Father Murphy[582] was killed in an attack on Carlow, and his death threw the balance strongly in favour of the Government troops, who eventually proved victorious.  After the battle of Ross, the Wexford men chose the Rev. Philip Roche as their leader, in place of Mr. Bagenal Harvey, who had resigned the command.  The insurgents were now guilty of following the example of their persecutors, if not with equal cruelty, at least with a barbarity which their leaders in vain reprobated.  The prisoners whom they had taken were confined in the jail, and every effort was made to save them from the infuriated people.  But one savage, named Dixon, would not be content without their blood; and while the army and their leaders were encamped on Vinegar Hill, he and some other villains as wicked as himself found their way into the jail, and marched the prisoners to the bridge, held a mock trial, and then piked thirty-five of their victims, and flung them into the water.  At this moment a priest, who had heard of the bloody deed, hastened to the spot; and after in vain commanding them to desist, succeeded at last in making them kneel down, when he dictated a prayer that God might show them the same mercy which they would show to the surviving prisoners.  This had its effect; and the men who waited in terror to receive the doom they had so often and so mercilessly inflicted on others, were marched back to prison.

The camp on Vinegar Hill was now beset on all sides by the royal troops.  An attack was planned by General Lake, with 20,000 men and a large train of artillery.  General Needham did not arrive in time to occupy the position appointed for him; and after an hour and a-half of hard fighting, the Irish gave way, principally from want of gunpowder.  The soldiers now indulged in the most wanton deeds of cruelty.  The hospital at Enniscorthy was set on fire, and the wounded men shot in their beds.  At Wexford, General Moore prevented his troops from committing such outrages; but when the rest of the army arrived, they acted as they had done at Enniscorthy.  Courts-martial were held, in which the officers were not even sworn, and victims were consigned to execution with reckless atrocity.  The bridge of Wexford, where a Catholic priest had saved so many Protestant lives, was now chosen for the scene of slaughter; and all this in spite of a promise of amnesty.  Father Roche and Mr. Keogh were the first victims of the higher classes; Messrs. Grogan, Harvey, and Colclough were hanged the following day.  A mixed commission was now formed of the magistrates, who were principally Orangemen, and the military, whose virulence was equally great.  The Rev. Mr. Gordon, the Protestant clergyman whose account I have principally followed, as above all suspicion, declares that “whoever could be proved to have saved an Orangeman or royalist from assassination, his house from burning, or his property from plunder, was considered as having influence amongst the revolters,