accidents as might happen in full peace and when the course of Justice is free But your Lordship saith that on this partly and partly on other occasions that preceded and some too that followed but you enumerate none the whole Nation finding themselves concerned took Arms for their own defence and partlcularly the Lords of the Pale did so who yet at the same time desired the Justices to send their Petition to the King which was refused This being the chief ground by which your Lordship would justifie the most formed and dangerous Conspiracy and Rebellion that ever was in that Kingdom since the Crown of Englands first Title thereunto which your Lordship being a Peer of England should have distinguished from a just and a lawful War but do not I must observe to your Lordship that its an ill way to acquaint the King with their pretended Grievances La main a lespe they should have done that if they had any before their treacherous and bloody Massacres and open Rebellion but indeed they had none to offer but what was the just return of their own black Actions for your Lordship knows as I have said before that by Committees of both Houses of Parliament in Ireland whereof most were Papists they had just before their Rebellion returned loaden with such Graces and Condescentions of Favour from the Crown as had been sufficient meeting with the least ingenuity gratitude and humanity to have made wavering Persons good Subjects but the Lord Macguires and others Confessions manifested that they had laid their Design of Treason too deep to retreat easily when they had once struck the stroak till finding their error not from remorse but from sense of danger imminent which must inevitably follow unless they could subdue England too At the first they made a loud cry of Grievances and at length bid fair as they had made Ireland a field of Blood and Desolation to disturb England also Concerning the further discouragement the Rebels received by Sir John Reads treatment and what that was and upon what grounds though I have all the passages thereof by me and will by no means allow of Racking any Man as being contrary to the Law of England yet I must observe that it was a very jealous time after so many thousands slaughtered barbarously in cold blood the Rebellion increasing every day too great a curiosity arising to know the bottom of the design that remedies proportionable might be applied and Sir John Read being one of the Kings Servants and a designing Papist being there so unseasonably without being able to give a good account of himself or business and going away Agent for the Rebels in Arms without leave of the State might make them exceed the strict bounds of Law in his Examination Your Lordship in the next place taking notice that you had tryed this and other ways to acquaint the King with your Grievances which I have shewed before were none and all failing an open War broke forth generally throughout the Kingdom this being a meer colour and pretence your Lordship unfortunately puts the effect before the pretended cause for by what you had said before and what the truth of the cause is the horrid Rebellion for it never merited the name of a War was universal before they so much as alleadged any Grievance Your next Memoire is of your entertaining my Lord of Ormond at Dinner after the Battle of Kilrush which you were a Spectator of and that some who came with him turned it another way publishing through the Army that it was a Feast for my Lord Mountgarret and the Rebels which through the English Quarters past for currant Here your Lordship by your own shewing intimates that though you were a Spectator from your own House of a Battle wherein the Crown lay at stake and had formerly discovered you had force enough to recover your Cat el taken away by the Rebels and apprehend some of their Leaders which you call Rogues yet though a Peer of both Kingdoms you would be no Actor though the Kings General was at your Gate doubting it seems the event of Battle but the success rendring my Lord of Ormond Victorious you set before him that Dinner which you had not strength to keep from him And indeed it was generally then held by the English that if the Rebels had gained the day your Lordship would more frankly have bid the Lord Mountgarret their General and a Butler also welcome to that Dinner than you did my Lord of Ormond and this is what passeth rant in this particular to this day which you believe was much the cause of that villainous proceeding as you call it fore-mentioned whereas it seems you were so far from being ill dealt with in the least that my Lord of Ormond your Guest though he might have justified his carrying you Prisoner with him to Dublin who would not assist him in Fight as your Tenure required left you as some think by a blameable omission Master of your own House and without the least damage done you though much happened after to the Kingdom by your liberty of which you were for some time restrained in the Sheriffs hands and after ordered to be removed to the Castle of Dublin which you say startled you and it brought to your thoughts the proceedings against the Earl of Strafford c. whereupon you made an escape probably in the manner related But here your Lordship not distinguishing times and I not having Papers by me am so doubtful of an intermixture of Affairs to your advantage that I must reserve the unfolding thereof to another tfme when I shall be able exactly to shew you the times of your Lordships appearing and joyning with the Rebels and of the proceeding against the Earl of Strafford and how they preceded on the other I shall only for the present observe how that great personage though more innocent than your Lordship could pretend to never sled his Tryal well knowing that would have fixed more guilt upon him in construction of Law than could be proved against him and judged it more honourable to hazard the losing of his Head than his Innocency Your Lordships Wisdom took a contrary course and concluding that Innocency was a scurvy plea in an angry time as in deed it is in any times where it is so thin laid that gross guilt appears under it you find it safer to arraign the state than to abide a Tryal and accordingly taxing them for passion and partiality and to be of the Parliaments perswasion when your Lordship would have had them and the whole Kingdom of yours and by what means time hath manifested you resolved to attempt an escape and save your self in the Irish Quarters which your Lordship did to the Mountains of Wicklow where being come you cared little for the Justices Is it possible if your Lordship had thought your self innocent that you would seek safety or count your self safe among the most enormously
Irish their Commission and under his Majesties Authority at other times and sometimes under both It will be fitter at present for me to be silent therein than to attempt the unblending such a mixture and seperate your Acts of Allegiance from those of Opposition to the King which I must always blame you for or to condemn you intirely when some things your Lordship did were by full Authority though very fatal to the English Protestant interest in that Kingdom and no ways advantageous to his Majesty or his Affairs But the First Part of your Story which takes up three Sections of your Memoirs I cannot let pass unanimadverted and corrected without condemning the generation of the just suffering Blemish and Calumny to lie upon his Majesty and Government both in England and Ireland and leaving your Lordship in a mistake of having done well when I hope I shall evince that you did very ill unless the galantry of a Souldier can expiate for all that was amiss For this end I must take notice to your Lordship that all I find you urge to satisfie your own Conscience or to vindicate your Honour and Integrity to the World in this your ingaging your self amongst the Irish is to this effect Your Lordship saith That at the first eruption of the Rebellion which you seem to tye to the North but was universal you acquainted the Lords Justices with your willingness to serve the King against the Rebels as your Ancestors had formerly done in Ireland but they replying that your Religion was an Obstacle there being then a Parliament in that Kingdom sitting you were resolved to see the event sending your Brother to your House at Madingstowne in the County of Kildare to secure and defend it in case there were any rising in those parts Sometime after the Parliament being dissolved but you do not mention that you attended your duty in Parliament when it was sitting and declaring against the Rebels your Lordship desired a Pass from the Justices to go to England but they refusing you acquainted them with the condition of your Estate and desired a supply of Money till you could apply to the Parliament of England for a Pass to bring you over which they denyed You press'd them then to direct you what course you should steer to which they replied Go home and make fair weather You took this advice and being come my Lord of Antrim and my Lady Dutchess of Buckingham both Papists and after that deeply ingaged in the Rebellion soon followed whether by concert with your Lordship is not said and you were very well pleased with so good company But in a short time the Irish came and drove away great part of your Stock which you recovered by a party sent out with your Brother who brought with him two or three of the chiefest Conductors of that Rabble This inraged the Irish so much as you conceived your Brother was not safe there and therefore sent him to Dublin to attend the Justices Orders and assure them of your readiness to return on a call they sending a Convoy which they promised to do as Occasion required But your Lordship hearing that you were indicted of High Treason and hereupon your Brother addressing to the Lords Justices again to let them know that they had not kept their words with him in suffering this clandestine proceeding against you as your Brothers Letter calls it you went to Dublin and addressed your self to my Lord of Ormond as your Brother did in your behalf to the Lords Justices and Council to acquaint them with your coming and upon your appearance before them they ordered you to come the day following at which time without calling you in they committed you to Mr. Woodcock 's House one of the Sheriffs of Dublin Your Brother seeing as he calls it this rigorous usage towards you and being refused a Pass for himself to go for England he got away to the King at York and petitioned him that you might be sent for over to be tryed here by your Peers But his Majesties Answer was That he had left all the Affairs of Ireland to the Parliament upon which he petitioned the Parliament to the same effect their Answer was that they could do nothing without the King After this your Brother saith he was continually serving his Majesty in England Your Lordship once more placeth your self at Madenstowne whither you had at first retired by advice of the Lords Justices and continued there some Five or six moneths after in peace and quietness but your Lordship doth not mention that other neighbouring places possessed by the English did so or what in diligence your Lordship had with or gave to the State But proceed to say That in the mean while Parties were sent out by the Justices from Dublin and the Towns adjacent to kill and destroy the Rebels and the like was done through all parts of the Kingdom But your Lordship adds the Officers and Souldiers did not take care enough to distinguish between the Rebels and Subjects but killed in many places promiscuously on which partly and partly on other provocations that proceeded and some too that followed the whole Nation finding themselves concerned took to Arms for their own defence and particularly the Lords of the Pale did so who yet at the same time desired the Justices to send their Petition to the King which was refused And for their further discouragement Sir John Read his Majesties sworn Servant a stranger to the Countrey uningaged and an Eye-witness of their proceedings then upon his Journey to England prevailed with by them to carry their Remonstrance to his Majesty and to beg his Pardon for what they had done coming to Dublin and not concealing his Message was put to the Rack for his good will The said Lords having tryed this and other ways to acquaint the King with their Grievances and all failing an open War broke forth generally throughout the Kingdom Your Lordship next takes notice of your accidental entertaining my Lord of Ormond at Dinner immediately after the Battle of Killrush which you were a Spectator of being in sight of your House but that some who came with him turned this another way and publishing through the Army that it was a mighty Feast for my Lord Mount Garret and the Rebels this through the English Quarters past for currant And you believe it was much the cause of this under-hand villainous proceedings as you call it against you fore-mentioned Your Lordship proceeds to tells us That after Twenty Weeks that you had remained in Prison you were ordered to be removed to the Castle of Dublin which startled you and brought to your thoughts the proceedings against the Earl of Strafford who confiding in his Innocency lost his Head you concluded then that Innocency was a scurvey plea in an angry time besides your Lordship looked upon the Justices and most of the Council to be of the Parliaments Perswasion wherefore you resolved to attempt
being most of them Papists conceived they had fallen into a fit juncture to set up their darling Idolatry and restore the pretended Jurisdiction of their Idolized Forraign Power of the Pope of Rome or being in at the Intrigues of the Popish Faction all Court and receiving incouragement by what they observed and was infused into them they had here laid the Foundation of the Massacre and Rebellion whereof Ireland was to be the Scene or upon what other grounds I shall not here take upon me determine but I well remember that he 23d of October after their Return broke out upon a formed Combination and Conspiracy wherein almost all the said Popish Committees were leading Men and principal Actors such a horrid and bloody Massacre and Rebellion as is not to be parallell'd in History neither Man Woman nor Infants in the Womb or at the Breast being spared but the generality of that Nation turning barbarous and wild Irish again after so many hundred years Subjection to the Crown of England and Endeavours of their Reformation and Civilizing to so vast an expence of Blood and Treasure as is hardly to be believed But my Lord I may now but touch at things Comme en passant that I may keep within the bounds of a Letter but when what I have meditated and am preparing from Records and authentick unquestionble Relations and Transactions of that bloody Tragedy and matchless Defection from the Crown and very Nation of English Men shall see the light your Lordship will be informed of what it seems hath not yet come to your knowledge and what must make your Lordship blush at your so fatal mistake to have ever been so far as you confess your self in so ill Company and to have partaken in the least in so foul a Guilt Having made this necessary Excursion and Caution I proceed in your Lordships own Method Going first with your Lordship to the Lords Justices acquainting them of your willingness to serve the King against the Rebels to which no doubt by advice of his Majesties Privy Council in that Kingdom they gave a very prudent Answer That your Religion was an obstacle and how could they well say less when it was apparent that it was a Popish Conspiracy and those of that profession universally ingaged in the Defection in so much that though the State there would have distinguished them into Allegiance and for that end more out of desire to win them than any confidence they had in them but to leave them without excuse put Arms and Ammuuition into the hands of the Lord Viscount Gormanston and other Popish Lords and Gentlemen of best Quality and Estates in the English Pale and who by their tenures had formerly and were obliged to assist the Crown in times of danger and they almost all of them went with his Majesties Arms in Aid of the Rebells and they who did best did but restore the Kings Arms and joyned themselves and all the power they could make to the Insurrection forgetting the Grants and bountiful Gifts of Lands their Ancestors had received from the Crown for former and on condition of future Service in which Rank your Lordship placeth your noble Ancestors and I heartily wish you had continued that station Your Lordships next motion was to the Lords Justices for a Pass to go for England which though they could not consent to they gave your Lordship good Advice and which for a time you followed viz. to go home to your House being but 20 miles from Dublin and under the protection or reach of the State as there should be occasion and as your Lordship found afterwards Concerning your Lordships entertaining my Lord of Antrim and the Dutchess of Buckingham at Madinstowne whither they soon followed whither by consent with your Lordship is not said and your delight in their company I have nothing to say but that it was an ill time for Feasting and Jollity when stript and almost starved English came flying by your Gate every day from the Rebels Cruelty And I find that both the Marquess of Antrim and the Dutchess were after that deeply ingaged in the Rebellion and her Grace living and dying in the Irish Quarters chose to be buried at Waterford And though your Lordship had power enough when the Irish came and drove away a great part of your Stock to recover it by a party sent out with your Brother who brought with him two or three of the chiefest Conductors of that Rabble yet you do not so much as pretend that you delivered up any of them to Justice as you ought But you say that this inraged the Irish so much as you conceived your Brother was not safe there where yet you thought fit to continue but sending him to Dublin to attend the Justices Orders and assure them of your readiness to return on a Call they sending a Convoy which they promised to do as occasion required yet your Lordship hearing that you were indicted of high Treason the most publick way of accusing though your Brothers Letter calls it Clandestine you went to Dublin it seems you could go when you pleased without a Convoy but did not it seems think fit to appear and oppose the Indictment but being committed by the Lords Justices and Council the Justification whereof is not the work of this Letter but will have its proper time and place your Lordship after addressing your Case by your Brother to the King and Parliament in England without success whither your Brother being refused a Pass by the Justices was gotten It seems your Lordship meditated your escape into the Irish Quarters and relate the manner how you compassed the same which few will believe your Lordship would have done or held it the way to save your self but that you knew you had deserved it of them and that they had no cause to hurt you as appeared after by their making you General of their Horse and your Lordship chusing the Oath of Association before that of Allegiance Your Lordships having now shifted sides betake your self roundly to a justification of the Rebels cause I must follow you your own way though it be not so methodical as I could wish and is with great confusion of times and affairs which the thred of History will reduce to order when time serves It is true that Parties were sent out by the Justices according to his Majesties Direction to kill and destroy the Rebels throughout all the parts of the Kingdom and if the Officers and Souldiers did not take care enough in your Lordships Opinion to distinguish between the Rebels and the Subjects but killed in many places promiscuously whereof your Lordship gives no instances or of particular complaints to have been made of any such thing I wou'd fain know what distinction could be made of those that were found in Arms or Action against the Kings Authority for there will appear to have been no prosecution of others nor any others killed unless by such
Majesties Pardon if the Acts of Parliaments have not precluded you for it s more than I know if all your Lordships active Services in Ireland be not yet liable to the utmost penalties and Severities of the Law So far are they from being fit to be offered as entertainment to his Majesty by an Epistle Dedicatory as your Lordship hath done I find your Lordship in several places reflects upon those who broke the first Peace and call it unparallell'd breach of Faith punished by heavy Judgments from Heaven and yet this was the Confederates own Act. But as if the breach of the Oath of Allegiance by the Irish and their treacherous and bloody defection from the Crown of England were a Peccadillo your Lordship hardly takes notice of it but repines at the forfeiture of Estates grounded thereupon though God and Man agreed in that Vengeance and Punishment And let this Rebellion be compared to all before it there will not appear since the English Title to Ireland so just and clear grounds of forfeiture and extirpating a Nation as have done upon this but the King hath mingled Mercy with Justice and though by a Providence from Heaven to the English the Marquesses of Ormond and Clanrickard his Majestles chief Governors incouraged the Irish to keep up a War against the English wherein they were so much hardened to their ruin that they were at length intirely subdued without condition to any save for life and left to be as miserable as they had made others in all other respects yet multitudes of them have been restored and must yet own their Lives and Estates to the Clemency of the King and the mildness of the English Government which they had cast off and put themselves under a Forreign Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear The Wisdom of God thus punishing one sin of theirs with another till they are scarce a People and the English and Protestant interest never more flourishing in that Kingdom Insomuch that it would be now the greatest folly imaginable in the Government of England and Ireland ever to suffer the Papists to grow capable of raising such a Rebellion again which they will certainly do when able Bigottery and sottish Ignorance both of Priests and People in Religion being the growing root of mischief there Upon the whole since the Cobweb excuses your Lordship hath made cannot cover the Blood that hath been shed or bring quiet to the Consciences of any that had hand therein and since your Lordship so well knows the Temper and Constitution of the Irish by your long continuance and interest among them I cannot but yet hope and therefore do with the most friendly adjurations beseech your Lordship herein that the zeal which you yet seem to have for the King his Laws and the English Government will incline you to let him know the truth you cannot be ignorant of that they are a Nation never to be trusted till reformed that so his Majesty and his English Subjects may run no more hazards of suffering by confidence in them or regard to their Crocodile Tears and groundless Complaints by which they have deceived the English in all times And that by your Repentance imitating your Ghostly Father Peter Walsh his Advice to his Countrey Men for Repentance and change of Principles your Lordship may give another instance to the World that Allegiance and the Religion you profess may dwell in the same Breast then which nothing can more conduce to divert the Irish from future Attempts of Rebellion My Lord I find many Queries fit to be made on your Memoires and many other particulars a Redire therein but you will perhaps think I have done too much already I shall therefore reserve these to another opportunity and here close in the wonted manner with the assurance of my being saving in the Irish Confederacy and Matter of Religion My Lord Your Lordships Affectionate Friend and Servant Postscript THis Letter was written as appears in August 1680 presently after the Earl of CASTLE-HAVEN had Published his Memoires with a Dedication only to the King but since his Lordships Receipt of this Letter he was it seems convinced of the necessity of writing the Epistle to the Reader in Condemnation of the Irish Rebellion which his Lordship hath since caused to be Printed with the said Memoires FINIS