Among the
rivers and bogs and mountains of the west, we should find scores of
places which we could hold against them. Besides, in my opinion we should
not fight pitched battles, but should harass them with continuous marches
and attacks, leaving them masters only of the ground they stand on,
until, at last, we completely wear them out and exhaust them."
"Then you think we shall abandon Dublin altogether?"
"I think so, Walter."
"But will they not persecute the Catholics, when they have them in their
power?"
"There may be some disturbance in the city, Walter, before the English
troops march in; but William will, no doubt, put an end to this as soon
as he arrives. He cannot wish to drive the Catholics of Ireland to
desperation. At any rate, I do not think we need feel at all uneasy about
those at home. Lying on the coast to the east of the town of Dublin, and
altogether out of the track of the movements of troops, there is little
fear of trouble there. In our district there is little preponderance, in
numbers, of one religion over the other; and unless the presence of
troops, or worse, of those savages from Enniskillen or Derry, excite
them, there is little fear of the Protestants of that neighbourhood
interfering with our people, especially as they have no grounds for
complaint in the past.
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