An instant of silence followed, in which it is probable all looked at each other, and each considered what was best for himself. Owen O'Neile started on his feet and left the room-his example was followed by Preston, and in the course of one minute from the messenger's appearance, the room was empty.

Owen O'Neile called together his troops by a cannon shot, and put them in motion, they crossed the Liffey at Leixlip, on a bridge hastily put together from the timber of houses, and marched through Meath into the Queen's county. The nuncio returned to Kilkenny. Preston signed a peace for himself; but acted so inconsistently, that it was hard to say to which side he belonged. O'Neile had now many disadvantages to encounter. Besides the danger to be apprehended from the junction of his enemy Preston, with the king's party, he had damped considerably the zeal of many of his own confederates, by the arrogance of his bearing, and by the exorbitant pretensions which had latterly begun to display themselves. His claims to the dignity and estates of the O'Neiles were offensive to Sir Phelim, as well as to Alexander Macdonell, whose regiments were ready to desert.* The nuncio too was himself beginning to entertain fears of the vast and inordinate pretensions of his favourite general; while generally the character of the native Ulster men, by whom he was supported, was such as to convey suspicion and fear into the breast of every one of English descent. It began to be fully comprehended, that while religious creeds were made the pretext and the blind, the main object of the lower classes engaged in rebellion, as well as of their leaders, was a war of the Irish against the English, and that plunder was its real and main object. Above all the growing sense of his character and known designs had made O'Neile an object of terror to the gentry of every party: he was in possession of several counties of Leinster, where he was thoroughly feared and disliked; and the nuncio was with difficulty enabled to keep Kilkenny from his grasp.

of

The assembly convened in Kilkenny, to treat upon the conditions peace, met in the beginning of 1647. We shall not need to enter here upon the questions which they entertained, or the terms which they generally agreed upon. The result was the rejection of the peace: and the marquess finding all his efforts frustrated, came at length to the decision, to give up the further management of the kingdom into the hands of the English parliament, as the last hope for the safety of the protestants and of the upper classes. A treaty with parliament was the consequence, during which the national assembly were awed into a more conceding temper, both by their apprehension of the consequences of such a result, and also by a formidable demonstration of force, under their enemy lord Inchiquin, in Munster. Thus influenced they renewed their treaty with Ormonde, whom they offered to join. against the parliament but added, that they should insist upon the terms already proposed in the late assembly. To guard against the danger of any movement of lord Inchiquin, they were compelled to have recourse to Preston, as Owen O'Neile had now thrown off all authority, and come to the resolution of adopting no cause but his own.

* Carte.

The truth is probably, that he had found the resources of the nuncio beginning to run dry: and though he still found an object in calling his army the "Pope's army," he kept an exclusive eye to the one point, of strengthening himself, and maintaining his forces by the most shameless plunder.

On the 28th July, 1647, the marquess of Ormonde having concluded his treaty with the parliament, left the kingdom. The supreme council had transferred their sittings to Clonmel, the forces under their authority were placed under the command of the earl of Antrim, and were in a state of disunion not to be suppressed by the terrors of lord Inchiquin, who was in the mean time wasting the country. An intrigue of the earl of Antrim, to set aside lord Muskerry from his share in the command, ended in the triumph of the latter, and lord Antrim was (to the nuncio's great vexation,) himself deprived of the command, which was given to his rival. This army and the gentry of Munster became at the same time so much alarmed by the conduct of Owen O'Neile, that they presented a remonstrance to the council, in which they expressed themselves strongly, affording clear ideas, at least, of the nature of the fears which he excited; for this reason we here give the passage extracted from this remonstrance by Carte. They represented "that he aimed at the absolute command of all Ireland; that he had his partisans in all the provinces; that he had levied a vast army above the kingdom's force, to execute his ambitious views; that he had obeyed no orders, either of the assembly or council, but what he pleased; that he had slighted their commands, particularly in the affair of Athlone, and in several other instances; that Terence O'Bryen was, under pretence of his authority, actually raising forces in breach of the express orders of the council, and others were doing the like in other places; that since the tumult at Clonmel, messengers had been sent by those who made it, to invite him and his army to their assistance; that his forces acted as enemies, interrupting husbandry, plundering all before them, and leaving nothing behind them but desolation and misery; that Kilkenny and the neighbouring counties had been ruined by the incursions of his forces, who gave out terrible threats of extirpating the English Irish; and their clergy (whose army they boasted themselves to be,) talked after the same manner; that having complained to the nuncio of the friars, who to pave the way for O'Neile and his partisans to be masters of the kingdom, had sowed discontent and sedition in the army, and thrown unjust and groundless suspicions and scandals upon the designs and actions of well-affected persons, no punishment had yet been inflicted, nor any mark of ignominy put upon them to deter others from the like licentiousness." On this occasion, the gentry of Munster declared that while they adhered firmly to their church, yet that they would prefer joining Ormonde, Clanricarde, or the Grand Turk,† to the risk of being plundered and oppressed by O'Neile and his army. Under this apprehension, they entreated that their province should be put into a state of defence against the intrusion of that army, and that O'Neile should be strictly enjoined not to enter on its confines, and

declared a rebel if he should disobey the injunction. They were with some difficulty appeased by the council.

In the province of Leinster, the same terror of O'Neile existed. His character which had developed itself under the influence of growing ambition, and in the use of evil means for evil ends, was beginning to be felt; his virtues were lost to public apprehension, in the cloud of atrocity which surrounded his motions; his objects were misunderstood and his infirmities aggravated. He held Leinster with 12,000 foot and 1200 cavalry, a numerous band of robbers and murderers of every class, and there was a strong apprehension that he would be joined by the septs in Wexford and Wicklow. Against this fear, the great security to which all eyes in the province of Leinster had turned was the wisdom, influence, and active efficiency of Ormonde, and his departure occasioned the most general and anxious alarm in every quarter.

While thus formidably encountered by the suspicions and complaints of his nominal confederates, Owen, whom they had a little before nominated to the command of Connaught, followed, at leisure and in entire indifference, his own objects. He had the satisfaction in August to learn of a decisive defeat sustained by his enemy and rival Preston, from the parliamentary commander, colonel Jones, and laughed in his exultation, at the folly of Preston in exposing himself to such a risk. To add to his satisfaction, he was further strengthened by 2000 men from his rival's army, sent him by the direction of the council with their order, (or we should presume entreaty,) that he would march from Connaught to their protection.

The council, though then chiefly filled with adherents of Rinuncini, was strongly influenced by the force of circumstances to act in opposition to his desires; by this, the ties between him and O'Neile were for a moment restored, though Owen was an object of fear and dislike to most of the confederates. The incident here chiefly adverted to, is mentioned by Carte: a book entitled, "Disputatio Apologetica, de jure regni Hiberniæ pro Catholicis Hibernis Adversus Hæreticos Anglos," had been published in Portugal, by Cornelius Mahony, an Irish Jesuit, and widely circulated through Ireland. Its design and the effect it was adapted to produce, may be estimated from an extract in which the subject of the argument is stated, "That the kings of England never had any right to Ireland; that supposing they once had, they had forfeited it by turning heretics, and not observing the condition of pope Adrian's grant; that the old Irish natives might by force of arms recover the lands and goods taken from their ancestors upon the conquest by usurpers of English or other foreign extraction; that they should kill not only all the protestants, but all the Roman catholics in Ireland that stood for the crown of England, choose an Irish native for their king, and throw off at once the yoke both of heretics and foreigners." This book was supported by the nuncio, and very generally understood to turn the eyes of the lower classes upon Owen O'Neile, as the most likely object of election to the crown. But it was so directly opposed to the principles recognised in the oath of the confederates, as well as to the feelings and interests of all but the merest

From Carte, II. p. 17.

rabble, (yet not much above the lowest point of barbarism,) that the conduct of the confederates could not be less than decisive, and they condemned the book to be burned by the hangman in Kilkenny. This, with many such incidents, gave a strong turn to the sense of this party, and with the impression already made by the general conduct of O'Neile, together with the declarations of his friends and favourers, had much effect in rendering them the more accessible to proposals of peace.

Against this favourable disposition, the nuncio exerted all his influence and authority, and he was certainly not wanting to himself in the employment of such means as remained in his possession. His pecuniary resources had been entirely drained, but his native audacity and craft were not exhausted, and he endeavoured to obtain a preponderance in council by the creation of ten new bishops; the council objected that they had not been consecrated, and the nuncio proposed to consecrate them, but fearful that this might not be approved of in Rome, he contented himself with sending them to take their seats as spiritual peers, and thus obtained a formidable accession to his party.

The discussion of the peace was continued, and while the nuncio and the friends of O'Neile were violent in their opposition, the strong majority was in its favour. An amusing effort was made to turn the odds upon this question, by claiming for nine Ulster delegates the partisans of O'Neile, sixty-three votes, on the ground that this was the number necessary to represent Ulster, while on account of the war, nine only could be found to attend ;-a curious oversight and not unlike that amusing species of Irish humour which has by a common error been stigmatized by the name of blunder. The scheme was unsuccessful, and the only obstacle recognised by the assembly was to be found in the entire want of any authorized party to treat with. The council agreed that peace alone could save the country from ruin, and it was at last decided to send agents to France, Spain, and Rome. Into the particulars of this mission, it is not necessary to enter: all the parties had their private objects, and were prepared with their ostensible commissions; their journey was to little purpose. But the nuncio still continued the most strenuous and unremitting efforts to suppress or neutralize every proceeding which had for its object any treaty of peace unless on the terms proposed by himself, and in his eagerness to attain the object of his ultimate ambition, the cardinal's hat, he continually pressed beyond the line of discretion strictly marked out in his instructions, so that his chance of success was by no means improving in either respect. Without gaining the approbation of the pope, he was daily losing the respect of his own party; the court of Rome desirous to avoid embroiling itself with the other courts of Europe, disapproved of the indiscreet exposition of its policy thus afforded on so public a stage, and would have recalled their nuncio long before, but for the violent misrepresentations which led them to overrate the prospects of ultimate success. The Irish nobles, gentry, priests and prelates, were, with the exceptions always to be found in large constituent bodies, all sensible of the folly, ignorance and danger of his counsels, and of the entire futility of his hopes. The council was beginning to meet his remonstrances with indifference, and when be failed in his efforts to induce that body to declare against the Ces

sation which he was so anxious to break, as the last hope of preventing the conclusion of peace, he stole out of the town to join O'Neile at Maryborough.

The council sent messengers to invite him back, and with an offer which it is difficult to regard as sincere, they proposed to break off the treaty and invest Dublin, if he would send them £20,000; while they must have been aware that he was bankrupt in resources long since, and had already gone to the extent of his credit by large and frequent loans. But it is also evident that his conjunction with Owen O'Neile was the most mischievous proceeding that at the moment could well be conceived, and must have excited their utmost apprehension. The nuncio, with the pertinacity of his character replied, "that the generals of the Leinster and Munster armies should be displaced; that the Ulster army should be regularly paid, and assigned good quarters; that the clergy and their adherents in Munster should have satisfaction given them as to the civil government; that all governors and military officers should take an oath, neither to move, do, or agree to any thing that might be deemed to their prejudice, without leave from the clergy; and that the council should swear they would not suffer any peace to be made, but such an one as agreed with the instructions given to the agents sent to Rome." On receiving this message, the council saw the inutility of temporizing further, and signed a confirmation of the Cessation to be observed until the conclusion of the treaty of peace.

The nuncio had recourse to his usual methods, and when his declaration against their proceedings were taken down, and the prelates themselves resisted his menaces and entreaties, he brought together the titulars of Ross, Cork, and Down, who still adhered to him, and launched an excommunication against all persons, and an interdict against the towns which should receive the Cessation. The council appealed from his censures, and were joined by two archbishops, twelve bishops, and all the secular clergy in their dioceses. They were even supported by the whole orders of Jesuits and Carmelites, and considerable numbers of other orders in the province. On the former occasion already related, he had been as zealously joined by the clergy of his persuasion, as he was now firmly and unanimously resisted; these persons, zealous for the interests of their order but clear-sighted and humane, had begun to see the folly of their blind and hot-headed leader, the hopelessness of the cause, and the mischief of its further present prosecution. These defections might have made a wiser and cooler headed man sensible that he had gone too far; but the nuncio was little accessible to the warning of circumstances, and insensible to all considerations but those of ambition, pride, and resentment which engrossed his heart. The difficulties of his position. were daily increasing-his coffer was empty, the Spanish agent was suing him for 100,000 crowns taken by his ship from a Spanish vessel in the Bay of Biscay, under the pretext of its being English property, instead of which it was sent by the Spanish court for the payment of the army in Flanders. The leaders also of troops in the interest of the confederates had provided against excommunication, by the precaution of collecting those who were indifferent about it.

Under these circumstances, O'Neile retired into Connaught, and