window of the abbey to see the fight, and for some time beheld their husbands bravely maintaining their ground. At length Alexander Cosby, as he was pressing forward, was shot, and dropped down dead. Upon this his kerne with melancholy and mournful outcries began to give way; and Francis Cosby the son, apprehensive of being abandoned, endeavoured to save himself by leaping over the bridge, but the moment he cleared the battlements he was also shot, and fell dead into the river. This, as might be supposed, must have been a shocking scene to the widowed ladies, who beheld the entire from the Abbey; yet it is recorded, that Helena Cosby, with the coolest presence of mind, addressed herself to Dorcas Sydney, saying, "Remember, mother, that my father was shot before my husband, and therefore the latter was the legal possessor of the estate, and consequently I am entitled to my thirds or dowry." The Cosby party being entirely routed, O'More ransacked the Abbey, but conveyed the infant and widows to a place of safety. Queen Elizabeth granted pensions to the latter in consequence of their husband's laudable services, and the O'Mores having been declared traitors, their estates were confiscated. The feuds, however, between them and the Cosbies still raged with violence. The infant having died, Richard Cosby succeeded to the Estate, and became leader of the kerne. Eager to revenge the deaths of his father and brother, he challenged the O'Mores to fight a pitched battle. They met in 1606, in the glen of Aghnahely, under the rock of Dunamase, and the engagement was the most bloody ever fought between these rivals. After a long and doubtful conflict, fortune declared in favor of Cosby. The O'Mores were defeated with considerable loss, and seventeen of the principal of the clan lay dead on the field. The revolutions of the seventeenth century completed the destruction of the O'Mores, but confirmed the Cosby family in its possessions.
The foregoing is a single picture, intended to convey an idea of the general practices of the English in Ireland, and of the
