400 CAULFIELD due share of power. But this was only one of many hun- dred instances, which proved to Lord Charlemont's subse- quent experience, that the mask of patriotism and the ous display of violent opposition, are too often the mere disguise of self-interest and ambition. But whatever claims to the favour of the viceroy this acceptable service might have found for Lord Charlemont, with him they lay dormant; for he sought no favour; and the only stipen diary one conferred upon his family or connections, was the unsolicited compliment of a cornetcy of cavalry to his brother, who had chosen a military life. In the subsequent viceroyalty of the Duke of Bedford, during the then existing war with France, occurred the descent of the French expedition under Thurot and Ge ral Flobert, with twelve thousand men, upon Carrick fergus, in the North of Ireland. Lord Charlemont was then governor of the county of Armagh; and on the first news of the attack, he waited on the viceroy to receive his commands. He learned that Lord Rothes, the commander- in-chief, had marched with competent force for the scene of attack; and that the viceroy had determined to follow. Lord Charlemont proceeded forthwith to Belfast, where he found, that the peasantry and yeomanry of the county, mostly his own tenantry, had thronged from the surround- ing country to meet the enemy, with such arms as they could procure. They were drawn up in regular bodies; some with old firelocks, but much the greater nomber with lochaber axes, of which they were ready to make a desperate use. But when his lordship had advanced t Carrickfergus, he found the enemy, having made but a very short stay iu the town which they possessed, after a smart action with the small force there, bad fled: fo observing the determined spirit of the country, they had reimbarked their troops, and only waited a fair wind for their escape; having left numbers of killed and wounded on the field, and amongst the latter, Monsieur Flobert, their general, and many of his officers, who, by the active humanity and influence of Lord Charlemont, were saved
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