The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-09-19
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL. SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 49, 1891

ions OF the SasSenach are d,lVen mead
long over the bridge. In five minutes
a hundred Oh them lie outside the town,
never to enter it again.
The British rallied when they got
back into Enpiscorthy; out in vain.
They rushed into the houses and opened
a deadly fire on the advancing patriots.
In vain still. Those fiery Irish peasants
pursued them up staircase and landing,
and from chamber to chamber, and
slew them hand to hand.
The English, brutal and savage to the
last to their Irish foes, to whom they
never showed quarter. but always killed
as they would kill wild beasts, when.
eyer they fell INTO their hands, at
tempted one last act Of cowardly VEN
geance as they fed pell NELL from the
town, In the Jail hundred or more
prisoners were confined, old men and
| females principally, arrested ION suspi-
cion,'' as is the Infamous English sys-
tenn in Ireland to the present hour.
The flying royalists stopped at the
gates to murder the unhappy inmates
a favolite custom Of theirs. But, for
tunate]y, the governor and turlkeys
had been struck with a fit of terror
early in the day; they had locked up all
the gates and fled to Wexford. The
rufianly soldiers had no time to break
open the gates. for the insurgents were
coming down fast upon them; they ac-
cordingly continued their fight helter
! skelter.
Such is the story of the capture OF
Euniscorthy il 1898, III the face of a
formidable foe, by a band Of almost un-
armed peasants, driven to madness by
the fearful crue!ties they endeared at
the hands Of the English supremacy.
This one incident shows what could
he done in Ireland to-day by an orderly
and disciplined force of Irish soldiers
led on by such veterans as have been
disciplined in the four years. war OF
America.
A curious and s1gni hcant event con.
tributed to the defeat and dispersion of
the royal forces. IT may as we'll be
mentioned here that when they marched
cut through the Duffrey Gate in full
and imposing military array, they
loudly swore that they would not re-
turn while one OF the .srebaIa" was
alive. They did return, in a very un-
military fashion, actually before one Of
S01sr
thought that the poor. ragged peasants,
says, which fury suggested to them,
were a rabble. r0ut, whom it would be
easy to disperse and slaughter at pleas
,lre; and what pleasure that foul, nur.
ierous atrOcltV would be to them their
previous conduct had proved.
But when that sublime Irish joke was
perpetrated (Eather John Murphy had
been careful reader OF classic lore}, OF
driving herd of maddened cattle into
their midst, they were pretty soon a
rabbls rout themselves. They fed
headlong. as have said, and they LETT
a hundred dead behind them. Irish
men are accustomed to rush headlong
on the bayonet's point, and cut down
their enemy with sword, OF pike or any
weapon in hand. This accounts tor the
unusual slaughter OF che foe wherever
they fight, and for the amount they
| themselves suffer in killed and wounded,
When the enemy got safe across the
ridge and lodged themselves in the
houses, from which they could keep
sharp fire with comparative safety, I
have mentioned how the patliou force
suffered. But the tide Of battle was
finally changed in this way: A. nnmber
Ir,F; fc oE ,,c0rnv v.rnior, ~
the town, whose sympathi&s, of course,
were all with the rebels, actually set
fire to their own dwellings, destroying
what little property they possessed to
cause diversion in favor OF the patriot
army. The result was all that could
have been wished for; an alarm spread
among the English that new army
was advancing, and that the town had
been set on fire. 'TWas now sauYe qui
peut with them; and they fled from the
town in the disorder of frightened
mob.
But those who escaped the weapons
of the patriots in the town were safe in
their flight. For Father Johns little
army had no cavalry to pursue them;
and the yeomanly cavalry in the Eng
lish were, as usual, the first to 1Y.
These mon who represented the domin-
ant Cromwel]ian and Williamite land
lord element in the country, were no.
toriouslY as cowardly as they were
blood. thirsty. But Yeomanry and mil
itia they were the same with their Eng
lish and German hireliqg allies. The
great British general, Abercrombie, ex-
claimed of them, when, in sheer dis
gust, he aung up his command in Ire
land: "They are formidable to every
body except the euemy." [ need not
stop to mention that the ''enemV" 80
spoken Of was the rabble Of infuriated
peasants who thrashed them in 50 many
field. Again I saw what lesson is
this to disciplined veterans anxious to
take fall out of the ancestral foe!
The anti Irish tyrants who fled from
the captured town left their wives and
daughters behind them. The peasant
vlctors, led on by their gallant priest,
treated their captives with every re-
spect. Vengeance might have tempted
them to commit any crime; but with
the holy self control of anchorltes, they
STAYED their hands; no woman was in
sulted-no home was plundered. The
humble patriots contented themselves
with peacefully collecting all the arms
and ammunition they could find. After
- - %t,ox, ;ot1x7 rofirad from fho %nu,,,