giveness, and may God pardon you." Driscoll stepped back some paces; he summoned all his strength, mental and bodily, for the last anathema. Driscoll now spoke with considerable in a firm tone, "Comrades, take my forvehemence. "Captain, by your order I have taken the command of this affairthis solemn and necessary duty. I claim to have the sole direction now; and that nothing be said, or done, to interrupt me." "Certainly, Mr. Driscoll. Gentlemen, we will be silent." Driscoll proceeded to dispose his armed band: in so doing he betrayed a happy want of experience in deeds of blood, and committed an error which Maurice very promptly directed him to remedy: "for," said he, "the bullets might rebound from yonder wall; and standing so near, you'd have a chance of an ugly hit yourself. Station your men by the plum-tree, and all will be right." With the additional thorn thus innocently struck into his sensitive heart, Driscoll availed himself of the counsel given: and all being properly arranged, he approached Maurice, who proceeded to divest himself of his coat. "Once more, unhappy apostate! once more reflect. Return to the bosom of the church, abjure your heresy, and I call our blessed Lady to witness, that I will myself undertake such pilgrimage, and perform such penance for your soul, that" "I thank you, kindly," interrupted Maurice, "for kindly you mean it. But if all the kingdoms and glory of this world, were now offered me to exchange the hope that I feel in my Redeemer alone, for such comfort as your church can give, I trust I'd spurn them like so many broken straws." Then perish in your guilt!" He paused, and added, with reluctant compassion, "If you please you may be blindfolded." "Blind-folded!" repeated Maurice, native courage sparkling in his eye, while the soldier's spirit shone out with momentary flash, "Do you think I haven't looked death in the face before now? Aye," he added, with a softened voice and subdued manner, "I have gazed at him when he carried his sting; now 'tis taken away, how can I flinch ?" "Then kneel down as you are.” Maurice obeyed; and after looking earnestly at the blue vault of heaven for a few moments, during which his features even glowed with animated hope, he spoke "Traitor, and heretic! the soil of your poor country, with whose enemies and destroyers you have leagued, opens to shroud you in a nameless, a dishonoured grave. So perish all Ireland's foes! The Holy Catholic church, whose pure faith you have abandoned, whose altars you have profaned, and whose salvation you despise, levels her thunders at your accursed head Where they point they smite.-Fire!" And as Maurice fell, the wretched fanatic sunk fainting to the earth. Unhappy Ireland! Long and deeply has her soil been saturated with the blood of her children. Many a youth, like Maurice Delany, has been lured from the paths of integrity, to pursue the down-hill road of guilt, with more hardened offenders; destroying, until himself destroyed. Many a gentle spirit, like Andy Driscoll, is goaded into fiendish deeds by the false fervour of a zeal that believes it is doing God service in murdering his people. Aye, and there are Doyles and Donovans too, pursuing at this day the unobtrusive work of peace and mercy. Themselves enlightened, they are diffusing, each within his own little sphere, that beam, beneath whose lustre the deluded soul strikes off its chain, and rising into life and liberty, becomes the centre of another circle, widening until the kingdom of darkness already begins to totter at its base. To crush these growing conquests, and to re-establish her destructive empire, the church of Rome has made a mighty effort, and beheld that effort crowned with intoxicating success. She now follows up the advantage gained, and aims avowedly at the utter subversion of all that opposes her unchristian sway. Shall our hand be therefore paralysed, and the millions of our fellow-subjects left unsuccoured in the pit of their destruction? God forbid! The weapons of our warfare are not carnal; but they are mighty to the pulling down of strong holds. Let us not idly mourn over ills which we possess abundant | the oil and wine of Christian instruction: means of removing. Survey the labours acknowledge them as ministers of divine of those compassionate Samaritans who mercy to the prostrate sufferer: crave a are not merely pausing to contemplate the blessing on their work; and then GO THOU, wounds of Ireland, but pouring into them AND DO LIKEWISE. DERRY, A TALE OF THE REVOLUTION. то JOHN ROBERT BOYD, ESQ. OF BALLYMACOOL. MY DEAR FRIEND, To you I need not say, that in tracing the outline of that memorable defence in which your ancestors bore a distinguished part, I have faith fully adhered to the historical data afforded by credible writers. In prefixing your name to the volume, I would fain express my grateful regard towards you: my deep feeling of the wrongs, and sympathy in all the woes, of your beloved unhappy country. May the wisdom that is from above direct the steps of her embarrassed Protestants, and that which is from beneath be banished from their councils. May Popery unmasked be the prelude to Popery destroyed, not by carnal weapons, but by the word of truth: not by might or by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts. December, 1832. I am, Your affectionate Friend, CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. PREFACE. An impression seems to prevail in some quarters that the work which has now, by the blessing of God, reached this advanced edition, is a mere fiction; or at least that the facts relating to the defence of Derry have been greatly exaggerated, under the influence of imagination or of party spirit. This is an erroneous supposition: characters have certainly been introduced, and domestic scenes described, for the purpose of bringing forward the object of all earthly things most dear to the author's heart-that of affording instruction in their own tongue to the Irish-speaking Aborigines of the land; and also of realizing more vividly the sufferings to which individuals were exposed during the period of their wonderful defence of the Protestant fortress, but in every particular where public events are noticed, she has been most scrupulously exact in following the historical records of those days, and now, after having for the first time actually visited the spot, inspected its numerous monuments of the siege, and collected every species of information that could be obtained, she finds but one mis-statement to correct throughout the narrative. This consisted in an erroneous representation of the conduct of the Presbyterian leaders, into which she was led by the remarks of another writer: in this edition it is omitted. Familiarized as the author had long been with all the recorded particulars of that momentous struggle which forms the main subject of the following pages, she was overwhelmed with wonder when the first view of the maiden city broke upon her from that direction whence Lord Antrim's forces approached to meet the unexpected repulse of the gallant Apprentices Abruptly rising from within a bend of the beautiful Foyle, terminating, as it seemed, in a point, and that narrow summit crowned with the single church, Derry, the Derry of 1688, appeared, girt with the dark zone of her impregnable old walls, and occupying a space so limited, that when by an effort of imagination the numerous additions of more modern date were swept away, and their places supplied by the lines and batteries of an investing army, it did really seem like a vision of wild romance, rather than a simple fact of history, that the defenders of such a narrow fortress should have held their besiegers at bay during eight months of unsuccoured distress, and finally have driven them from the scene of their unparalleled discomfiture. But when passing through the Ship-quay Gate, the visitor found herself actually within the boundary where no Papal foe was ever permitted to set up his banner, when, with a swelling heart, she paced the still unbroken round of those glorious ramparts, and from the cathedral's tower took in at once the whole compass of the scene, wonder and admiration rose into awe: for never in the varied history of the church's deliverances was the finger of Omnipotence more clearly revealed than in the preservation of this diminutive casket, where the Lord had enshrined the jewel of true Protestantism, and by the word of His power had declared that no spoiler should rend it thence. He alone who for the promotion of his own glory, and to abase the pride of man, hath usually chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, could have given the victory to the enfeebled handful who remained, after a protracted period of inconceivable suffering, to maintain that post, of which the limited space and more limited supplies were less remarkable than its helplessly exposed situation, commanded by surround ing hills, the broad outstretch of which afforded such favourable positions to the assailants, that every battery they chose to mount could tell with certain effect on the city. In tracing the occupation of the ground by the French and Irish army, and glancing down upon the straitened space within the walls, computing the density of an imprisoned population, and the inevitable effects of an incessant bombardment upon the dwelling-houses, the streets, the walls, the inhabitants, there was but one conclusion to which the mind could satisfactorily come: "This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." Memorable and honourable as the defence of 1688-9 has rendered the name of Derry, it is far from constituting her sole claim to distinction. Many circumstances of much earlier date distinguish her among the interesting spots of a most interesting country. The extreme beauty of the situation, added to its peculiar value as a sea-port, seem to have recommended it from the earliest times as a desirable post. The name by which it was first known was Derry-Calgach, literally signifying "the oak-wood of the fierce warrior." In former days, the slopes that on all sides bend down to the Foyle were covered with noble oaks; and upon its conical hill no doubt some powerful chieftain fixed his abode, bidding defiance alike to the rival clans around, and to the hostile invader who might, in rude shipping, approach him from the neighbouring coasts of Scotland or England-to the fierce Norwegian or the restless Dane; or whosoever might attempt to violate the sanctuary of his own green Isle. In the sixth century the celebrated Columbkill, who was a native of Donegal, chose this tempting site for the erection of a monastery-not a covert for the lazy monks of Rome, for at that period the papal antichrist had not stretched his arrogant pretensions even to the shores of England, and long, very long after England became a vassal of the Romish despot, Ireland maintained the independence of her pure Christian Church. Columbkill's monastery was a house of prayer and of devotional retirement for men whose zeal in the study and propagation of divine truth was tainted neither by a pharisaical spirit of separation from their fellow men, nor by unscriptural restraint from the privileges and enjoyments of domestic life. After a while the warlike distinction of Colgach gave place to a memorial of the mild Christian patriot, and Derry Columbkill became the recognized title of the oak-girt city. It was not until so late as 1566 that the garrison of Derry passed into the hands of the English: up to that period, the native race had held possession, defeating all who, at various times, attempted to dislodge them. In 1600, during the commotions excited by that extraordinary person Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Queen Elizabeth dispatched Sir Henry Docwra, with a powerful body of men, who landed from the Foyle, and having cleared away the ruins of Columbkill's institutions, then long desecrated by the idolatrous inventions of Popery, and which had been nearly destroyed by an explosion in 1568, they commenced the work of regular fortification, by digging a fosse, throwing up a rampart, and by every means in their power placing the town on the defensive. Thus the very first foundation of the walls of Derry was the work of Protestant hands; and the materials employed were gathered from the wrecks of what had been originally dedicated to the pure worship of God, thence passed into the polluting grasp of Romish superstition, and now, having undergone a decomposing process by way of purifying them, they were recomposed into a substance destined to be the groundwork of the firmest earthly bulwark that Protestantism ever entrenched itself within. So many and so various are the points of interest that Derry offers to our contemplation. When the terrible rebellion of 1641 broke out, and Ireland was reddened with the blood of many thousand Protestants, principally the victims of a massacre such as the Romish Apostacy usually enjoins and practices for the purgation of her domains from heretical taint, the possession of Derry formed an object of great importance to the rebels, who purposed taking it by surprise; but the vigilance of its inhabitants defeated this plan; and by the divine blessing on their determined resistance its garrison succeeded in holding uninterrupted possession of their post, destined to become the scene of a far more extraordinary defence and deliverance at the distance of less than half a century from that time. Protestantism being the pole-star of the Derry men, their submission to earthly rulers seems to have been always yielded under the limitation which is now, happily, the safe-guard of the British sceptre. Their allegiance always bore the saving clause "being a Protestant;" so that, when nearly the whole of the north, disgusted by the regicidal acts of the parliamentarians, declared against Cromwell, Derry, in 1649, stood another close investment, and a severe siege of four months, rather than recognize an authority that, however legitimate, was regarded as dangerous to the interests of Protestantism. On this occasion, Owen Roe O'Neill relieved the garrison, when reduced nearly to the last extremity; and for their unshaken fidelity to the |