с Tooles, and other septs in that county, who, as their lands had been planted fome years before, were the likelieft men to rife and begin a rebellion in Leinster, if he would give him commiffion to do fo; infisting, that they would not stir while their chiefs were in cuftody, as fo many hostages for their fidelity. But Sir William Parfons abfolutely refused to give him a commiffion; and these fepts foon after breaking out into rebellion, Sir Robert engaged against them, in defence of the English in that, and the adjoining county of Catherlogh; and conveyed most of these English with their goods and flocks fafe to Dublin. He had. indeed, the lords juftices thanks for this fervice, but it coft him dear; for in revenge thereof, two of his best houses, Cartan and Lifcartan, were burned by the Irish." The Earl of Ormond's early offer to fuppress these tumults in their beginning, met with no better reception from their lordships; for that nobleman having undertaken to pursue the rebels, then in no refpect confiderable, if he might be allowed meat and drink for the foldiers in his march, his proposal was rejected. "The only reafon affigned by the juftices for this refufal, viz. the want of arms, was," fays Mr. Carte, a pretence fo notorioufly falfe, that it could only be made 2 Ib. fol. 194. 2 "The Byrnes in the county of Wicklow did not begin to ftir till November 12th (1641), nor the Tooles and Cavanaghs in that and the adjacent counties of Wexford and Catherlogh, till the 21ft; nor thofe of any other province but that of Ulfter." Cart. Orm. vol. i. f. 210. "Had the lords juftices," fays Dr. Warner, "acquitted themselves like men of probity and understanding, there was time enough given them to fupprefs an infurrection, which for fix weeks almost was confined to the province of Ulfter, without any chief that was fo confiderable as Sir Phelim O'Neil. But it was the great misfortune of that unhappy country, to be then governed by a man (Sir William Parfons) that had not one qualification for fuch a poft, at fuch a time; and to those defects was added, great obliquity of heart towards both the king and the Irish. Hift. of the Irish Rebel. p. 130. made use of to cover motives, which they were afhamed to confefs; for there was, at this time, in the ftores of the caftle, a fine train of artillery, ammunition of all forts, in great quantities, arms for above ten thousand men, tents, and neceffaries of all kinds for the march and provifion of an army; all which had been prepared by the Earl of Strafford for the Scots expedition." What these justices real motives were, foon after appeared.3 "In the before-mentioned fhort feffion of November 16th, both houses had drawn up a letter to the king, which was fent by the Lords Dillon and Taaffe; and in which they offered of themselves, and without any aid from England, to put an end to this infurrection." Immediately upon this, the juftices,+ and their party in the council, privately wrote to the Earl of Leicester, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; and after telling him, they expected and hoped for his fecrecy, and that they could not open themselves with freedom at the council-board, they befought his lordship that no fuch overture fhould be accepted; and among other reasons, because the charge of fupplies from England, would be abundantly compenfated out of the estates of those who were actors in the rebellion." From this information, the Lords Dillon and Taaffe, with their papers, were seized at Ware, by order of the English house of commons; and detained in custody several months, till they made their escape e 3 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 194. 4 Id. ib. to d Borlafe himself confeffes, that upon the lords justices having taken into the army a great number of proteftants, who then fled from all parts of the country to Dublin, "the state, at that time, had ftore of arms and ammunition, by which the foldiers, and the reft, were feasonably furnished." Hift. of the Irish Rebel. f. 45. e "Whatever," fays Dr. Leland, " were the profeffions of the chief governors, the only danger they really apprehended, was that of a too speedy fuppreffion of the rebellion. Extenfive forfeitures was their favourite object, and that of their friends." Hift. of Ir. vol. iii. p. 160-1. to the king, then at York; but it was then too late to offer a remedy, as the infurrection was become in a manner general. CHA P. XII. The nobility and gentry of the pale banished from Dublin. THE lords juftices had lent a few arms to Lord Gormanstown, and some gentlemen of the pale, for the defence of their houfes in the country; which, however, they foon after recalled,' "thereby renouncing all confidence in them, though nothing had happened to give occafion to any further fufpicion of them, than when the arms had been entrusted to them. The arms particularly affigned to Mr. John Bellew, high fheriff and knight of the fhire for the county of Louth, were fo quickly demanded back, that they were not delivered. Their habitations being thus rendered defencelefs, they quitted the country and came up to Dublin, to put themselves, as they thought, under the eye and protection of the government; but the juftices, inftead of allowing them fuch an afylum," on the next day after fending for the arms, published a proclamation requiring thefe noblemen and gentlemen, with others not having neceffary cause of refidence in the city or fuburbs of Dublin, and the places within two miles about the fame, to be approved of by a council of war, to repair to their respective homes in twentyfour hours, after the publication of the proclamation,* upon pain of death." Sir It appears from Borlafe, that thefe juftices published two proclamations of that kind, even before the end of October, 1641. For that writer, after having said that they had issued a proclamation," in his majesty's name, commanding all perfons, not dwellers in the city and suburbs, to depart within an hour after 3 Sir Robert Talbot, whose houses had been burned by the Irish, on account of the service he had rendered the English, "found it neceffary, at this time, to bring his lady and family to Dublin; where he again tendered his fervice to the lords juftices, offering to raise men, if they would furnish him with arms, to fight against the rebels; but these were denied him, nor could either his offers, or his late fervices, prevail for leave to continue in Dublin. He was forced, by the proclamation on pain of death, to leave the city in twenty-four hours; and having no fure place of retreat, he was obliged to fculk and live privately, for a long time, for fear of the Irish, till the breach between the king and the parliament of England, when he entered into the Roman catholic confederacy; doing however, during all the time of the troubles, all the good offices in his power, fometimes with the hazard of his life, to preferve the English, and difpofe the Irish to submit to the ceffation, and afterwards to the peaces of 1646 and 1648, to which he constantly adhered." And yet his family had the mortification to see his great estate given to the Cromwellian adventurers and foldiers, by acts of parlia ment. CHAP, ? Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 238. after publication, on pain of death," adds, " that the ftate, on the 28th of October, published a proclamation to the fame intent with the former, with the penalty of death to such as wil fully harboured them." Irish Reb. fol. 44. Ánother proclamation of the like tenour, and on the penalty of death, was iffued by these juftices, on the 11th of November following. Ib. fol. 49. CHA P. XIII. The juftices invite the lords of the pale to a confer ence. a No figns of a general infurrection had yet appeared in the provinces of Leinster, Connaught or Munfter, when a report being spread of spoils committed on fome of the English in the county of Wicklow, Sir Charles Coote was commanded from Dublin thither with a body of troops; where, in the town of Wicklow,' he cruelly put to death several innocent perfons, without distinction of age or fex. Among other inftances, he is charged with faying, when a foldier was carrying about a poor babe on the end of his pike,' "that he liked fuch frolicks." Upon his return to Dublin from this expedition, the juftices appointed him governor of the city, in recompence for that fervice. At the fame time, a rumour was spread, that he had made a propofal at the council-board, for executing a general maffacre on all the catholics; which, from the character of the man, was easily credited. Carte, Warner, &c. 2 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 243. 4 Ib. fol. 259. On a "Sir Charles Coote, at Ballinafloe, got fome cattle and a great quantity of cloth, killing many foldiers in their beds." Borl. Hift. of the Irish Rebel. f. 101. Sir Frederick Hamilton, by all accounts, was equal in cruelty to Sir Charles Coote, yet, fays Borlafe, "a diary of which (his exploits in this war), even from the 23d of October 1641, to the end of the enfuing year, I have read with much fatisfaction." Ib. fol. 113. "He was a ftranger to mercy, and committed many acts of cruelty, without diftinction, equal in that refpect to any of the rebels." Warner's Hift. of the Irish Rebel. p. 135 "Sir Charles Coote," fays Dr. Leland, " in revenge of the depredations of the Irifh, committed fuch unprovoked, fuch ruthless and indiscriminate carnage in the town of Wicklow, as |