Castle-Martin, Kilcullen-bridge, and in short, all the country for seventeen miles in length, and twenty-five in breadth."

"The lords of the pale made no opposition to any of those parties that were detached to make the above-mentioned general devastation. But it affected lord Gormanstown, the principal mover of their union, to such a degree, that he died not long after of grief; and the rest of the lords of the pale, grown desperate, laid aside all thoughts of pardon or treaty; and joined all their forces for the support of the common cause; in which many others who had as yet stood out soon joined, fearing that they should at last be involved in the other's fate, since a total extirpation was intended."*

The reader will not fail to observe here, the completion of retributive justice in the distressing visitation on the Pale. Abusing power in the days of their prosperity, they dealt unmercifully with the old Irish, dispossessing them of landed property, and reducing them to bondage vile; one instance of which may suffice for the present. O'Cullen, the last considerable proprietor of the old race in the vicinity of Dublin, quit his country during Tyrone's war, to serve in Flanders; whence, 'tis apparent, that it was not aversion to war, but a conflict between honour and interest, that forced him out of the country at that juncture. He could not remain without joining with his followers either of the parties. O'Neil's cause

*Carte's Ormond.

he viewed as the cause of Ireland and the catholic faith, not to be opposed by an Irish catholic of honour. Sollicitous to reconcile, and save both interest and honour by a prudent neutrality, he emigrated and entered into the service of Spain, in Flanders, where he remained until the peace of 1602. When returning to his native country, he found great part of his estate in the possession of Brabanzon, afterwards earl of Meath, the inhabitants turned out, and strangers brought in. The messenger he sent to Brabanzon being murdered, in Meath, O'Cullen armed his remaining followers, and endeavoured to eject the intruders; but was attacked and fell by the hand of Brabanzon, who took possession of all his estate.

army,

if

The earl of Ormond was certainly a powerful instrument in the hands of the English parliament; nor would they have courted him with a present of a diamond, worth two hundred and forty pounds; and with promises of vast honours and possessions, which were afterwards fulfilled by mean-spirited Charles, true to the engagements of the regicides, faithless to his own, and get him appointed lord lieutenant of the they had not found him a man for their purpose. "In the expedition to the county of Kildare, "the soldiers found one Mr. Higgins, a priest, at Naas, who might if he pleased have easily fled, if he apprehended any danger in the stay. When he was brought before the earl of Ormond, he voluntarily confessed that he was a papist, and that his residence was in the town, from whence he refused to fly away, with those that were

guilty, because he not only knew himself very innocent, but believed that he could not be without ample testimony of it; having by his sole charity and power, preserved very many of the English from the rage and fury of the Irish; and therefore he only besought his lordship to preserve him from the violence and fury of the soldiers: and put him securely into Dublin to be tried for any crime; which the earl promised to do, and performed it; though with so much hazard, that when it was spread abroad among the soldiers that he was a papist, the officer in whose custody he was intrusted was assaulted by them; and it was as much as the earl could do to compose the mutiny. When his lordship came to Dublin, he informed the lords justices of the prisoner he had brought with him, and of the good testimony he had received of his peaceable. carriage; and of the pains he had taken to restrain those with whom he had credit, from entering into rebellion; and of many charitable offices he had performed: all of which there wanted not evidence enough, there being many then in Dublin, who owed their lives and whatever of their fortunes was left, purely to him. Within a few days after, when the earl did not suspect the poor man's being in danger, he heard that Sir Charles Coote, who was provost-marshalgeneral, had taken him out of prison, and caused him to be put to death in the morning, before, or as soon as it was light; of which barbarity the earl complained to the lords justices; but was so far from bringing the other to be questioned,

that he found himself upon some disadvantage, for thinking the proceeding to be other than it ought to have been."*

"It was certainly a miserable spectacle," as lord Castlehaven observes in his manuscript vindication of his memoirs, "to see every day numbers of people executed by martial law, at the discretion or rather caprice of Sir Charles Coote, an hot-headed and bloody man, and as such accounted even by the English and protestants. Yet this was the man, whom the lords justices picked out to entrust with a commission of martial law, to put to death rebels or traitors, that is (continues his lordship) all such as he should deem to be so; which he performed with delight and a wanton kind of cruelty; and yet all this while the justices sat in council, and the judges in the unusual seasons sat in their respective courts, spectators of, and countenancing so extravagant a tribunal as Sir Charles Coote's, and so illegal an execution of justice."

"The earl of Ormond, though lieutenantgeneral of his majesty's army, had it not, it seems, in his power to save the lives of any popish priests however innocent or meriting, whom he should happen to meet with in his march. For soon after, "his lordship having promised the countess of Westmeath to preserve her chaplain, Mr. White, whom he found at her house, from the fury of the soldiers while he remained there; the poor man having on some occasion left it the

*Clarendon. Borlase. Hist. Irish Rebel.

next day, was taken abroad by them and brought to the earl, whom he reminded of the protection he had promised him the night before; but he was only answered, that if he had stayed in the house he was in, this would not have befallen him; and that it was then out of his power to preserve him, himself being bound to pursue those orders which the lords justices had given him. Nevertheless," continues Clarendon, " he did endeavour to have saved him, at least till he might be brought to Dublin; but the whole army, possessed with a bitter spirit against the Romish clergy, mutinied upon it; and in the end compelled his lordship to leave him unto that justice which they were authorised to execute, and so put him to death."* These facts picture out the hideous infernal spirit that dictated the

covenant.

From these transactions, as well as from the whole of his subsequent, the marquis of Ormond is clearly convicted of having acted a double part, the more dangerous enemy to his king and country, as he fought in the king's name and under his banners against his person, authority, and family, and for the overthrow of the religion and laws of both kingdoms. Active instrument of the puritan faction, in exciting the Irish to insurrection, by all manner of cruelty and treachery, he equally concurred with the English rebels, in hindering a cessation of arms and peace, ardently wished for by the king and the confede

* Carte's Ormond.