stretcht your Conscience so often so far already as first to breake your trust with the King when by severall oathes both as a gowne man a swordman you had oblidged your faith unto him then with religion which considered with your education parents and a long profession we may say not improperly that it was even by nature convayed into you after with that late carcase of a Parliament from whom you tooke both Commissions and employment and lastly with that presbyterian Senate that preferd you hither as a proselite of theirs should I say now make a scruple of breaking with these wretches to whom you can pretend no other tye but a Confraternity in treacherie and mischeife It is not your repetition of Rebells and bloody Rebells will serve for your excuse since that you your selfe are ingaged with those rebells that have waded deeper into blood and committed murther even with the sword of Iustice upon not only innocent but Royall blood more impudently and more in humanly then any people how barbarous soever that as yet have breathed under the face of heaven 'T is true there hath been much barbarity and cruelty acted in this Kingdom since these unhappy tumults in the midst of confusion and disorder but nothing done under the forme of a mischeivous law or the colour of abused Iustice against any body much lesse against the life or person of a King and the best of Kings such as those whom you will needes profess a faith unto have butchered on a scaffold with a hitherto unequalld villany which without all doubt heaven to convince the world that there is a divinity and justice there will certainly when his indignation towards us is in some measure satisfied at last see Notoriously punished upon them and all their abettors with scourges as much transcending ours as do their crimes And in order to this just revenge it wil be vertue in the King and my Lord Lieutenant which as your selfe confesses will be a sin in you circumstances considered not onely to forgive but court Father Reyley if there be any others of his party lesse pardonable and lesse avowable then hee unto their duty whom you can pretend to do nothing with in your Intrigues but either confirme them in their present or ingage them in a new rebellion worse and more malitious then that they are alreadie plunged in and which they being a trampled and abused people of another nation and religion from their Soveraigne leapt at first into out of a general feare and sense of their particular wrongs from and aversions to those who frequently misused upon them both their own power and the Kings authoritie For the restitution of whose just Soveraignty and the preservation of whose life my Lord Lieutenant whom you expres a shamlesse impudencie to accuse with any guilt of his destruction hath run greater adventures in his person made more prudent essaies and under went the hazard of a better fortune then any subject in the three Kingdoms had to loose besides against whom your inference is very strange that because by the Kings own direction Commission he endevoured to set on foot the Royall interest again he musts need be guilty of what was acted by those that before he left France or appeard the second time here about it had already robd the King of his libertie and actually declared against his life But they having since ravisht from his Majestie his life aswell as liberty and taken away both his Crowne and Royall head together so contrarie to your then declared opinion delivered as your selfe confesses to my Lord Lieutenant when the army first Seized on the person of the King who as you there professed to beleive intended nothing else but to secure him from attempts danger must needs be a motive sufficient either to Convert you from adhering longer unto them or an argument at least to convince me and all the world that you both approved of and consented to what ever they have done how forraine soever you seeme to make it to your charge in a Citty where and at a time when if you should own it you might well feare to pull the indignation of the people and a certain destruction upon your own head Yet surely you would much more have plaid the man of honor to have laide aside these grosser cheats Mummeries dealing plainly to haue avowed the bare faced Truth as your great masters in England have found the courage and the confidence to do that it is neither your care of the protestant Religion or English Interest neither your duty to the Parliament nor tendernes in breach of trust that holds you from submitting to the King my Lord Lieutenant but your over consciousnesse of your own past unfaithfulnes and ingratitude to those you had so many ties unto your despaire of a full and free forgivenes your observation that villany now a daies is only prosperous and your conception that the course you are in sutes more with your mistaken Interest wild ambitions then returning to your duty would lastly your desire to continue yourselfe and that Sr. Politicke your most reverend brother there A Moses and Aron to the Irish Isralites to conduct them safe out of the boggs and woods of their fortunes and estates through the deserts of delinqnency untill they stript of all those cumbersom impediments were ready for the land of promise and you laden with their Egiptian spoiles and a good old age were fit to be transplanted from Dublin to the government of the new Ierusalem But let me now at last before it be too late prevayle with you so far as to perswade your selfe that it is never too late to mend that both the King and my Lord Lieutenant have mercy and generosity enough to forgive and forget all your past transgressions that fortune how hopefully soever she seem to looke upon you hath neither leased out her wheeles unto your Chariot nor victory intailed her selfe unto you Ensignes so as to encourage you to that confidence and presumption you do put on forgetting that God Almightie doth frequently lull in security and besot with their past and present prosperities those that are designed for a headlong destruction and lastly that how succesfull soever it may be for a time there is a fulnes of iniquity which men being once arrived unto Gods judgments are never long behind Which exuberance of sin if any people ever attained unto surely it is they that have been either actors in or abettors of the murther of the King of the guilt of which horrid crime that you may cleare your selfe and prevent the hevy judgment that infallibly attends it by a seasonable submission and returning to your duty is all that he aimes at who hath dealt thus freely with you and who on that score will be most really Sr. Your very humble servaunt EDWARD WALSINGHAM Roscoman Castle Iune the 14. 1849. The severall Papers concerning Cromwells
againe upon the stage with his hands in effect empty of armes and his purse of money without the countenance or assistance of any foraigne state wherby to unite this distracted people and recover unto His MAjESTIE this devided Kingdome before Cromwell were at leasure to make an expedition thither which as yet either the murder of the King not yet perpetrated or the unsettlement of that mishapen cub of his new common wealth detained him from Yet notwithstanding all these disadvantages of having neither armes wherwith to awe or money wherwith to buy men into their duty or any party ready to imbrace him my Lord of Clanricard only excepted but upon the racke of screwed conditions yet at length by Gods blessing and his owne prudent management of affaires ioyned with the great interest he had in that people he ordered matters so as in few months to sowlder most of these factions together and make a peace wherunto all but O Neale and the Independant party did willingly submit O Neale complained that the conditions were neither safe nor large enough as to the concernments of Religion and the Province of Vlster and the Independant party exclaimed that the Protestant Religion and the English interest forsooth were both betrayed by it so oposite were then these two parties in their publique quarrells about the peace who you shall see not long after shake hands behind the curtaine against the Kings Authority which indeed is the blocke they both stumble at for as to the pretence of Religion in the first it is manifest how vaine it was for you shall find that party embrace the peace herafter upon the very same conditions And as to their Provinciall concernments they were even then well enough satisfied that my Lord Leiut. could in no sort be blamed he being put upon the choise whether he would accept of the rest of the confederats and the English party in Monster upon the termes in the printed articles without any further concessions unto Owen O Neale and the Vlster army or else in yeelding to their demaunds loose both the other two which may suffice to justify my Lord Leiut. in that peace against their complaints The invectives of Co ll Jones his party were urged with far greater arte and fallacies which being industriously published in print were received I feare with too much applause by many of the people of England that either were unwilling or unable to judge a right and being fortified by a nationall animositie had too great an influence even in Ireland it selfe upon the English army under the comand of my Lord Inchiquin wherin sundry of the principall Officers were so averse to a conjunction with the Irish that dureing the time of the treaty they conspired to have surprized both my Lord Leiut. and the Lord President to have delivered them up to the Parliament which in all probabillity had then taken effect had it not bien accidentally prevented by their unexpected departure from Caricke upon a petition or representation from the counsell of the confederat Catholiques to His Ex cy that he would remove thence to his owne house at Kilkeny as a place more fit for the conclusion of the treaty Now whether those sons of Zerviah were so strong and powerfull in the army that they could not be called to an account or whether it was conceived more conducible for the advancement of His MAjESTIES affaires to reduce them with time and gentlenesse to a right understanding then to loose so many persons of abillity and authority I know not only I feare their impunity was either the sole or concurrent cause of the generall revolt and apostacy of those garrisons since But for a full and satisfactory answer to all objections that can be made by either of the parties upon that subject I have taken the bouldnesse to send your Lordship together with this the copy of a letter I found lying by me that was writ by Mr. Walsingham in returne to the last of Jones his printed papers after it was thought fit by my Lord Leiut. to reply no more as from himselfe which speaks so much truth and reason that though it came to Jones his hands he was well content to give over his paper war in that letter your Lordship may find the peace so firmely asserted and both the justice and necessity of what was don so well demonstrated as wauing all arguments of mine owne in that behalfe I refer you Lordship thither for an entire satisfaction Only I shall take leave to tell your Lordship this that his Ex cy in associating the Irish and my Lord of Inchiquin together and in making up of this peace hath what in conditions to the one and to the other so bound up himselfe as he may well be said to be Lord Leiut. but upon curtesy untill the time of Parliament having granted unto my Lord Inchiquin the sole comand and ordering of those forces and garrisons he brought with him to the Kings obedience and having oblidged himselfe unto the confederats to authorize only those Officers and to march in the head of that army which their Commissioners should present unto him By this your Lordship may perceive the necessity unto which His Ex cy was brought but it could not be avoided either these thinges must be assented unto by him or the peace must not be made And in this sort my Lord Liunts hands were manacled in effect as to the militia he having no more to do but only to go in out before an army of severall factions religions much averse to one another the Officers wherof though never so much disliked by him he could not but admit of if either the one party or the other insisted upon their conditions it cannot therfore seeme strange when rightly considered that Inchiquins and the Irish forces were never incorporated together nor indifferently intermingled in all the garrisons neither why the army was either so ill disciplined and officerd as in truth it was since what hath bin said is a full answer as I conceive to that objection The difficulties His Ex cy also had to make these severall Factions understand either him or one another were very great witnes the printed Declaration the Mounster forces extorted from him before the conclusion of the peace and those many diffidences and demurs the Irish made therupon both which parties he must of necessity humor and comply with or else mutinies and defections could not be avoided The case being such your Lordship who have commanded great armies and had experience in some measure of these inconveniences very well knowes that the skill must needs be great in a Generall so to devide himselfe amongst them as to keep them in obedience and contented My Lord Lieut. by the gentlenesse and affabilitie of his disposition and his great prudence in foreseeing preuenting evils wrestled a long time succesfully with all these inconveniences tuneing all these discords into harmony and
their past offences and of liberty of conscience with those other promised graces and immunities against the severitie of the lawes in force untill all were confirmed in Parliament to any man endued with but Comon sense is a sufficient argument to say nothing of the apprehensions though vaine still amongst them that they are yet not for all this secure enough And what cause they had to insist upon this army and these commissioners do you but looke into your owne Conscience and laying your hand upon your hart imagin so well of your selfe as that it were your owne case and J am sure you will tacitely confesse it is a provision but very reasonable Nay let a looker on consider the time these men tooke to submit to his Majesties authority when he had neither meanes to punish nor protect them left and he will certainly commend their duty and be far from discommending either the king or my Lord Lieutenant for any thing that in the peace is granted unto them not excepting against either the number of that army or power of those Comissioners you make your selfe so scandalized withall His Excellencie hath been already pleased to tell you that as to the army the supreme comand thereof is in the Kings Lieutenant the ordering of which and disposing of all future commands wherin so it consist of and be to Roman Catholiques will in effect be left to him now that there are very many of that Religion inseparable from their duty to the King both the confederats and the Parliament have to their great cost and trouble had a plentifull experience witnesse the prudent and generous Marquesse of Clanricard Whose eminent piety and constancy in his profession joynd to his irreprehensible allegiance to the King will remaine to the glory of his Nation and Religion a great and lasting example to future times of a firm and united Loyalty both to divine and humane Majesty as it hath serud the present already for a pattern unto severall Other considerable persons in Ireland to follow And you have no reason but to thinke there are a good number of those in this army which will somwhat lessen the groundles danger you fancie to your selfe especially if you take also into consideration the frequent wayes and dispensations that have bin found for entertaining very many protestants into severall imployments in this army and how both these parties to say nothing of those in the north that have submitted to the Kings authoritie added to that remnant army as you call them in mounster consisting of about six thousand men led by an able and succesful commander who being undeceived at last by the publike villanies in England have betraid themselves it you will have it so againe into their duty will ballance any thing of ill that may be pretended in the case I leave it to any one that is but capable to judge in such a matter This dangerous argument being once removed how litle remaines of hazard in that other of the power of the commissioners is very evident by the articles of peace where it is plain that their power is absolute in nothing but the levies to be made upon their owne and that part of the peoples free holds which formerly acknowledged their Iurisdiction and who now had entrusted themselves into their hands whilst in all the other cases so industriously quoted by you though to no other end but take up paper and amuze the readers they limit him as litle as formerly the counsel table did He being able to determin nothing without their advise or Consent nor they to actuate any thing without his Commission authority which circumscription should you still affirme to bee too much would entirely vanish should his Majestie com in person hither as t is both hoped and beleived he will there being no condition in the peace that limits him But suppose the hazard preiudice of the protestant religion by the peace were as great as you affirm it is whether must be in fault the King or those men that prest him to that extremity that he was only left to choose whether he would drown or take hold of a brier to save himselfe whether he would utterly abandon his interest in all his Kingdoms to those that were rebells against his person his posterity and Kingly power or by giving the Irish whose rebellion could in the nature of it beare nothing so ill a Construction those not much unreasonable conditions they so positively insisted upon repossesse himselfe of one of his three Kingdoms again and therby becom enabled to dispute for the other two Thus far have I discoursed for the satisfaction of other men with your selfe I might deale more breifly and tell you it is grosse hipocrisy for you to pretend so much sollicitude for the security and advantage of the protestant religion on this side and yet can find them both sufficiently provided for by an army of Sectaries on the other side without any protestant superiour to moderate them as these have that have not only quite puld down the whole building of that Religion but almost leveld the walls of Christianitie it selfe by providing a libertie for all opinions and religions in the world the Catholique and protestant alone excepted because they conceive them forsooth to be more destructive to the great ends of their republique then any other the first as being too Monarchique too full of Majesty pleading prescription amongst Christians with too much authority and therefore likely to gain overmuch ground upon them in a time when all order religion were of the hinges the people so much at a gaze and the second as being for decency order not only overpopish but also from its birth too much interwouen with the interests of this Crown and royal familie Can any thing be more ridiculous then that you who derive your power from the Commanders and Commissioners of this army of saints and who are by your Commission if I be not mistaken incorporated into it having likewise set aside the profession and exercise of this protestant religion misconceive me not that Religion which for near a Century of yeares hath been practised established in the church of England accommodated your selfe clearly to Mr. Cromwells Cut though such a one as you or scarce himselfe if Cathechized can give an account either of the tenents or constitutions of should becom so great a patron of and so much concerned in the interests of a religion that either out of Change of judgment or out of endes no matter which in this case is abandoned by your selfe already After the protestant religion comes the English interest a consideration indeed if urged to a person whose trust from and concernment in it were somwhat lesse then my Lord Lieutenants fit for you that are of English blood and whose sword pen are both by nature and the lawes obliged to the service of that crowne in which onely and the
A LETTER FROM SR. LEVVIS DYVE to the Lord Marquis of New-Castle giveing his Lordship an account of the whole Conduct of the KINGS affaires in Irland since the time of the Lord Marquis of Ormond His Excellencies arrivall there out of France in Septem 1648. Until Sr. Lewis his departure out of that Kingdome In June 1650. Together with the annexed Coppies of sundry Letters mentioned by SR. LEWIS DYVE as relating to the Businesse He treats of From the Hague 10. 20. July 1650. HAGVE Printed by SAMUELL BROUN English Bookeseller 1650. MY LORD NOt long after my arrivall at the Hague intimation was given me by a noble freind upon some casuall discourse with him of the affaires of Ireland that your Lordship had a great desire to be satisfied as well in some particulars touching the conduct of that businesse since my Ld. Leiut. last went thither as in what condition the Kingdom stood at the time when I came from thence Wherupon not knowing whether the necessitie of my occasions or indeed the usuall thwartnesse of my fortune in what I most covet would allow me so great a hapiness as personally to waite upon you before I left this country I held it my duty in that case to leave some testimony behind me of my obedience and readinesse to serve you wherin rather then faile I have adventured to ingage my selfe in this relation though conscious of mine owne disability to performe it in such sort as the subject requires the unpollished rudenesse of so plaine and course a stile affording no lustre of ornament or beauty that may render it worthy to be presented to a person of your eminency which may the easier in my behalfe admit of excuse whose profession and practice hath all wayes bin accustomed rather to use a sword then a pen the only plea I have therfore to offer to your Lordship for this presumption is the candor and integrity where with it is written which I have religiously observed through the whole body of the discourse endeavouring to vindicate truth which I find highly suffering by the world either through the malice and malignity of these unhappy times or for want of cleare and impartiall information which I am confident your Lordship and all who rightly know me will expect from my hands and which sincerely I promise to afford without suffering the Biasse of any passion or privat respect or interest whatsoever to sway me in the least circumstance contrary to truth unlesse by misaprehension and want of judgment or by the misrepresentation of the ablest and best knowing persons I may unhappily have bin misled But that I may the better do it it will be necessary a little to look back and take a short view of the desperate time wherein his Ex cy the Marquesse of Ormond under tooke this worke and to reflect upon the sad face that was then upon His MAjESTIES affaires in all his three Kingdomes In England as your Lordship may well remember the King was not only made a close prisoner his Crowne his life and the succession of his posterity declared against but also all those parties that stood for him there or had declared in his behalfe and taken armes for his rescue were wholy dispersed and subdued yea and all other men whose parts honesty or publique interest made them worthy of a suspition either imprisoned banisht or utterly disarmed In Scotland the army raised for the freedome and restauration of the King having bin unfortunatly lost under the leading of Duke Hamilton in Lankashire all that acted by the Kings commission were not only compelld to lay downe armes but after being declared incapable to sit any more in Parliament or to have any share in Government som of them proscribed and expelled the land whilst Cromwell for having countenanced them in these proceedings was saluted at Edenburgh Preservator of the nation thus you see there are two Kingdoms wherin is neither Garrison nor army left at the Kings devotion nor any person scarce at liberty that durst owne either him or his quarrell Ireland only remaines to be considered and that God knowes a wofull spectacle cantonized into severall sundry factions drawing all divers waies and driueing on severall interests there was Iones Monke and Coote playing an Independant game as eagerly as might be there were the Scots Patronizinge the Covenant and Presbitery there was O Neale and the Nuntiated party of the Cleargy that with might and maine under the colour of Religion were promoteing a forraigne interest in case they could not make a Prince at home there was the counsell of the confederats together with all the auntient English and some of the Irish their adherents who being more moderat and averse to such desperat courses awakened also with the miseries that opprest them already the ruin that menaced them out of England made fresh applications into France unto the Queene and the Prince his highnesse that my Lord Leiut. and the Kings Authority might againe be sent amongst them wherupon these two factions grew to so great a fewde that the latter were all excomunicated by the first and the first proclaimed Traytors by the latter Besides all these there was Inchiquin who having recollected himselfe at last dislikeing the revolutions in England had prevailed with his party to declare for the King Wherupon he made a cessation with the counsell of the confederats in expectation of my Lord Leiu ts coming over which cessation being violently opposed both by the spirituall and temporall sword of the Nuntio and O Neale induced finally my Lord Marquess of Clanricard who from the time of my Lord Leiu nts going to sea from Dublin had retired himselfe and his family to a place convenient to ship away assoone as he should despaire of being able to serve the King by his further stay to take armes and drawe together his army to countenance the cessation and to make way for my Lord Marquess of Ormond with the Kings Authority to which he did highly contribute by awing and curbing the towne of Galloway at that time the seat of the Nuntio and the principall receptacle of the most factious people in the Kingdome as also by his succesfull reduceing of Fortfaukland Athlone Iames towne and the greatest part of the Province into his power But to the end that you may see with what steadinesse that Honorable Person in the depth of all these revolutions hath still adhered unto the service of the King and the Interests of the Crown even against those that couloured al their designes and practises over with the artificiallest and most deludeing pretences of Religion since it is an example fit to be recommended to posterity and truly worthy your lordships knowledge you may please to read the particular conduct of this his undertakeing in the Coppy of a Letter I send you herewithall writ from the Marquis himselfe to Mr. Walsingham then in France In this posture was Ireland when my Lord Leiut. came
Drogedah which ensued imediatly upon O Neales defeat Dundalke it selfe being summoned the souldiers compelled Monk to a surrender and themselves took armes for the King Imediatly after this defeat of his party O Neale hastneth towards the releife of Derry which was the only towne in that Province untaken all the rest being already reduced by the Lord of Ards Sr. George Monro and Co ll Treuors who were now hindered only by O Neales army and the Siedg of Derry from bringing up a considerable body of horse and foot to the leaguer of Dublin Where may be observed how great a prejudice the faction of those men who desireing out of animosities ends of their owne to staue of O Neal his party from the benefit of the peace stood chaffering with him about his commande of 4000 or 6000. men and other trifles have don to the Kinges service and to the whole Kingdomes in deprivinge themselves therby not only of the forementioned assistance of the Scots but also of the possession of London Derry together with so considerable an addition of forces as O Neale could then have brought wherby not only the whole Province of Vlster would have bin secured to the King but Dublin it selfe either reduced or so strongly furrounded that it would have bin impossible either for Jones to releive himselfe or Cromwell to invade the Kingdom which notwithstanding all these fore mentioned disadvantages was upon the matter even gained already and would have bin entirely without any manner of question if it had fortuned that His MAjESTIE had feasonably come thither himselfe in person which by all parties was desired with infinit passion but especially by those whose prudence made them best able to judge how effectuall his presence would be not only for the animating of his own loiall party but also suppressing of all factious humors and uniteing all interests chearfully unanimously to go on against the common enemy which must soon have put a period to that warr and made his authority absolut in that Kingdom without dispute for as upon his arrivall His MAjESTIE should have found Mounster entirely in the Irish and my Lord of Inchiquins possession Vlster all reduced but the fort of Culmore and Derry into the hands of the Scots Conaght by the Marquess of Clanrieards fortunate gaining the strong fort of Slego with what else the enemy had then remaining in that Province wholy cleared in Leinster nothing left for rebellion to nestle in but Dublin Ballisonnan both which were so well attended upon that the defendants had but little pleasure to ayre themselves without the circuit of their workes so by his coming he would undoubtedly have diverted Owen O Neale who would imediatly have submitted unto the person of the King from releiving London Derry and therby have secured both that town and Province with Dublin also as it is thought for they that had reason to know Jones his mind apprehended that his leaving the Kings party did proceede from a Pique either against my Lord Leiut. or Sr. Robert Byron about a Leiut. Co lls place which was conferd over his head upon an other and that then the scene being altered in England his old freinds out of authority there his new termes with the Independents also yet unmade he had himselfe come over if the King had bin there in person or if not yet his party would have all deserted him and the worke had bin don one way or other that Kingdom wholy reduced without ablow all factions as I said before extinguisht and His MAjESTIE had an army of above 20000. men to have emploied where he pleased However thitherto you see my Lord Leiut. having cemented together so many differing parties mastered almost incredible difficulties hath with prudence and successe conducted the busines and is hindered only by the wilfulnes and faction of some of his owne party from compleating the worke After the taking in of Trim which followed soon upon the surrender of Dundalke my Lord of Inchiquin brings up his forces now much improved in number to the army before Dublin wherupon His Ex cy leaving a part of his army at Castleknock under the Command of my Lord Dillon of Costelo a person of much gallantry to keepe them in on that side the water removes his Campe to the other side the towne to distresse the enemy that way also which whilst they are endevouring to do upon intelligence that Cromwell was ready with an army to embarke himselfe for Ireland and that he intended to land in Mounster my Lord of Inchiquin thought it fit that he should with a good party of horse go down into those parts to secure his garrisons and provide for the worst His Lordship was no sooner gone but my Lord Leiut. designing to shut up the enemy within his workes and quite impede as well their getting in of hay as the graseing of their cattle without their line gave order to Patrick Purcell Major Generall of the foot to march with a sufficient party of men and an Engineer to Baggot-Rath there to possesse himselfe of that place immediatly cast up such a worke as had been already designed Sr. William Vaughan Commissary Generall of the horse had order likewise to draw together most part of the troopes that were on that side the water and to keepe them in a body upon a large plowed field looking towards the Castle of Dublin there to countenance the foot whilst the workes were finishing and to secure them in case the enemy out of the towne should attempt to interrupt them These my Lord were the orders given but not executed for notwithstanding it did not much exceed a mile whither the foot were to go yet through the ignorance or negligence of the Officers that were to conduct them many houres were spent ere they came at the place Whither when they were come they found the worke so wretchlesly advanced by Mr. Welsh the Engineer and to helpe all themselves kept such negligent guards that many judged it was done on purpose that these neglects proceeded from those lurking seedes of discord betwene the Kings and the Nuntios parties for it is certaine that about that time upon an apprehension that thinges went on too prosperously with my Lord Leiut. there were Letters written to Owen O Neale about broaching a new warr in case Dublin had bin taken what ever the grounds of these faileings were the enemy never stood to examin but being much troubled to see a fort designing there where with so much ease they might not only be kept from all forrage and succour by land but entercourse with the sea also and perceiving the posture they were in destitute of horse to guard them resolues upon a desperat sally to disturb this worke which they hapned to make about eight of the clock in the morning when His Ex cy who had bin on horseback most part of the night as his constant custome was since his
universall a fault that it was hard to discover who deserved punishmēt most harder to find a Court of warr to censure them Dureing this short residence at Kilkeny His Ex. cy haveing taken order with the Lord Inchiquin to bring up what forces he could possibly make and with the Commissioners for the recruteing drawing together arming their dispersed forces assoon as could be to the end they might be sent after him who speeds away himselfe in the company only of 20 or 30 horse towards Trim and Drogheda as the places both nearest the enemies attempts and likeliest to totter backe if not secured in time at Tecroghan a house of Sr. Luke Fitzgarretts he makes a stay till those severall bodies that he then expected were com up and upon notice of their coming removes to Trim where he meets with newes of Jones his being before Drogheda who soon after upon intelligence that my Lord Leiut. was at Trim and suposeing his forces to be greater then indeed they were drew of in the night returned Imediatly to Dublin The next day His Ex cy went through to Drogheda where a party of the Scotch horse and foot under the Command of the Lord of Ards and the Lord Clanbrazill Came up unto him but whilst they are consulting what to do they receive assurance of Cromwells landing with very considerable forces Wherupon concludeing that towne necessary to be kept to entertaine the enemy before whilst they made up their army as they hoped to do very considerably soone enough to come to the releife of the place of which if they should faile no question was made but after the gaining of time which was then pretious they in the town should be able to make honorable conditions for themselves whilst Cromwell is refreshing his own men in Dublin and reducing Jones's there is put into Drogheda a garrison of 2500 foot and 300 horse which was thought sufficient so having furnisht it with provisions as well as that short time would give them leave His Ex cy commits the charge of that place to Sr. Arthur Aston as a person whose experience courage approued fidelity did worthily deserve the highest trust These things thus ordered His Ex cy returnes to Trim and from thence he dispatched away Co ll Daniell O Neale then Governor of that place with a Commission to set on foot the treaty againe with Owen O Neale if it were possible to endeavour the reduceing of the Vlster army even upon any conditions a person esteemed by all best qualified for that imployment as well in regard of his singular abillitye and approued fidelitie to the King as the great interest he was supposed to have in his Unckle who managed the busines with that dexteritye as he won his Unckle to harken againe unto an agreement wherupon Sr. Richard Barnewell and Sr. Nicholas Plunkett are sent after to make an absolute conclusion with him though by the way this may not be unworthy of observation that those persons who were formerly most opposit to this agreement were now become the greatest sticklers to promote it with His Ex cy being growne sencible of the imminent and aproaching danger that now threatned them Tecroghan is the next stage His Ex cy removes unto where I had the honor first to kisse his hand after my arrivall in Ireland here he makes a stand as being the most opportune place to draw his army together in and lyeing most convenient after that was don to releive Drogheda or make any other attempt upon the enemy Where besids the remains of the Irish army already som what recruited there joyned unto him a good regiment of my Lord Marquess of Clanricards of above 1000 foot together vvith 300 horse likevvise that party of the Scots before mentioned Sr. Thomas Armstrong and Co ll Treuors together vvith vvhat forces my Lord Inchiquin could bring out of his precincts these being got together and daily additions being still expected to the making them up a more considerable body then they were at Dublin my Lord Leiut. receaved severall advices from Sr. Arthur Aston to precipitate nothing for he doubted not of finding Cromwell play a while as certainly he had done had not Co ll Walls regiment after the enemy had bin twice bravely repulsed upon the unfortunat losse of their Collonell in the third assault bin so unhappily dismaide as to listen before they had neede unto the enemy offering them quarter and admitted them in upon these termes therby betraying both themselves all their fellow souldiers to the slaughter for Cromwell being master of the towne told by Jones that he had now in his hands the flower of the Irish army gave order to have all that were in armes put to the sword Where besides the gallant Governour Sr. Arthur Aston Sr. Edmond Varney Co ll Warren Co ll Fleminge and Co ll Birn Leiut. Co ll Finglasse and Major Tempest together with many other excellent Officers and Gentlemen there were butchered neare 3000 souldiers and those truly reputed the best that Kingdom affoorded in whose fall there is sadly observable how great a number of them were guilty of the unlucky breach of that solemne agreement made about two yeares before betweene the Lord Marquesse of Clanricard and the Leinster army at Sr. Nicholas Whites Castle of Lexleap severall of those that survived having perisht since and few or none of them escaped some remarkable affliction or other This massacre at Drogheda having lopt of a principall limbe of my Lord Leiu ts army and the losse of that towne letting the enemy loose caused his Ex cy to remove his army from Castle Jordan down towards the Counties of Wexford and Kilkeny there not only to lye secure till Generall O Neales army came up unto them with whom now at last he having bin rejected by the Parliament and the Commissioners whipt to reason with adversity there was an agreement made and he submitted to the Kings Authority but also ready to be drawne into either Wexford or Kilkeny as there should be occasion for upon one of those places after the enemies retreat from Drogheda to Dublin it was concluded they would fall next For which reason His Ex cy for many daies courts the towne of Wexford to take in a Garrison Kilkeny having received one already but they affirming they were able to defend their towne themselves would never be brought to admit of one till the enemy was at the Walls and then tumultuarily Sr. Edmond Butler with neare 1500 men was receaved in as Governour whome to reinforce after the enemy was now set down before it my Lord Leiu nt comes with new supplies with in sight of the towne had put them in to the infallible preservation of the place if James Stafford then Governour of the Castle had not upon termes of advantage to himselfe before His Ex cies eies shamefully betrayed it and the town into the hands of a most cruell
remove towards Lymerick where being negligently received without the accustomed respect used to the Kings Leiutenant he after a short stay departed thence into the County of Clare Immediately therupon the enemy having refreshd his men and encreased his army with a great accession of old souldiers that had formerly served under my Lord Inchiquin and my Lord Leiutenant takes the feild and falls a summoning Castles and bringing the Country under Contribution wherin he had a generall success most of the Castles surrendring upon appearance of a party of horse except Kiltenan which gave him some resistance His Excellencies army through the forementioned obstinacy and disobedience of the townes against receiving Garrisons was so farr dispersed that there was no meanes of drawing them together Neither if that were done of keeping them in a body for the Country was destroyed and wast so that it could not supply him besides during these disagrements between my Lord Leiutenant the Clergy and the Commissioners there were few or none of the Irish souldiers if there had been Provisions for them that would obey his Excellencies Orders Of all which Cromwell was well aware and therfore went securely and with confidence to work carrying all before him A mongst other of his successes Ballisonan is sold unto him and Cahir Castle then the dwelling house of Master Mathewes a yong youth and halfe Brother to my Lord Leiutenant given him contrary to those strict orders left by his Excellency with Master Mathewes for the keeping of it who was so conscious of his own misdoing in the act that he refused upon severall summons and invitations to appear before my Lord staied still in the enemies quarters to secure himselfe from His Excellencies indignation But neverthelesse this act of Mr. Matthewes is made aground of new suspitions and fresh clamours against my Lord himselfe by the Irish who all this while run on in their extravagancies intent only upon their disputes in hand as if there were no such man as Cromwell in the Kingdom in so much that seing so many severall meetings assigned and so much time spent to so litle purpose His Excellency concludes that those people would never be brought into order by him and therfore resolves to withdraw himselfe from the Government if not to depart the Kingdom and to commit the mannagement of all unto the Marquis of Clanricard which was the reason of his Lordships being sent for back from Sligo The enemy in the meane time having the Castles of Gowran and Laghlin together with the Officers commanding in them delivered into his hands by the common souldiers sets at last upon Kilkenny Whence a while before the Earle of Castle-haven who was now left with cheife command in Leinster was drawn out with his forces by reason the sicknesse raged so leaving Sr. Walter Butler and Major Walsh with about 50 horse and some 400 foot in the place where a breach being made and the enemy assaulting they were bravely repulsed leaving 600 armes behind them after which check they resolved to march of and are sending their artillery away silently before whilst the townsmen conuay a drummer privately over the wall and upon I know not what accord let the enemy in unknown to the souldiers who were then forced to retire to the Castle make their termes which being granted them they march away Kilkenny being gained by him let us leaue Cromwell at Cashell for a while amongst his Committee men returne into Connaght where the Cleargy and Commissioners seing that my Lord of Clanricard having refused to take the Government upon him was resolved in case they continued disobedient unto my Lord Leiutenant least the Kings Authority should bee exposed to further disobedience contempt to leave the Kingdom together with His Excellency considering what a certain ruine their departure would be unto them all are now courting my Lord Leiuteuant to stay and offer to come to composition with him who demands assurance from them that the respective towns of Lymerick and Gallway shall receive sufficient Guarrisons and that themselves with all the soldiers people shall hereafter readily obay him Which they undertake unto him upon condition that all the English what soever under his Excellencies command might be disbanded and sent away that the Bishops of the Kingdom might have a share in Councell and the mannagement of things that the Receiver Generall which was Sr. George Hamilton Brother in law to my Lord Leiutenant a person of great parts honour and merit might give in his accounts all which his Excellency out of his great desire to satisfy and unite the people therby to preserve the Country and the Kings Interest if it were possible at last assents unto This agreement being made the English were accordingly to free the Irish of their jealousies who either were or would seem to be equally suspitious of the Cavaliers as of those that had served the Parliament before disbanded and since there was no further employment for them nor meanes of getting away by sea they had leave to make their conditions with Cromwell to passe through his quarters out of the Kingdom which being granted by him all the small remainder of my Lord of Inchiquins men except a few that Colonell Buller was to Carry for Scilly went under the conduct of Colonell John Daniell into the enemies quarters so did my Lord of Ardes and after him Sr. Thomas Armstrong with whom went also Mr. Daniell O Neille upon the Score of carying a Regiment into Spaine There remained none behind that was permitted to beare any charge but Leiutenant Colonell Treswell at my Lord of Ormonds particular instance to command his Guards of horse only my Brother John Digby Colonell Henry Warren Colonell Hugh Butler staid to waite upon his Excellencies Person and beare him company in his adventures But before I go on I must not omit to tell you how Dean Boile who was sent to treat with Cromwell for the English that were disbanded being offered it as he saies by Cromwell and imagining as himselfe affirmes to do a service to my Lord Leiutenant my Lord Inchiquin in it adventured of his own head to take passes from him for their departure out of the Kingdom Wherof assoon as ever Dean Boile was gone he makes use to debaush the Irish Garrisons to take conditions from him assuring them my Lord Leiutenant had received his passe to depart the Kingdom as appeares by a letter that the Governour of Rosse writ it seemes by Cromwells order unto Generall Preston commanding in Waterford the Copy of which Letter with that of Cromwells passe three of Dean Boiles Letters concerning it together with his Excellencies to Cromwell when he sent him back his passe by a trumpet of my Lord Clanricards having procured them for my own satisfaction I herewithall send your Lordship that you may see how absolutely without my Lord Leiutenants privity or license these passes were accepted with what
was left them But also recouer upon the enemy considerably this Summer which really I wish with all my soule they may Principally for His MAjESTIES sake and the present engagement of the Kingdom of Scotland to both which the preservation of what is left or the regaining of what is lost in Irland must needs be if well considered of high concernment And in the next place for the sake of many worthy families amongst them some of which were never involved in the association nor had any hand in the warr and many of the rest through the menaces strange kind of proceedings of the Parliament against the whole Nation upon the Insurrection the villanous practises of Parsons Burlacy the then Lords Justices who desired to make them all forfeit their estates were frighted forced into Rebellion All which are now to suffer equally and by Cromwell with out distinction designed for ruine together with those that were the Originall authors of the first Rebellion and those ugly massacres that were committed which indeed deserves commiseration since very many of the Nobility gentry with the body of the people wish the King as well have as great dispositions to his service as can be desired having been abused whoâ— into those offences they have committed by a few malicious ill affected persons craftier then most of the rest Who haâ— with great art and industry acquired unto themselves the opinion of wise religious and honest men Wherby they misleaâ— that credulous and for the most part unwise Nation upon pretence of the advancement of their Roman Religion and preservation of their Country to what they please Having been able to perswade them that all these afflictions misfortunes they suffer under are come upon them for their admitting of a cessation a peace indisobedience to the Nuntio for their joyning with Heretiques Not suffering them to consider rightly that it is their disobedience to the lawfull King the blood and murther they are guilty of that makes them so unfortunate that is their breaches of publike faith in compliance with the Nuntio the rapine and want of justice that raignes amongst them that hath brought upon them these heavy punishments given them over to be scourged by the hand of so faithless Bloody an enemy And surely whosoever shall recollect how first after the double breach of the former peace they were immediately punished with the defeat of two considerable armies one after another with the desolation of the flourishingest part of their Country upon which a famine ensued that devoured neer 20000 soules then how the plague that hath since over spread the Kingdom began first at Galloway the place that did most longest countenance those ill proceedings of the Nuntio O Neale of any other in the Kingdom where it swept away about 5000 soules those only of the common and meanest sort of people who were they that contrary to the inclinations of the principall persons being most of them moderate well disposed men carried all things their violent way Next how the Vlster army which I heare have received a great defeat since my coming away who were the beginners of the rebellion the breakers of the first Peace the opposers of the second the releivers of Derry are now come to fall under the hands of Coote those men who if it had not been for them had certainly been destroyed And lastly how the Bishops of Tuam Cloghor who had so deep hands in the contrivance of the warr were guilty of so much blood have both fallen if the printed relation concerning the last of them be true upon the edge of the sworde together with their armies The Bishops of Rosse Downe also the first of which had not many weekes before his own miscarriage appeared very unhandsomely in the persecution of the Protestant Lord Bishop of London Derry a person of great worth moderation and prudence one Who as he had meritted highly from the King for his loyalty and constant services so also was he very farr to my knowledge from deserving ill from that Kingdom The second one who had ever cherished stirrs factions both of them notoriously averse to peace to the Government coming to perish ignominiously in the hands of those enemies that by staving off a timely submission to the Kings Authority hindering the settlement of the Country they may be said after a sort to have brought into the Kingdom He must needs as I do admire the order of Gods Chastisements with submission acknowledging that he is just and that his judgements are right Through whose fault or through what miscarriage Tecroghan is lost after it hath been so long and gallantly defended by Sr. Robert Talbot and the lady Fitz-Garret and the Vlster army defeated I cannot undertake to say since they are accidents after my coming to sea Though I do much feare that the first was occasioned principally through the reliques of those unhappy emulations backwardnesses that dwelt in some of the great ones against others who were like to reap too much honour and advantage from the enterprize in case that place had been releived and preserved What ever the matter were I confess those mischances have much altered the case from what it was but yet I despaire not of the business in giving all for gone but hope Gods justice having been in some measure satisfied the people being become more humble more united that by Gods blessing they may weather this storm preserve themselves with that Kingdom to the King However I am confident this late defeat of the Vlster army under the conduct of the Bishop of Cloghor by so small a party will convince the people that these misfortunes are not entailed unto either my Lord of Ormonds person or religion conduce much to satisfy them that his Excellency hath neither betraied the Kings Interest nor them into this low condition they are brought into Of which being once perswaded they will turn their hearts fixe their hopes wholy upon the Kings Leiutenant Who beleeve me my Lord is as Wise as Honourable Gallant a Person as is any where to be found as excellent a subject as any Prince in the world can boast of Yea and one who I assure your Lordship if ever he shall thinke it fit to give the world an account of his actions is able with modesty truth to say so much for himselfe and for what he hath done as will wring a confession out of the mouth of enuy herselfe that hee hath behaved himselfe so prudently so uprightly in the place he now holds notwithstanding all these forementioned misfortunes that no man hath ever out gone him in loyalty to or merit from the Crowne and Royall house of England of which a better argument needs not be given then that most Excellent Speech for the eloquence and subject of it deserving an Eternall
Memory delivered by his own mouth unto the Generall Assembly of the Confederates upon the conclusion of the Peace wherin you will find the Principles he goes upon so Loyall and so Vnbyassed The Treasons Defections and Impaciencies of the people that have faln out since through the nationall animosities particular factions and pressures of the warr so prudently foreseen so Prophetically foretold that those persons of what Nation soever they bee must be as blind as they are Malicious that shall attribute any of those misfortuns that have ensued either to want of Abilities or Fidelity in my Lord Leiutenant Wherfore I Lordship if any where it seeme lesse clear and satisfactory then you could wish not to looke upon this short account I have given as upon all that might have been said upon the subject for these being only reflections of my own and delivered in such hast it is no wonder if some things be mistaken and more forgot by him that is with all the duty and affection in the world My Noblest Lord Your Lordships most devoted humble servant LEWIS DYVE From the Hague Iuly the 10. 1650. 20. THE COPIES Of the severall LETTERS Mentioned by SR. LEVVIS DYVE In the foregoing Discourse A Letter of the Marquis of Clanricard to Mr. Walsingham Secretary to my Brother the Lord Digby concerning his Lordships taking armes In defence of the Cessation-mentioned PAG. 6. WORTHY COVSEN THough at a late houre accept of my thankfull acknowledgements for the frequent intelligences and advises I have received from you though the obstructions they mett within their Passage to mee and their finding mee engaged in the remotest parts of the Kingdome did not afford me opportunity to keep the like Correspondence with you nor reap the full benefit of your advertisements which a more quick and seasonable convayance might have produced But now not knowing what or whether any right information hath gone from hence of our past proceedings I hold it not impertinent having met with so sure a messenger to entertaine you with some breife notions of them Conceiving your friendship and respect to mee will take of the Scandall of any vanity or ostentation in mee to bee the true relator of my own story unto you in these disastrous times Vpon my Lord Lieutenants and my Lord Digbyes departure having devested my selfe of that small power then remaining with mee and sequestred my thoughts from ingageing in any businesse I retired to some Castles of mine near the sea side with an intention together with my family to ship for France but not so setled in that resolution as not to bee inclined to weather out the storme as long as I could discerne any probability of safety in that solytary retirement in which I remained untill my Lord of Inchiquin declared for the King and that intelligence was brought mee of my Lord Lieutenants arrivall in France and the probability of his returne hither in his former Command Then upon Consideration of the Condition of affaires in order to the Kings service though the distemper of this miserable age could not afford me such authorities as might secure my undertaking I thought it a seasonable and becoming duty in mee to appear abroad and make some tryall how the people stood affected towards a setlement Whereupon finding many friends well disposed and willing to run any hazard with mee rather then admitt of my departure out of the Kingdome I put on a resolution to appear in armes in opposition to Generall O Neales and the Nuntios faction who were then grown very strong and resolved both to breake the present government and overthrow all overtures towards a peace In breife after I had framed and published a declaration which I am confident you have seen ere this and therein observed the streights I was put unto to keep my selfe within due limits and to make it likewise satisfactory to those parties whose assistance was necessary for mee I procured my Lord Taaffe and a party of my Lord of Inchiquins to come and joyn themselves unto those forces I had raised whereupon wee advanced towards Owen O Neale then at Athlone who though he exceeded us in number marcht away through the counties of Roscommon and Letrim cleerly out of Conaght Whereby I recovered the strong castle of Athlone formerly as you know so destructively and so unseasonably lost Iames Town a very considerable place the Mote Elphin severall other holds of strength and consequence by which meanes and by the committall of some principall factions persons having setled the lower parts of the province I returned homewards where some rebellious persons and others of the county of Mayo associated with the town of Galway and taking the advantage of my absence had surprized some Castles of mine and stopt the armes and ammunition I had contracted for at Galway But after having blockt up that town I brought them to a submission within three weekes and to pay a considerable sum of mony Besides all which J would have forced them to take in a Gurrison but that I was necessitated to hasten away and attend Owen O Neales motions who having fetcht a great compasse was gotten into Ormond and had surprized the Neanagh a strong Castle of my Lord Lieutenants tenanted by young Sr. George Hamilton after which he tooke the Birr in the Kings County and then Fort falkland a fort of the Kings which had a dangerous Prospect towards mee giving him passage over the River within seaven miles of Portumna But by the time I was drawn of from Galway and gotten home I received intelligence from my Lord of Inchiquin that he was in pursuite of Oneile and had by storm regained the Neanagh and likewise Birr And finding him desirous of the assistance of my forces to attempt Fort falkland I repaired immediately unto him with a considerable party of horse and foot When being ready at last to fall upon the fort my Lords Officers tired with foule weather and long Marches after Oneile would not be persuaded to stay But whilst this was in dispute most luckily as it fell out Owen O Neale with 7000. foot and 500. horse clapt down hard by us in astreight of Bogge and woode and therby utterly obstructed our passage back so that our army being forced to stay I prevaild that my men with my Lords Battery should attend upon the fort whilst my Lords army did face Owen O Neale Whereby after a day or two battering the fort was surrendred to us O Neale who thought â—o starve us had that lot himselfe being forced to steal away in the night and then I having plentifully supplyed the army by boate out of the county of Galway his Lordship had a free passage back leaving me in the possession of the fort much to my advantage and security Soon after which to perfect our Good Successe we received certain notice of my Lord Lieutenants being landed at Cork which concludes this story I shall not need to enlarge my selfe
upon the happy concluding of the peace and the great difficulties we overcame they will come fully represented unto you by severall wayes J shall only expresse my confidence that wee are now secured from any second revolutions amongst these people though the Marquis of Antrim Owen O Neale have not yet submitted for I conceive they are not so considerable but they will be soon supprest if they continue obstinate I judge it likewise very possible that this summer Dublin may if God so please be recovered either by force or treaty And now beleeving I have tired you with this tedious imperfect relation I shall with brevity and much truth give you assurance that you shall constantly find mee Your very affectionate Cousen CLANRICARDE Kilkenny Castle the 26. of Ianuary 1648. A Letter of Mr. Walsinghams to Colonell Jones Governour of Dublin in justification of the peace of Yrland and in reply to his second answer to my Lord Lieutenant Mentioned PAG. 8. SR HAvinge been at last so much beholdinge to your vanity as some daîes since to meete with those papers in printe that I long before heard were transmitted betweene my Lord Lieutenant and your selfe which I perceive his Excellencies modesty scorne would have still concealed had not your itch to have your confidence and clearkeship known transported you so far beyond discretion as to snatch at the occasion of publishing my Lord Lieutenants letters though such indeed as if your care and prudence in manageing the cause you plead for were not far inferior to your owne vaineglory you would industriously have smothered to the end you might not want some pretence to intrude upon the world together with them those manifest Cavills and leane discourses of yours that are stuft with nothing singular but insolence and malice And finding that his Excellency with a generous neglect both of your person and impertinence with whom his publicke zeale and duty to the King and Kingdome had enduced him to take thy paines and descend so low had now as one unworthy of so much honor and incapable of so much reason as was prest upon you given you over Notwithstanding as well for justice sake that you might not want the right of an encounter from a more equall hand then my Lord Lieutenant as also for that possibly there may be as I beleive there are some men so weake and so willing to be deceived that your impudence and fallacies shall passe for reasons with them if not replied unto I thought it fit that your last voluminous and peremptory Letter be not let passe unscand and brought unto the test by a more familiar pen that may with decency deale roundly with you give you what you cannot receive from his Excellencie the confusion of an foyle Though for man to thinke either with reason or language to contribute to the satisfaction of any discreet unprejudiced person much lesse to the rectifieing your mistakes after my Lord of Ormond hath gone before is a sottishnesse as great as yours who after two addresses from his Excellencie so civill so full of prudence unanswerable truth had the face to tell him you were nothing satisfied therewithall nor any way convinced in judgement thereby By which affirmation of how much impudence and malice you are convicted by your selfe I leave you and the world to gather out of what I shall hereafter say which I am confident will convince other men aswell as you that know it well enough already that your judgment was drownd in ambitious and selfe interests so absurd and so ill byassed that since reason and justice were inconsistent with them you had no will to be rectified For if you had surely you would never have produced arguments to coulor your persisting withall that well examined perswad point blanck against and may be returned with a double force upon you unlesse you did it out of so invincible a simplicity as to deale painely with you is not compatible with that hipocrisy sophistry your unmannerly epistle swels withall as I now come ro instance particaliarly unto you In the first place you hold forth the protestant religion for a baby to the people and alas good man your compassion and care of it is very great aswell becomes the sonne unto a Bishop and one imbued both by education and many yeares profession with it you say you see not how it can be advanced by an army of Papists nor how it can be secured in the peace no provision being made for it therin yet that t is no such miracle they being secured of their owne libertie of conscience that an army of Catholiques subjects to a protestant King and lead by a protestant Generall may in order to the restoreing their opressed soveraigne and to the supression of such a Turco Iudaisme as is now on foot be induced unto it and that it is no new thing in the world for men to be ingaged so nay where they have no tyes of duty nor other such powerfull motives as these men have directly against the interest of their owne religion you neede but looke into the Othoman armies where you shall find thousands of Christians fighting daily against Christianity it selfe and under the ensignes of France Spaine many regiments of protestants fighting in quarrells if you will beleive the princes themselves purposely set on foot for the advancement of the Roman Catholique faith which if waighed makes it neither impossible nor strange that the Irish should be content to concur with any body and almost upon any termes to the destruction of that Wild Bore who having already rooted up and overturned all government and religion in England is now preparing to do the like in Irland Now as for the provision the you find unmade for the protestant religion in the peace I beleive you urge that only to shew your owne dexteritye in finding out objections for you are rationall enough to know where his Majesties authoritie is once restored his lawes returne to their vigor and you should be lawyer enough to know that there are lawes enough provided in this last fourescore yeares for the securitye of the protestant religion all which the Roman Catholiques will willingly submit unto except such penal statutes as deprive them of the free exercise of their religion that are indeed by the peace to betaken a way and which being laide aside take not any thing from the security of the protestant The Roman Catholiques are not the givers but the cravers here they desire only to secure their owne not to usurpe upon the liberty of othermens consciences as is evident both by their daily professions and the whole transactions of the peace what absurdnes then it is for any one to thinke a new provision necessary or to expect it in this case that very condition for that army of sixteen thousand foot and two thousand five hundred horse with the deputation of those Trustees for to secure them of pardon for
colonies of English here the English interest of this Kingdome is included but what this English Interest is when we shall have once examined your fright concerning it will soon be over it appears to me to be nothing else but that the right and authority of the crown of England over them should be acknowledged by all the subjects of this Kingdom and those Colonies of English aswell as the native Irish be therby protected and secured in the possession of such fortunes and estates as either by the sword the roiall gift or purchase have bin lawfully acquired unto them Beyond this the English Interest is an unknown-land to me and how far this Interest thus stated is secured by or Consistent with that peace you blame so I leave it to any third unpreiudiced person to determin Who I am certaine will find them square so well together that he shall have reason to beleive the English interest taken in your sense infers an obedience to you and your independant masters abstract from all relation to the crown an establishment of your Tetrarchy here till your ambition were wearied out and you with your corrupt and hungry family had ungratefully glutted yourselves in the blood and fortunes of those noble persons whose smiles and patronage in your mercenarie pleading daies were the top of your ambition that so by this consequence the lives and estates of all that have been here in armes may beleft a prey to worse rebells then the worst of these have ever been This is an English interest indeed that the peace securs not and which I cannot blame you for pleading for with so much passion as to affirme that were there neither king nor parliament you would maintaine it neither for averring that my Lord Lieutenants transporting a considerable part of the English army hence was destructive unto but as to the true English Interest I mentioned before it was very suteable to that that my Lord Lieutenant should without dispute â—omply with the Kings commands from whom only he had his commission and derived his authoritie and whom both himselfe and that army in all relations both of honor and duty were obliged to obey Besides his Excellency knows well enough how much he was concerned in the support of that cronâ—ne that gave him and all the English in this Kingdome the title to what they possessed here nothing of which could be long secure unto them and the crowne at home in danger In the next place I do not know whether the Parlement is more beholding to you for asserting their infringed authoritiâ— or the Irish themselves in your being so generous as to let them see the invalidity of this peace they are abused withall for to prove both which you bring noworse an argument then an English act of Parliament which underfavour your own skil in the lawe if you have not forgot it will tell you can be of no force here untill received by a Parliament in Irland which asserts a power as just and absolute to it selfe as the Parliament of England can else should the ancient conquerors of this Kingdome and their free posterity unjustly undergoe the dominion of those to whom neither Interest nor merit hath given any right or footing here or priviledge over them Besides you shall have others which will tell you and make it good that a Prince cannot give a way the Iurisdiction of his people to one that hath no title to it as the Parlement of England hath none to Irland without their own consent yet grant for argument sake that these people by taking armes unlawfully had put themselves into that condition that might aswell enable as induce the late King of ever glorious memory to invest the Parliament of England with such a power over them as that act involues yet can it not be beleived that the King ever intended to trust them with managing the war of Irland against himselfe as by what they have don in England t is evident they would have done but let us also suppose it possible that the royall power can be so convayed unto another as that contrary to the intention of the King it may be converted to his own destruction which is a possition I am sure that no Sophister lesse accute and learned then your selfe will be able to make good yet must this power surely needs revert to its firfl originall the crown through the death both of the King that gave it of the Parliament it was conferd upon and that since that the Kings death is out of dispute this Parlement hath for this seaven yeares at least wanted both a King and freedome which being the head and hart of that body are two things most necessary to the life and essence of it nay that that breathlesse headles carcass of a Parliament hath by those Independant vermine that bred out of the putrifacton of it been anatomiz'd and quite dismembred since there is no man that is not deafe and blind that can be uninformd Now that such a martird mooncalfe canstil be a living Parliament I am sure there is no man wakes that can be so perswaded especiallie the King that calld it being dead which both the law custom tells you that a Parliament could neuer yet survive upon which conclusion you must needs grant that his present Majestie who hath already confirmed by his both my Lord Lieutenant and all that his Excellency hath don by his Royal fathers Commission hath now indisputably reverted to him the power to manage a war and conclude or conâ—irme a peace in Irland except that you will still maintainé that the authoritie of the late Parliament is by I know not what legierdemain translated into those usurpers that have not only destrojed that Parliament but also declared that they intend there shall never be any more and this non consequence if you still insist upon I will conclude you are crackt as was that Spanish gallant and leave you in your quest of Windmills But if you can prevayle with your selfe to be so ingenuous as acknowledg the preceding truths I will hold on still and endevour to remove out of your tender conscience your last and greatest difficult of breach of trust indeed a scruple very suitable to a man of honour such as I would willinglie take you for and to begin the worke I must tell you that the premisses are very convinceing that in your compliance with my Lord Lieutenant there is no trust broken either with God or King or Parliament who are all you can pretend to owe a faith unto by deserting those villanous impostors who have supplanted religion subverted Monarchy murthered the King violated the Parliament annihilated the lawes trampled upon learning and nobility and left neither worth nor justice unopprest within their reach which kind of perfidious people surely to deceive right reason it selfe tells you there is no deceipt Yet had you no such assurance I should thinke it strange that you who have