of the 10th he effected a breach, and, after being twice repulsed, carried the place by assault. The defenders laid down their arms, on promise of quarter, whereupon the victors fell upon the defenseless people, massacring in cold blood twenty-eight hundred men, women, and children. Thirty persons were taken prisoners, to be eventually sold as slaves in the Barbadoes. The horrible massacre lasted during five days. The Irish vocabulary is not wanting in maledictory forms, but its bitterest imprecation is "The curse of Cromwell!" Banishment and confiscation were the mildest punishments inflicted on the vanquished. The Irish fought with desperate valor, but did not forget to be generous, even to a merciless foe.
Conspicuous among them for generous and chivalrous acts was one chieftain, O'Reilly of Cavan, who not only gave quarter to his enemy in battle, but even sent his prisoners in safety within the English lines. The O'Reillys were lords of Cavan for over a thousand years. They traced their descent from Milesius, through O'Ragheallaigh, whose name is Anglicized into O'Rahilly, O'Rielly, O'Reilly, Rahilly, Raleigh, Ridley, etc. The derivation of the name is uncertain, but the best authority says it is from Radh, "a saying," and Eloach, "learned," "skillful." The motto of the family is "Fortitudo et prudentia," the crest being an oak tree with a snake entwined.
The O'Reillys were powerful princes, and for ages held the Anglo-Normans at bay, under
The supreme leader of fierce encounters,
O'Reilly, lord of bucklers red.
Their chiefs were elected by their people, and crowned on the hill of Seantoman, between the towns of Cavan and Bally-baise, where Druidical ruins are still found. In later times they chose the hill of Tullymongan, above the town of Cavan, and adopted the tribal name of Muintir Maolmordha, the people of Milesius,—Milesius, or Miles being a favorite name in the family. One of them, "Miles the Slasher," was probably the last of the regular chiefs. He was a brave and skillful soldier, and did good service
