Another deposition, with equal gravity, narrates a story of a man who was wounded in several places, his belly ripped up, and his entrails taken out, without bleeding!!

"James Geare, of the county of Monaghan, deposeth, That the rebels at Clownes murdered one James Netterville, proctor to the minister there, who, although he was diversely wounded, his belly ripped up, and his entrails taken out, and laid above a yard from him, yet he bled not at all, until they lifted him up, and carried him away; at which this deponent being an eye-witness, much wondered; and thus barbarously they used him, after they had drawn him to go to mass with them."10

Another states, that one of the rebels made three attempts to stab a woman with a drawn sword; but such was her trust in God, and such his miraculous protection extended to her on the moment, that she was absolutely invulnerable.

"Mr. George Creighton, minister of Virginia, in the county of Cavan, deposeth, among other particulars in his examination, That divers women brought into his house a young woman, almost naked, to whom a rogue came up on the way, these women being present, and required her to give him her money, or else he would kill her, and so drew his sword; her answer was, "You cannot kill me unless God give you leave, and his will be done :" whereupon the rogue thrust three times at her naked body, with his drawn sword, and yet never pierced her skin; whereat he being, as it seems, much confounded, went away and left her; and that he saw this woman, and heard this particular related by divers women, who were by, and saw what they reported."

And this wonderful story, be it observed, is testified to by a reverend minister of God, who 11 Idem, 123.

10 Temple, 88.

was admirably qualified to authenticate it, as "he heard it related by divers women, who saw what they reported."

But the most extraordinary and extravagant circumstance is the appearance of the ghosts of murdered persons, which, according to those "manifest forgeries," received as "solid proofs,"12 stationed themselves in the middle of a river, breast-high, and remained there for three months, that is, from December 20th, 1641, till the following lent, seeking vengeance on the "bloody Papists," crying "Revenge, Revenge, Revenge."

"Catharine, the relict of William Cooke, late of the county of Armagh, carpenter, sworn and examined, saith, That about the 20th of December, 1641, a great number of rebels, in that county, did most barbarously drown, at that time, one hundred and eighty Protestants, men, women and children, in the river, at the bridge of Portnedown; and that, about nine days afterwards, she saw a vision or spirit, in the shape of a man, as she apprehended, that appeared in that river, in the place of the drowning, bolt upright, breast-high, with hands lifted up, and stood in that posture there, until the latter end of lent next following: about which time, some of the English army marching in those parts, whereof her husband was one, (as he and they confidently told this deponent) saw that spirit or vision standing upright, and in the posture aforementioned; but after that time, the said spirit or vision vanished, and appeared no more, that she knoweth. And she heard, but saw not, that there were other visions and apparitions, and much shrieking and strange noise heard in that river, at times afterward. Jurat. February 24, 1643."

9913

"Elizabeth, the wife of captain Rice Price, of Armagh, deposeth and saith, That she, and other women, whose husbands were murdered, hearing of divers apparitions and vi 13 Temple, 121.

12 Leland, IV. 131.

sions, which were seen near Portnedown bridge, since the drowning of her children, and the rest of the Protestants there, went unto the bridge aforesaid, about twilight in the evening; then and there, upon a sudden, appeared unto them a vision or spirit, assuming the shape of a woman, waist-high, upright, in the water, often repeating the word, Revenge! Revenge! Revenge! whereat this deponent, and the rest, being put into an amazement and affright, walked from the place. Jurat. January 29, 1642."

"James Shaw, of Market-Hill, in the county of Armagh, innkeeper, deposeth, That many Irish rebels, in the time of this deponent's restraint and staying among them, told him very often, and that it was a common report, that all those that lived about the bridge of Portnedown, were so affrighted with the cries and noise made there, of some spirits or visions, for revenge, as that they durst not stay, but fled away thence, (so as they protested,) affrighted to Market-Hill, saying, they durst not stay nor return thither, for fear of those cries and spirits, but took grounds and made creates in or near the parish of Mullabrack. Jurat. Aug. 14, 1642."15

"Joan, the relict of Gabriel Constable, late of Drumard, in the county of Armagh, gentleman,, deposeth and saith, That she hath often heard the rebels, wen O'Farren, Patrick O'Conellan, and divers others of the rebels at Drumard, earnestly say, protest, and tell each other, that the blood of some of those that were knocked in the heads, and afterwards drowned, at Portnedown bridge, still remained on the bridge, and would not be washed away; and that often there appeared visions or apparitions, sometimes of men, sometimes of women, breast-high above the water, at or near Portnedown, which did most extremely and fearfully screech and cry out for vengeance against the Irish that murdered their bodies there; and that their cries and shrieks did so terrify the Irish thereabouts, that none durst stay nor live longer there, but fled and removed further into the country; and this was a common report amongst the rebels there, and that it passed for a truth amongst them, for any thing she could ever observe to the contrary. Jurat. January 1, 1643."16

14 Temple, 122.

16 Ibidem.

15 Idem, 121.

Almost every circumstance narrated in Temple's history, is corroborated by one or more depositions. Most of them are fully as absurd and as perjured as the above. A very large proportion are hearsay: “A being credibly informed that B had murdered one hundred Protestants," &c. &c. In the devouring rage against the persons, and lust after the property, of the Catholics, every kind of evidence was acceptable, no matter how absurd, improbable, or impossible.

In the number of the witnesses, who testify to the pretended massacre, the most distinguished is a dean Maxwell, afterwards bishop of Kilmore, an abstract of whose deposition is to be found in the Appendix to Borlase's history. It is a sort of history of the insurrection, and occupies no less than twelve large folio pages, which contain so many extravagant and impossible tales, that no man could swear to it but a perjurer. How many pages the whole contained, whether twenty, or fifty, or one hundred, it is impossible for me to decide; it is "to be sought for in the archives of Dublin."17 On the dean's authority rests the hacknied and Gulliverian assertion, that the precise number of one hundred and fifty-four thousand were massacred, in three months, in Ulster : and yet, wonderful to tell, there is in this very deposition, on the all-important topic of the "hundred and fifty-four thousand persons slaughtered,"

17 Borlase, App. 126.

a most palpable and overwhelming contradiction, which at once destroys its credibility. In one part of it, the dean swears that "it was credibly told him, that the persons slaughtered amounted to one hundred and fifty-four thousand, whether in Ulster or the whole kingdom, he durst not inquire."* Why he durst not inquire, is not stated; and it is impossible to assign any reason:-the story carries absurdity on its face: the one kind of information was as readily and as soon acquired as the other. In a subsequent page, he swears positively, that "there were then above one hundred and fifty-four thousand wanting in the province of Ulster alone." This discordance, which would destroy the evidence, in any honourable court in Christendom, of a Washington, a Franklin, a Fayette, a Sheridan, a Brougham, or a Wyndham, was of no importance in the era of perjury, anno 1642, when the lives and fortunes of the Irish were at stake, and when princely fortunes were the reward of the perjurer and his employer.

* Extracts from the Deposition of Robert Maxwell, since Bishop of Kilmore.

"And further saith, that it was credibly told him, that the rebels, least they should hereafter be charged with more murders than they had committed, commanded their priests to bring in a true account of them; and that the persons so slaughtered, whether in Ulster, or the whole kingdom, the deponent durst not inquire, in March last, amounted unto one hundred fifty-four thousand."18

18 Borlase, App. 132.