who was an active and intelligent magistrate, and as remarkable for the amiableness and affability of his manners as the benevolence of