CHAP. XVI. Ormond treats privately with the Scots in Ulster. STRANGE as this conduct of his excellency may appear to those who have been always taught to consider him as a mirror of loyalty to Charles I. even in his most deprest and forlorn state; their wonder will certainly increase, when they know that he was all this while privately soliciting that king's greatest enemies in Ireland, to join all their forces with his, in order to renew the war against those confederate catholics, with whom he was, by his majesty's reiterated commands, publicly negociating a peace. This appears evidently from a secret correspondence between his excellency and one Galbraith, a major in the Ulster army, which had commenced and was carrying on ever since the month of January 1644. The marquis's secret proposal of this new alliance," was joyfully received by the chiefs of both the Scotch and the English armies, in that province; and Monroe himself wast fully affected that way." This Monroe had just before received a commission from the English parliament, under their new broad seal, to command in chief all the English as well as Scotch forces in Ulster; and, in virtue of that commission, had taken 2 Id. ib. vol. i. Cart. Orm. vol. iii. fol. 432. Peter Walsh and Dr. Enos are more guilty (on account of their having published libels on Ormond) than the bishops or the common people."Friar Disciplined, p. 68, Ormond had received a letter on this subject from Galbraith, dated the 29th of January, 1644. See Cart. Orm. vol. iii, p. 385.—Ormond begins this letter to Galbraith, with an apology for his not having answered it sooner. "Your letter of the 29th of January (says he) hath been coming to me till this day (25th of February), which I tell you, lest that not knowing the interruption it hath met with, you might judge me not so thankful unto you for your important and prudent advertisements, as in truth I am, and shall be found to be, whenever it comes in my way, to make it appear to you.”—Id. ib. jl. 985. Galbraith, in one of his letters to the marquis of Ormond, on this occasion, says, "that he had met most of the officers of the old British, and found in all an earnest desire, that the war should be carried on, with the marquis's allowance and concurrence; whereof, (adds he) when I gave them hopes as from the mouth of a confident of yours, they were overjoyed, and approved the cautions I showed them."-Cart. ib. vol. iii. Belfast by surprise, turned out his majesty's garrison, and replaced them with one from the parliament."* But as these officers had, it seems, been told,3 « that his excellency had an innate malice against the Scots in general, his friend Galbraith," in order to accelerate this new alliance, "advised him, to write a letter with his own hand, directed to Monroe now mentioned, in which he was to take notice, that he understood there were some evil instruments who labored to possess all Scots, that he entertained an implacable prejudice against them; and that he sent that his just and necessary apology, to vindicate himself against such secret wounds; and that all of them might be persuaded of the sincerity of his affection for that nation, and of his endeavors to serve every of them with his best offices of friendship."+ We have already observed, that his excellency had before this discovered a conspiracy," whereby Drogheda first, and by consequence Dublin,‡ was to be put into the power of those Scots, or at least, into the obedience of the English parliament." And it seems, this conspiracy was "concerted and carried on by some ill-affected persons, active in intelligence with Monroe." On that occasion, the marquis told Gal "He took Belfast, and seized upon his majesty's ordnance there, on the 14th of May, 1644."-Cart. Orm. vol. iii. fol. 312. At this time capt. Swanley, before-mentioned, who commanded the parliament ships, that blocked up the harbor of Dublin, had formed a design to surprize that city, but that design being made known to the king, he gave the marquis of Ormond notice of it."-Warn. Irish Reb. p. 330. In a letter to the English parliament on this occasion, signed by their commissioners, Arthur Annesley, Robert King, and William Bale, from Belfast, November 19th, 1645, we find that "Ormond desired but power and opportunity to break with the confederates, and to fall upon them, upon condition that the covenant should not be forced upon those under his command; offering for their security, that Drogheda should be given into their hands, they giving assurance that use should not be made of it against his lordship.”—Irish Cabinet, p.36. In a letter to the archbishop of York, May 27th, 1644, Ormond acquaints his grace with this treachery. "We are here (says he) threatened with an invasion of the Scots out of the North, who have treacherously surprized Belfast, and attempted other English garrisons."-Cart, Collect. of Orig. Pap. vol. i. p. 48. § The conspirators' agreement with Monroe, was, "that they should braith,5" that by letters from Ulster, he found it was misunderstood, that all the Scots serving in Ireland, were in that conspiracy, or so far mistrusted, that they were under a great cloud of suspicion." But after having observed, how difficult it was to stop the mouths of the common people, he confidently affirmed, " that their nation had lost no jot of esteem or trust, in the more considerate sort, by it; and that it should be found, that no rigor, beyond necessity, in order to his preservation, had been, or should be used." This shewed an apt disposition in his lordship, to follow his friend Galbraith's advice, to acquit himself to the Scots in the manner prescribed. Whether, or no, he actually did so, does not appear; but cer tain it is, that in all his letters to the king's friends, he expressed very different sentiments of these people from what are recited; and particularly, in one written to the king himself in January, 1645, while this secret treaty was carrying on,* he told his majesty," that through an almost general defection in the northern army,† colonel Chichester was no longer able to serve him there."‡ 5 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 385. 6 Id. ib. vol. iii. fol. 442. seize the town, and plunder and turn out all the papists, and such as would not adhere to them; and that they would keep the entire command of the place to themselves. But that, if he would assist them with his forces, till they received succors from the parliament, he should have half the plate, jewels, money, and goods, of the papists, that were to be plundered, except bedding, corn, and other things necessary for the garrison. Monroe readily closed with this proposal.”—See Cart. Orm. vol, i. fol. 525. For Galbraith in a letter to Ormond of the 21st of the month of December, 1645, tells him, "that he has good hopes of a good issue (of the treaty) if Ormond can with patience brook the expence of a little time.”— Tb. fol. 436. These officers and soldiers had all taken the covenant: and the marquis and council had before, on another occasion, told the British officers under his command in Ulster," that the covenant was so full of treason, sedition and disloyalty, that no pressure whatsoever would prevail with them to blemish their former merits by taking of that oath, or permitting of others to take it. Carte's Orm, vol. i. fol. 491.-They took it, however, soon after out of fear, as they pretended, of Monroe. And so long before, as July, 1644, he told lord Digby, as we have al ready observed, “ that he could not doubt, but that, when the Scots in Ulster were able, they would endeavor to be masters of all the harbors, and other places of consequence in the kingdom, on pretence of securing them against malignants and papists.—Cart, Orm. vol. iii. fol, 327. On the other hand, he was frequently and positively assured by his noble friend lord Clanrickard, that the loyalty of the confederate catholics was such, (at the very time that he was thus negociating their ruin,7)" that if the impediments to the peace (the penal laws) were once removed, they would soon satisfy his excellency of their real, earnest desire, to be employed in his majesty's service; and that the difficulty would be rather to keep back the multitude of forward spirits that' would press into that expedition." CHAP. XVII. The earl of Glamorgan arrives in Ireland. THE king finding that the marquis of Ormond would not conclude a peace with the confederate catholics upon these equitable terms which he had so often ordeed him to grant them, dispatched the earl of Glamorgan to Ireland, with a private commission for that purpose ;* a nobleman whose zeal for his 7 Cart. Orm. vol. iii. fol. 413. • "Among other patents and commissions signed by the king, and brought by the earl of Glamorgan from England, there was one appointing him lord-lieutenant of Ireland, upon the expiration of the marquis of Ormond's term of holding that post, or in case the marquis should, by any fault, deserve to be removed from it."-Enquiry into the share king Charles I. had, &c. p. 253. from the Nuncio's Mem. "The marquis of Ormond had very early notice of the earl's intended voyage to Ireland, from his friend, Mr. Arthur Trevor, who in a letter from Bristol, April 9th, 1645, wrote to him that he heard much of lord Herbert's (Glamorgan's) commission; that as he heard, the marquis of Ormond was not taken notice of in it; that he was to pass into Ireland upon very important affairs, and that sir Bryan O'Nial went into Ireland with him."Carte's Collect. of Orig. Lett. vol. i. p. 82.—And the marquis of Ormond himself, in a letter to lord Digby of the 8th of May following, says, " though I have no full knowledge of what lord Herbert was to bring with him, yet, by his letter to me out of Wales, I guess his missing this place was a great misfortune to the king's service; even in relation to the credit I found the Irish were apt to give to his advices and undertakings.”—Ib. Orm, vol. iii. fol. 405. "Glamorgan having embarked on board a small vessel was near being taken by a parliament ship, which pursued him, till he took refuge in a part of Cumberland, but before he left Wales he wrote the above letter to Or majesty's service could be exceeded by nothing, but his attach ment to his religion, which was the Roman catholic.* Upon this earl's first arrival at Kilkenny, lord Muskerry acquainted the marquis of Ormond from thence, with the business he came about, in general terms. To which his excellency answered, “that he knew no subject in England upon whose fa vor and authority with his majesty, and real and innate nobility he could better rely, than upon lord Glamorgan's; nor any person whom he (Ormond) would more endeavor to serve, in those things which that lord should undertake for his majesty's service." 1 Carte's Orm. vol. iii. mond. He arrived at Dublin about the end of July or beginning of August, 1645, and was present at one of the meetings of the deputies of the confederate catholics with the marquis of Ormond, at Dublin. About the 7th of August he went to Kilkenny, in order to execute his commission for treating with the confederate catholics.”—Enquiry into the share which king Charles I. had with Glamorgan's Transactions with the Irish, p.61. "The earl of Glamorgan had spent one hundred thousand pounds in raising, providing, and maintaining forces for the king, in the first year of the rebellion."-Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 553. + In Ormond's letter to lord Muskerry above quoted, there are these words: "I think it necessary that I should remind you, and in this way acquaint your lordship with that which I could not insist on in his lordship's (Glamorgan's) presence, without offending his modesty, and incurring the imputation of flattery. What I have to say in short is this, that I know no subject in England, upon whose favor and authority with his majesty, &c." Enquiry, &c. p. 63. from the Nuncio's Men. My author adds, "this letter was afterwards delivered to the Nuncio, as a proof that the marquis of Ormond would support the agreement which had been or should be made between them and the earl of Glamorgan; though the marquis afterwards disappointed their expectations.”—Id. ib. p. 65, "If the particular instructions or commissions granted to Glamorgan, (says Dr. Leland on occasion of this answer to lord Muskerry) were not communicated to the lord-lieutenant, it appears at least from this warmth, of recommendation, that he considered the earl as a person duly authorised to treat with the Irish. The Irish considered Ormond as secretly disaffected, and in conjunction with the presbyterian council (as they called them,) determined to defeat the king's hopes of succor by obstructing the Irish peace. To this they attributed every delay, and when the seizure of the ing's cabinet at Naseby, discovered his private instructions to Ormond to conclude a peace whatever it might cost; they were enraged, and printed the letter with severe animadversions on the marquis."-History of Ireland, ref. iii. p. 253. The confederates at Kilkenny taking advantage of the letter written by |