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envious of his reputation or doubtful of his fidelity. As these notions found tongues enough they were quickly conveyed to the ears of lord Broghill; he is indeed said to have received a letter from a Mr Lammas, who was Ireton's chaplain, advising him to take care of himself, for Ireton, notwithstanding his professions of friendship and letters of congratulation on his successes, had privately determined to destroy him. On this Mr Morrice, the authority for this statement, mentions that lord Broghill satisfied by so authoritative a warning, kept away from Ireton as long as he could; he was however under the necessity of joining him at Limerick.

The condition of the other party, if such an appellation is not inconsistent with its complex constituency, is at least characteristic of the people. While the storm that was to crush them was gradually rolling together over their heads, and the necessity of a resistance more systematic and concerted than was hitherto resorted to, was felt by every one, the efforts of Clanricarde and Castlehaven, were encumbered, retarded, and rendered inoperative, by the factious intrigues of those, who seemed more inclined to fight among themselves about questions, and play the old destructive game of civil intrigue-than to resist the common enemy. They were men who wrangled over a paltry game, while their leaky pinnace was running into the whirlpool of destruction. Sir Charles Coote had taken Athlone and entered Connaught, and while the earl of Clanricarde was vainly endeavouring to collect an army to resist his progress, the archbishop of Armagh convened a synod, to receive father Anthony Geoghegan, who was arrived with instructions from the congregation de Propaganda, in Rome: their first decree was an order that no bishop should be admitted to sit in the general assembly, until he should be absolved from the nuncio's censures; they declared the duke of Lorraine protector of the kingdom, and with all the experience of ten years of social disorganization, yet impressed in traces of desolation on every side, they only thought of beginning again with the infatuation of 1642. Their immediate object was to revive the confederacy, and to this purpose their entire means, talents, and industry, were directed. Clanricarde at this time invested with the royal authority and the sole support against the parliamentary general, they considered as the great obstruction to their designs; and thus while they impeded all his efforts, they prepared for themselves and their miserable supporters the retribution that was to follow. The chief means by which this dissension was fatal, was by intriguing with the inferior leaders to induce them to desert their posts and break their appointments; so that when Clanricarde and Castlehaven had concerted the movements immediately necessary, and fixed upon the position essential for the counteraction of their opponent, the orders were not carried into execution, and their best concerted operations were always frustrated by some traitorous disappointment. Such is a summary of the obstacles to the efforts of the royalist party, previous to the siege of Limerick by Ireton: we now come to the particulars more immediately preceding that event.

It was the object of Ireton to pass the Shannon, in order to commence the meditated attack. Having failed in the attempt to build a bridge at Castleconnel, he was on his march to Athlone, the nearest

To resist his progress

place where he could then hope to pass. Clanricarde had an army of 7,000 foot, and 1,800 horse, with which he intended to fight the parliamentary army. With this view he sent to Castlehaven, to join him at a pass where he hoped to meet and check its further advance. Castlehaven left the passes of Shannon guarded, and marched to the rendezvous: but after about three hours' march, a brisk report of continued firing came from the quarter he had left, and he was presently surprised to see approaching a troop of cavalry, which he had left as a guard at Brian's Bridge: they came on in the disorder of flight, though they were not pursued. On inquiry he now learned that the parliamentarians had come on the other side of the river, and sending a few boats of musketeers across, the castle of Brian's Bridge was treacherously betrayed to them by the captain who commanded. As lord Castlehaven hurried back to arrest this threatened passage, and recover the castle, news came of the further defection of the colonel to whom he had committed the pass at Killaloe, who with all his men had fled into Limerick. The effect of this intelligence was fatal: Castlehaven's army melted away in a few hours from 4,000 to 40 horsemen, with which he himself was constrained to make his way to the lord-deputy; who finding his weakness, and the entire inefficacy of the worthless army, on which he had relied too far, retreated: and Ireton was master of the Shannon.

There was now, therefore, no obstacle to the siege of Limerick, which he at once commenced: and while he conducted his operations with progressive regularity, there was within the walls no adequate sense of the danger. Clanricarde, with the devoted gallantry of his character, offered to take the command, and share the fortune of the city: he was refused, and Hugh O'Neile appointed governor, but without more than a nominal authority; the citizens, like the ecclesiastics, thought more of protecting their own interests and immunities, than of the common and imminent danger which was collecting round their walls. There was thus little command, and no pervading authority: a laxity of discipline favoured division of councils and the intrigues of private fear and self-interest. A free correspondence with the surrounding country, was permitted, and the enemy were not suffered to be perplexed by any want of full intelligence of the councils and condition of affairs within.

While the parliamentary troops lay round the walls, an account reached them, that lord Muskerry was approaching at the head of 4,000 men, to the relief of the city. To check his approach lord Broghill was detached with 600 foot, and 400 horse, and soon came in sight of his enemy. At first Muskerry contrived by his movements to impress the notion, that he had no design to approach Limerick, and lord Broghill contented himself with a close observation of his demonstrations. At last on the 22d June, towards evening, he received intelligence, that Muskerry had sent a detachment to seize on Castlelisken, a strong place, directly on the way to Limerick. On this he ordered out his men, and about midnight, in the midst of a violent storm of rain and wind, attacked their camp, driving in the out-posts, and raising such consternation that the whole army made its escape on the opposite side, and was at some distance before morning, from

the place where it had encamped. Lord Broghill availed himself of this, by securing the way to Limerick, and then followed his enemy over the Blackwater, which they passed in the interval.

Lord Broghill soon found them drawn up to receive him, and divided his little party into three commands. Lord Muskerry's men took their ground with a degree of resolution and steadiness, then quite unusual among the Irish troops, a fact partly to be accounted for by the absence of their ordinary resources for retreat: as they generally contrived to meet their enemy on the edge of some great wood or morass, or near the defiles of some mountain pass. Lord Muskerry's men had likewise been animated by the paltry appearance of their antagonists, whom they easily surrounded: and evidently considered the victory in their hands. They offered lord Broghill quarter, who refused it for himself and his men; and a desperate fight commenced. Lord Broghill animated his men by his presence and example, and was the most exposed where danger was the hottest; at last there was a cry among the Irish, to "kill the fellow in the gold-laced coat,” and a determined rush was made from which his lordship could hardly have escaped, but by the prompt aid of a lieutenant of his own troop, who before he succeeded in disentangling his lordship from the press, received two shots in his body, and had his horse killed under him. The situation of the English was desperate, and they fought with desperation added to their wonted valour. The effect of this was soon felt among lord Muskerry's ranks, and they at last after sustaining a tremendous slaughter wavered, and gave way on every side, before the fury of the parliamentary force. Six hundred fell and numerous prisoners were taken.*

In the mean time, the citizens of Limerick were engaged in discussion on the expediency of a capitulation. On the 23d October a meeting was held in the Town House, by several officers and leading citizens, who agreed in favour of a treaty of surrender, and proposed to send commissioners next day to "the rebels." The bishops of Limerick and Emly came to the assembly and menaced them with excommunication, if they proceeded with a design which they characterised as delivering up their prelates to slaughter. The menace was disregarded—the excommunication with an interdict followed publicly, and had no effect. The citizens were eager (and wisely) to save themselves, and it had been throughout a matter of difficulty to repress the clamorous importunity of the people for surrender. Hugh O'Neile wished to hold out, but his power went no further than to set the watch, while the mayor kept the key.†

These dissensions seem to have risen to a dangerous height: colonel Fennel, who sided with the mayor, took possession of Johnsgate and Cluam Towers, and drove out the soldiers of O'Neile. O'Neile summoned him to a council of war: he refused to attend, and being supplied with ammunition by the mayor, he turned the cannon on the town, and declared that he would not leave his post until a surrender should be agreed to. To enforce this declaration, he admitted two hundred of Ireton's men, and a surrender was speedily settled, and

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concluded on the 27th. Twenty-four persons were exempted from mercy. Of these, the bishop of Limerick escaped in a soldier's dress, and found his way to lord Muskerry: the bishop of Emly, Fennel who had been instrumental in letting in the enemy, the mayor, who gave up the keys, and most of the other excepted persons were hanged by Ireton's order.

A few days after Ireton died in Limerick; and the progress of the campaign was checked by uncertainty as to the officer who should take the command. We shall here follow lord Broghill's fortune, and leave the thread of Irish history to be taken up elsewhere. The king had landed in Scotland—a rising in his favour under the conduct of Lesley had been effected, and the command of the parliamentary troops had been transferred from Fairfax to Cromwell, who was sent against the Scots. By the subsequent progress of events, he arrived, as the reader knows, at the highest station in the kingdom; and, under the title of lord Protector, acquired a power beyond that of which his unfortunate predecessor had been deprived after ten years outpouring of English blood. Thus raised, Cromwell acted with a degree of wisdom and efficient vigour, which has gone far to counterbalance the means by which he attained his eminent position; and it must be regarded as a high testimony of lord Broghill's merit, that this profound and keen observer and judicious statesman, should have sent for him, as one on whose conduct, prudence, and valour, he relied; and, if true, the fact, mentioned by Budgell, confers no less distinction—that he took " visible pleasure" in the conversation of lord Broghill, Mr Waller, and Milton. Such is the testimony which makes lord Broghill the selection of the most judicious, and associates him with the greatest and noblest spirit of his age.

Nor was the preference of Cromwell such as terminates in favourable regard, as it is mentioned by all of his biographers, that lord Broghill was sent to Scotland as the fittest person to conciliate and suppress the rough government of general Monk. He felt great and natural reluctance to accept of this commission, but suffered himself to be persuaded, with a stipulation for his recall in one year. After which he remained in England, using his influence with Cromwell, so as to protect the royalists. One day Cromwell told him in a playful tone and manner, that an old friend of his was just come to town; and to lord Broghill's inquiry as to the person, informed him it was the marquess of Ormonde. On this, lord Broghill protested his ignorance of the fact, and was answered, "I know that well enough; however, if you have a mind to preserve your old acquaintance, let him know that I am not ignorant where he is, or what he is doing." He then let him know the place where the marquess lodged; and lord Broghill lost no time in making the important communication to the marquess, who availed himself of it, to make his escape without delay.

Very shortly after, his lordship had an opportunity of standing between the same noble family and the suspicions of the lord protector. Cromwell received information that the marchioness of Ormonde, to whom his own conduct had been generous and considerate, was engaged in forwarding the plots of his opponents and enemies in London, where she lived under his protection, with an allowance of £2000 a-year.

Lord Broghill denied the probability of such an accusation, on which Cromwell, who was the time very angry, threw him some letters, which he told him had been taken from her cabinet, and desired him to read. On looking at these, lord Broghill fortunately recognised the handwriting of the lady Isabella Thynne, between whom, and the marquess, there had been a correspondence of the kind suspected by Cromwell. When lord Broghill assured him that the letters were written by that lady, Cromwell demanded his proof. The demand was promptly met by the production of other letters from the same lady, " of whom," writes Budgell, "he told two or three stories so pleasant, as made Cromwell lose all his resentment in a hearty laugh."

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It is mentioned by the same writer, that when Cromwell's parliament was about to pass some very severe resolutions against Clanricarde, lord Broghill interposed, and made statements so creditable to lord Clanricarde's character, that the resolutions were not brought to

a vote.

The death of Oliver Cromwell was followed by the transient protectorship of his feeble son, Richard. The general respect which the strong character of his father had impressed, secured his unquestioned succession: the turbulent and heterogeneous composition of the government, army, and parliament-the unprincipled ambition of some, and the fanaticism of others, quickly made his seat uneasy. A few persons, who, by their rank and elevated principles of conduct, were alien from the party with which they moved; but who had, partly from necessity, partly from gratitude, partly too from a just sense of public expediency, served under the late protector, now continued faithful to his son, when the crowd, whose motive is ever sordid, was falling away from him. On his father's death, Richard Cromwell chose lord Broghill, Dr Wilkins and colonel Philips to be his advisers: and the position was one which brings into a strong light the tact and sagacity of this lord. At the first meeting of his parliament a military faction entered into one of those intrigues, which hitherto had been found successful as a means to enable a few soldiers to control the government, and dictate terms to parliament. All the fanatics, intriguers, and malcontents, rallied round Fleetwood, Desborough, Lambart and other general officers, and formed a cabal, which, from the place of Fleetwood's residence, where they daily met, was called the " cabal of Wallingford house:" they prevailed on the protector to sanction their meeting as a general council, to inquire into the grievances of the army, and petition for their redress. They were no sooner met than they voted a "remonstrance," in which they lamented the neglect of the "good old cause," for which the army had fought and bled; and proposed that the military power of the kingdom should be vested in some person whom they could trust.

Richard Cromwell's friends were alarmed, they were all with one exception peaceful men, whose habits unfitted them to cope with such spirits; but Broghill was more than equal to the emergency. Having asked the fear-struck protector whether he had really consented to the meeting; Richard replied that he had. "I fear," said Broghill, “ that

* Budgell.

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