onroe's first line was broken, and
the Irish pikemen, the equivalent of a bayonet charge, steadily forced
him backwards. It was a fierce struggle, hand to hand, eye to eye, and
blade to blade. The order of Owen Roe's advance was admirably preserved,
while the Scottish and English forces were in confusion, already broken
and crowded into a narrow and constricted space between the two rivers.
Finally the advancing Irish army reached and stormed the hillock where
Monroe's artillery was placed, and victory was palpably won. The defeat
of the Scottish and English army became an utter rout, and when the sun
set more than three thousand of them lay dead on the field.

It is almost incredible that the Irish losses were only seventy, yet
such is the number recorded, while not only was the opposing army
utterly defeated and dispersed, but Monroe's whole artillery, his tents
and baggage, fifteen hundred horses, twenty stand of colors, two months'
provisions and numbers of prisoners of war fell into the hands of Owen
Roe; while, as a result of the battle, the two auxiliary forces were
forced to retreat and take refuge in Coleraine and Derry, General Robert
Monroe escaping meanwhile to Carrickfergus. It is only just to him to
say that our best accounts of the battle come from officers in Monroe's
army, Owen Roe contenting himself with the merest outline of the result
gained, but saying nothing of the consummate generalship that gained it.

For the next two years we see Owen Roe O'Neill holding the great central
plain, the west and most of the north of Ireland against the armies of
the English Parliamentarians and Royalists alike, and gaining victory
after victory, generally against superior numbers, better armed and
better equipped. We find him time after time almost betrayed by the
Supreme Council, in which the Norman lords of Leinster, perpetually
anxious for their own feudal estates, were ready to treat with whichever
of the English parties was for the moment victorious, hoping that,
whatever might be the outcome of the great English struggle, they
themselves might be gainers. At this time they were in possession of
many of the abbey lands, and there was perpetual friction between them
and the ecclesiastics, their co-religionists, who had been driven from
these same lands, so that the Norman landowners were the element of
fatal weakness throughout this whole movement, willing to wound, and yet
afraid to strike. While praying for