hostile armies came into the presence of each other, and made ready for battle. Roland de Jorse, the foreign Archbishop of Armagh, who had not been able to take possession of his see, though appointed to it seven years before, accompanied the Anglo-Irish, and moving through their ranks, gave his benediction to their banners. But the impetuosity of Bruce gave little time for preparation. At the head of the vanguard, without waiting for the whole of his company to come up, he charged the enemy with impetuosity. The action became general, and the skill of De Bermingham as a leader was again demonstrated. An incident common to the warfare of that age was, however, the immediate cause of the victory. Master John de Maupas, a burgher of Dundalk, believing that the death of the Scottish leader would be the signal for the retreat of his followers, disguised as a jester or a fool, sought him throughout the field. One of the royal esquires named Gilbert Harper, wearing the surcoat of his master, was mistaken for him and slain; but the true leader was at length found by De Maupas, and struck down with the blow of a leaden plummet or slung-shot. After the battle, when the field was searched for his body, it was found under that of De Maupas, who had bravely yielded up life for life. The Hiberno-Scottish forces dispersed in dismay, and when King Robert of Scotland landed, a day or two afterwards, he was met by the fugitive men of Carrick, under their leader. Thompson, who informed him of his brother's fate. He returned at once into his own country, carrying off the few Scottish survivors. The head of the impetuous Edward was sent to London, but the body was interred in the Churchyard of Faughard, where, within living memory, a tall pillar of stone was pointed out by every peasant in the neighborhood as marking the grave of King Bruce."

Thus ended the first grand effort of Ireland as an independent nation to expel the Anglo-Norman power. Never was so great an effort so brilliantly successful, yet eventually defeated by means outside and beyond human skill to avert, or human bravery to withstand. The seasons fought against Ireland in this great crisis of her faith. A dreadful scourge

struck down the country in the very moment of national triumph. The arm that was victorious in battle fell lifeless at the breath of this dread destroyer. To the singular and calamitous coincidence of a famine so terrible at such a critical moment for Ireland, and to this alone, was the ruin of the national cause attributable. The Irish under the king of their choice had, in three heavy campaigns, shown themselves able to meet and overcome the utmost force that could be brought against them. England had put forth her best energies and had been defeated. Prestige was rapidly multiplying the forces and increasing the moral and material resources of the Irish; and but for the circumstances which compelled the retreat northwards from Limerick, reducing and disorganizing the national army, and leading in a long train of still greater evils, as far as human ken could see, the independent nationality of Ireland was triumphantly consolidated and her freedom securely established.

The battle of Faughard-or rather the fall of Edward under such circumstances-was a decisive termination of the whole struggle. The expected Scottish contingent arrived soon after; but all was over, and it returned home. The English king, some years subsequently, took measures to guard against the recurrence of such a formidable danger as that which had so nearly wrested Ireland from his grasp―a Scoto-Irish alliance. On the 17th March, 1328, a treaty between England and Scotland was signed at Edinburg by which it was stipulated that, in the event of a rebellion against Scotland in Skye, Man, or the Islands, or against England in Ireland, the respecttive kings would not assist each other's "rebel subjects." Ireland had played for a great stake, and lost the game. The nation that had reappeared for a moment, again disappeared and once more the struggle against the English power was waged merely by isolated chiefs and princes, each one acting for himself alone.

XXVI. HOW THE ANGLO-IRISH LORDS LEARNED TO PREFER IRISH MANNERS, LAWS, AND LANGUAGE, AND WERE BECOMING "MORE IRISH THAN THE IRISH THEMSELVES." HOW THE KING IN LONDON TOOK MEASURES TO ARREST THAT DREADED EVIL.

It was

UT a new danger arose to the English power. not alone fresh armies and a constant stream of subsidies that England found it necessary to be pouring into Ireland, to insure the retention of the Anglo-Norman Colony. Something more became requisite now. It was found that a constant stream of fresh colonization from England, a frequent change of governors, nay further, the most severe repressive laws, could alone keep the colony English. in spirit, in interest, in language, laws, manners, and customs. The descendants of the early Anglo-Norman settlers-gentle and simple, lord and burgher-were becoming thoroughly Hibernicized. Norwithstanding the ceaseless warfare waged between the Norman. lords and the Irish chiefs, it was found that the former were becoming absorbed in to or fused with the native element. The middle of the fourteenth century found the Irish language and Brehon law, native Irish manners, habits and customs, almost universally prevalent amongst the Anglo-Normans in Ireland; while marriage and "fosterage "—that most sacred domestic tie in Gaelic estimationwere becoming quite frequent between the noble families of each race. In fact, the great lords and nobles of the Colony became Chieftains and their families and following, Septs. Like the Irish chiefs, whom they imitated in most things, they fought against each other or against some native chief or sided with either of them if choice so determined. Each earl or baron amongst them kept his bard and his brehon, like any native prince; and, in several instances, they began to drop their Anglo-Norman names and take Irish ones instead.

It needed litte penetration on the part of the king and his