THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 26 June 1919, Page 9

THE STORY OF IRELAND

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

CHAPTER XXVII.— Art a few months afterwards, followed, according to invitation but he had not been long in Dublin where Richard had by great exertions once more established a royal court with all its splendors—when he found himself in the hands of treacherous and faithless foes. He was seized and imprisoned on a charge. of conspiring against the king. Nevertheless, Richard found that he dared not carry out the base plot of which this was meant to be the beginning. He had already got a taste of what he might expect if he relied ' on fighting to conquer Ireland ; and, on reflection, he seems to have decided that the overreaching arts of diplomacy and the seductions of court life were pleasanter modes of extending his nominal' sway, than conducting campaigns like that in which. he had already, lost a splendid army and tarnished the tinsel of his vain prestige. So Art was eventually set at liberty, but three of his, neighboring fellow-chieftains were retained as "hostages'? for him ; and it is even said that, before he was released, some form or promise of submission was extorted from him by the treacherous "hosts" who had so basely violated the sanctity of hospitality to which he had frankly trusted. Not long after, an attempt was made to entrap and murder him in one of the Norman border castles, the owner of which had invited him to a friendly feast. As McMurrogh was sitting down to the banquet, it happened that the quick eye of his bard detected in the courtyard outside certain movements of troops that told him at once what was afoot. He knew that if he or his master openly and suddenly manifested their discovery of the danger, they were lost; their perfidious hosts would slay them at the board. Striking his harp to an old Irish air, the minstrel commenced to sing to the music; but the words in the Gaelic tongue soon caught the ear of McMurrogh. They warned him to be calm, circumspect, yet ready and resolute, for that he was in the toils of the foe. The prince divined all in an instant. He maintained a calm demeanor until, seizing a favorable pretext for reaching the yard, he sprang to horse, dashed through his foes, and, sword in hand, hewed his way to freedom. This second instance of perfidy completely persuaded McMurrogh that he was dealing with faithless foes, whom no bond of honor could bind, and with whom no truce was safe; so, unfurling once more the Lagenian standard, he declared war a la morl against the English settlement. It was no light struggle he thus inaugurated. Alone, unaided, he challenged and fought for 20 years the full power of England, in many a dearly-bought victory proving himself truly worthy of his reputation as a master of military science. The ablest generals of England were one by one sent to cope with him; but Art outmatched them in strategy and outstripped them in valor. In the second year's campaign the stronglyfortified frontier town and castle of Carlow fell before him; and in the next year (July 20, 1398) was fought the memorable battle of Kenlis. "Here," says a historian, "fell the heir-presumptive to the English crown, whose premature removal was one of the causes which contributed to the revolution in England a year or two later." We can .well credit the next succeeding observation of the historian (McGee) just quoted, that "the tidings of this event filled the Pale with consternation, and thoroughly aroused the vindictive temper of Richard. -He at once dispatched to Dublin his half-brother, the Earl of Kent,' to whom he made a gift of Carlow castle and town, to be held (if taken) by knight's service. ;v He then, as much perhaps 3 to give occupation to the minds of his people*- as to prosecute his ; old project of subduing Ireland", began to make preparations for his second expedition thither." . ... .'..':i „llCi-.:C r (To be continued.) .. ', v .