The king had often and earnestly pressed the lords justices, to conclude this cessation, as the only visible means by which his distressed army in Ireland could be relieved, or himself supplied in England or Scotland with those additional forces, of which he then stood in the greatest need; but not till after the receipt of his fifth letter of September 7th, 1613, were his commands, in that respect, obeyed. And thus, at length, on the 15th of that month, the marquis of Ormond, and the Irish commissioners, signed the instrument of the cessation at Sigginstown; which, being confirmed by the lords justices and council, was notified, by proclamation, to the whole kingdom; the commissioners of the confederate catholics insisting, all along, on their title of dutiful and loyal subjects, which no consideration whatever could make them forego.

CHAP. VII.

The advantages of the cessation to his majesty's army. AND in truth the confederates, by consenting to this cessation (as both armies were then circumstanced) gave an undeniable proof of their having highly merited that title. Sir Philip Percival, commissary-general of the provisions of the king's forces, declared in a memorial which he afterwards gave in to the English parliament, "that both the state' and the army were, at that juncture, in the greatest distress; that the streets of Dublin had no manner of victuals, many times for one day; that the soldiers would not move without money, shoes and stockings; for want of which many had marched barefooted, and had bled much on the road; and that others, through un, wholesome food, had become diseased and died.*

11 Cart. Orm. vɔl. i.

10 Borlase's Irish Rebel. Ib. fol. 156. occasion, lord Digby wrote to the marquis of Ormond, March 29th, 1644, "that their bailing was represented in England, as a very odious thing to the people of Ireland, and threatened to be of great disservice to his majesty. If that be your excellency's opinion," adds his lordship," you cannot want a pretence to make them fast again; and it is his majesty's pleasure you should do so."-Ib.

"To express the necessity of the cessation (says Borlase) many persons of quality signed, the said 15th of September, 1743, a writing, therein con

"That the Irish all this while subsisted very well, carrying their cattle, especially their milch-cows, with them into the field.

"That the state at Dublin had no money in the treasury; sometimes wanting means even to bury their dead commanders; that before the cessation was concluded, the government's army was so oppressed with wants, and their necessities were so great, besides the discontent of the officers, that there was no need of any other enemy than hunger and cold to devour them suddenly.

"That the confederate catholics had, all this time, three armies on foot in Leinster, well furnished with necessaries and ordnance; and that they had perfect intelligence of this distress of the state, and the condition of the English forces, knowing the prevailing strength of their own armies."

The lords justices and council, in a letter of the 8th of May, 1643, confessed, "that they then found the royal army suffering under unspeakable extremities of want of all things necessary to the support of their persons, or maintenance of a war; and that they had no visible prospect by sea or land, of being able to preserve the kingdom for his majesty from utter destruction of the remnant of his good subjects there."

But they were now to be relieved from this extreme distress by those very men whom they had hitherto considered and treated as their worst and most implacable enemies. For the confederate catholics freely obliged themselves on the conclusion of this treaty,t to pay to the marquis of Ormond thirty cluding it necessary for his majesty's honor and service, that the lord marquis of Ormond should assent to a cessation of arms." Though some of these afterwards joining with the parliament's forces, resolved to die a thousand deaths rather than descend (adds my author) to any peace with the perfidious rebels; but stuck not at length to the protestation, altering as the scene changed.”—Irish Rebel. fol. 170.

• Sir Philip Percival was so far from being inclined to favor the Irish in this representation of their circumstances, or in any other respect, that he was one of those agents that had been sent to the king by the protestants of Ireland to oppose the cessation. And he did so virulently oppose it, that sir George Ratcliffe told the marquis of Ormond on that occasion, "that, had he not been recommended by his lordship, he would have passed at court for a round-head." Carte's Orm. vol. iii. f. 316. This sir Philip Percival soon after joined the English rebels.

+ Ormond's demand for a supply for maintenance of the king's forces

1

thousand pounds, for the present subsistence of his majesty's army. And in order to " vindicate themselves from the calumny2 that was raised against them, as if they were rebels, and had resolved to throw off the king's government, they further engaged to transport several thousands of their best men to Scotland, to reinforce his majesty's army there; which engagement they afterwards performed, with great honor to themselves, and not less advantage to his majesty's service.

CHAP. VIII.

The cessation violated by his majesty's forces in Ulster.

THE cessation was scarce sooner published, than rejected by the Scots in Ulster, still, nominally at least, under the marquis of Ormond's command. For, upon the first notice of it, the English parliament,'" sent them fresh supplies of money, arms and provisions; with orders on their arrival to denounce fire and sword to all that should embrace it, and to march in a body, with all necessary provisions, towards Dublin."

But these Scots did not, it seems, wait for the parliament's orders. For we find the supreme council complaining to the lords justices, on the 15th of October, that "the Scots, who, not long before, had come over in great numbers to Ireland, had, by the slaughter of many innocents without distinction of age or sex, possessed themselves of large territories in the north; and that since the notice given them of the cessation, they had continued their former cruelties, upon the persons of weak and unarmed multitudes." Wherefore they humbly proposed to their

2 Carte's Ormond, vol.i.

1 Lord Digby's Let. to the Marq. of Orm. Cart. vol. iii.

2 Belling's MSS. Borl. Irish Rebel. f. 176.

was not warranted by his commission to hear their grievances; the confederates refused to bind themselves by any previous stipulation, but declared their intention to grant his majesty a free gift on the conclusion of the truce."-Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 206.

In 1642 there were twenty thousand Scottish soldiers," recent and veterate (says Borlase), under the earl of Leven in the north."-Irish Rebel. fol. 139.

lordships, "that these violators of the cessation, and secret ene. mies of his majesty's good subjects, of what nation soever; and that, while the succors for his majesty were in preparation, their own proceedings against them, might no way be imputed as a desire to violate the cessation."

But this proposal being rejected by their lordships, and the hostilities of the Scots still continuing and increasing, a stop was, for a while put to those supplies which the confederate catholics had engaged to send to the king; a great part of them now becoming absolutely necessary for their own defence. Lord Inchiquin was sensible of this impediment, when he told the marquis of Ormond, in a letter from Oxford, February, 1643,3 "that though the Irish were extremely relied on, yet he feared they were unable to do more than defend themselves from the Scots, who, he doubted would prove more dangerous rebels to his majesty." And lord Digby also, writing to the marquis about the same time,+ "made no question but that the Irish, in case they were rid of their apprehensions of the Scots in Ulster, would engage thoroughly, numerously, and entirely in his ma jesty's service."

The marquis of Ormond was himself conscious, that the increasing hostilities of the Scots prevented the confederates from sending the promised supplies to his majesty; though he afterwards charged them with their delay in the performance, as a breach of their engagement.* For, excusing himself to prince Rupert, "touching the procuring of arms and ammunition from them for the service of his majesty's ships under his com mand, he told him, that he had little hopes of prevailing with them; and that they were not very much to blame, the Scots being yet in Ireland in great numbers, and fresh reports coming daily, that they would not only begin the war with them in England afresh, but endeavor to impose the taking of their cove nant on the people of Ireland by force of arms."†

5 Id. ib. fol. 280.

Carte's Ormond, vol. iii. fol. 244. 4 Id. ib. Peter Walsh seemed to think that this engagement was merely voluntary (like that of their free gift of thirty thousand pounds) on the part of the Irish: "It is certain (says he) that both English and Irish were engaged by duty to transport their arms into England for his majesty's assistance; but to say that the Irish were engaged by articles to do the same, is a mere fiction."-Reply to a Person of quality, p. 51.

↑ In another letter he says, "I have with much earnestness pressed the

CHAP. IX.

The covenant brought into Ireland; further breaches of the cessation by the Scotch and English forces.

THE English parliament having, on the 25th of September, 1643, with great solemnity, taken the covenant, dispatched on the 4th of November following, captain Owen O'Connolly, the famous discoverer of the Irish rebellion, with letters to all the British colonels in Ulster, "recommending to them the taking of the same, and the carrying on the war against the Irish; and assuring them of sufficient supplies for their maintenance, upon complying with these conditions."* And this commission did O'Connolly undertake to execute, although he knew that the king had, on the 9th of the foregoing month, declared by proclamation, "that covenant to be a traitorous and seditious combination against him and against the established religion and laws of the kingdom." This man had now entered into all the measures of the English rebels ;† and was soon after made a colonel by them; but about the year 1649, he was killed in an engagement by colonel John Hamilton.

After the landing of O'Connolly, "all the Scotch, and most of the English officers in Ulster, took the covenant; although the marquis of Ormond had, by the king's command, sent down a proclamation against it, which the colonels of the re

Irish for some considerable payment of their arrears; but their preparations for their own defence, and poverty of the kingdom, wasted and exhausted by war, makes me doubt their supplies will be slow and small.”—Carte'e Orm. vol. iii. fol. 315.

«The London adventurers sent over an agent with letters at the same time, pressing the same things, and giving the same assurances.”—Carte, ubi supra, fol. 486.

He had gotten, for the first discovery of this conspiracy, five hundred pounds and two hundred pounds per ann. from the English parliament.-Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel. fol. 55.

Yet, says Maul, bishop of Dromore," when the memorable act of settlement passed in the year 1662, there were lands of some of the rebels forfeited estates in the county of Dublin, to the value of two hundred pounds a-year, ascertained and expressly secured, for the use of Arthur and Martha O'Connolly, orphans of colonel Owen O'Connolly."-Sermon on the 23d of October, 1641, note,