escape from Carrickfergus, and recently come from England. He proposed to raise troops to assist Montrose in Scotland; and the Confederates, whom he had joined, agreed to furnish him with arms, and 200 barrels of oatmeal, which were to be shipped to Scotland by Mr. Archer, a merchant of Kilkenny1

On the 21st of July, 1644, Ormonde was duly sworn in Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. About this time Edmond O'Dwyer, afterwards Bishop of Limerick, where he distinguished himself when Ireton beseiged the city, was sent to Rome by the Confederation, with a memorial to Pope Urban, praying his Holiness to promote Father Luke Wadding to the College of Cardinals. On 17th of July, Lord Inchiquin had addressed a memorial to the Parliament in England, which was signed also by Lord Broghill, Sir Percy Smith, and other distinguished officers, against the cessation of hostilities for a year, which had been signed by Ormond on the part of the King, with Lord Muskerry on the part of the Irish Confederation. Inchiquin was in consequence appointed President of Munster, which had been refused him by the King, and which was the cause of his changing to the side of the Irish Parliament. He was, however, reduced to inactivity at present by the winter and the want of supplies, and in the spring of the next year the Confederate General, Castlehaven was in the field at the head of 6000 men, with whom he overran the country, taking possession of Cappoquin, Mitchelstown, Mallow, Doneraile, the Castle of Liscarrol, and other strong places.

In the end of October considerable succors were received in money and supplies from Pope Innocent X. These timely succors consisted of 2000 swords, 500 cases of petronels, 20,000 pounds of powder, and five or six trunks full of Spanish gold. They were entrusted to the care and management of the celebrated John Baptist Rinuccini, prince and archbishop of Fermo, in Italy, who was consigned to the supreme council of the Confederation, with the rank of Nuncio Apostolic, and was received at Kilkenny with the greatest possible joy and honour by the council; presently he was surrounded by archbishops, bishops, a great number of the nobility and citizens following the Lord Mountgarrett, President of the Council, welcoming him with open arms. In his report to the Pope, Rinuccini shows he had formed but a poor estimate of these outward manifestations of respect and attachment. He gives no credit to Ormond for sincerity in any one point of view: he states, on the contrary, that the Marquis boasted of having the Pope's money, and he alleges that, instead of making preparations to meet projected attacks on the confederation, he did all he could to afford the enemy a safe and victorious progress to Kilkenny.

As a counterpoise to this success, we may mention the loss at this time of the Castle of Bunratty, belonging to the Earl of Thomond, and which

keepe her said jewell in my owne custodie untill shee were able to paye mee, to prevent future consumption and inconveniences which may ensue unto the said Ladye through the accrueing interest sought by the said Roch: I to pleasure the said Countess payed the said Roch the £20 aforesaid, and kept the said jewells salfe for the said Ladye, demanding noe interest of moneyes of her. 30th Aprilis, 1649, by vertue of the said Ladye Dowager, her letter dated at Grangebegg 29° Martii, 1649, I delivered the said jewells to Sr. Connor O'Cuillenane, a Franciscan fryar, from whome I receaved twentie pounds, and five shillings, sterling, and who uppon his oate promised to see me payed of 15s. more, by May day then next ensueing, instead of the 3 picatouns which were counterfaiet, and that I would not then receave for my payement. John Arthure FitzRobert, James Ryce FitzJohn, Nichd. Wale, and Thomas Power FitzJames were present.-Dr. Thomas Arthur's MSS., p. 137.

1 The Archers were an ancient Anglo-Irish family in Kilkenny.

2 Vindicia Catholicorum Hiberniæ.

was now taken by the Earl of Inchiquin. But this important castle was subsequently re-taken by the Confederate troops under Lord Muskerry,' an advantage not deemed inferior to the capture of the castle of Roscommon, which about the same time was taken by the Confederate Preston.

On the 13th of June, 1646, Father Hartigan, S.J. who had been sent into Ulster as chaplain general to the troops, returned to Limerick with the news of the great victory obtained by the Confederates, under Owen Roe O'Neill, over Monroe at Benburb; along with the news Father Hartigan brought thirty-two standards, captured from the enemy. More than 3000 of the British forces were slain.

1 The capture of Bunratty Castle was an object of the most critical importance to the Confederates. The Earl of Thomond,* who before lived peaceably in this castle, admitted into it at this time, a garrison of 800 foot and 60 cavalry, most of them reformed officers, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel MacAdam, "a stout officer," who began at once to raise works to strengthen the castle, which, owing to the marshes about it, might be impregnably fortified. Bunratty, which was strong, was deemed before the invention of artillery capable of defying all attempts to take it. It was now placed in a state of complete defence, and a mount was raised whereon were four pieces of cannon. A small castle, and behind this the church, which is now a ruin, stood at a little distance from this platform, all within a deep trench, well flanked, in which the Parliamentarians meant to draw water from the river, which ran to the east of the castle. Lord Muskerry advanced to encamp in the parish of Bunratty, having taken a castle upon quarter which stood at the entrance into the park, wherein the enemy had left some musqueteers. The finest deer in Ireland roamed through the park; and the Irish soldiers took good care to supply themselves with plenty of venison; the wood, too, was preserved from destruction because the dry brush afforded better firing, and was easier gathered. Lieut.-General Purcell, Major-General Stephenson, and Colonel Purcell, all veteran officers who had served in the German wars, were principally instructed with the conduct of this action. (Billing.) After some skirmishing, they became masters of all the ground without the broad, deep trench on the west side of the castle, and sat down at such a distance that the brow of the bank kept Muskerry's camp from being annoyed from the castle or the mount. Faggots and baskets were supplied by the under wood. The garrison in the castle was brought by a portion of the Parliamentarian fleet on the Irish coast, under the command of Sir William Penn, which had arrived in the Shannon on the 11th of March, 1646, and which in its course up the river had committed several atrocities on the unprotected inhabitants; it anchored between six and seven o'clock on the same evening off Bunratty, and sent a trumpetter to the Earl of Thomond, with a letter from Sir William Penn and Lieut.-Colonel MacAdam,-the Earl received it kindly, embracing the motion, and promising to join them. (Memorials of Sir William Penn). After negociations, which were carried on the next day by Sir Teague M'Mahon-the Earl not appearing in person-they landed 700 men on an island close to Bunratty; Captain Huntly, one of the Earl's retinue, waiting on them, invited them to confer with the Earl, with whom they dined, and found him well disposed towards the Parliament; the soldiers then marched over, and quartered in Bunratty that night. The Earl was evidently anxious to play off the Admiral and his party if he could; but he committed himself irretrievably to them. (Memorials of Sir William Penn). The ship, which the pilot told them might go up within two or three cable's length of Bunratty, at five fathoms at low water, grounded on a ledge of rocks six feet high at the north side of the river, and was not got off without difficulty, and sustaining severe injury. The seige was carried on with skill and bravery on both sides; the beseiged, who were supplied with men from the ships, sallied out often, but owing to the proximity of the hill, and other causes, their sallies did no harm. In one of them, however, on the 1st of April, Captain Magrath, commander-in-chief of the Irish horse, was wounded; a route followed, in which a large number of the Confederate army were taken prisoners by the Parliamentarians. In the afternoon a general attack was made on the Confederate camp at Six Mile Bridge, where a hot engagement ensued, which terminated in the overthrow of the Confederate camp, the soldiers of which were pursued two miles, and 250 bags of oatmeal, and other provisions which were found in the camp, were taken by the Parliamentarians, whose stores were well nigh exhausted. Captain Magrath and a lieutenant, both of whom had died of their wounds, were honorably buried with three vollies of small shot. Previously to this Lord Muskerry had made every exertion to distract the attention of the

• Sir Barnabas O'Brien, sixth Earl of Thomond. On his arrival in England, where he married Mary, youngest daughter of Sir James Fermor, Knight, lineal descendant of the Barons Lempster, Earls of Pomfert, he waited on the King at Oxford, who created him Marquis of Billing, in Northamptonshire, a title never enjoyed by his posterity, as the patent did not pass the Great Seal owing to the troubles.-Lodge. [He was descended from CONOR, who d. in 1539; Inchiquin from MORROGH the Tanist who died in 1551. The last Earl of Thomond died in 1741. The above ancestors were brothers.]

The nuncio writing from Limerick in the 16th of this month, thus describes the thanksgivings offered up upon this occasion. The next day (Sunday 14th June, 1646,) at four o'clock in the afternoon, a triumphal procession was formed from the church of St. Francis, where the standards had been deposited. The whole of the military in Limerick under arms led the way, after them came the standards, borne aloft by the gentlemen of the city. The nuncio accompanied by the Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishops of Limerick, Clonfert and Ardfert followed; after whom came the members of the supreme council, the mayor and magistrates in their robes of office. The people filled the streets and windows, and on the arrival of the procession at the cathedral, the Te Deum was sung by the nuncios choir. He himself offered up the accustomed prayers, and concluded with a solemn benediction. Next morning he assisted at the mass in St. Mary's Cathedral, for the giving of thanks, which was chanted by the Dean of Fermo in St. Mary's Cathedral, in the presence of the prelates and magistrates above mentioned.2

3

The negociations and intrigues which followed these events, and which ended in the signing of Ormond's peace in 1646, fill a large space in the history of the times. The Nuncio protested with all the vehemence he could employ, and summoned the prelates and other chiefs among the clergy, with the heads of religious houses to meet him at Waterford, where with all the formality of an apostolic visitation, or a regular national synod, the peace was unanimously denounced, the scruples or fears of those who inclined towards it, were set at rest by promises of Rinnuccini that large assistance would come from Rome, and that the Archbishop of Cashel had given his assent by saying " in verbo tuo laxabo rete."

besieged, and to lodge a number of his soldiers in a place by which a part of the army might be enabled to invest the castle; this was successfully executed, but the soldiers, hearing a noise which they imagined was the approach of cavalry, fled in consternation, the sergeant appointed to command the party being the first to take to his heels, relying on too great indulgence hitherto observed in such cases. Lord Muskerry, however, made a stern examplethe sergeant and ten soldiers were executed on the spot. To make up for the partial reverse, Lieut.-Colonel MacAdam, who is admitted by Billing to have been a most skilful and couragious officer, whose loss to the Parliamentarians was irreperable, was killed by an accidental shot from a field piece that was planted among gabions.* His loss was the main cause of the capture of Bunratty by the Confederate army. Several pages of that very interesting work, "The Memorials of Sir William Penn," (2 vols., Duncan, London, 1833) are occupied with a diary of this seige, and with the proceedings of the Parliamentarians before Bunratty. During the time they attacked the castles of Rossmanaher, Cappagh, Renane, Captain Hunt's castle, &c., and killed many inoffensive country people, who, in the diary of the operations, are called "Rogues," &c. &c. The progress of the seige was satisfactorily hastened by the presence of Rinunccini, the Papal Nuncio, who remained at Bunratty twelve days, forwarding the batteries, completing the undertaking, and ultimately, when victory crowned the effort with success, causing the English standards to be carried through the streets of Limerick as trophies of the Catholic religion. (Nunziatura).

1 From the Nunziatura in Irlanda: Florence, 1844.

2 Among those killed at Benburb was Lord Blany; Lord Montgomery who commanded the horse, was made prisoner; in his pocket was found a note of the lists of the army on their way to Kilkenny, where they expected to be in twelve days march. Besides the general joy which so signal a victory was to all the confederates, and the solemn thanks which were rendered to God for it by the Council and Nuncio at Limerick, the Pope, as soon as he had heard of it, went in person to Santa Maria Major at Rome, to be present at the Te Deum he caused to be sung for the good success of the Catholics in Ireland.-Billing's Fragmentum Historicum.

3 In a letter to the Father General of the Jesuits, at Rome, the Nuncio complains that the Fathers of the Society in Ireland were the causes of all the commotions against him, and that they raised disobedience to his interdicts. He states, however, that the Rector of the Order in Limerick refused to obey Father Molone, the Superior in Ireland who conducted the intrigues against him. He adds that in Kilkenny, by his (the Nuncio's) influence, the Jesuit Fathers obtained the Abbatial Church of St. John, and in Waterford the Church of St. Peter.

Lieutenant-Colonel John MacAdam was an ancestor, I am informed, of the MacAdams of Blackwater House, in the County of Clare.

In his report to the Pope, Rinnuccini gives not only a full account of the causes which produced the confederation of 1641, but enters into all the particulars connected with the event; the errors with which it was mixed up; the want of union among the leaders; the conflicting interests and passions that were engaged; Ormond's fatal and lamentable peace which he denounced as the most unfortunate thing that could happen for the affairs of religion.

In Limerick where the confederate council sat, the peace, which had been solemnly established by decree of that body, was carried by the public vote of the city assembly, but the officers appointed for the execution of the charge were affronted, the confederate government was treated with utter disobedience. On the evening of the 20th of August, the heralds of Ormond's peace came to Limerick, the gates were shut against them, the next day they were allowed in and the herald at arms, vested in the coat of his office, attended on by John Bourke, the mayor, the aldermen and some of the principal citizens, who were at all times willing to accept any advantage which they supposed would subserve their own interests, began to proclaim the peace. A vote in its favor had been carried by the mayor and aldermen the day before. The people resolved to resist it, and were then exhorted by the clergy, who had published the censures, which had been decreed by the Nuncio and congregation, at Waterford, a few days before. Under the conduct and by the instigation of Mr. Dominick Fanning, and the Rev. Father Wolf, a Dominican Friar, who at the High Cross, in the midst of 500 armed citizens fulminated excommunication against its adherents, the people fell suddenly on the herald, flung stones at him, at Bourke the mayor, and all the aldermen who were about him, and all those of the "better sort" who countenanced the action; and having scattered their ranks with so unexpected a volley, the wounded herald, tore his coat of arms from off his shoulders, beating' the mayor and some of the aldermen, and without the slightest respect for their scarlet robes or the badges of magistracy, drove them for shelter into the next door that stood open. Soon after, amid the acclamations of the crowd, without form suggested by charter, or any ancient custom for the usage of election, they chose Dominick Fanning, mayor, and to him, the Nuncio, a few days after, by his letter returned thanks for the obedience he had given to his decrees, and for his zeal in favor of the Catholic cause.2

It would no doubt be surprising that "Ormond's peace" should be received in Limerick or elsewhere with such marked disapproval, not only by the Bishop and clergy, but by the citizens at large, who resolved to show their hostility in the most emphatic manner in reference to it, were it not that there was no confidence in the noble family of the Butlers, or in their designs or doings. That Lord Ormond had been playing a double part in order to save his own enormous possessions, was suspected; it has since been made quite plain. When on the 12th of May, 1535, the Lord Butler was created Viscount Thurles and Admiral of Ireland, and on the 21st of May, with his father, the Earl of Ossory, was made Governor of the Counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tipperary, and the Territories of Ossory and Ormond, they promised to do their utmost to recover the Castle of Dungarvan, and "resist the usurpation of the Church of Rome," the first engagement on record to that effect.3 Their reward was great--many abbey lands

Cox states that the Herald's name was Henry King. The anniversary of the day of this occurrence was for many years called Stony Thursday, from the quantity of stones that were thrown. 2 Billing's Fragmentum Historicum.

* Clanrickarde's Memoirs.

and rich abbeys fell into their possession, having been wrested from being a provision and dependence of the Church. The Holy Cross of Tipperary was not the least among the number; and others of the same kind, as well in Tipperary, as in Waterford, Carlow, and Kilkenny,-and in numbers so great that a natural son of the House of Butler had an entire abbey for his share, by grant from his father. Ormond, therefore, had powerful motives of his own, to oppose, not only the Catholic clergy, who hoped to be restored to their properties, or at least to a part of them, but the Irish party, who seconded the exertions, and sympathised with the cause of the clergy. No one did more to sow dissensions in the councils of the Confederates-and this was known so well by the usurping Parliament that they never exerted the rigor towards him which most of the loyal cavaliers felt at their hands.' Dominick Fanning and Father Wolfe only gave expression to the universal feeling with which people and priests viewed the conduct of Ormond, and this is the key to the excesses which Carte exclaims against it, as it is to the justice of the course taken by those in Limerick who resisted Ormond's peace. These events were speedily followed by other manifestations, which showed the undercurrent that existed against the Nuncio, who was never in favor with that influential portion of the Catholics who in secret sided with Ormond, and who cared for nothing but their own security and aggrandisement. A long list of charges was preferred against Rinuccini, to which he afterwards replied. But though the peace was solemnly proclaimed in Dublin on the 30th of July, 1646, he adhered to his determination, and, after further negociations, Owen Roe O'Neil was appointed commanderin-chief of that portion of the Irish army which remained true to the cause of the Nuncio. Whilst Rinuccini was in Limerick, Richard Arthur, Bishop of the diocese, who so deeply sympathised with the Confederates, died. He was a native of Limerick; and the Nuncio, to whose interest he was devotedly attached, and who bestowed high praise on him attended his funeral.

Events now plainly indicated what was to follow soon afterwards. The battle of Dangan Hill took place, and the Confederate army was defeated with great slaughter-a disaster at which Billing appears to rejoice, calling it "a judgement on the Irish for their perfidious breach of the peace." Castlehaven also professes to look upon the reverse in the same light, and alleges that the Confederates began to be as tired of the Nuncio as Inchiquin was of the Parliament. Inchiquin, who had ingratiated himself into the favor of the army, now marched out in the beginning of August, took Cahir castle by storm,5 proceeded to Cashel, where the terrified citizens, throwing

1 Clanrickarde's Memoirs.

His reply is given in the Supplement of the Hibernia Domnicana.

3 According to Cox, volumes of scandal, reproaches, &c., were written against Ormond by the Nuncio's party and the confederates. He alludes most probably to Dr. French's Bleeding Iphegenia and his Unkinde Desertor of Loyale men.

4 Castlehaven's Memoirs.

5 Letters were this day read in the house from the Lord Inchiquin, giving accompt of the taking of 12 Castles in the County of Typerare, and the Town and Castle of Cahir, which was thus taken; his Lordship passing over the Shewor at Cahir, one of his Troopers plundering neer the Town, was discovered wounded and taken, and Col. Hopsley in a disguise was admitted to go into the Castle to dresse him, who before had discovered some defects in the outward Bawn, and timorousnesse of the Warders. The Colonell after led on a party to storme, and took that Bawn, and some out Turrets, and within few hours had the Castle surrendred, on quarter only for life, above 20,0001. of corne burnt in that country, the Castle (qy. Cattle) drove away, so that our souldiers made hard shift for victualls. From Cahir his Lordship marched Septemb. 12, to the City of Cashiell, formerly the Metropolitan of the Province; where the Inhabitants, (amazed at the reducing of Cahir) left open the gates and fled to the Cathedrall a large and