reinforced General Lake with about 13,000 men, and the country people failing to re- spond to the extent Humbert had expected, he retraced his steps from Castlebar to Foxford, and then proceeded northward to Collooney. Cornwallis had entered Con- naught at Athlone, and marched to Holly- mount, and then north-east to Frenchpark, detaching General Lake to follow the en- emy, while he proceeded east to intercept him about Carrick-on-Shannon, or follow him up to Sligo if necessary. On the 5th September, Colonel Vereker marched from Sligo and engaged the French at Collooney. After an hour's fighting, in which the Limerick militia suffered con- siderably, the French and Irish were again victorious, but Colonel Vereker materially retarded Humbert's advance. Near Manor- hamilton Humbert turned south, closely pursued by General Lake, and crossing the Shannon at Ballintra, was marching into Leinster, when on the morning of 8th September, he was forced to make a stand at Ballinamuck. After an engagement lasting half an hour, General Humbert and the whole of the French troops, then con- sisting of 96 officers and 746 men, surren- dered at discretion. The King's forces "lost in the engagement but three killed, and thirteen wounded ; the French casualties are not given; while the Irish levies were followed up and butchered without mercy. A reign of terror ensued throughout Con- naught, and the people were for weeks hunted down like wild beasts. Bishop Stock says: "The rapacity [of the soldiers] differed in no respect from that of the re- bels, except that they seized upon things with somewhat less ceremony and excuse, and that his Majesty's soldiers were in- comparably superior to the Irish traitors in dexterity at stealing." The small French force left at Killala, supported by the Irish, made a short stand against overwhelming numbers. As the royal troops advanced. Bishop Stock says: "The loyalists were desired by the rebels to come up with them to the hill on which the Needle Tower is built, in order to be eye-witnesses of the havock a party of the King's army was making, as it advanced towards us from Sligo. A train of fire too clearly distin- guished their line of march, flaming up from the houses of the unfortunate pea- sants. 'They are only a few cabins,' re- marked the Bishop; and he had scarcely uttered the words when he felt the impru- dence of them. 'A poor man's cabin,' an- swered one of the rebels,' is to him as valuable as a palace.'" On the 27th October a second French expedition, upon which Napper Tandy had embarked, anchored at Killala; but sailed away hurriedly without landing troops, on the approach of a superior British naval force. General Humbert and his officers were received with great courtesy in Dublin as prisoners of war. He was shortly after exchanged; and from Dover, on the 26th October, he wrote a letter to Bishop Stock thanking him for his courtesy, and regretting any inconve- nience he and his troops had put him to. General Humbert subsequently took an active part in the Mexican war of indepen- dence, and died at New Orleans in Febru- ary 1823, aged 67. Bishop Stock's account of the French invasion is graphic and im- partially written. A monument has been erected near Castlebar to the memory of the French expeditionary troops who fell during Humbert's invasion. 34 203 242
Hussey, Thomas, Bishop of Waterford 1797- 1803, one of the founders of Maynooth College, was born about 1745. He studied at Salamanca, and then buried himself for some years in a Trappist convent, where he hoped to pass his life. His abilities being recognized, however, a Papal mandate obliged him to lay aside the cowl; he was ordained, and for many years was chaplain of the Spanish Embassy in London. He was a powerful preacher, "a man," says Mr. Butler, the historian of English Cath- olics, "of great genius, of enlightened piety, with manners at once imposing and elegant, and of enchanting conversation; he did not come in contact with many whom he did not subdue; the highest rank often sunk before him." He enjoyed the friendship of King and Ministers — of John- son and of Burke — was admitted a member of the Royal Society. During the American war he was sent on a mission to Madrid for George III. It was mainly through his exertions that Maynooth College, of which he was first President, was founded in 1795. In 1797 he was consecrated Bishop of Waterford and Lismore — the whole in- fluence of the Government being exerted to secure the post for him; yet his first pastoral — conscientiously expounding and enforcing the doctrines of his religion — is said to have given great offence to his Protestant friends. He was one of those who in 1802 drew up the Concordat between Napoleon and the Pope. He died at Tramore in July 1803, of apoplexy, after bathing. The Gentleman's Magazine remarks: "In 1797 he wrote his famous pastoral letter, which set the country in a ferment. The enemies of administration said he was employed by Government to sow the seeds of dissension with a view to bring about an union; others considered him an agent of France." 146
Mr. Froude, in his English in Ireland,
