The old tribal chieftains lived to fight, and went down fighting into the night of time.  Owen Roe O’Neill, last great son of a heroic race, splendidly upheld their high tradition and ideal.  No nobler figure, and few more gifted captains, can be found in the annals of those warlike centuries.  The valor of Cuculain, the wisdom of Concobar, the chivalry of Fergus—­all were his, and with them a gentle and tolerant spirit in all things concerning religion, very admirable in an age when so many men, in other things not lacking in elements of nobility, were full of bitter animosity, and zealous to persecute all those who differed from them concerning things shrouded in mystery.

It may be said, indeed, that Owen Roe is in this only a type of all his countrymen, who, though they suffered centuries of persecution for a religious principle, never persecuted in return.  Their conduct throughout the epoch of religious war and persecution was always tolerant and full of the sense of justice, contrasting in this, and contrasting to their honor, with the conduct of nearly every other nation in Christendom.

The history of Ireland, for the half century which followed this war, offers few salient features for description.  The Catholics during all this time were under the ban of penal laws.  The old tribal chiefs were gone.  The Norman lords were also gone.  The life of the land hardly went beyond the tilling of the fields and the gathering of the harvests.  And even here, men only labored for others to enter into their labor.  The right of private taxation, confirmed by law, and now forfeited by the feudal lords, was given as a reward to the adherents of the dominant party in England, and their yearly exactions were enforced by an armed garrison.  The more vigorous and restless elements of our race, unable to accept these conditions of life, sailed in great numbers to the continent, and entered the armies of many European powers.  It is estimated that, during the half century after the Treaty of Limerick, fully half a million Irishmen fell in the service of France alone.

XV.

Conclusion.

A.D. 1750-1901.

The Treaty of Limerick, signed when the army of Sarsfield came to terms with the besiegers, guaranteed equal liberty to all Ireland, without regard to difference of religion.  There is no doubt that William of Nassau, scion of a race which had done much for liberty, a house that had felt the bitterness of oppression, would willingly have carried this treaty out in a spirit of fidelity and honor.  But he was, helpless.  The dominant powers in England and Ireland were too strong for him, and within the next few years the treaty was violated in letter and spirit, and the indigenous population of Ireland was disarmed, deprived of civil rights, reduced to servitude.