Decius his seeing his good nature in his relation of the misery of the Protestants in Ireland forbore to name the authors of it which if he had done I suppose you Civilis had not run into that error now to prevent the like hereafter my desire is that Decius if while he speaks of the Earle of Ormond the occasion shall draw him upon others that he would not be sparing of their names that we may know and mark such as have walkt disorderedly and not according to a streight and just rule This I suppose is but equall which if Decius assent unto he will oblige us both if he observe it in his following relation Civilis casting the cause upon Marcus his side notwithstanding all that Decius could bring to exempt himselfe from so envious a work he having tyed himselfe to submit to what Civilis should detormine proceeded on as followes You may judge by my readinesse to obey you what power your commands have over me Decius seeing they unavoidably put me upon the remembrance of what I cannot think of without the greatest anger and indignation that is possible with this encouragement however that therein I doubt not but before I have done you will both bear your shares with me and that I may observe some kind of order in what I shall say I will begin with the confidence the Rebels from the beginning reposed in the Earle of Ormond which were argument sufficient to prove him false and then I shall shew you how faithfully if I may misuse that good word he answered that trust of theirs in every particular To prove both which I shall not need to squeeze conclusions out of conjectures or probabilities but shall give you the naked fact which sufficiently discovers it selfe and his own speeches and the results of his owne made Counsell from the mouths of those of his owne party who were not ashamed to publish what they had done in the chamber upon the house top Civilis and Marcus approving of the Division be had made and the way he promised to take in handling of the parts he went on in this manner The first thing that I propounded to cleer to you is the great trust and confidence the Rebels from the beginning reposed in him To make good which though there be many more then probabilities to induce a reasonable man to beleeve he was acquainted with the first designe and plot of the Rebellion and there be some that when time serves can tell what advice and conncell he gave for the execution of it having resolved with my selfe to bring nothing before you but what carries the light of the Sun along with it I shall give you as pregnant a proofe as can be desired In the beginning of November next after the Rebellion brake out the Parliament according to the prorogation met againe at Dublin whither many who were chief plotters and contrivers of that bloody Treason though at that time the Castle of Dublis by Gods great mercy being secured they had not declared thēselves boldly resorted the Lords of the Pale and some others who were all it is well known the first in that transgression in whose heads the businesse was carried long before it came into the others hands had the faces to come and sit in the upper House to advise forsooth for the safety of the English whom before they had voted to destruction Amongst many other good motions it was thought fit by the aforesaid House of Lords the Earle of Ormond concurring that the Lord Costelogh Dillon should be sent to his Majesty into England with such propositions as they thought expedient for the setling of peace againe in that Kingdome and accordingly he was dispatched away with private Instructions how he should carry himselfe and what chiefly he was to insist on and though the honest party at Counsell-board being at that time in power had in their Letters to Court given a large character of the man and his errand and expressed their dislike of both in order to his Majesties honour and the good of the Protestants being taken prisoner here after his escape you may perhaps have heard how he was entertained at Oxford but it being out of our way I passe it by The maine of his Instructions was to work with the King that the quieting of the Rebellion might be left wholly to the Parliament there and that no forces might be sent over out of England to make the breach wider instead of closing of it and to compleat all he was to procure the Earle of Ormond to be made Lord Licutenant of Ireland Behold Sirs the same men that would have no assistance from hence without which the English in all humain probability would have perished as the next thing they thought could worke to the Rebels advantage sue that the Earle of Ormond might be made Governour And least the name of a Parliament held at Dublin may stumble you and make you beleeve these Lords were honest at that time and at the drawing of those Instructions had not engaged themselves to the Rebels party You must know after their going into Rebellion they still owned the Lord Dillon as their Agent and it was ordered at a full Counsell of the Rebels at Kilkenny that the profits of the said Lord Dillons Lands should be secured to him forasmuch as he was employed to his Majesty by them for the good of the Catholick Cause Truly Decius Civilis I think you have put your best strength in the Van for I cannot see what could prove your first poynt more cleerly and in the last place you have fully answered an objection I was then going to propound to you that order of the Counsell of Kilkenny cuts on both sides and like Janus his face looks two severall wayes But I wrong my friend Marcus I pray you therefore say on In January 1642. Decius when the Rebels were now a formed body and licked into a State upon a Petition of the chiefe Lords and Gentlemen of the Rebels sent to the Earle of Ormond and by him kindly transmitted to his Majesty his Majesty did by his Letters sent by Master Thomas Bourke an arch-papist and a chiefe Rebell require the Lords Justices to give power to the said Earle to give a meeting to the chiefest of the Rebels and to send to his Majesty such grievances and desires as they should think fit to present to him by his Lordships hands Amongst many other grievances and other goodly demands which no doubt you have seen in print though they were kept dose from the Justices and Counsell by the Earle of Ormond for many moneths after they were published by the Rebels in forraigne Kingdomes and when the Book was commonly sold amongst us it was not suffered to be answered but all motions made to that purpose in Parliament slighted by Sir Morice Eustace Speaker of the House of Commons there an Irish man to say no worse of him and one of
ORMONDS CVRTAIN DRAWN In a short Discourse concerning Ireland Wherein his Treasons and the corruption of his Instruments are laid bare to the stroke of JUSTICE CIVILIS a person of reputation having in London met with DECIUS a Gentleman of Ireland and formerly of his most intimate acquaintance being not satisfied with one single sight of him having long thought he had suffered with those many thousands of English that were destroyed by that bloody Rebellion desired him if his leisure would permit to goe along with him to his house in Westminster where he might learne of him how it had fared with him since he had last the happinesse to see him and what occasions drew him into this Kingdome DECIUS accepting of the invitation and by the way as they went accusing his ill fortune that had brought him to the first sight of him by chance And CIVILIS according to his wonted manner returning his civility with interest they arrived at the place which CIVILIS called his owne And being entred and having sate some while together MARCUS a Gentleman of quality and friend to CIVILIS comes in to them who thinking they were private would have as soon retired had not his friend called to him and invited him to sit downe by them and then spake to him after this manner This Gentleman pointing to Decius being lately come out of Ireland Civilis and one whom for the particular friendship between us I thought I might be bold with having done me the favour to come so far out of his way as to this house I was curious to enquire of him the condition of affaires in that Kingdome And having newly begun to informe me as you came in I am sure I shall not wrong you if I desire you to partake with me and I hope I shall trespasse as little upon my friend in desiring him to proceed in his relation seeing by your arrivall he shall have one witnesse more of his skill in Elocution MARCUS thanking his friend CIVILIS for the favour he had done him And both of them strengthning each others perswasions that DECIUS would take that paines upon him He spake to this purpose Though my imperfections might in some measure excuse my disobedience Decius and the sadnesse of those things I have both seen and suffered might affright me from the remembrance of them I shall readily overlook my self and apply me to fulfill your commands where the pleasure I shall receive in obeying of you may counterpoise all inconveniences whatsoever You may remember CIVILIS as this Gentleman came in to us I was telling of you How happily the English were every where seated in Ireland how they were spread and sowne in all parts of the Kingdome how the Irish were every day obliged and enriched by them and brought by their converse with them to a greater degree of civility then they were thought capable of and to make the happinesse of the English seem compleat what hopes they had conceived and what sure grounds they had built their confidence upon of a lastingnesse and stability in that their good condition I doubt not but you will pardon me this fault if not to hold you long I proceed wher I left off and not go backward to the particulars I then mentioned CIVILIS and MARCUS both content to ease him of so much trouble DECIUS continued his speech as followeth At the beginning of that bloody Massacre which I hope for ever will be remembred to the shame of those that were the Authors and contrivers of it as well of the actors and the glory of that God who by sparing us a remnant has kept us from being like Sodom and being made like unto Gomorrah at the beginning I say of that most horrid Rebellion I was at my owne house in the Country some threescore miles from Dublin where I may say without boasting I enjoyed my share of the comfort which God bestowed upon me in common with the rest of my brethren over the whole Kingdome For seven or eight miles round the place where I lived the Inhabitants were all English and good Protestants so that that place might with more right then the other have beene called the English Pale me thought it was the onely place if any out of which Saint Patricke had banished all venomous creatures for the rest of the Kingdome we have found he onely took the poyson out of the earth to plant it in the Natives as our Saviour gave leave to the Devils having cast them out of the man to enter into the Swine Whilst we lived in this happy condition as we esteemed it my little fortune as generally that of the whole English over all the Kingdome being never in so good a posture and with Gods blessing every day more then other encreasing upon our hands On that never to be forgotten three and twentieth of October when we were as it were buried in security and thought of no ill either of doing it to others or receiving it from them especially from the Irish who we thought were tyed too fast by the many favours and curtesies of the English constantly and without wearinesse done to them to cast those pleasant cords behind their backs and to embrew their hands in the blood of those that had filled those same hands with so many and good deeds Truly Sirs as often as I think of it I am almost out of my selfe and stand amazed at the depth of that wickednesse that reached deeper then hell it selfe at which the very Prince of the Divels could not but be astonished being out-done in his owne trade though he were a murtherer even from the beginning Whilst I say we were in this pleasant sleep we were suddenly awaked with the noyse of warre or rather with the hideous outcryes of our poor Neighbours who in vaine poured out their breath to preserve their lives Alas poore creatures they thought they had to doe with such as themselves whose eares were never shut to any that called to them in their misery but they were in the pawes of Lyons and Tygars or what is worse they were in the hands of Wild Men if I may call them men The flesh of the Protestants might possibly turne the edge of their swords and skeines but it was impossible for their prayers or teares to turne their hearts You have read of the Savage Canibals in the Indies that having taken their enemies in battle delight to besmeare their bodies and faces in their blood and having eaten their flesh carry about their armes and legs upon their shoulders in triumph In that posture having barbarously Ravaged up and downe the Country and wearied rather then satisfied themselves with killing with their hands and weapons dropping wet in the blood not of their enemies taken in battle but of their neighbours and friends surprized asleep or at their honest labour they entred my house and having sacrificed my two sonnes who were the first they met with to their
accursed fury they ransackt every corner at their pleasure without fear of resistance having before slaine my men-servants in the field when they expected no such wages My Wife three other children and my selfe sought out a place to hide us in but all in vaine for we were soon found out and having stripped us as naked as by this time they had made every room in the house they brought us into a field hard by and joyned us to a great company of other afflicted soules whom they had served in the same barbarous manner and that there might be variety in their mischiefe reserved for a more lingring end It was then in the extremity of a winter that for sharpnes and cold had not its like in many yeers before in that Kingdome I shall forbeare both for your sakes and my own to set before you the lamentable complaints and the dying groanes of many a poore soule that as we were hurried up and downe to be witnesses of their barbarous cruelties inflicted upon many thousands through the extremity of the weather were starved to death amongst whom my three children the eldest not above eight yeers old gave up their last breath in the armes of their almost dying Mother I have so sharp a feeling of the misery which you could not choose but suffer Civilis being in this condition that I long impatiently to be freed from the torment I endure in your particular I pray you therefore make what haste you can to bring me out of it by letting us know how at length you escaped those so great dangers for indeed I can hardly yet beleeve you are safe though I see you here unlesse you tell me you are so I cannot but thank you for your fellow-feeling of my sufferings Decius and to free you from the torment you are pleased to say you endure I shall passe over those monstrous unheard of cruelties which I saw with these eyes whilst I was carried about from place to place with many hundreds more of my brethren who drank all of the same cup with me and I am induced the rather to doe it in regard there are so many who have given large and true Relations of them whose paines therein may appeare to after Ages like so may Night pieces amongst the Monuments of this Nation And I hope will be beleeved by all though in themselves almost incredible and though many doe their endeavour to cast a vaile over them The evidences of their cruelties are so many and cleer Marcus that I think there is none so ignorant that is not acquainted with them and none I presume will doubt of them but such as inwardly wish they had been greater and yet I confesse there are many even amongst our selves that are not afraid to tinter their charity so farre as to think they would not have done what they did but upon urging and pressing necessity a Bishop of â—ssory his discovery of Mysteries That they poor people for feare of their Religion and being driven our of the Kingdome were forced to doe what they did That our adversaries should daub over the matter so Decius were a thing only to be admired by such as think the action so glorious beautifull that it needs no art or paint to set it off but that such as professe the Protestant Religion should make use of so monstrous and vile a colour and labour to lay an imputation upon their friends to acquit their adversaries is a thing not at first fight to be understood and may very well stumble an honest man did he not looke more neerly as well into the men as their doctrine I shall not trouble my selfe or you to confute so malicious an imputation being as sufficiently knowne to be false as it renders the Authors corrupt and scandalous When I mentioned that saying of those men Marcus I did it not to ground any opinion of my owne upon it when I first heard of it I le assure you it moved not so much my beliefe as my admiration and thefore you may well spare your confutation of it 't is enough but to repeat it I could not see in my weak reason what feare they could conceive of a designe to root out their Religion by force when I knew the constant opinion of all Protestants in all Ages abjured violence in matter of faith as a thing worthy onely of the Whore of Rome who shall be destroyed if ever by the breath of Gods mouth that is by the preaching of the Word and not by drawing of the Sword Besides this I remembred it was a charge against the Governours of that Kingdome that they connived too much at the exercise and encrease of Popery there so that they could have no cause of feare from any thing done against them at that time And for the Parliament after they never before that Rebellion desired more either here or there then the execution of the Lawes which were already in force against them from which they ought not to free themselves by the sword or a generall Massacre And for that other part of the excuse or rather accusation concerning their estates that they were forced to take that course least they might have been rooted out If there were any grievances by Ministers the way for redresse was open and they might have been their owne Judges the Parliament then sitting at Dublin wherein they themselves had the swaying vote and might have done themselves the highest right that could be desired so that I could not see how they had any thing to feare on this side either Besides all this I have heard that immediately before the breaking out of the Rebellion they had many graces afforded to them by the King which might have secured them for ever from the thought of the least oppression You say right Sir Decius there were many graces as they called them bestowed on them and such as for their largenesse were very much wondred at by all that wished well to the good of the English in that Kingdome The Irish in those graces had neere upon a third part of the Kingdome freely granted to them and the English wholly excluded from having any Plantations therein Which Lands if they had been managed as was designed and by right should have been besides the security which thereby would have redounded to the English being the best meanes under God to have setled that Kingdome in perpetuall Peace Religion and Civility His Majesties Revenues would have been bettered out of those lands by 90000lib. per Annum and that upon a very moderate estimate allowing about ten pence for every acre those Territories being by admeasurement knowne to be above two millions of acres besides the casuall Revenues which would ensue This you may well say was a Princely gift indeed But besides this there were many other things granted to them at the same time for what reason I will not say but sure
trecheries that ever I heard or read of compared to this me thinks they look but like so many Piaefraudes and the torments of all past ages may be thought to have proceeded more from the favourable mercies of men then from their cruelty I am confident that God that has so preserved you has done it partly for this end that your owne eyes might behold the Vyals of his wrath and vengeance which he has filled and laid up in store plentifully poured out uon them and I am perswaded if we can but with patience expect his owne time the time will come and your eyes shall see it when those tongues that cryed so loud in the day of Jerusalem Race it raee it even to the foundation shall cry as loud but all in vaine to those same mountaines whereon you were scattered and hunted like Partridges to fall and cover them and those hands that have laine so heavy on the backs of so many thousands of you shall strike as hard their owne brests and cleave as fast to their owne loynes and those feet that have been so swift to shed blood shall not carry them away so fast but that the fierce anger of the Lord shall overtake them Though I cannot be so eloquent as my friend CIVILIS Marcus yet my Amen may very well stand at the end of his speech So let thine enemies perish O Lord and those that hate thee flee before thee I perceive MARCUS that the sad Relation which you have newly heard has not wrought so kindly with you Civilis as it has done with me since you can so soon abuse your friend but I will beare it for once if you promise me to be content with our company all this evening and you DECIUS will be pleased I hope to beare part of his burden Both being well satisfied CIVILIS turning to DECIUS spake to this purpose Since you have been pleased to trouble your selfe thus farre give me leave to disturb you a little more and to know how long you have been in this Kingdome and what occasions brought you out of Ireland I doubt not but you will excuse me knowing how particular an interest my affection gives me in every thing that concernes you and I know MARCUS will take it for the best part of his entertainment in this house to sit and heare you MARCUS agreeing to what was said for him he sate downe by CIVILIS and DECIUS spake as followes You cannot desire that of me which I shall not be ready to grant you you must know then that at my first coming to Dublin Decius I found the City in great perplexity the English not knowing which they should feare first either the Irish without or those within amongst themselves they were all as it were at their wits ends and no body almost knew which way to turne himselfe The Rebels were infinite for numbers and within the City onely a poore company of raw ignorant Townsmen that for their number could not be thought able to conquer so often as their enemies might be overcome Notwithstanding all these discouragements though I saw palenesse in every mans face each one accounting himselfe already as it were amongst the dead I observed so much courage and resolution in those that then sate at the Helme that I for my part could not at all feare a shipwrack and therefore at that time could not think of quitting the Kidgdome though I saw many take that course as the safest hazarding themselves in a storm at Sea in open Botes to scape that they feared on Land if they should stay behind Those that onely attended the service and were carefull to discharge their duties though with the apparent danger of their lives by sitting constantly at Counsell-Board whither multitudes of such as were then secret and afterwards professed Rebels daily resorted and might if God had not stayed their hands have put their plot in execution for many weeks after their three and twentieth of October as well as they could have done at that day Those I say that in al that foul weather when the Heavens were all blackk about them and not so much as one beame of comfort to be seen stood still to their tackling and plyed their work without ever giving over were onely the two Lords Justices by name Sir William Parions and Sir John Bortase and Sir Adam Lofius Vice-treasurer Sir John Temple Master of the Rolls Sir Charles Coot from the time that he arrived at Dublin and when he was not abroad in the Field and Sir Robert Meredith Chancellour of the Exchequer Those other blazing-starres and unlucky meteors that have since hung over our heads and have had such ill influence on all the affaires of that Kingdome and put all into combustion being some of them at that time not exhaled from the earth as little known by name of Privy-Counsellours as they deserved it and others some for feare and some for dis-affection to the service keeping themselves at home and seldome or never comming to Counsell or having fled into England It was the great mercy of God Civilis that a that time of extream hazard and necessity sent you such men as were not afraid to stand for you and to open their mouths in your defence when yours and their enemies fists were ready to enclose them with a blow and truly they ought to be had in everlasting remembrance and those that absenced themselves in that time of pressing necessity by my consent should have had the Counsell-chamber-doores for ever shut in their faces I can as little excuse those that kept themselves away through feare as those others that did it through dis-affection it being a breach of trust in both and he that feares even his life when his Religion and Country cals for and requires his help will to save his life or perhaps a poorer commodity betray both We have found what you say very true and could have wished that they that kept themselves then away ahd done so still and not to have come to doe the English the greatest mischiefe instead of service But if you please I shall proceed You will doe us a speciall favour in it Civilis Decius Sir Charles Coot by a speciall providence being sent to Dublin when the English stood in so much need of a man of his spirits was immediately made Governour of that City how he carried himselfe in that charge and what resolution and gallantry he shewed in the field against the Rebels with that small handfull of men which the State put under his command If I were able to expresse to you I might very well be thought to speak a piece of a Romanse It shall suffice that I tell you that by his couragious execution and the as faithfull contrivement of those that sate at Counsell-board the blessing of God accompanying their endeavours whereas at first for the English with all their strength to march out of the City
I meane since the command of this Party I could never learne that ever any true hearted protestant was relieved or had even ordinary justice done him if the case lay between him and an Irish man or a Papist The affliction of my brethren being so great and the tyranny under which they lived being so insupportable I chose rather then be a daily witnesse of it and in some measure a sufferer there being none though never so poore that could escape free to quit all for the present and bid adiew to that Kingdome till it should please God to look upon it in mercy and settle justice and truth in the midst of it and this I am sure was the thoughts and desires of many thousands English more whose want of accommodation elswhere keeps them in that place and enforces them to live in that intolerable slavery And thus with what brevity I could fearing to be troublesome I have satisfied you concerning the occasion of my comming into this Kingdome where I have been these three moneths most of which time I have spent in this City We must acknowledge our selves much bound to you for the favour you have done us Civilis and I hope since your comming to this place you are lightned of a good part of your burden finding us in a condition I presume farre beyond what you could imagine when you were in that Kingdome and in a good way to a happy end which will be under God the onely meanes to set you streight againe in that Kingdme whereof you are yet in capability the Earle of Ormond having notwithstanding his Majesties Letters commanding him to conclude a peace there with the Rebels on any conditions wisely to this day held off his hand as it is thought from the very beginning with an intention to give it to the Parliament MARCUS observing some confusion in DECIUS his face upon this speech told his friend that he feared he had spoken something distatefull and therefore that it concerned him before be proceeded any further to give DECIUS satisfaction who he saw was suddenly moved with something that fell from him CIVILIS thanking his friend and desiring DECIUS to be free with him and to set him straight if he had failed as he confessed he might very easily doe being not so well acquainted with the particulars of that Kingdome DECIUS expressing some unwillingnesse and a kind of anger against himselfe that his countenance had betrayed him spake to this purpose I should be very 10th CIVILIS to discent from you in any thing but on necessary grounds Decius especially in such a businesse as this that we are now fallen upon which concernes a particular person having as you might have observed from the beginning of this Conference baulkt the mentioning of any person as the actors in a misery more then in the generall knowing how subject it is if we speak sharply though accordin gto truth in every particular to the judgment and doome of passion rancor and invectivenesse yet fince a speciall providence has brought the Earle of Ormond and laid him crosse my way I cannot passe him by without labouring to undeceive you in the opinion you have conceived of him and so farre am I from any private spleen or interest to draw me aside to an obliquity in what I shall lay before you that I protest I heartily with I could with truth give my selfe the lye in what I shall say concerning him I perceive by that little you have said of him how much you will wonder when I shall tell you he has been the chiefe instrument of all the misery that at this day the Protestants of that Kingdome groane under and the most faithfull servant to the Irish that ever they had wherein I must say he has done but what his blood and nature required of him his Family having long since degenerated into Irish and for himselfe in his owne inclination one as much addicted to their wayes having all his kinred and friends amongst them as he that knowes the least either of Religion or humanity And for that particular of keeping back the peace I can assure you they deceive themselves very much that the Earle of Ormond would leave any thing undone that might tend to the perfecting of that work he has alwayes so vigorously pursued Beleeve it Sir that the peace there was not long since concluded though I cannot positively say it is not at this day was not because the Earle of Ormond was unwilling to consent to whatever the Rebels could demand of him the contrary plainly appearing by those Articles formerly consented unto by him which I doubt not you have seen in print wherein the Rebels have all they can desire both toleration of Religion suspention of Poynings Act and all other Lawes made for the good of the Protestants But in truth the obstruction was still on the Rebels side they being unwilling however they pretended otherwise to accept of or adventure on a peace knowing how little in the condition the King was it could availe them but also how thereby they should be engaged to maintaine an Army here in England whereby their owne Country might be left to the power of the Protestants being considerable in divers parts of the Kingdome and besides I doe verily beleeve they were conscious to themelves of their owne inability to afford the King such considerable assistance as after such large conditions afforded to them they would have been strictly tyed unto and his Majesty might expect from them However the Earle of Ormond and their other friends have represented them unto him as able to doe great matters I cannot but much wonder indeed at what you tell us concerning the Earle of Ormond Civilis I doe remember him here in England under the care of Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury and for what I could discerne in his younger yeers there appeared in him the hopes of better performances and truly sir I will not dissemble with you I have heard from many that are come from Dublin and are still in this City and on whom the Parliament has bestowed some other marks of of their favour besides admitting of them to reside here that he has carried himselfe from the beginning with all respect and good conscience to the English and as one firmly rooted and resolved in the protestant Religion I doe not doubt but that you have met with many Decius who for severall ends are engaged to speak the best of him Since my comming to this place I happened more then once to be a witnesse of some high expressions in his behalfe but I le assure you Sir they came only from such as upon good grounds I was assured were imployed over hither by the Earle of Ormond to work the people into a moderate good opinion of him that so he might continue his wicked practises against the English and that if at length the Protestant party should prevaile in both
Kingdomes when there were no other remedy to preserve his estate and to be able in time to come to doe further mischiefe he may on easier tearmes be accepted and make his peace and I am perswaded to this beliefe of these men not onely by the falsnesse of what ine very place they declaime but also by the favour I know they are in with the Earle of Ormond and the protection he still vouchsafes their commands offices and interests there notwithstanding their residing heere on pretences which if true would render them extreamly odious to him For the matter of what they give out to hinder a harsher judgement of him concerniyg his education and his firmnesse in the Protestant Religion I shall onely say this that if you consider the perversnesse of the natures of Irish and more especially of such as have degenerated into them Notwithstanding the carefullest education it will not seem impossible to you though the Earle of Ormond notwithstanding his breed under Bishop Abbot should follow his kind and prove as notorious as any The Irish of all people on the earth are they that abhorre most to be reformed in whose very being it is to love barbarisme and though sometimes by peace and the English dwelling amongst them they have seemed to cast off their old skins and put on some kind of civility upon the least occasion offered they have run like hogs greedily againe to their vomits and like swine have whet their tusks against such as would onely have kept them from returning to wallow in the mire and this is the reason that five or six hundred yeers have wrought so little upon them and that the English have reaped onely the fruit of their labours namely the experience and a very sad one how impossible a thing it is to make an unwilling Nation happy And againe if we look from the nature of the Irish into the effects of it and consider this unnaturall Rebellion we shall find that none are more cruelly bent against the English and thirst more after their blood then such as have the same blood though corrupted in their vaines and none more eager followers of their barbarous customes then such as have had the good fortune and misery at once to know better and were bred up with all possible care in our Schooles and Universities and in the Protestant Religion Nay so farre has the corruption proceeded that many of those Commanders that were sent from hence have turned their backs to the English and have been made the instruments to undoe and ruine them for whose sakes they were employed into that Kingdome as if the whole earth had the property that some of its waters have to turne all that is cast into it into stone By this time I beleeve it will be so farre from seeming impossible that the Earle of Ormond should follow those courses that it will not in any measure seem strange since the very English themselves who have wanted those allurements of blood and friendship temptations which could never be out of the Earle of Ormonds sight have been made supporters to the Irish for whose destruction they were sent thither For what other part concerning the E. of Ormonds religion though there might be much said of that subject touching the gentlenesse moderation of it if it were my intention to meddle w th his person I shall only say thus much That it was the greatest misfortune to the English that he made profession of the same religion w th them knowing very well how little he would have been able to do for his country men had he not put on sheeps cloathing By this meanes he was a thiefe within the house and had the keyes committed into his hand to dispose of all at his pleasure not to hold you long I shall give you this short but truest character of him He is one whose heart has been as red in the blood of the Protestants as any of his Country mens hands without whom the English in that Kingdome might have been in a condition not onely to have cleered all at home but also to have required you here whereas by the trechery of this man htey have been betrayed into that misery which at this day makes them the objects of pitty in all but such as have assisted in his courses and resolve still to lay more and more weight upon them till they have cast them downe never to rise againe which they will not faile to compasse if God doe not speedily put to his almighty hand and make him fall into the pit which he has digged so deep for them I have knowne you too long Decius Civilis to think you would say any thing but on very good grounds especially in a businesse of this nature where the honour and life of any is concerned for 〈◊〉 you Sir if what you say be true as upon the confidence I have in you I shall suspend my beliefe of any thing I have heard to the contrary he deserved so little the thoughts of the Parliament to accept of him should he now at last submit to them that were I to be one of his Judges I should not be able to satisfie my conscience in the performance of the duty I owe both to my Country and Religion did I not give my vote to make him the severest example for after Ages to judge the greatnesse and hainousnesse of his treason by I desire for our better satisfaction that you would be pleased to give us the knowledge of some particulars concerning him that being convinced our selves we may be able upon occasion to stop the mouths of such as open them in his commendation Seeing I shall have my share in the pleasure of your Relation Marcus I should in no wise deserve it did I not adde my prayers to those of my friend Civilis that you would be pleased to proceed in it though I think my desires will be but superfluous the subject being such as concernes the good of the Publick wherof I beleeve you sufficiently carefull being argument more then enough to induce you to it I shall rather trouble you with a request of my owne which I know was in Civilis his mind to have remembred you of however his impatience till he heard you speak made him omit it But because I perceive it is contrary to your disposition I shall be afraid to propound it to you unlesse Civilis also make use of his power with you to perswade you to consent to it Civilis undertaking for Decius that he should consent to whatever was resonable whereof if they pleased he would be judge between them Decius and Marcus being both content to cast themselves upon him Marcus continued You remember Civilis for we must speak to our judge how not long since you gave a wrong judgement of the Earle of Ormond I for my part may call it so already and yet though the fault were yours the blame must be
onely contrary to many Remonstrances of the honest party at Counsell-Board declaring the evill consequences thereof but also to the overtures and motions of severall Commanders in the Army who undertook to maintaine the Army abroad and make them subsist upon the Rebels if the Earle of Ormond would suffer it d Sir Arthur Loftus his Examination Sir Arthur Loftus Governour of the Naas undertook to maintaine there a thousand men without charge to the State if the Earle of Ormond would also send him two or three Troops of horse which lay idle about Dublin e Sir Charles Coot his Examination Sir Charles Coote long solicited the Earle of Ormond for a thousand Foot and two or three Troops to carry into Conogh where he undertook to maintaine them upon the Rebels during the Warre And many the like propositions were made by others but the Earle of Ormond knew too well how much it would have prejudiced his Country-men and his designe to save them by a peace or cessation to consent to any of them but they were all slighted by him and notwithstanding he had still the face to complaine of the necessity of the Army to the great disturbance of all debates at Counsel-board for the good of the English and the promoting of the Service to presse and cry continually for Letters to be writ to his Majesty declaring their lamentable condition and how they were not possibly able to subsist no not for a few dayes whereby the Officers and Soulders were encouraged to all manner of mutinous disorders being most of them already wrought to a wearinesse of the service and to a desire to come into England to gaine the spoile of the same whereof his Lordship and his instruments had given them assurance The Lord Lisle being sensible of the Earl of Ormonds proceedings and how he laboured all that he could on pretence of necessity to gaine for the Rebels what they desired to the ruine of the English to wipe away that colour of necessity and that it might cleerly appeare where the fault lay that the Protestants were not in a better condition undertook about January 1642. a designe for the carrying out a great part of our Army to live abroad in the Country and doe good service against the Rebels the proposition as it deserved was much magnified by all being so much for the good of the English that indeed it was the onely meanes for their preservation The Earle of Ormond upon the Lords Justices and honest Privy-Counsellours motion gave consent unto it whereupon all things were prepared Iron Mils and other necessaries not without great charge were provided and all things being now in a readinesse for the Lord Lisle to march The Earle of Ormond fore-seeing how much this would ruine his plot and fearing that he intended for the County of Kilkenny a place which he alwayes kept untouched being the chiefe seat of the Rebellion where their supreame Counsell resided declared he would goe out himselfe in person and contrary to the will of the Justices and the advice of the honest party at Counsell-Board saying he had power of himselfe without them to carry out the Army when and whither he pleased he overthrew the Lord Lisles motion having no other designe then to thwart his which looked too severely he thought upon the Rebels his beloved Country-men Sometimes he declared he would goe into the County of Wesimeath other times into the County of Longford but at length having taken new Counsels and caused the State to furnish him with a treble proportion of mony to what the Lord Lisle desired for his expedition which the Parliament Commissioners then at Dublin were forced to take up in that necessity upon their own word otherwise he and some of his Minions of the Counsell of warre protesting they were the cause of the disappointment of that so important a service and having upon his owne motion a generall Warrant granted him from the Lords Justices to command all the shiping upon the coast of the whole Kingdome a thing which before was never given out of the hands of the chiefe Governour for the time and having a Warrant likewise for the putting of the whole Country where-ever he came to contribution and full power given him to protect them otherwise saying he could not be able to keepe the Army abroad as he pretended he would doe for three moneths he marched out of Dublin with about 4000. foot and four or five hundred horse In their martch through the County of Kildare they took in three or four Castles namely Timelin Tullow and Castle-Martin and therein such quantities of corne as would have been sufficient to have fed the Army three moneths but the Earl of Ormond suffered it to be consumed and wasted and no use made of it to their benefit That which was taken in Timelin was left most of it in the same condition it was found and after the Earle of Ormond was martched away the Rebels came and possessed themselves againe of it which will be made good by Colonel Monk and by the parties that surveyed the corne in those Castles By which it may appeare he never had any intention to maintaine the Army abroad or that he took those places to any other end then to waste the ammunition and provision which he carried out with him and which he knew was all the store Castle Martin and some other places taken by him being not long after sold and delivered up to the Rebels and that at very low rates Castle Martin was sold to the Rebels by Colonel Hunkes whose company had the possession of it and no notice taken of it by the Earle of Ormond in publick but what thanks he gave in private for it we may guesse presuming it was done by his owne order I cannot but admire Decius at what you have told me Civilis seeing how much hitherto the Earl of Ormonds carriage disagrees from those expressions I have heard some give of him upon whom hereafter I shall looke as enemies to the Common-wealth and as such as deserve to partake in the severest of his punishments and truly by what I have already heard from you and some other Relations which I have received of the carriage of the Earle of Thomond and some others in Munster I begin plainly to understand the vanity of imploying any of the Irish in considerable command in that service if we ever intend to have the work carried on throughly and faithfully and not partially and by halves I have ever in my owne thoughts embraced that opinion as the most certaine and safest vvay for the English Decius and indeed supposing there were such of that Nation as could so farre overcome their owne natures as willingly to undertake so contrary a work I supposed it a poynt of cruelty in man if there were no more in it to put humain nature to so hard a taske as to embrue his hands in the blood of
those neerest to him which was thought by God a sufficient tryall even for such a faith as Abrahams But besides this I ever esteemed it a poynt of the greatest indiscretion to expose the English to the mercy of so many temptations as daily beset such men and it being a certaine rule that no man ever hated his owne flesh though some would be beleeved to have attained to that perfection but if you please to give me leave I shall begin where I left off in my Relation Civilis praying him to doe so be continued his speech in this manner After the taking of those Castles as you have heard the Earle of Ormond carried the Army before the Towne of Rose through a country which he knew could afford them nothing but streights and wants whereas if he had gone ten miles on the other hand into an open Country he might have been in the heart of a place untouched by any enemy where the Army might have subsisted upon the Rebels as long as they pleased but the Earle of Ormond had not for that end preserved that Country from spoyle to be now wasted And whereas before the Earle of Ormonds advance towards Rosse the Rebels might have been at a losse not knowing which way our Forces would bend being equally neer Kilkenny Wexford and Rosse to cleer them of that doubt and to free them from the danger of a surprize which if the whole Army ' or a party of Foot with some Horse had speedily martched up to either of those places might easily have been performed He commanded the Lord Lisle with some Horse without either Foot or Dragoons to martch before to Rosse which gave the Country an allarum and the body of Foot came up so slowly after that the Towne had time to prepare it selfe and to take in more Forces whereas if there had been Foot sent up with the Horse it might without all question have been taken they within being so secure that some of the Lord Lisles Horse at their first coming found the gates wide open whereat they entred but for want of Voot to make it good they were forced to retire When the Earle of Ormond supposed the Rebels were prepared to receive him the Army was brought before the Towne though he had prepared nothing fit for a siege and that it was contrary to the intention of the State that he should engage before any place of that strength till they had first beaten the Rebels out of the field being sent abroad meerly to live and maintaine themselves which could not but be knowne impossible lying in the midst of an enemies Country before a Towne the Rebels having a strong Army on foot to cut off all provision and forrage as they pleased You may remember I told you before how that the Earle of Ormond before he would stirre out of Dublin must have the command of all the shiping on the coast of the Kingdome and to make some good use of this power he cals up two ships that lay neer the Fort of Duncannon and on pretence to hinder supplies from coming to the Towne over the River from Munster side they were commanded by him into such a place that they were both taken to the great losse of the owners and the encouragement of his Country-men and having with the expence almost of all his ammunition made a breach in the wall wide enough for twenty men to enter a brest having thereby let the world see what he could have done he rises from before it and sets his face homewards towards Dublin and in his way brings the Army upon the Rebels Forces commanded be Preston add Cullin where if Gods mercy had not overcome his wickednesse the losse of those men had been in humain reason the ruine of the English through the whole Kingdome The Rebels contrary to their usuall manner being spurred on with other assurances then they could receive from their owne cowardly dispositions at this time charged very resolutely on our side the Earle of Ormond gave out no orders for the ordering or managing of the battle but rid up and downe carelesly with one Colonel Barry an Irish Papist and one very well knowne by the Rebels as if he had not been conterned in the businesse in hand by which meanes for want of direction the Rebels had at first gotten advantage over us which the Earle of Ormond had a speciall care to impute to such as he knew most forward and zealous against his Country-men and particularly to the Lord Lisle who in truth behaved himself that day very gallantly to his great honour and the advantage of the service It pleased God notwithstanding all the Earle of Ormonds wishes and endeavours to give the English the day with the losse of many of the Rebels Gentry and divers taken prisoners amongst whom was Cullin their Lieutenant generall and some more of their principall Officers who were brought to Dublin in such state that one would have thought they had rid in triumph after their owne victory and not been prisoners of ours And when the honest party at Counsell-board spoke of committing them as Traytors the Earle of Ormond took it very hainously and said he would be bound for them himselfe and the Lord Chancellour one Sir Richard Bolton a rotten-hearted man and one of the Earle of Ormonds honest instruments on all occasions desired it might be considered how the King used the Parliament prisoners here that so they might follow that president to which the Earle of Ormond added that they in England were as great Rebels as those in Ireland though Sir Henry Tichborne another faithfull Gentleman whom we shall have occasion anon to mention more at large upon another occasion went a note higher and would prove the Parliament here the worse Rebels of the two for these said he meaning the Rebels fight for the substance of their Religion but the Parliament meerly for ceremonies It pleased GOD to bestow upon the FORCES of the Protestants there Marcus very many admirable Victories and neverthelesse which seemed very strange to us not knowing to what cause to impute it the affaires of the English were so far as I could understand still in the same condition and not in any degree bettered or neerer to an end You say very true Sir Decius for though God had put many happy opportunities into our hands there was never any use made of any of them but our Armies having beaten the Rebels abroad were presently brought home to feed upon and indeed devoure our selves at home I know Sirs you expect a fter this last victory to heare of a pursuit but the E. of Ormond had a care not to break his old custome whereas if he had pursued this defeat as a Generall ought and an honest man would have done he might have gone either back againe to Rosse or to Kilkenny and had either or both delivered unto him or at least he might have commanded the open