THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 10 March 1921, Page 7

THE STORY OF IRELAND

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

CHAPTER LXXl.—(Continued.) . ;f The staff crowded around the fallen commander in sad dismay. The brigade itself, ignorant at first of the true nature of what happened, but conscious that some serious' 7 disaster had occurred, halted l in confusion. Indecision and- confusion in the face of the enemy, and under fire of his batteries, has ever but one result. The brigade broke, and rode to the right. No one knew on whom the command devolved. Sarsfield was next in rank; but every one knew him to be posted at a distant part of the field; and it was unhappily notorious that he had not been made acquainted with any of the lost general S) plan. This indecision and confusion was not long spreading from 1 the cavalry brigade which St. Ruth had been leading, to other bodies of the troops. The Williamites plainly perceived that something fatal had happened on the Irish a side, . which, if taken advantage of promptly, might: give them victory in the very moment of defeat. They halted, rallied, and returned. -A- general attack in full force on all points was ordered. “Still the Irish centre and right wing maintained their ground obstinately, and the fight was renewed with as much vigor, as ever. The Irish infantry were so hotly engaged, that they were not aware either of the death of St. Ruth, or of the flight of the . cavalry, until they themselves were almost surrounded A panic and confused flight were the result. The cavalry of the right wing, who were the first in action that day, were the last- to quit their ground. Sarsfield with the reserve horse of the centre, had to retire with the, rest without striking,.one blow, 'although,’ says the Wilhannte Captain Parker, ‘ he had the greatest and-best part of the cavalry with him.’ St. Ruth fell about sunset; and about nine, after three hours’ hard fighting, the last of the Irish army had left the field. The cavalry retreated along the high road to Loughrea, and , the . infantry, who mostly flung away their .arms fled to a large red bog on their left, where great numbers of them were massacred unarmed and in cold blood; but a thick misty rain coming on, and the night setting in, the pursuit was soon relinquished.” The peasantry to this day point out a small gorge on the hill-side, still called “Gleann-na-Fola (“the Glen of Slaughter the Bloody Glen”), where two of the nsh regiments, deeming flight vain, or scorning to fly, halted, and throughout the night waited their doom in sullen determination. There they were found in the morning, and were slaughtered to a man. The slogan of the conqueror was: f “No quarter!” * .. About , 500 prisoners, with 32 pairs of colors, 11 standards, and a large quantity of small arms, fell into the hands of the victors. The English loss in killed and wounded was about 3000; ; the Irish lost

over 4000, chiefly in the flight, as the feliamites gave

*-Mobre," who seems to have been powerfully affected by the whole story of Aughrim—"the Culloden of Ireland"— said to have found in this mournful tragedy the subject of his exquisite song, "After the Battle: s«>: cm .«au«6 Jfcr'H -. i

Night closed around the conqueror's way, : And lightning showed the distant hill, ' Where those who lost that dreadful day Stood few and faint—but fearless still. The J soldier's hope—the patriot's zeal. . For ever dimmed, for ever crossed! Oh! who can say what heroes \ feel When all but life and honor's lost!

The last sad hour of freedom's dream And valor's task moved slowly by 'f. And mute they watched-till morning's beam Should rise and give them light to die! There's yet a 1 world where souls are free, j Where tyrants taint not nature's bliss ' If death that world's bright op'ning be/ Oh! who would live a slave in this ?

no quarter, and, the wounded, if they were not, in comparative mercy, shot as they lay on the field, were allowed to perish unfriended where they fell. ''■■■'■ '%* To the music of one of the most plaintive of our Irish melodies—" The Lamentation of. Aughrim"— Moore (a second touched by this sad theme) has wedded the well-known verses here quoted:

Forget not the field where they perished— The truest, the last of the brave; All gone — the bright hopes we cherished Gone with them, and quenched in the grave.

Oh ! *cou«ld we from death but recover - Those hearts as they bounded before, In the face of high; Heaven to fight over The combat for freedom once more;

Could the chain for a moment be riven

Which Tyranny flung round us-then— No!—'tis not in Man, nor in Heaven, To let Tyranny bind it again !

But 'tis past; and though blazoned in story The name of our victor may be; Accurst is the march of that glory Which treads o'er the hearts of the free!

Far dearer the grave or the prison Illumed by one patriot name, Than the trophies of all who have risen On Liberty's ruins to fame!

We cannot take leave of the field of.Aughrim and pass unnoticed an episode connected with that scene which may well claim a place in history; a true story, which, if it rested on any other authority than that of the hostile and unsympathising Williamite chaplain, might be deemed either the creation of poetic fancy or the warmly tinged picture of exaggerated fact. The bodies of the fallen Irish, as already mentioned; were " for the most part left uaburied on the ground, “a prey to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. “There is,” says the Williamite chronicler, “a true and. remarkable story of a grayhound, belonging to an Irish officer. The gentleman was killed and stripped in the - battle, f' whose body the dog remained by night and day and though he fed upon other corpses with the rest of the dogs, yet he would not allow them or anything else to touch that of his master. When all the corpses were consumed, the other dogs departed ; but this one used to go in the night to the adjacent villages for food, and presently return to the place where his master’s bones only were then left. And thus he -continued (form July when the battle was fought) till January following, when one of Colonel Foulkes’s soldiers, being quartered nigh hand, and going that., way by chance, the dog fearing he came to disturb his ffiaster’s hones, - flew upon the soldier, who, being surprised at the suddenness of the thing, unslung his piece then upon.his back, and shot the poor dog. “He expired,”' .adds Mr. O’Callaghan, “with the same fidelity to the remains of his unfortunate master as that master had shown devotion to the cause of his unhappy country. In the history of nations there are few spectacles'more entitled to the admiration of the noble mind and the sympathy of the generous and feeling heart, than the fate of 'the gallant men and the faithful dog of .Aughrim.

f Meaning to say, killed in the battle and stripped a / t . it by the Williamite camp-followers, with whom stripping and robbing the slain was a common practice.They did not spare even the corpse of their own lieu-tenant-colonel, the Right Rev. Dr. Walker Protestant Bishop of Derry, which they stripped naked at the Boyne. <

(To be continued.)