he sent advertisement to the mayor of his being there, and ready to afford them what succours they pleased. Some of the aldermen were sent to congratulate his excellency's safety after so hazardous a march, to express their great obligations to him for adventuring himself for their preservation, and their willingness to receive what number of men he thought fit to appoint. Some were ferried over immediately, and they being willing to receive sir Edm. Butler, governor of the county, to the same command over the town, it was determined to send that gallant and resolute officer (who lay with colonel John Mayart's regiment of five hundred foot and one hundred horse, quartered in the way of the lord lieutenant's return at the house of one Kinselagh, receiver of the county) to strengthen the garrison with those forces, and to take on him the command of the place. 141 Here his excellency received letters from lord Inchiquin giving him an account of his stay in Munster, the designs of some of his officers which occasioned it, and the hopes he had of soon reducing those who yet held out against him in Cork; advertising him farther, that he had some intimations of the disaffection of the men which had lately joined him, and giving him caution of some particular officers. The marquis of Ormond did not think it proper in the place where he was to seize any persons upon such general suspicions or accusations, but reserved that matter for lord Inchiquin himself, when he should be upon the place with sufficient proof to justify the charge. Having finished the work of putting a second relief into Wexford, he began his march back towards Ross, intending to repass the Slane near Enniscorthy; but when he came within sight of that castle, he not only saw a body of the enemy's horse drawn up 93 on an hill not far from it, but received certain advice that Cromwell, having had intelligence of his march, had sent Michael Jones with a considerable part of his army

to intercept him in his return. The marquis considering the condition of his forces, the best of which were those very troops which lord Inchiquin had given him reason to suspect, the jealousies reigning between them and the Irish which composed the rest of his army, and the disadvantages that he must suffer in an engagement with Jones, which would give the disaffected an opportunity to declare their treacherous intentions, resolved to avoid a battle. Hence about the close of the evening he marched a contrary course to what he had held all day, and fetching a compass over the mountains of Wicklow, he arrived in two days at Leighlin bridge. There he was overtaken by lieutenant colonel W. Butler, who having escaped out of Wexford by swimming over the ferry, brought him news that sir Edm. Butler had not been above two hours in the town, giving order for the ferrying over of colonel Mayart's regiment, when the enemy entering the gates by the treachery of captain James Stafford, who commanded the castle, he was forced to endeavour his own safety likewise by swimming, but receiving a shot in the head, was unfortunately drowned. This Stafford was a Roman catholic, had been by the council of Kilkenny joined with sir T. Esmond in the government of that county, and since made by the commissioners of trust governor of the castle of Wexford, which was seated at a small distance from the town, but so near that there was no cutting off the communication between them. Cromwell, when his batteries were ready to play on the 11th, according to his custom, summoned the town to surrender, thereby to prevent effusion of blood. The summons being rejected, his batteries had scarce begun to play in another quarter, when Strafford having privately received his forces into the castle, which commanded the part of the town wall that lay next it, they issued suddenly from thence, attacked the wall and gate adjoining, and either through the treachery of the towns

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men who admitted them, or the cowardice of the soldiery, who in the surprise of being invaded from a quarter whence they least expected it, made little or no defence, became soon masters of the place, and made almost as great a slaughter as they had done at Drogheda.

The lord lieutenant was exceedingly troubled at this fatal accident, which defeated the hopes he had entertained that Wexford would hold the enemy in play till Cromwell's forces, unused to the air and climate of Ireland, were by the fatigues of the siege considerably reduced, and his own in a condition of giving him battle by the return of lord Inchiquin and his men, and the conjunction of the Ulster army. Owen O'Neile, upon his nephew Daniel's coming to him with the marquis of Ormond's proposals, was so well satisfied therewith, and so fully convinced of his lordship's inclinations and desires to engage him in the king's service, that without expecting any further assurance of his performance than his own word, which he valued as much as any other obligation whatever, he promised to be on Sept. 9 at Carrick-macrosse with his army, to be disposed of as the marquis should direct. The violence of his illness, and his inability to travel, prevented his marching till the 20th of that month, when the lord lieutenant being gone from Portlester to Kilkenny, he advanced by continual marches (which the extremity of his pain and the stops occasioned by floods made the slower) into the county of Cavan, still flattering himself that he might recover so far as to be able to serve himself at the head of his army, which he was infinitely fond of doing. The marquis was very desirous of his presence and advice; but delays being exceeding detrimental to the king's service, he desired O'Neile to send part of his army before, and to follow, as his health would permit him, with the rest. He readily 94 complied, and though the articles of agreement were not signed in form, he sent lieutenant general Ferral and

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Hugh O'Neile with a body of between three or four thousand men to the lord lieutenant's assistance, still advising that Cromwell should not be fought with, unless upon great advantage, and that he would be sooner beat by passes, and the season of the year, without any hazard, than he could by any engagement in the field, his army having been hitherto victorious. He thought the consequences of fighting too dangerous for the lord lieutenant to run, since the loss of a battle would be the loss of himself, and consequently of the whole kingdom; for if any disaster attended his army, he would certainly be betrayed into the hands of Cromwell. For these reasons, he thought it better to hazard starving through the country's not bringing in provisions, than desperately to lose the small body of troops left, on which depended the preservation of the kingdom and of his majesty's interest therein. Dan. O'Neile and lord Taaffe came along with them, endeavouring to provide them subsistence in their march; but this was so difficult, that the men were forced to scatter over the country, and the advance of the whole body was so much retarded, that they did not reach Kilkenny till Oct. 25.

Whilst those forces were advancing towards him, the marquis of Ormond endeavoured to provide for the defence of Ross and Duncannon, not knowing which of them would be first attacked. He put sir Lucas Taaffe with one thousand five hundred foot into Ross for defence of that place, and leaving his horse to refresh themselves after their long marches in the counties of Catherlogh and Kilkenny, went to Waterford to provide for the supply of Duncannon, with provisions and ammunition from thence, and with a better governor as well as garrison. Colonel Wogan was the person he pitched upon to be put in a coordinate command with the governor; and left him in the place with his own life-guard of one hundred and twenty English officers, that had served the king in

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their own country. Afterwards thinking that a coordinate command might be attended with many inconveniences, he recalled Roche from the fort; but the commissioners exclaiming against it as a breach of the articles of peace, and undertaking for his fidelity, notwithstanding the suspicions entertained of his conduct, and his own declarations that he could not defend the place, he was presently sent back to his command. It was easier to supply the fort with men than provisions; which were so scarce in the army, that the marquis of Ormond never could get forty-eight hours' provisions together at a time; and though he gave on this occasion all his own corn to be ground, to set an example to others, yet it was not so well followed as to deliver the army from that inconvenience. It may seem strange, that a place so near Waterford should be in danger of being lost for want of victuals and ammunition; yet this was really the case, nor could the earl of Castlehaven, with all his industry and credit, prevail with that city to supply the wants of the fort. They either were not sufficiently sensible of the importance of it for their own security, or they had resolved within themselves to submit upon the first summons to Cromwell; and it was not without difficulty that the lord lieutenant procured forty barrels of powder, and a sufficient quantity of provisions, to subsist the garrison and enable them to make a vigorous defence.

The citizens of Waterford were not the only persons affected with the terror of Cromwell's name; the commissioners of trust, astonished at the taking of Wexford, were on the point of deserting Kilkenny. Dr. Fennel was sent, whilst the lord lieutenant was on Oct. 17 at Waterford, to consult him on the subject of their removal. PHe, who thought himself concerned, not only in their safeties, but also in the decency of any action of theirs, 95 could not but dissuade them from such a resolution. He