Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/317

 high, which lay round the house, and twelve feet thick, and fortified it with flankers in the manner of an irregular pentagon, in which work they were assisted by 150 of the natives that lived amongst them; and they erected small huts of planks within the wall, in which some of the families lodged.'

They made Mr. Orpen, Sir William Petty' s agent and clergyman of the place, who combined the duties of Judge of Admiralty for the western coast with his ecclesiastical functions, their leader, and they entered into a solemn association to stand by one another in defence of their lives, religion, and liberties. These proceedings, the narrator of these events quaintly observes, 'greatly disgusted the neighbouring Irish.' Success rewarded their early efforts. They made an attack on the known leaders of the recent robberies and captured six of them; but the prisoners, although seized under warrants of Lieutenant-General Macarthy, were almost immediately released by his direction. All further