380 Narrative of some Events [Arrin, 
not to betray them. They were rebels, who had been badly wounded 
in the battle ; and the woman who sheltered them there, and supplied 
them with food from my uncle’s house, joined her intreaties to theirs, 
and I promised I would be silent. In four days more one died there, 
and the rest were able to remove. I have been since blamed for not 
giving them up, but I have never repented that I kept my promise to 
them. 
It was just seven weeks after the beginning of all our sorrows, that as 
I was passing one evening near the ruins of our house, I was greatly 
startled at hearing from within it the deep sobs and suppressed lamen- 
tations of some person in great trouble. I ventured to look in, and 
found they proceeded from a man who was sitting on a low part of the 
fallen wall, with his head resting on his kness. When he heard me he 
arose, and I saw it was my brother ; but if it had not been for the 
strong likeness he yet bore to my father, I should never have known 
him; from a fair ruddy boy, he had become a haggard, sun-burnt 
man, so thin, that his waist might have been almost spanned ; and this 
change had been wrought in him by want and hardship in the short 
space of eight weeks, for it was just so long since we had met. He 
immediately turned when he saw me, and fled from me at his utmost 
speed. In four days more he returned again to us, and seemed more 
composed ; he occasionally got leave of absence to assist in our business 
of the farm, but he never could settle entirely with us till the winter was 
past. In one of his short visits, being alone with him, I asked him how 
soon he became acquainted with my father’s death, and he answered, 
« T knew of it before I was told of it. I knew it when I was on guard 
at Duncannon Fort, the third night after the battle of Enniscorthy, for 
I saw him as plainly asI see you. I was overpowered with hunger and 
fatigue, and I slept on my post, and he stood beside me and awakened 
me ; as I opened my eyes, I saw him clearly in the bright moonlight, 
he passed away from before me, and I knew by what I felt he was no 
living man!” This might have been but a dream, yet who can say he 
was not permitted to save his son from the certain death that awaited 
him if he had been found sleeping on his post ? 
I have now told the principal circumstances that fell under my own 
eye during the fearful summer of 1798, in which, besides my father, I 
lost fourteen uncles, cousins, and near relations ; but if I were to tell 
all I saw, and all I heard, it would fill a large volume. Yet before I 
conclude, I must mention one evil that arose from the rebellion not 
generally noticed, but the ill effects of which may be said still to con- 
tinue. The yeomanry was composed mostly of fine boys, sons of farmers, - 
some of whom had scarcely attained the age of sixteen; these, removed « 
from the eye of their parents, with arms placed in their hands, raised to 
the rank of men before they had discretion to behave as such, and 
exposed to all the temptations of idleness, intoxication, and evil com- 
panions, when peaceful times returned, were totally unable to settle to 
their farms (too often left by their father’s death to them alone), but 
continued the same careless, disorderly life, till they became quite unable 
to pay their rents. They were then ejected, and emigrated to America ; 
and on the very farms which thirty years ago were possessed by old 
Protestant families, there now live the immediate descendants of the 
very people who may be said to have been the original cause of all this 
eyil. 
