One band penetrated to Clonmel, another to the vicinity of Maryborough; a third made its den in a woody islet of firm ground, surrounded by the vast bog of Allen, harried the county of Wicklow, and alarmed even the suburbs of Dublin.

Such expeditions indeed were not always successful.

Sometimes the plunderers fell in with parties of militia or with detachments from the English garrisons, in situations in which disguise, flight and resistance were alike impossible.

When this happened every kerne who was taken was hanged, without any ceremony, on the nearest tree.

[76] At the head quarters of the Irish army there was, during the winter, no authority capable of exacting obedience even within a circle of a mile.
Tyrconnel was absent at the Court of France.