pause in giving his consent to the same, they straight declared that they were obstructed in sending relief to the poor protestants of Ireland, and then published some particular relations of the lamentable and inhuman massacres made there by the Irish, which were confirmed by multitudes of miserable undone people, who landed from thence in the several parts of England; who likewise reported the rebels' discourses, of executing all by the king's direction: so that indeed it was not in his power to deny any thing which they thought fit to say was necessary to the good work in hand. Thus he was compelled to put all the strong holds, towns, and castles in the province of Ulster, into the possession of the Scots, who were at that time, by the great managers, believed to be more worthy to be trusted than the English, with unusual circumstances of power, and even a kind of independency upon the lord lieutenant of Ireland; and when his majesty desired them to reconsider their own proposition, and reflect how much it might trench upon the English interest, they furiously voted, that whosoever advised his majesty to that delay was an enemy to the kingdom and a promoter of the rebellion in Ireland. Thus his majesty was necessitated to consent to that bill, by which too great a latitude is given for the disposal of lands, in the several provinces of that kingdom, to those who have adventured money in the war; and which, without the interposition, shelter, and mercy of the sovereign power, would give up almost that whole people and their fortunes to the disposal of their cruel enemies. And lastly, by this groundless and accursed calumny, thus raised upon the king, full power was devolved into their hands, who too much imitated the fury and inhumanity of the Irish in the carrying on the war, and proceeded with such rigour and cruelty in the shedding of blood, as was most detested by his majesty's gracious and merciful disposition.

6 When the rebellion brake out in England, and the king was thereby compelled to take up arms for his own defence, and had seen the men and money, raised by his authority for the relief of Ireland, employed by his English rebels against himself, and so his protestant subjects in that kingdom, upon the matter, deserted, at least unprovided for, and the strength and power of the Romish catholics increasing, and every day improved by assistance and aid from abroad, his majesty believed they had made the worst use they could of all the slanders and reproaches which were raised against him, and began to interpose his own royal authority a little more than he could formerly do in managing the affairs of Ireland, and made such an alteration in the government there, by removing one of the lords justices who was most addicted to the English rebels, and most applicable to their ends, and putting a moderate and discreet person in the place, that his majesty's honour and commands, and the public interest of the kingdom, were more regarded, and the power which the English parliament had unreasonably assumed there, less considered, and likewise granted a more absolute power and jurisdiction in the military affairs to the marquis of Ormond than he had before had, well knowing, that as he was a person of the most ancient honour, and the greatest and noblest fortune within that kingdom, and of very signal affection to the crown, upon the most abstracted considerations of conscience, duty, and integrity; so that being of that nation, and too much concerned in their peace and happiness to wish an extirpation of it, he would carry on the war with less unnecessary severity and devastation than had been used; which was like to prove the most effectual way to purge that people from the despair they had swallowed, and dispose them to return to their duty and allegiance. And it will not be denied, that from this time, (however the Irish were defeated always in battle

7

as often as they encountered with the marquis, and such execution was then taken as in the heat and unruliness of those contentions cannot be prevented,) there was never any foul act done by the English, nor greater rigour used than was necessary to the work in hand; no retaliation of former outrages, but quarter given when desired; and all articles consented to by the marquis or his officers punctually observed and performed to the natives; and the war, in all considerations, prosecuted by the same rules, and with the same temper, as if it had been against an equal enemy, who could have justified the entering into it.

And here it must be observed, that how cheap soever the marquis is now grown in the opinion of the bishop as a soldier and a general in war, and how much soever [the bishop] is pleased to reproach his unactivity against the enemy during the whole time that he alone ordered and conducted the war against the Roman catholics on the behalf of his majesty, his unwearied vigilance and industry, in quick, painful, and sudden marches, his sharp and successful counsel in designs, and his undaunted courage in execution, was very grievous and formidable to them. How many of their towns, forts, and castles did he take from them with a handful of men! When did they appear before him in the field, though with numbers much superior to his, that they were not defeated, routed, and disbanded! Let them remember the battle at Kilrush, in April 1642, when, being more than double the number of the marquis, they thought without difficulty to have cut off his army, which was then tired and harassed with long marches, and want of all kind of provisions; but, upon the encounter, the Irish were quickly subdued, slain, and put to flight, with the loss of all their baggage and ammunition. Witness that famous battle near Rosse, where general Preston led an army of above six thousand foot and eight hundred horse against the marquis, who

had not two thousand two hundred foot, nor five hundred horse; and where, by the advantage of the ground, and other accidents, the Irish horse had routed the English, and driven them from the field; at the sight whereof the small body of foot were even appalled and dismayed; when the marquis put himself in the head of his shaken and disheartened infantry, and, by his sole resolution and virtue, inflamed them with shame and courage, and led them against their proud and insulting enemy; and after a sharp encounter, and the slaughter of as many as had courage to make opposition, put the rest to flight, and pursued them to their bogs and fastnesses, more terrified and confounded with his single name than the power that assisted him.

8 Whilst the marquis had officers and soldiers who would obey and follow him, he found no enemies could withstand him; without those, nor Hannibal, Scipio, nor Cæsar ever obtained a victory. When by these continual successes the wild distemper of the Irish began to be abated, and they who had been carried along with the popular stream, without any power to resist the torrent, had now opportunity to revolve what they had done, and the consequences which must naturally attend such transactions, they thought an humble address to him whom they had most offended to be a more natural way to peace and happiness than the prosecution of the war, which had been attended with so much misfortune, and accordingly professed a desire to be admitted to petition the king; in which they found such encouragement, that, upon that their first declaration, a commission was sent by his majesty to the marquis of Ormond and others, to receive any such petition; which likewise was no sooner transmitted to him, than another commission under the great seal of Ireland was granted to treat with the Roman catholic Irish, in order to a cessation of arms; that so, upon the intermission of those acts of blood and outrage, and a

more charitable communication of each other's grievances, the foundations for a happy peace might be temperately and maturely weighed and considered: and hereupon that cessation of arms was agreed upon for the space of a year, so much to the advantage and benefit of the Roman catholics.

9 What scandals, reproaches, and real damages the marquis underwent by his being charitably inclined to that cessation, and desiring to prevent those calamities which he wisely foresaw must be the portion of that nation, if they did not speedily return to their allegiance and loyalty, all men know, who were acquainted with the humour and spirit of that time, and the universal prejudice the two kingdoms of England and Scotland had contracted against the Roman catholics of Ireland, for the damages they had sustained, and the rapine and cruelties which had been perpetrated by the first authors of the rebellion, insomuch as a more ungracious and unpopular inclination could not be discovered in any man than a wish or consent that that war (from which so many men promised themselves revenge and fortunes) should be any other way extinguished, than with the blood and confiscation of all those whom they would pronounce to be guilty of the defection. And if the marquis hath not found a due retribution of thanks and acknowledgment from the whole nation, for giving them that opportunity to have made themselves happy, (so signally to his own disadvantage,) it must be imputed to that want of understanding, discretion, and gratitude, in which too many of that people have abounded.

10

Shortly after the cessation was made, the confederate catholics sent certain commissioners, authorized by them, to attend his majesty at Oxford, with such desires and propositions as made too lively a representation how incompetent considerers they were of the ways to their own