adds, that they, who admitted this, included many, who, from a fear of disgrace and punishment for their defeat, had availed themselves of the confusion that followed it, to desert the service. According to the most probable estimate deducible from English and Enniskillen authority, or allowing for the escape of about 600 cavalry of the centre, and for others that would appear to have gotten off on the right, the Irish loss, with artillery, colours, camp, baggage, &c., would be about 1500 slain, 500 drowned, and from above 300 to 500 prisoners, including 48 or 50 officers.

Among the captured officers was Lord Mountcashel, under circumstances most honourable to himself, notwithstanding the overthrow of his army. On the defeat of his cavalry, with whom he might have easily escaped, he, with 5 or 6 officers, who would not abandon him, retired into a wood, near to where his cannon were planted; and resolved not to survive that day. Over those guns, the Enniskilleners had placed a guard of about 100 foot, under Captain George Cooper. Lord Mountcashel with his little party, after a short stay where he was, to the surprise of the Enniskillen guard, who did not suppose any enemy so near, rushed out of the wood, discharging his pistol at them. Upon this, 7 or 8 of the Enniskilleners, pointing a volley against him, shot his horse dead under him, and brought himself, severely wounded, to the ground. In addition to the balls by which he was struck, but from which he was protected by his armour, he received 2 through his right thigh, 1 in his left loin through the lower part of the back-bone, and a slighter hurt in the groin, from part of a bullet, that, had it met with no opposition, would certainly have been mortal; but, after beating his watch to pieces, is stated to have been broken by its wheels into fragments, of which only 1 inflicted an injury. An Enniskillen soldier then clubbed his musket, to put an end to the prostrate nobleman's life and sufferings by knocking out his brains, but 1 of the officers, who accompanied his Lordship, desired the soldier,-" Hold his hand, as he was about to kill General Mac Carthy!" Captain Cooper, being informed of this, came up, and gave quarter to the Irish commander, and to the officers who were with him. He was carried that night to Newtown-Butler; and being asked, "How he came so rashly to hazard his life, though he might have gone off with his horse, when they made their escape?" he replied,"Finding the kingdom like to be lost, since his army was the best for their number King James had, unless those before Derry, then much broken, he had come with a design to lose his life; and was sorry he missed his end, being unwilling to outlive that day!"+ As our great national bard observes

"The soldier's hope, the patriot's zeal,

For ever dimm'd, for ever crost-

Oh! who shall say what heroes feel,

When all but life and honour's lost!"-MOORE.

that

The wounded General, and some of his officers, (probably those most hurt) were removed from Newtown-Butler to Enniskillen by water, or * Could any honour arising from this success compensate for the disgrace of the extreme destructiveness that followed it? But such is "civil war!"

Of these interesting particulars of Lord Mountcashel's heroism in connexion with his fall and capture, we would be "in utter darkness," but for the Enniskillen writers, Hamilton and Mc Carmick.

along Lough Erne,* as the easiest mode of conveyance; the rest of the prisoners going there by land. At Enniskillen, bread being then extremely scarce, beer and ale very bad, wine not to be had, and surgeons and medicines for the wounded greatly wanted, his Lordship obtained permission to make known his condition there to King James. The King thereupon despatched, from Dublin to Enniskillen, 1 of the royal physicians, Doctor Connor, and 1 of the royal surgeons, Mr. Huben, accompanied by some hogsheads of wine, and such other provisions, as, though most requisite, were not at Enniskillen; to which was added a supply of money, both for his Lordship, and the officers taken with him. About a fortnight subsequent to this disaster of Newtown-Butler, William III.'s General, the Marshal Duke of Schonberg, disembarking from England near Carrickfergus, with the 1st portion of his British, Dutch, and Huguenot army, commenced operations, in the course of some days, with the siege of that place, by land and water; and, having taken it, after a gallant defence and honourable capitulation by Colonel Charles Mac Carthy More, proceeded, about the middle of September, through Newry, towards Dundalk, on his intended advance to Dublin. In this interval, Lord Mountcashel was reduced to a very weak state of health, from the effects of his severe wounds, in such an unwholesome place as Enniskillen. Being consequently desirous, for his cure, to obtain leave, on parole, to go to Dublin, upon the condition of afterwards returning as a prisoner to Enniskillen, he wrote to his friend and brother representative for the County of Cork, Sir Richard Nagle, Attorney-General, and Secretary of State and War for Ireland, to apply, in his own name, by letter, to Marshal Schonberg, for this permission. Sir Richard having written to that effect, the Irish trumpeter, by whom the letter was forwarded for the Marshal, met the Williamite army on its march from Newry, and the communication was presented to the Marshal's Secretary; who soon after returned it with this message, that his master, the Duke, could not receive that letter, because it was not directed to him as the Duke of Schonberg; which rank he claimed as conferred upon him by King William. Besides this message to be brought back by the trumpeter along with the returned letter, the Duke's Secretary gave a letter from himself for Sir Richard Nagle; in which, having stated the same reason as that verbally assigned for the refusal of the letter, he added, that his master, the Duke, had renounced the title of Marshal, when, on account of the recent measures adopted for the extinction of the Protestant worship in France, by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he had left that kingdom, for the sake of his religion. This application, to obtain for Lord Mountcashel the privilege of going on his parole to Dublin, in order to get cured, therefore failed. But, it having been the same month agreed by William III., in consequence of an application from the family of Lord Mountjoy, who was a prisoner in the Bastille at Paris, that a negociation should be attempted, through King James's government in Ireland, to obtain his Lordship's liberty by way of exchange, and Lord Mount

"I compared," states the English tourist Twiss in 1770, "the beauties of this with those of other lakes which I had seen, such as Loch-Lomond in Scotland; the Lake of Geneva, which receives much grandeur from the immense snow-clad mountains that bound it on the Savoy side, and much beauty from the vines on the opposite shore; the lakes near Naples, which are all classic scenes; and, though I afterwards saw the celebrated Lake of Killarney, Lough-Erne did not suffer by the comparison."

cashel, as the Jacobite officer of the highest rank and character in Williamite custody, being the most suitable for such an exchange, his Lordship, about the month of October, wrote from Enniskillen to one of Schonberg's officers in Ireland, Major-General Kirke, who had been kind to him since his captivity, to request an application on the subject in London, to the English Secretary of State, Charles Talbot, 12th Earl of Shrewsbury, Waterford, and Wexford. Major-General Kirke, early in November, complied with this solicitation, enclosing, in a letter of his own to the Earl of Shrewsbury, the letter of Lord Mountcashel. The Earl, who had known Lord Mountcashel in England, as the Honourable Justin Mac Carthy, previous to the war between England and Ireland occasioned by the Revolution, expressed, in his answer to Kirke, from Whitehall, about the middle of November, his great regard for Justin Mac Carthy; observing, "I am so well satisfyed of his being a man of honour, that, as to my owne particular, I should rely upon his word, for whatever he thought fit to engage it;" and, moreover, mentioning the solicitude he then, and, from the commencement of the negociation, had felt for his old friend's release; but remarking upon the political obstacles that delayed, and might continue to delay, its accomplishment. In consequence of this uncertainty as to when he might be restored to his liberty, (if, indeed, he would not be more likely to die should he be detained where he was!) Lord Mountcashel determined on effecting his deliverance, by a plan of his own. On his former representation, of the inconvenience of having a guard placed over him during his illness, his Lordship, by an application, through Major-General Kirke, to the Marshal Duke of Schonberg, had gotten the guard to be removed, and had been allowed the liberty of the town of Enniskillen, on his parole. While in the actual enjoyment of the liberty of the place, by virtue of such a pledge, he therefore could not endeavour to escape, without a breach of faith. In order to be freed from that pledge, he consequently caused a rumour to be circulated through Enniskillen, that, although he had been granted the liberty of the town on his parole, he intended to attempt getting away; which, in fact, he did, though only in such a manner as the necessary alteration of conduct towards him, in consequence of such a discovery, would supply him with a justification for doing. And so it happened; for this report reaching the Governor of Enniskillen, Colonel Gustavus Hamilton, that officer, in order to provide against such an event, placed Lord Mountcashel again under a guard. Being thus released from his parole, and consequently not precluded as a nobleman, a gentleman, or a soldier, from adopting any measures he could for escaping, his Lordship soon had the means arranged for the purpose. To the house in Enniskillen, where he was confined, and which was on the border of Lough Erne, 2 little boats, called cots, or as many

營

On the like principle, the famous French sea-captain, Jean Bart, and a brother officer, when prisoners this year in England at Plymouth, are represented in the Memoirs of Brigadier la Fontaine, as having acted, and justifiably acted, in managing to escape. "Upon their parole of honour, they had the liberty of the town granted them for some time. But, at last, under pretence that they had made themselves suspected, they had a guard of 4 soldiers placed upon them, to keep a watchful eye upon all their actions. This happened very fortunately for them, for, being thereby discharged from their word, they now began to contrive how to save themselves by flight." In that contrivance, they were successful; the point, however, of their not being considered to have broken faith, by escaping under such circumstances, being ALL that need be noted here.

as were sufficient for carrying away himself, and all he wished to remove with him, were to be brought in the night by the contrivance of a Serjeant, named Acheson, whom he had bribed, and who agreed to go off with him. The Serjeant, returning the same night, to deliver a letter, which, and his Lordship's pass, were found in the lining of his hat, was next day tried, and shot. But Lord Mountcashel effected his object, and towards the end of December, 1689, reached Dublin. His entrance there was preceded by several carriages, and from 200 to 300 horsemen, military or civilians. At the Castle, says the Jacobite official account, "his Lordship was very kindly received by the King with a hearty welcome, and carressed by all the great officers, and others, his friends, with all demonstrations of joy and gladness imaginable." The same evening, numbers of fires were lighted in the streets. The exultation of the metropolis was shared by the provinces; the greatest rejoicings, however, being at Cork, and throughout Munster, where they more especially regarded his Lordship as their countryman, and a descendant of their ancient Princes. The loss of a prisoner of such eminence was, on the other hand, a source of much vexation to the enemy, whose General, the Marshal Duke of Schonberg, alleged, (or has, more probably, been represented, on report, by the Williamite annalist, Story, to have alleged,) of Lord Mountcashel, that "he took Lieutenant-General Mac Carthy to be a man of honour, but would not expect that, in an Irishman, any more!" In reference to such an aspersion upon himself and his countrymen, or the hostile rumour on which it was based, Lord Mountcashel took no measures till previous to the active resumption of his military duties, after landing at Brest, the following May, with the regiments that commenced the formation of the Irish Brigades in the service of France. His Lordship then submitted himself to be tried by a French Court of Honour for the circumstances under which he got away from Enniskillen, adds the hostile or Orange historian Harris, and was acquitted by that tribunal, of having been guilty of any breach of his parole. Such was the career of the Colonel of the 1st regiment, and Commander-in-Chief of the 3 regiments, of this Brigade, up to the period of his entering the French service.*

The Colonel of the 2nd of those regiments, the Honourable Daniel O'Brien, was descended from the royal race or Dalcassian Princes of Thomond; between whom, and the Eugenian Princes of Desmond, the right, as has been said, existed, for so many centuries, of alternately appointing the supreme King of Munster. Of those 2 royal lines, that of the Dalcassians attained the higher eminence in the history of their country, by having produced the renowned Brien Boru, Ard-Righ or Monarch of Erin, and conqueror of the Danes at Clontarf, in 1014; from whom the name of O'Brien was henceforth transmitted to his descendants. In the warlike period of above a century and a half, which elapsed between the death of Brien Boru, at Clontarf, and the AngloNorman invasion of Erin, his descendants of the house of Thomond, but with a sway extending far beyond its limits, were among the greatest Princes of the island; as attested, independent of native authority, by

This account of Lord Mountcashel has been carefully revised since 1854, and, in reference to the portion of it concerning Enniskillen, has been particularly improved, through the additional contemporary Jacobite information supplied by Plunkett's Light to the Blind, and the Correspondence from Ireland of the Comte d'Avaux; for access to which valuable original authorities, I am indebted to my kind friends, Sir R. W. Wilde and the late John Dalton, Esq.

foreign evidence to the connexion of their history with that of Britain and the Continent. On the expulsion from England, in 1051, of the famous Earl Godwin and his family by Edward the Confessor, for the opposition given by the Earl and his sons to the King's too great partiality for, and advancement of, Norman adventurers and intriguers in England, Godwin and some of his sons retired to Flanders, and the others, among whom was Harold, the future King of England, sought an asylum in Erin. There Harold was compensated for the hostility of one of his brothers-in-law-Edward the Confessor being married to his sister Edith-by the reception he met from the other, or the son of the great Brien Boru, Donough O'Brien, King of Munster, who, being married to Harold's other sister, Driella, (by whom he had a son, named Donald,) acknowledged the claim of the illustrious Saxon to protection and assistance, and accordingly supplied him with a body of troops, and 9 ships, for the liberation of his country, and the restoration of his family. With this aid from Munster, Harold, joining the fleet of his father and brothers from Flanders at the Isle of Wight, they, in 1052, were enabled, by the co-operation of their countrymen, to regain their former honours and estates, and effect the downfall of the Norman or foreign and antinational faction at the Court of Westminster.* Donough's successor in Munster, Turlough O'Brien, is addressed by the Norman Primate of England, Lanfranc, as "the magnificent King of Hibernia," and by the celebrated Pope Gregory VII., as "the illustrious King of Hibernia." Murkertagh O'Brien, successor to Turlough, is designated by Lanfranc's successor, St. Anselm, as "the glorious," and, "by the grace of God, King of Hibernia."+ Connor O'Brien, another of their successors, in the records of the Abbey of Ratisbon in Germany, chiefly raised through his munificence, is also alluded to as if "King of Hibernia;" the same records adding of that Prince, in reference to the Crusades, how, by lords, or "Counts, of great power and nobility, wearing the badge of the cross, and on their way to Jerusalem, he forwarded large presents to Lotharius, King of the Romans," or Emperor of Germany. After the Anglo-Norman intrusion under Henry II., the de Clares, as its leading feudal representatives in Thomond, by availing themselves of that native division, which was but too favourable for the advancement of foreign power, endeavoured to establish themselves there. But, though successful to some extent for a time, they and their adherents were entirely defeated and expelled. The ambitious Earls of Desmond likewise, who would willingly have done what the defeated de Clares had left undone, were on several occasions taught, by "sad experience" in the field, to respect the O'Brien motto and war-cry, "Lamh laidir abu!" or The strong hand for ever!-and the "settlers" in Limerick, and districts far beyond it, had to pay "dubh cios," black rent, or tribute, to the old Dalcassian race, whose heads continued to be Kings or Princes of Thomond, until

Compare Mac Geoghegan, Moore, and O'Mahony's Keating, with Thierry and Lingard, on this incident.

+Of King Murkertagh, or Murtogh, known at home as "More," or the Great, one daughter was married to the son of Magnus, King of Norway, the Hebrides, and Man; another to the Anglo-Norman nobleman, Arnulph de Montgomery, Earl of Pembroke; and, in reference to the friendship between the Irish King, and his royal brother of Albany, or Scotland, it is related that the latter sent him a camel" of wonderful magnitude."

"Per magnæ nobilitatis ac potentiæ Comites, cruce signatos, et Hierosolyman petituros, ad Lotharium, Regem Romanorum, ingentia munera misit."