speaking distance, did indeed address the soldiers, but it was to encourage them to hold out, and to stand firmly by the cause of their country and their faith. Such heroism failed to touch the savage Broghill. The Bishop, after being tortured by the soldiers, was hanged from a tree by the reins of his own horse.

Gallant Defence of Clonmel.-Cromwell now advanced to Clonmel, and, after summoning it to surrender, began the siege (April 29th). The garrison was some 1,500 strong, and commanded by Hugh Dubh O'Neill, a nephew of Eoghan Ruadh. The siege dragged on after a fashion very exasperating to Cromwell, whose presence was urgently required in England. Moreover, his losses in men were heavy, as the defenders made frequent sallies. At length a breach in the wall was effected, and on May 9th a general assault was ordered. O'Neill had, however, prepared for this. He set citizens and soldiers, men and women to work, and using mud, stones, timber, and whatever came to their hand, "they made a long lane, a man's height and about eighty yards' length on both sides up from the breach, and he caused to be placed engines on each side of the lane, and his guns at the end of it." Into this deathtrap the Cromwellian soldiers rushed, when they had overcome the feint of resistance made to their advance by a small body of troops stationed at the breach. Soon the lane was crowded with men, too closely jammed together to use their weapons. Then, from either side, O'Neill's soldiers attacked them with guns and pikes, or threw down great beams of timber on the struggling crowd. From the front the two cannons opened fire with deadly effect. They could not retreat, for those behind kept pressing on. In less than an hour over 1,000 men were slain. The remnant of the infantry retreated, and Cromwell ordered a cavalry assault. This lasted longer, but ended in equal disaster and even greater loss. All the towns in Ireland which Cromwell had taken had together cost him less than had this failure before Clonmel. As it seemed futile to attempt another attack, the Puritan General resolved to merely blockade the town. O'Neill had, however, gained only a barren triumph. To hold out was impossible; neither food nor ammunition remained. Anxious to preserve the lives and liberties of his men, he secretly marched them out of the town in the night, and made his way towards Waterford (May 18th). Next day the Mayor sent to Cromwell's camp and offered to surrender, if the lives and property of the citizens were spared. Of O'Neill and his men nothing was said, and Cromwell may have believed that the Mayor intended to treacherously abandon them to his mercy. Only when the terms were agreed on, did he discover the true state of affairs. Great was his anger on finding how he had been tricked, but to his credit be it said, he observed the conditions of the capitulation.

End of the War.-This was Cromwell's last military action in the war. On May 28th he sailed from Youghal, and at Bristol was enthusiastically received by the crowds, who had already learned how he had crushed and slaughtered the Irish Papist rebels. In the country he had left his deeds were naturally regarded differently; but they were longer remembered. To the English ploughman or artizan, the great Purtian General is now no more than a name, if indeed that; while still, in our own day, the Irish peasant can utter no deeper imprecation than to invoke the curse of Cromwell" on his adversary.

For over two years more the war in Ireland dragged on. After Eoghan Ruadh's death, the Ulster army had chosen Heber Mac Mahon, Bishop of Clogher, to succeed him in the command. Mac Mahon, though courageous and patriotic, was destitute of that prudence which was peculiarly necessary for a leader to whom was confided the last considerable army that the Irish could put in the field. The other commanders urged him to avoid a pitched battle with Coote and Venables, the Parliamentary generals; "Delay is often braver than wild courage,' said Henry Ruadh O'Neill. But Mac Mahon would not listen, and he ordered an attack. The Ulster army suffered a complete defeat next day (June 21st, 1650) at Scariffhollis, near Letterkenny (Co. Donegal). About 3,000 men were slain. After the battle, Bishop Mac Mahon and Henry O'Neill, who had been captured, were put to death.

After Cromwell's departure, Major General Ireton had taken chief command of the Parliamentary forces in Ireland. Waterford was surrendered, on conditions, after a siege of a couple of weeks, and Limerick, Athlone, and Galway were now the only places of importance remaining in Royalist or Irish hands. Ireton laid siege to Limerick, where Hugh Dubh O'Neill was in command (June 1650). He did not make very rapid progress, however, and was obliged to retire into winter quarters without having achieved much. Meanwhile Lord Dillon surrendered Athlone.

In May (1651), the siege of Limerick was renewed with vigour. All through the summer it continued, but at last the gallant defenders felt that no more could be done. Negotiations were opened, and on October 27th (1651), articles were signed, giving quarter to all soldiers and civilians, with certain named exceptions. Hugh Dubh O'Neill was one of those specially excluded from mercy, but some of the Parliamentarian officers seem to have admired his gallantry, and his life was spared. He retired to Spain, and was still living at the time of Charles II's Restoration (1660). Within a fortnight of the fall of Limerick, Ireton died there of the plague, and Lieutenant-General Ludlow succeeded to his office of Commander of the Forces.

Galway, where Preston was in command, had been besieged since July 1651, but it did not surrender till April 1652, and then on terms very similar to those granted to Limerick. Preston had, previous to this, fled to France.

In May a peace was made at Kilkenny between Commissioners of the Parliament and the Earl of Westmeath, Commander of the Royalist forces in Leinster. This may be considered as the end of the war, though a few remote places held out even into the early months of the year 1653.

CHAPTER XI

THE CROMWELLIAN SETTLEMENT. IRELAND UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH

Scheme of Land Confiscation.--After her long struggle Ireland was absolutely exhausted. Of her population of 1 millions, over 600,000 had perished by the sword or by famine. Few cattle remained of the once great herds, few sheep of the splendid flocks. The famishing people, especially the old and feeble, died in great numbers. Of the soldiers of the defeated armies, many went abroad and enlisted in Continental services. Numbers of young people, boys and girls, were seized by order of the Government, and shipped off to the West Indies or to the English colonies in North America, where they were sold as slaves. It was judged, the country being in this condition, that an opportunity exceptionally favourable was afforded for attempting a Plantation on a very large scale, and in fact settling the Irish question once and for all, so that it might never again arise to trouble the English Government.

When, in 1641, a greatly exaggerated account of the Irish rebellion and massacre had reached England, a number of private gentlemen had banded themselves together and offered to advance money to the Parliament for the raising, equipment and maintenance of a special army to subdue the rebels. Of the Irish lands to be confiscated afterwards, each of them should receive a share, in proportion to the amount which he had contributed to the undertaking. Thus, a subscription of £200 would secure the subscriber 1,000 Irish acres in Ulster; while the same amount of Munster land would cost £450.

By the time that the war was over, there was another and more extensive class to take a share of the spoils. An army of more than 30,000 men, who had served in the Irish campaigns, and to whom arrears of pay were due, remained for the Parliament to settle with. It appeared to Cromwell and the other Parliamentary leaders that, if the soldiers were paid in land rather than in coin, and settled on the confiscated estates as Planters, much would be gained. Instead of dangerous vagabonds they would have useful farmers, who would be the founders of sober, industrious Protestant families, and whose sons would be ready to take the field, should the Popish rebels again attempt a disturbance.

The pay due to soldiers amounted to about 1 millions sterling ; while the value of the subscriptions of the " Gentlemen Adventurers was some £360,000. The quantity of Irish land to be confiscated would necessarily be large, and the scheme, as originally planned, was a vast one. The Irish inhabitants of the other three provinces were to be driven across the Shannon into Connacht, and assigned there a few acres of poor land. Meanwhile, the rich plains of Munster, Leinster and Ulster should be divided amongst the adventurers and soldiers. Only land set down as arable " was to be counted; bogs, mountains and the like were to be assigned, without extra payment, to those on whose estates they bordered. A very small rent, a few pence only per acre, was reserved to the Crown.

In order to facilitate the distribution of the land, Sir William Petty, an English physician of scientific tastes, was employed to prepare a survey. The greater part of the work, known, because the results were taken down and illustrated by maps, as "the Down Survey," is still extant.

Arrangements Regarding the Irish Inhabitants.-The Act for the settling of Ireland, which passed the English Parliament in August 1652, divided the inhabitants of Ireland into classes, according to the degree to which they were, or were supposed to be, implicated in the lately suppressed rebellion. First came a list of 105 persons, including most of the surviving leaders, who were condemned by name to death. The number executed under this clause was small. Most of those who had taken a prominent part in the actual fighting, on either the Confederate or the Royalist side, had escaped abroad, or had surrendered and obtained pardons. The less prominent persons received minor punishments. Those who had served against the Parliament, but in a lower grade, were suffered to remain in Ireland. Their estates would be confiscated, but they should receive others equal in extent to one-third of what they had lost. As regards these classes no distinction in the matter of religion was made. Many of those condemned by name to death, as Ormond and Inchiquin, were Protestants. The most sweeping clause of the Act was that which followed. All Catholics who had resided in Ireland during the period of the Rebellion and Civil War (1641-1650), and who could not prove that they had borne "constant good affection" to the Parliament, were to forfeit a third of their estates absolutely, and for the other two-thirds should receive compensation in land wherever the Parliament might direct.

A Catholic, in order to escape forfeiture, was required to show that he actually had given assistance to the Parliamentary forces or authorities. Even to have lived in "rebel quarters," that is to say in a district held by the Confederates or the Royalists, was held to be a bar to "innocency."