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
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
received from them and so to disoblige them that for the future they might be drawne to desist from sending any more money or provisions to an army they saw so adverse to them About the beginning of July 1643. Captaine Thomas Bartlet was sent into Ireland with his Ship laden with corne and other provisious and another Ship stored with three hundred barrels of powder and a great proportion of match both which arrived at Dublin about two moneths before the cessation at which time the Earle of Ormond thought the English were reduced to such necessity that it was impossible for them to subsist without the cessation but by the arrivall of this supply finding himselfe disappointed he was not a little troubled but he soon found out a way to piece his work up againe and to empty the stores once more as he had done often before to as little purpose he pretends a journey in all haste towards Castle Jordon and thereupon hurries up to Dublin most of the Forces that were garrisoned in Drogheda alias Tredagh Trym and Dondalke where they remained feeding upon the stores of that place many dayes before his Lordship could be ready to martch out and having at length sent out the Lord Lambert before him with a party of the Army who either through the Earle of Ormonds command or his owne cowardize durst not advance further then twelve miles from the City but kept his men there feeding upon what they carried abroad with them he himselfe at last martched out to him his whole strength consisting of about five thousand besides Horse and a great traine of Artillery and having kept the men abroad till they had consumed their provision he brought them home againe without doing any manner of service against the Rebels onely he took in an ordinary dwelling house unfortified possessed by some fevv of the Rebels yet before his Lordship could be ready to martch out and doe these brave exploits all the money that could be raked from the Excise and what could be torne from the poor English and almost all the provision that Captaine Bartlet had brought in was consumed and of what remained part was privately sold to severall Bakers and others in the City of Dublin and part concealed and removed into private Granaries till after the cessation that it might not appeare to hinder it Sir Philip Percivel was Commissary of the Victuals in Ireland at that time Sir Philip Percivel was imployed as Clarke or Secretary to write all the passages at the making of the cessation on the Lord of Ormonds part and then some of it was sold and the money converted to private uses and the rest instead of being usefull to send out the Army to fight against the Rebels was made into Bisquet to victuall the Regiments sent into England to fight against the Parliament in Captaine Weaks Ships The wayes the Earle of Ormond took to consume our provisions to no purpose were so many and so apparent that the Parliament Commissioners then at Dublin were bold to tell him plainly That were the Parliament Masters of the wealth of the Indies as things were carried there it would be all spent and yet the English not any thing the better for it By this taste that I have already given you you may see how he laboured all that he could to consume what was sent from hence or to dispose of it so that it might not stand in the way between him and his designe for the preservation of his Country-men by necessitating the English to accept of his cessation or peace The next thing which I shall labour to cleere to you is the course the Earle of Ormond took to alienate the Parliament of England from sending any more supplies to us knowing to how little purpose it would be to dry up the water in the streames unlesse he could stop it at the spring-head But I beleeve this will be a work to overcome your patience having I presume wearied it alrerdy Civilis and Marcus protesting they received the greatest contentment and satisfaction in hearing of him he went on in this manner The Earle of Ormond having been very succesfull in the first part of his game and drawne us to the bottome bethinks himselfe at the same time how to free himselfe of the Parliament whom he found more forward to assist us then would stand with the work he had in hand and therefore labours to disoblige them so that the English being left wholly to themselves he might the easier make his hand of them From hence arose those many reviling speeches uttered by himselfe and his instruments upon all occasions against this Parliament and Kingdome himselfe alwayes having a speciall care not onely to equall them with his Country-men but to put the Parliament above them as if the Rebellion and Massacre there were a businesse to be excused in comparison of their proceedings here saying that those fought onely at the worst against his Majesties subjects but these against his person and that the Parliament here was the cause of all the misery of that Kingdom and therefore in the preample
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