The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-02-13
PAT'K SARSFIELD.
A True Irishman and one Whose
Name is Very Dear to
His Country.
A SOLDIER WITHOUT FEAR,
What a Historian Writes of His
Ancestry and His Early
Training.

"The names of 8 nations heroes are
written in the hearts of its people. For
them there may be no tombs 10 the aisles
of the cathedral, no records in the public
libraries, no statues in the street; but
their memories are cherished none the
less lovingly in the traditions of the
countryside, the legends of the chimney
corner, above all, in the ballad poetry. Of
a people like the Irish, whose popular
favOrites have found themselves almost
invariably, opposed to the dominant
power, this is essentially tue, and Of no
lrishman is it more true than Of that
soldier, without fear and without re-
proach, Patrick called the Earl Of Iucan.
This is the opening paragraph Of an ab-
sorblng article by Frederick Dixon in a
recent number of Temple Bar, entitled
"Sarsfeld, aJacobite Rapparee." The
article occupies thirty tive pages Of the
magazine, and is, 80 far as we know, the
best and most exhaustive account that
has yet been published of the great Irish
man. ''No life of him. says the writer,
exists. Els story, such as is known of it,
mnst be CLEANED from a hundred casual
references in books which, for the most
part, rest in the thickening dust of some
uncared- for shelf. Even when all is told
it consists of little more than the record
of some half score OF years of brilliant
failure. He flashes like some fiery mete-
or across stormy sky, now heading the
charge of the Life Guards against the
levies OF king Monmouth new inspir-
ing his wild Irishmen to stand firm
against the disciplined battalions of Will
liam Of glorious memory; now a ieuten-
ant of the hunchbacked dwarf OF France;
until at last he sinks amidst the blood
spiashed cottages of Neerwinden, one of
that company of Irishmen whose swords
we're flashing over Europe from Mos
cow to Madrid-in every quarrel save
their own. But if the allusions to Sars-
field in the "dry- as-dust" books ara few
and far between, there exist another
quarry which may be worked to advau-
tage. The appearance OF Sarafeld s
name in Irish ballad poetry is not merely
casual, it occurs again and again. Even
after the lapse Of two centuries the VII
lage minstrels still chant his praises,
just as the political organizations adopt
his name as synonymous OF all that is
best and purest in PATRIOTISM" The De
Sarshelds came into Ireland with Strong
bow. "BuJ," says Mr.. Dixon, "if Sars-
fields ancestry on his fathers side was
one of pure Norman origin, not less pure
was his lineage through his mother from
the old Celtic race. Herself daughter
OF the famous Rory, Rory of the Hills,
Annie O'More could trace back her des-
cent to period long before the name of
Butler or Fitzgerald had been heard in
Ireland; when the billions were still SOL
diers in Aquitaine, and the Rourkes had
not yet taken ship at tbs bidding of Rol-
10, the Viking, for the invasion of Nor
mandy. Lugad was her ancestor, and
Conall Carnach, and SO back to that dim
vista before the Christian era, when
Conor MacNessa ruled, at Emania over
the wild tribesmen of Uladh.'' The re-
cords Of his early years, it appears, have
apparently perished. He was educated
in French military academy; and when
he was old enough he received his first
ccmmlssion-a pair Of colors IN the regi-
mont Of Monmouth, then in the pay of
France. HE served in the English con-
tingent Of the French army. in that won
derful war where the grandson of Will
liam the Silent ioosed the ocean against
the invader; and he witnessed the art of
lighting as practised by those giants of
the century-Vauban, Turenne and the
great Conde; and when, on the cessation
OF hostilities, the brigade was broken up,
he came over to London with sufficient
interest to obtain commission in the
Life Guards
"for the next seven or eight years.
says Mi. Dixon, "he lived about the
court, fulfilling his military duties, and
acquiring q knowledge Of affairs which
afterwards gave. him some pre-eminence
among his more provincial countrymen.
He mounted Y his guards, rode by the
, royal carriage when the King went in
state TO Westminster Or the city, and
took his turn as escort Of the treasure
dispatches from the capitol to the ports.
For the rest, heswas at liberty to mingle
with ! y q the gay crowd that thronged the
corridors 81 of the palace, e laugh az the
*latest epigr an q Rochester !, or 10 listen