in the king's name, upon the basis of a free Parliament and a complete repeal of the penal laws.

Hardly had the peace been signed, when news was brought of the king's execution; and Ormonde promptly proclaimed the Prince of Wales at Cork and Youghal.

A still further complication of parties now occurred. The nuncio, seeing that the king's death was uniting all parties under the leadership of Ormonde, fled from the country in despair. Inchiquin and Ormonde, Castlehaven and Clanricarde, with all the moderate rebels, became the great rallying point of the Royalists. Prince Charles was lingering at the Hague, undecided whether to swallow the covenant, in spite of what he was pleased to call his conscience, and to head the Presbyterians in Edinburgh, or to pass over to Ireland, and throw in his lot with the Roman Catholics. Upon the final rupture between the Presbyterians and the Independents, the Scots in Ulster, who, since the battle of Benburb, had kept within their quarters, declared for Charles, and joined themselves to Ormonde. They were on the one hand pressing the siege of Derry, which Coote held for the Parliament, and on the other were confronting O'Neil and his Ulster Irish, who was covering Dundalk, where Monk his new ally had been sent by Colonel Jones from Dublin.

The first blow was struck by Inchiquin, who captured Drogheda, and cut off some supplies, which had been sent by Jones to O'Neil. Monk's garrison mutinied, and Dundalk was surrendered, and Newry, Carlingford, and all the garrisons in Ulster with the sole

exception of Derry, fell into Inchiquin's hands. At the same time Ormonde, with Lord Dillon of Costello, commenced the siege of Dublin.

The Parliament was now thoroughly aroused to the necessity of taking Ireland seriously in hand, and in March, 1649, Cromwell was appointed lord-lieutenant, and commander-in-chief of the English forces there. The Royalists believed that he would land in Munster, and detached Inchiquin to oppose him. Reinforcements were pouring over from England into Dublin; and Ormonde, hoping to capture the city and cut off the Parliament from their only footing in the island, sent Purcell and 1500 men to effect a night surprise. But Ormonde's calculations miscarried, and Jones, sallying forth to meet him with a strong force, drove in Purcell upon the camp at Rathmines. The battle became general. The Irish were not expecting an attack. Four thousand men were slain in action or cut down in flight; two thousand laid down their arms; and Ormonde withdrew the remains of his shattered army to Kilkenny. The blow so crippled the Royalists that they were at once thrown on the defensive; and though strengthened by the tardy adhesion of O'Neil, whom the strait-laced Parliament had cast off in indignant horror at the bare idea of an alliance with the Roman Catholics, Ormonde had barely time to throw Sir Arthur Ashton with a garrison of 3000 picked men into Drogheda, when Cromwell landed at Dublin with 8000 foot, 4000 horse, a formidable train of artillery, and a military chest containing £20,000.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SUBJUGATION. A.D. 1649-1652.

CROMWELL was at the head of the flower of the English Republican army, which under his wondrous leadership had marched from victory to victory-an army composed of sober fanatics, who fought for a principle, who were at once a warlike machine and an intelligent political organization. With the horrors of the Ulster murders, now eight years old, still fresh in their memories in all the fulness of highly coloured exaggeration, and hot against the Royalists with indignation fiercely fanned up by the late king's persistent duplicity, the soldiers came as on a crusade of vengeance upon "the bloody Papists," and the

malignant" Ormondists. Liberty of conscience was the bone of contention between the Independents and the Presbyterians; that is, liberty of conscience to all the sects, as opposed to the domineering intolerance of the Established Presbyterate. Toleration even to the Roman Catholics was their watchword in England. What said Cromwell in Ireland? I meddle with no man's conscience. But if by liberty of conscience you mean a liberty to exercise the mass, I judge it best to use plain

dealing with you and to let you know, where the Parliament of England has power, that will not be allowed."

And now the eight years' war of rebellion was about to be crushed out. The Irish were to be ground to powder; a terrible vengeance was to be exacted "to prevent the effusion of blood for the future." The first blow was struck at Drogheda, which Ormonde believed to be impregnable. One day's fierce bombardment and a practicable breach was made: the storm was ordered and the English were driven off. On the second attempt "God was pleased so to animate them that they drove the enemy from their entrenchments," and the town was won. Sir Arthur Ashton and all his officers were hacked to pieces on the Millmount by Cromwell's orders. By his express command no quarter was given to any that were found in arms. The whole garrison, with the exception of thirty men, were put to the sword, and "all the friars were knocked on the head but two." How far there was a general massacre of the citizens we can never know. It has been affirmed and denied by the enemies and the admirers of Cromwell. If the plain tale told by Captain Thomas Wood, who was present at the storm, as related in the diary of his brother, Anthony Wood, the Oxford historiographer, be no invention, the wholesale butchery of the children and "the flower and choicest of the women and ladies," who had taken refuge in St. Peter's church and the vaults beneath, goes far to support the charges of the former. Be it how it may, "It is good," as Cromwell piously observes, "that God above. have all the glory."

Having avenged the Ulster massacre by the indiscriminate slaughter of Ormonde's soldiers who had had nothing to do with it, Cromwell marched on Wexford by way of the sea coast. Here another "marvellous great mercy" was prepared for him-while in treaty for the surrender of the city, the castle was betrayed by Captain Stafford. The troops rushed in and turned the guns upon the town. A desperate stand was made by the Irish round the market-cross. As at Drogheda, no quarter was given; the troopers "put all to the sword that came in their way." Two boat-loads of the citizens, who were trying to escape across the river, were sunk, "whereby were drowned near 300." Of the garrison there fell "not many less than 2000," and the town was given over to the pillage of the soldiers, so that "of the former inhabitants scarce one in twenty could challenge any property in their houses."

These two fearful examples of ferocity struck terror into the hearts of the Irish. Town upon town surrendered upon Cromwell's summons. His stern discipline in his army and his scrupulous honesty in paying for all he took, gave confidence to the country people, who readily brought in supplies. The Irish army fell back from the Slaney to the Barrow, and from the Barrow to the Nore, and were straining every nerve to cover the city of Kilkenny. Cromwell, "after seeking God for direction," surprised Carrick-on-Suir, and so laid open the road to Dungarvan and the south on the one hand, and the city of Waterford on the other. The fleet which had been fitted out by the energy of the council of state