shooting, burning, &c.; and if a priest has
been put to death, the greatest joy is expressed by the whole company."

On the 23rd of May, Dublin was placed under martial law; the citizens
were armed, the guard was trebled, the barristers pleaded with
regimentals and swords, and several of the lamplighters were hung from
their own lamp-posts for neglecting to light the lamps. The country
people were prepared to march on the city, but Lord Roden and his
Foxhunters soon put down their attempt. The next morning the dead were
exhibited in the Castle-yard, and the prisoners were hanged at
Carlisle-bridge. Sir Watkins Wynn and his Ancient Britons distinguished
themselves by their cruelties. The Homsperg Dragoons and the Orange
Yeomanry equalled them in deeds of blood. The fighting commenced in
Kildare, on the 24th, by an attack on Naas, which was repelled by Lord
Gosport. Two of his officers and thirty men were killed, and the people
were shot down and hanged indiscriminately. "Such was the brutal
ferocity of some of the King's troops," says Plowden, "that they half
roasted and eat the flesh of one man, named Walsh, who had not been in
arms." At Prosperous the insurgents attacked and burned the barracks,
and piked any of the soldiers who attempted to escape from the flames.
This regiment, the North Cork Militia, had been specially cruel in their
treatment of the people, who were only too willing to retaliate. A troop
of dragoons, commanded by Captain Erskine, was almost annihilated at Old
Kilcullen. But reverses soon followed. At Carlow the insurgents met with
a severe defeat; and the defenceless and innocent inhabitants, who fled
into their houses for shelter from the fire, were cruelly and ruthlessly
burned to death in their own habitations by the military.

A body of 2,000 men, under a leader named Perkins, encamped on the Hill
of Allan, and agreed with General Douglas to lay down their arms. The
General was honorable and humane, but his subordinates were not so.
Major-General Duff, to whom the arms were to have been delivered up,
ordered his troops to fire on the people, when they had assembled for
that purpose. Lord Roden's cavalry cut them down, and an immense number
were slaughtered in cold blood. Another attack took place at Tara, where
the Irish were again defeated. The insurrection now broke out in
Wexford. The people in this part of the country had not joined the
movement in any way, until the arrival of the North Co