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out into rebellion, sir Robert engaged against them, in defence of the English in that and the adjoining county of Catherlogh, and conveyed most of these English with their goods and flocks safe to Dublin. He had, indeed, the lords justices thanks for this service, but it cost him dear; for in revenge thereof, two of his best houses, Cartan and Liscartan were burned by the Irish."

The earl of Ormond's early offer to suppress these tumults in their beginning, met with no better reception from their lordships; for that nobleman having undertaken to pursue the rebels, then in no respect considerable, if he might be allowed meat and drink for the soldiers in his march, his proposal was rejected. "The only reason assigned by the justices for this refusal, viz. the want of arms, was," says Mr. Carte," a pretence so notoriously false, that it could only be made use of to cover motives which they were ashamed to confess;* for there was, at this time, in the stores of the castle, a fine train of artillery, ammunition of all sorts in great quantities, arms for above ten thousand men, tents and necessaries of all kinds for the march and provision of an army; all which had been prepared by the earl of Strafford for the Scots expedition."

What these justices real motives were, soon after appeared." In the before-mentioned short session of November 16th, both houses had drawn up a letter to the king, which was sent by the lords Dillon and Taaffe; and in which they offered of themselves, and without any aid from England, to put an end to this insurrection." Immediately upon this, the justices,+ and their party in the council, privately wrote to the earl of Leicester, lord lieutenant of Ireland; and after telling him

2 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 194. 3 Id. ib.

4 Id. ib.

lim O'Neil. But it was the great misfortune of that unhappy country, to be then governed by a man (sir William Parsons) that had not one qualification for such a post, at such a time; and to those defects was added, great obliquity of heart towards both the king and the Irish.-Hist. of the Irish Rebel. p. 130.

• Borlase himself confesses, that upon the lords justices having taken into the army a great number of protestants, who then fled from all parts of the country to Dublin," the state at that time had store of arms and ammunition, by which the soldiers, and the rest, were seasonably furnished.”— Hist. of the Irish Rebellion, fol. 45.

they expected and hoped for his secrecy, and that they could not open themselves with freedom at the council-board, they besought his lordship that no such overture should be accepted; and among other reasons, because the charge of supplies from England, would be abundantly compensated out of the estates of those who were actors in the rebellion." From this information, the lords Dillon and Taaffe, with their papers, were seized at Ware, by order of the English house of commons; and detained in custody several months, till they made their escape to the king, then at York; but it was then too late to offer a remedy, as the insurrection was become in a manner ge

neral.

CHAP. XII.

The nobility and gentry of the pale banished from Dublin.

THE lords justices had lent a few arms to lord Gormanstown, and some gentlemen of the pale, for the defence of their houses in the country; which, however, they soon after recalled, "thereby renouncing all confidence in them, though nothing had happened to give occasion to any further suspicion of them, than when the arms had been entrusted to them. The arms particularly assigned to Mr. John Bellew, high sheriff and knight of the shire for the county of Louth, were so quickly demanded back, that they were not delivered. Their habitations being thus rendered defenceless, they quitted the country and came up to Dublin to put themselves, as they thought, under the eye and protection of the government; but the justices, instead of allowing them such an asylum, on the next day after sending for the arms, published a proclamation requiring these noblemen and gentlemen, with others not having necessary cause of residence in the city or suhurbs of Dublin, and the places within two miles about the same, to be approved of by a council of war, to repair to their respective homes in twenty

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* "Whatever," says Dr. Leland, "were the professions of the chief governors, the only danger they really apprehended, was that of a too speedy suppression of that rebellion. Extensive forfeitures was their favorite object, and that of their friends."-Hist. of Irel, vol. iii. p. 160-1.

four hours after the publication of the proclamation,* upon pain of death."

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Sir Robert Talbot, whose houses had been burned by the Irish on account of the service he had rendered the English,3 “found it necessary at this time to bring his lady and family to Dub. lin; where he again tendered his services to the lords justices, offering to raise men, if they would furnish him with arms, to fight against the rebels; but these were denied him, nor could either his offers, or his late services, prevail for leave to continue in Dublin. He was forced by the proclamation on pain of death, to leave the city in twenty-four hours; and having no sure place of retreat, he was obliged to sculk and live privately for a long time, for fear of the Irish, till the breach between the king and the parliament of England, when he entered into the Roman catholic confederacy; doing, however, during all the time of the troubles, all the good offices in his power, sometimes with the hazard of his life, to preserve the English, and dispose the Irish to submit to the cessation, and afterwards to the peaces of 1646 and 1648, to which he constantly adhered." And yet his family had the mortification to see his great estate given to the Cromwellian adventurers and soldiers, by acts of parliament.

CHAP. XIII.

The justices invite the lords of the pale to a conference. NO signs of a general insurrection had yet appeared in the provinces of Leinster, Connaught or Munster, when a report

3 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 238.

It appears from Borlase, that these justices published two proclamations of that kind, even before the end of October, 1641. For that writer, after having said that they had issued a proclamation, " in his majesty's name, commanding all persons, not dwellers in the city and suburbs, to depart within an hour after publication, on pain of death," adds, "that the state, on the 28th of October, published a proclamation to the same intent with the former, with the penalty of death to such as wilfully harbored them." Irish Rebel. fol.44.

Another proclamation of the like tenor, and on the penalty of death, was issued by these justices, on the 11th of November following.—Ib. fol. 49.

being spread of spoils committed on some of the English in the county of Wicklow,* sir Charles Coote was commanded from Dublin thither with a body of troops; where, in the town of Wicklow, he cruelly put to death several innocent persons, without distinction of age or sex. Among other instances, he is charged with saying, when a soldier was carrying about a poor babe on the end of his pike,3" that he liked such frolics." Upon his return to Dublin from this expedition, the justices appointed him governor of the city, in recompence for that service. At the same time a rumor was spread that he had made a proposal at the council-board, for executing a general massacre on all the catholics; which, from the character of the man was easily credited.

On the 3d of December, 1641, the lords justices directed letters to the lords of the pale, whom they had lately driven from Dublin, acquainting them,s" that they had immediate occasion to confer with them, concerning the present state of the kingdom." These noblemen knew, that the day before these let ters were sent, the catholics of Dublin had been disarmed; that

1 Carte, Warner, &c.
3 Id. ib.

2 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 243. 4 Ib. fol. 259.

s Ib.

"Sir Charles Coote, at Ballinasloe, got some cattle and a great quantity of cloth, killing many soldiers in their beds." Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel. fol. 101.-Sir Frederick Hamilton, by all accounts, was equal in cruelty to sir Charles Coote, yet, says Borlase, “ a diary of which (his exploits in this war), even from the 23d of October, 1641, to the end of the ensuing year, I have read with much satisfaction."-Ib. fol. 113.

↑ "He was a stranger to mercy, and committed many acts of cruelty, without distinction, equal in that respect to any of the rebels.”—Warner's Hist. of the Irish Rebel. p. 135.

"Sir Charles Coote," says Dr. Leland, " in revenge of the depredations of the Irish, committed such unprovoked, such ruthless and indiscriminate carnage in the town of Wicklow, as rivalled the utmost extravagancies of the northerns."-Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 146.

In April, 1642, pursuing the rebels at Trim, "he was (says Borlase) unfortunately shot in the body, as it was thought, by one of his own troopers, whether by design or accident was never known. And this end (adds he) had this gallant gentleman, who began to be so terrible to the enemy, as his very name was formidable to them. His body was brought to Dublin, and there interred with great solemnity, floods of English tears accompanying him to his grave; by his death the fate of the English interest in Ireland, seemed eclipsed if not buried."-Hist of the Irish Rebellion, fol. 104.

they themselves lying most exposed to the rebels, could not hinder their entrance into their houses in the country, to which they had been banished from Dublin, by the proclamation on pain of death; or the paying of them contribution, which, in the eye of the law was criminal though unavoidable. They could not imagine why these lords justices who had about a fortnight before, thought their abode in Dublin incompatible with the safety of the state, should now by a sudden turn of sentiment invite them thither to be consulted with on that subject. Hence it was natural for them to suspect, that the summons was only an artifice to draw them to Dublin; and when they were there, to seize their persons and confine them to an irksome prison, and perhaps prosecute them at law, with a severity which might end in the forfeiture of their estates, the ruin of their families, and the taking away of their lives by an ígno. minious execution.

Such were the reasons that hindered the lords of the pale to pay obedience to the justices summons of the 3d of December, 1641. By appointment, however, they met together on the 7th, and then drew up a letter to the state, importing," 6" that they had heretofore presented themselves to their lordships, and freely offered their advice and furtherance towards the safety of the kingdom, which having been neglected, gave them cause to conceive, that their loyalty was suspected by their lordships." They added, " that they had received certain advertisement, that sir Charles Coote, at the council-board, had uttered some speeches, tending to a purpose to execute upon those of their religion, a general massacre; by which they were deterred from waiting on their lordships, not having any security for their safety against those threatened evils; and rather thought it fit

Temple, Carte, &c,

* About this time," the forces of the northern insurgents about Drogheda and between that place and Dublin, amounted to twenty thousand men.— The lords and gentry of the pale, unable to resist so vast a body, that were entire masters of the field, kept themselves quiet in their own houses, not thinking it prudent, by a weak and fruitless opposition, to provoke an enemy that could destroy them in a moment.—Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 243.

"Some" says Mr. Carte on this occasion," have not scrupled to surmise that the lords justices never expected these noblemen would comply with their summons; and that all the measures they took at the same time, were taken expressly with a design to terrify them from trusting themselves

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