Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/19

Rh of patriotism and genius. Many of these remnants have escaped the destroying hand of time, and the yet more destructive rage of the relentless persecutor. Some will be found in these volumes, but several are still scattered through the country, which it is hoped may yet be wrested from oblivion.

The few contained in this work, relate chiefly to the times of the second James, and his descendants. Although the Irish fought for that monarch, it was more from a principle of allegiance, with, perhaps, a vain hope of regaining their freedom and confiscated estates, than from any particular attachment to him, or his ungrateful race. With characteristic bravery, they resolved to conquer or perish in his cause; but, the pusillanimous king betrayed them on the very verge of victory by his dastardly conduct. This sunk deep in their hearts. For his descendants there was but little sympathy in Ireland. The attempts of 1715 and 1745 in Scotland, excited no correspondent sensation or movement here; neither "tongue, pen, or sword," was moved in their favour.

For a long period, however, after the revolution, the last of the race of our bards, indignant at the national oppressions, and disregarding the terrors of death or exile, which inevitably followed detection, poured forth their feelings of political hope, enmity, revenge, or despair, in strains, which roused and strengthened those passions in the breasts of their desponding countrymen. These "heart home lays" of their venerated bards, the people treasured up in their memories;