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to prevent suffocation, as the weather was intensely hot; and, as the yard was covered with filth, and the offices a horse barrack, we were annoyed day and night, with offensive smells, noise and uproar. Thus accommodated, we were allowed to send for beds to lie on, and clothes to cover us. We, therefore ordered two mattresses, having room for no more; but as they did not arrive till a few minutes after four o'Clock; which, as we were informed, was the latest hour of ingress to our prison, they were not permitted to be introduced. Hence we were obliged to lie, another night, on bare boards. They were clean, however, which rendered them preferable to those of the blackhole. In addition to all this, we were obliged to sit up, to be counted, on the exchange of sentinels, which took place, every second hour.

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Hitherto, nothing like Insurrection, had taken place in Ulster. When we were treated, as above, previous to Insurrection, nothing, but increased severity, was to be expected, after its commencement. Indeed, we were scarcely assured of the fact, till we were made to feel its effects. The number of our sentinels was increased, their passions were irritated against us, and their language became so insolent and outrageous, that we considered our lives in imminent danger. After the affray at Antrim, we were particularly alarmed and harassed by

the

the dragoons of the 22d. regiment, enraged, as they were, by the loss which they had sustained. As their barrack was in our rere, they had to pass our open window, in all their outgoings and incomings. Hence, our ears were dinned with their imprecations, oaths, and declarations to our sentinels, that, "were they so placed, they would not leave one of us alive." On more occasions than one, some of them got into the Prevost, made their way to the door of our apartment, and threw in dead fingers, thumbs, &c. &c. with loose gestures, and words, awfully expressive. On one occasion, an individual wrested a musket from one of our sentinels, levelled it successively at our heads, as we sat on the floor, and swore that, "if he had his will, for five minutes, he would do for us every man." Perhaps, he would then have done so, in the fury which agitated him, had not James Bell, Prevost serjeant, rushed forward, laid hold of the musket, and dragged him away. In justice to said Bell, whose office of executioner had not yet extinguished the feelings of the man, I add, that he immediately reported this outrage to the commanding officer, on which such orders were given, as prevented a repetition of the like afterwards.

Though we now thought that the situation, in which we were placed, could scarcely be rendered worse, 'we soon found ourselves mi

serably mistaken. After the Insurrection took place in the county of Down, the number of prisoners was greatly increased, and they were generally huddled together, without regard to either age or station. Of these, many were destitute of the means of procuring a mo.sel of bread, or a wad of straw to spread over the boards on which they were obliged to lie; and, in the prevailing alarm and ferment, no attention was paid, for some weeks, either to their wants or their distresses, by the servants of government. In fact, they must have died of hunger, had they not been supported by their fellow-prisoners, and a number of families in Belfast, who generously supplied them with food, and other necessaries, This, in addition to the expenses of self-support, pressed very heavily on some among us, who, regardless of prudence, implicitly obeyed the calls of humanity. Besides, from the multitude of prisoners, the house was daily becoming dirty, and the air noxious; and, from the accumulated, and accumulating, filth in the yard, our open windows, instead of relief, only admitted air more offensive, and almost equally dangerous. Though some of these things were, unavoidable in our situation, yet others certainly afforded cause of complaint; and all of them were sources of sufferings, or danger, to us.

As

As the frequent change of sentinels, which I have already mentioned, and the circumstances attending it, nearly deprived us of sleep, the execution of a new order was equally unfavorable to our composure of mind. After the several battles, in the county of Down, though the Insurrection was quelled, alarm seemed to gain strength. In consequence, on each change of our guards, the soldiers were made to load with ball-cartridge, in our presence; and, ordered, if any new disturbance should arise, to put us every man to death. In justice, I here mention with pleasure, that not one officer, so far as I recollect, offered us an insult, on these occasions; and that few gave the orders, before mentioned, without evident symptoms of sensibility and regret.

Under the uneasiness, which these orders occasioned within, we were not free from anxiety about things without. We knew that trials had commenced, and that executions, spiking of heads, &c. &c. were taking place; but as our friends were denied admission to us, we owed all our circumstantial information to what we overheard among the soldiers, and the communications of the Prevost serjeant, who frequently visited us; and these were, generally made with marked emphasis, and accompanied with hints not very pleasing, to which his bloodbesprinkled

besprinkled trowsers, and, sometimes, hands stained with blood, gave the force of plainer language.

Before the commencement of these trials, resolutions of extending them seem to have been formed, and measures taken to procure information against individuals, who had been arrested before the Insurrection, of whom I was one. To attain this, it was deemed expedient to apprehend some of their least suspected dealers in information: denounce them, as ringleaders in sedition, whose conviction was certain; and, under this denunciation, place them among the victims devoted to death. This measure seems to have been adopted, in the hope, that compassion would be excited, among their fellowprisoners, by the supposed certainty of their fate; and that, in the warmth of that compassion, confidential conversation might be brought about, in which something would be elicited, to confirm their information, and ensure the ruin of their devoted neighbours.

The first of these, of whom I had any knowledge, or by whom I was beset, was the notorious John Hughes-a man, some years before, of considerable respectability, but with whom I never had any particular connexion, or even intimate acquaintance. However, he was fixed on, as most likely to succeed in entrapping me

and