as he did.

"*And yet thofe articles were not condefcended unto, till all hopes of the treaty then on foot in England between the king and the "parliament were overpaffed, and the army were not afhamed to proclaim "their purpose to commit an horrid and execrable murder and parricide on "the facred perfon of his majefty. This (fays he) we mention not as thereby "in the leaft degree to invalidate any of the conceffions made unto this people, but on the contrary to render them in every point the more facred and "inviolable, by how much the neceffity on his majesty's part for the granting thereof is the greater, and the fubmiffion on their part to his majesty's "authority, in fuch his great neceffity, more opportune and feasonable: as "alfo to call to the world (and whomfoever either any peace at all or the "terms of this peace may be diftafteful unto) to teftify hereafter, that as the "full benefit thereof cannot without great injuftice and fomewhat of ingra"titude (if we may fo speak in the cafe of his majefty with reference to this "laft act of their's) be denied unto them, fo any blame thereof ought to be "laid upon thofe alone, who have impofed the faid neceffity, the faddeft to "which any king was ever reduced."

Ormond was now reduced to look up to his former power and influence in Ireland through the exertions only of thofe, whom he had uniformly perfecuted and oppreffed. What share he affumed to himself of the difafters of his royal master, by having fo long deprived him of the affistance of his Catholic fubjects cannot be known; but certain it is, that this awful moment of embarraffment was the first, in which he made any avowal honorable or favorable to his Catholic countrymen. Befides the reluctant, ungracious and halfpenitent admiffion of their perfevering attachment to the king in his utmost distress, he faid in a letter to Lord Digby, that "I muft fay for this people, "that I have obferved in them great readiness to comply with what I was " able to give them, and a very great fenfe of the king's fad condition.”† And in another letter of the fame date to the prince of Wales, he notices, ‡the very eminent loyalty of the affembly, which was not fhaken by the "fuccefs, which God had permitted to the monftrous rebellion in England :

* 2 Orm. 2 vol. p. 52.

death.

This was written to Digby on the 22d of January 1648;-within a week of King Charles's

!

nor by the mischievous practices of the no lefs malicious rebels* in Ire"land."

It is no finall or unequivocal mark of the eminent loyalty and fidelity of the Irish Catholics, that at Charles's unfortunate execution, they formed the only compact national body throughout the extent of the British empire, who had preferved untainted and unfhaken their faith and attachment to the royal caufe, although they had been throughout his reign more oppreffed, perfecuted and aggrieved by their fovereign, than any other defcription of his fubjects whatsoever.† No fooner were the melancholy tidings of the death of Charles I. conveyed to Ormond, who was then at Youghall, than he inftantly proclaimed the prince of Wales king by the ftile of Charles the Second.

To these Ormond furrendered his fword for 15000l.

How little then did they merit the rotum candidum of our impartial hiftorian Sir Richard Cox? "How gladly would I draw a curtain over the dismal and unhappy 30th of January, wherein the royal father of our country fuffered martyrdom! Oh! that I could fay, they were Irishmen that "did that abominable fact, or that I could justly lay it at the door of the Papists! But how much "foever they might obliquely or defignedly contribute to it, 'tis certain it was actually done by " others."

CHAP

CHAPTER V.

THE INTERREGNUM AND REIGN OF CHARLES THE SECOND.

IN the first effervescence of the horror, which all conceived of the murder of King Charles, the English and Irish vied with each other, who should be moft zealous in their exertions against the parliamentarian rebels, whom they now denominated and treated as regicides. To this union were owing the first fuccefsful movements of Ormond's campaign in the reduction of most of the strong holds of the northern parts of the kingdom, except Dublin and Londonderry. The pride of Ormond stimulated him above all things to regain the poffeffion of Dublin, which he had by his own base treachery furrendered into the hands of the rebels. But the infamy of his giving it up for bafe lucre was aggravated by his difgraceful defeat at Rathmines* by a very inferior force under Michael Jones, the rebel governor of the city. This shameful disaster, coupled with the ready fubmiffion of Inchiquin's men, who inftantly enlisted in Jones's army, and feveral other circumftances attending the conduct of Ormond on this occafion, naturally renewed in the Irish their former fufpicions, that he had still fome fecret understanding with the English rebels and these fufpicions were strengthened by the conftant failure of all his fubfequent undertakings against them.

The new king had explicitly written from the Hague, "that he had received and was extremely well fatisfied with the articles of peace with the Irish confederates, and would confirm wholly and entirely all that was contained in them. Notwithstanding, after his majesty had been proclaimed in Scotland, and had been advised by Ormond to accept of the commiffioners invi

* Rathmines is about three miles from Dublin. Carte fays, that 1500 foldiers and 300 officers in this battle were taken prisoners, and about 600 flain and above half of them within the walls of Dublin after quarter had been given. Moft of Inchiquin's men enlisted under Jones, 2 C. Orm. 81. According to Borlafe, Ormond, after this fhameful defeat, wrote to Jones for a lift of his prisoners, who answered, “My lord, fince I routed your army, I cannot have the happiness to know where you are, that I may wait upon you.”

cr

+ Cart, Orig. Let. 2 vol. p. 363 and 367.

tation to go over to that kingdom, well knowing that his taking the covenant was to be the previous condition of his being admitted to the throne of Scotland: he took fhipping and arrived there on the 23d of June 1650. After having figned both the national and folemn covenant, in the short space of two months, the king published a declaration, "that he would have 66 no enemies but the enemies of the covenant: that he did deteft and abhor

popery, superstition, and idolatry, together with prelacy: refolving not "to tolerate, much lefs to allow thofe in any part of his dominions, and to "endeavour the extirpation thereof to the utmost of his power." And he expressly pronounced the peace lately made with the Irish and confirmed by himself to be null and void: adding, "that he was convinced in his con"fcience of the finfulness and unlawfulness of it, and of his allowing them (the confederates) the liberty of the Popish religion; for which he did "from his heart defire to be deeply humbled before the Lord: and for having fought unto fuch unlawful help for the reftoring of him to his throne." The publication of this declaration neceffarily produced the effect, which Ormond himself foretold in a letter to fecretary Long, namely, "to withdraw this "people from their allegiance by infufing into them a belief, that by his majefty's having taken or approved of the covenant, they are deprived of the "benefit of the peace, and left to the extirpation the covenant proposes both "of their religion and perfons."

66

Whatever party prejudice may alledge in charge, commendation, or defence of Ormond (no character was ever more partially reprefented) hiftorical juftice obliges us to aver, that the Catholic confederates (whatever differences had existed amongst them) were unexceptionably † and moft zealously devoted to

the

* Written from Loughrea the 2d of September 1650: in this letter Ormond grievously com plains of the rebellious difpofition of all the clergy and Catholic nobility (except Lord Clanrickard) and fays that he expected that all who should adhere to him thereafter, would be excommunicated. That all Ireland except Connaught was in the hands of the rebels. C. Orig. Pap. 453.

In the course of what is called (very improperly) the grand rebellion in Ireland, the only party, which could properly, if at all be called rebels, were the adherents of Phelim O'Nial, who headed the native Irish Catholics in the North, and who, in the confufion and heat of the internal diffentions of the confederates, had been, together with the adherents of the Pope's nuncio, denounced as traitors against the royal authority, for refifting the peace of 1648, by the fupreme council of Kilkenny. This Phelim O'Nial had been conftantly charged with having forged a commiflion from

the royal caufe, in direct oppofition to the rebellious regicides; that Ormond well knew the extraordinary fidelity of his Irish army, by acknowledging to his Majefty, that many of the foldiers had ftarved by their arms, and he could perfuade one half of his army to starve outright; that after the difgrace at Rathmines, Ormond never engaged, in perfon, Cromwell, Ireton, or Jones: that in a very short time after the death of the late King, all Ireland, except the province of Connaught, was under the power of the rebels; that Sir Charles Coote (afterwards Lord Montrath) and Lord Broghill (afterwards Earl of Orrery) with the forces under their commands, and the whole Proteftant army of the North, went over to the rebels; that when the royal caufe had, under his administration, become defperate and defenceless, he abandoned it in its agony, and fecured his own perfonal fafety, a fecond time, by flight that before his departure, he greatly ftrengthened the rebel power, by* permitting, as the Earl of Orrery expreffed it, all thofe worthy Proteftants, "who till then had ferved him, to come off to the reft of the Proteftants, though then headed by Ireton himself, efteeming them fafer by that real regicide,† fo accompanied, than with thofe pretended antiregicides, fo principled:"

the King, to levy war against the parliamentarians, or English Proteftant army in Ireland; for in the beginning of the decline of the power of Charles I. these terms were (by the Irish at least) confidered fynonymous. In the year 1652, a high court of justice (afterwards called Cromwell's slaughterhoufe, from the numbers of bloody fentences pronounced in it) was inftituted for trying rebels and malignants, which, in the revolutionary language of that day, meant loyalifts and royalifts: and also for the trial of all maffacres and murders, committed fince the 1st of October, 1641. The regicides brought Phelim O'Nial to trial in this court, hoping, as it appeared from their efforts, to affix upon the late King, the odious ftigma of exciting the rebellion: and after his condemnation, they offered him his pardon and reftitution of his eftate, if he would acknowledge the genuineness of his commiffion. But Phelim difdained to fave his life by a lie, that would have been injurious to that unfortunate prince: but he replied aloud, that in order to draw the people unto him (who were therefore loyal in their difpofition) he took an old feal from a deed, and put it to a forged commiffion, in order to perfuade them, that what he did was by royal authority. But that he never had. any real commiffion from the King. The Bishop of Kilmore affured Mr. Carte, that he was prefent at the execution, and heard this from the mouth of O'Nial.

* Answer to Walsh: where he also fays, by way of appeal to Ormond himself, "Certainly he "efteemed those less ill, to whom he sent his friends, than those from whom he fent them."

†The conduct of the leading characters in Ireland, at this critical period of the Irish hiftory, has been uniformly reprefented in falfe colours, by all our hiftorians. Not only hiftorical praises, but royal and even legislative rewards have been lavished upon the moft forward in the fervice of the parliament.