"altogether vulgar, and in his dress and person "a neglect of cleanliness even beyond the "affected negligence of republicans."

The characters of these officers may be little interesting to some readers, but they were far from being matters of no concern to the inhabitants of Killala and its neigbourhood. If they had all been of the same disposition as Truc, or even if they had not been men of active humanity, the county of Mayo might have exhibited scenes of massacre similar to those of the county of Wexford; since without their exertions the protestants would have been imprisoned by the rebels, as hostages, on whom the deaths of their associates, taken prisoners and hanged by the king's army, should be retaliated. Highly indeed to the honour of the French forces in general, the ingenuous narrator of the transactions at Killala, gives the following testimony with respect to the behaviour of Humbert's army. "And here it "would be an act of great injustice to the excel"lent discipline, constantly maintained by these "invaders while they remained in our town, not "to remark, that with every temptation to

plunder, which the time, and the number of "valuable articles within their reach, presented "to them in the bishop's palace, from a side"board of plate and glasses, a hall filled with hats, whips, and great coats, as well of the guests as of the family, not a single particu

"lar of private property was found to have been "carried away, when the owners, after the first fright was over, came to look for their effects, "which was not for a day or two after the landing. Immediately upon entering the dining"room, a French officer had called for the 'bishop's butler, and gathering up the spoons "and glasses, had desired him to take them to "his pantry. Beside the entire use of other "apartments, during the stay of the French in

Killala, the attick story, containing a library "and three bed-chambers, continued sacred to "the bishop and his family. And so scrupulous "was the delicacy of the French not to disturb "the female part of the house, that not one of "them was ever seen to go higher than the "middle floor, except on the evening of their s. success at Castlebar, when two officers begged

leave just to carry to the family the news of "the battle, and seemed a little mortified that "the intelligence was received with an air of "dissatisfaction."

This army, however, so respectful of persons and private property, had come into the kingdom destitute of money for the advancement of their enterprise. Its leaders promised that "ready

money was to come over in the ships expected

every day from France: in the mean time, "whatever was brought in voluntarily, or taken "by necessity, to answer the occasions of the

# army, should be punctually paid for in drafts "on the future directory of Ireland, of which "the owners of the goods demanded were cour"teously invited to accept. For the first two "or three days many people did apply for such "drafts to the French commissary of stores, "whose whole time appeared to be taken up with

writing them. Indeed the bishop himself was "of opinion that the losers would act wisely to

accept of them, not, as he told the people, "that they would ever produce payment where "it was promised, but because they might serve "as documents to our own government, when, "at a future period it should come to inquire"into the losses sustained by its loyal subjects. The trouble, however, of the commissary, in

'issuing drafts on a bank in prospect, was not "of long duration. The people smiled first "and he joined himself in the smile at last, when "he offered the airy security."-Thus though private plunder for the emolument of individuals was neither allowed nor practised, yet the necessitous condition in which this army landed, obliged its leaders to adopt this mode of public regulated plunder, for its subsistence. If cash had not been wanting to the rulers of France, they might be supposed to have acted from policy in sending none into a country which must remain hostile, if the invasion should

"

prove abortive; and which otherwise, they might think, ought to be obliged to sustain the expences of its own revolution.

If necessity obliged the French, for the support of their enterprise, to adopt a plan of public plunder, one of the chief incitements to the unfortunate peasantry, in the country about Killala, to repair to the standard of these invaders, was the thirst of private pillage, the indulgence of which no efforts of their more civilised associates could prevent. Of this the despoiled loyalists of Mayo felt the sad effects through a large extent of country. Here, as in the south-eastern parts, which had already suffered by rebellion, protestant and loyalist were terms almost synonimous. "The only persons of the established church who "took arms against their sovereign, in favour of "the invaders, were two drunken sots of Killala, "who thinking apostacy the fittest prelude to "treason, before they embraced the French

party, did first publicly declare themselves "converts to the church of Rome.* That enmity "to the protestant religion entered into the "motives of the devastation in Connaught, "cannot with any shew of reason be denied, "since it is notorious that, except during the "indiscriminate plunder which took place at the "capture of Castlebar, very few instances oc

Narrative of transactions at Killala, page 17.

"curred, throughout the province, of the house or property of a Roman catholic being injured by "the rebels.*

The miserable bigotry of the lower classes of Irish Romanists was very inconsistent with the notions of their French allies. "The wonder

was," says the narrator of Killala, "how the "zealous papist should come to any terms of agreement with a set of men, who boasted openly "in our hearing, that they had just driven Mr. Pope out of Italy, and did not expect to find "him so suddenly in Ireland." It astonished the French officers to hear the recruits, when they offered their service, declare, "that they "" were come to take arms for France and the "Blessed Virgin." The conduct of the several priests, who engaged in the same treasonable enterprise, was yet more surprising than that of their people. No set of men could be treated with more apparent marks of dislike, and even contempt, than these were by the French, though against the plainest suggestions of policy, which recommended attention to them, both as having an influence over their flocks, and as useful interpreters, most of them, from their foreign education, being able to speak a little French. Yet the commandant would not trust to their interpretation if he wanted to know the truth, he

Narrative of transactions at Killala, page 118.