31 6 Some Account of the Rebellion. 



our horses at a miserable public house, we were 

 joined by a well-informed tradesman who was 

 on his road to Castlebar in the return post- 

 chaise that was to have taken our luggage. 

 He had been a volunteer during the rebellion, 

 and was communicative of the transactions he 

 had witnessed. This stranger was a very loyal 

 subject, and a zealous defender of the pro- 

 testant cause, consigning without mercy or dis- 

 crimination, the whole race of catholics to the 

 disposal of his infernal Majesty. The priest of 

 the hamlet had taken an active part in the 

 rebellion, and many through his influence had 

 been drawn into the error for which he had 

 been executed. 



In answer to some inquiries I made as to the 

 situation of these poor deluded people, our 

 rational informer without hesitation replied, 

 " They are rung in the nose like a pig, and bent 

 to the earth their cabins are wretched their 

 food most miserable rent and tithes take the 

 kernel of the nut, and leave the shell only for 

 those who labor a dreadful state, and loudly 

 calling for redress : " yet it did not occur to 

 him, that a people in so deplorable a situation, 

 so long as they were catholics, were objects of 

 any great pity or commiseration. How incon- 

 sistent do our prejudices make us? our very 

 5 



