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confess his treachery, Simms resigned and this example was followed by other vitally important merchant leaders. Not content with deserting their posts three of the United Irish colonels unfolded McCracken's plans to the British Commander, General Nugent, in less than an hour after they were decided upon.
The people, however, were clamouring for action, and, when at last Henry McCracken was appointed Commander-in Chief of the Northern Army and Henry Munro replaced the Revd. Steele Dickson (who had been arrested on the eve of the Rising) as Commander in Down, the northern folk prepared to strike their blow for Republican liberty, and from all parts of Down and Antrim the Presbyterian farmers and working men answered the call.
On the morning of the 7th of June, the day after his appointment to the command, McCracken raised the standard of revolt—the green flag Hope had smuggled out of Belfast. From every part of Antrim the United men marched with gleaming pikes to swell the ranks of the Republican Army. A fierce engagement was fought at Antrim Town. Singing "The Marseillaise," the French hymn of liberty, the pikemen marched into the Town and charged the Yeos. The battle lasted for several hours and Antrim was captured and lost again by the Irish Army.
In Down the rising was widespread. Well nigh 10,000 answered the call of General Munroe, whose immediate objective was to capture Ballinahinch, and establish communications with McCracken and with the Republican forces of Dublin and Wexford. Throughout the day, one of the most ferocious battles of the rising was waged for the key town of Ballinahinch, which eventually fell to the irrestible onslaught of the pike-charge. The tragic circumstances of what followed is just another of those galling incidents of Irish history, which make victory so uncertain for untrained armies, and set at nought the mighty work of battle. The blast of retreat blown by the buglers of the routed Britishers was mistaken for the call indicating the arrival of reinforcements. The Republican Army caught unawares and thrown into confusion suffered a severe reverse and the mighty day was lost. Henry McCracken, Munroe and most of the other leaders were hanged in Belfast.
THE BOYS OF WEXFORD.
While the men of Antrim and Down were thus playing
