The French invasion of Ireland in '98 Leaves of unwritten history that tell of an heroic endeavor and a lost opportunity to throw off England's yoke . ch undersimilar circumstances? No absolutely reliable account has ever beengiven of the French losses on this momentous oc-casion. Humbert, for reasons of his own, omittedany mention of the subject in his report to his gov-ernment. That they were very severe admits ofno doubt whatever. When, two weeks later, theFrench army surrendered at Ballinamuck, it haddwindled from 1,130 men—the number that origi-nally landed at Killala—to 844. Of the 300 m
The French invasion of Ireland in '98 Leaves of unwritten history that tell of an heroic endeavor and a lost opportunity to throw off England's yoke . ch undersimilar circumstances? No absolutely reliable account has ever beengiven of the French losses on this momentous oc-casion. Humbert, for reasons of his own, omittedany mention of the subject in his report to his gov-ernment. That they were very severe admits ofno doubt whatever. When, two weeks later, theFrench army surrendered at Ballinamuck, it haddwindled from 1,130 men—the number that origi-nally landed at Killala—to 844. Of the 300 men,more or less, who succumbed during the campaign,probably two-thirds bit the dust at Castlebar; inother words, twenty-five per cent, of the entireFrench Among the dead were the chiefof staff, Grignon, and Lieutenant Moisson, whocharged through the town at the head of the 1 Plassey and Quebec. 2Fontaine says: This victory at Castlebar cost us forty dead,and we also had a hundred and eighty wounded. But he does notexplain whether the losses of the Irish allies are included in this esti-mate. The probability is that they are ?s the officers in their shabby uniforms,Irish belles in their bucolic finery, the lithesome—Page 105. OF IRELAND IN q8. IO$ French cavalry. About a hundred of the prisonerswere Roman Catholic yeoman from Louth and Kil-kenny, who, when appealed to by Humberts Irishallies, expressed a willingness to serve under theFrench flag. They were mustered in to a man. Despite the hardships of their march to the fieldof victory, despite their decimation by shot andshell, the soldiers of the French Republic, once theconflict over, had thoughts but for distraction andpleasure. The Gallic nature, with its fantastic mo-bility, its violent contrasts, once more asserted it-self. On the very evening of the battle, with thedead lying unburied on every side, with the un-housed wounded torturing the air with their moans,Humberts officers brushed off the du
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