It was Wednesday, the 30th of September. At
twelve o'clock on that day, the principal inhabitants met to consult
with Mr. Galwey, the magistrate, as to what course they should adopt in
the emergency. Whilst thus engaged, Dr. Donovan, who had been on
professional duty, rode in from the country, and announced that a body
of men, consisting, as far as he could judge, of from eight hundred to a
thousand, appeared on the outskirts of the town. They were marching in
regular order, ten deep. Twenty-two years after the event, Dr. Donovan
thus narrates the cause of this extraordinary movement, and the
impression made upon his mind by the terrible phalanx, on its appearance
before the trembling town of Skibbereen: "Some difficulty," he says,
"occasionally arose in making out the pay lists," and as the people were
entirely dependent for their day's support on their day's wages, great
suffering and inconvenience resulted from the slightest delay. In
addition to these causes of inconvenience, supplies of food had
sometimes to be procured, and on this particular occasion serious
consequences had nearly resulted from the obstinacy of an official, (a
Mr. H----,) a commissariat officer, who boasted of his experience in
matters of the kind, during the Peninsular campaigns of the Duke of
Wellington, and who refused to allow any food to be sold to the people,
although ready money was offered on the spot.
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