not but the Trumpet was quickly dispatched with some slight Answer which coming to your knowledge you repaired to Kilkenny whither the Council was returned and on information finding what you had heard to be true you sent for Sir Bobert Talbot Sir Richard Barnwall Collonel Walter Bagnal and such others as were in the Town well affected and leading Men of the Assembly though not of the Council Now being in your Lodging you acquainted them with what you had understood and that if they would stick to you you would endeavour to give it a turn You all agreed on the way which was to go to the Council then sitting to take notice of the Kings offer and their return and to mind them that the consideration and resolutions concerning Peace and War the general Assembly referved to themselves only and therefore to require that they would send immediately a Trumpet of their own with a Letter to the Marquess of Ormond giving him to understand they had issued a Summons for a general Assembly in order to acknowledge the Kings gracious Favour in naming him his Commissioner to hear your Aggrievances and redress them This you put in execution and gained your point without much resistance The Marquess of Ormond being thus brought into a Treaty the Confederate Commissioners met at Seginstowne near the Nasse as his Excellency had appointed in order to a Cessation of Arms. At which time all Parties laboured to get into possession of what they could Collonel Monk after made Duke of Albermarle march'd into the County of Wicklow to take in the Harvest and possess some Castles Your Lordship being then commanded by the Council to go against him and having Rendevouz'd your Troops consisting of about 3000 Horse and Foot at Ballynekill in the County of Catherlagh notice was brought you that Collonel Monk was marched away in all haste to the assistance of the Lord Moor then facing Owen Roe Oneal near Portlester You finding your self now to have nothing to do thought it worth the while to endeavour taking in Dullerstown Tully Lacagh and all other Castles in the County of Kildare between the Rivers of the Barrow and Liffe which you did leaving Garrisons in them This done you repast past the Barrow at Monaster-Evan marched into Leix and took three or four small places But as you were going on had Advice from the Commissioners at Seginstowne that they had on the 15th of September 1643 concluded a Cessation of Arms with the Marquess of Ormond to which you submited As your Lordship did also to the two Peaces of 1646 1648 both sutable and of the same strain and though both were of advantage only to the Irish and highly dishonourable to the Crown of England and destructive to the English and Protestants yet both were broken and set at naught by the Irish themselves a just Judgment of God against them whose hands were full of Blood and there being no hopes that such untempered Morter could cement them and the Posterity left alive of murdered Parents Brothers Sisters and other Relations or that ever the English could live out of danger and free of Massacres for the future without exemplary punishment of the Murderers and Rebels and bringing them by forfeitures and otherwise to an absolute subjection to the Laws and keeping them in that state as it is now hoped they are and will be by the watchful Eye of Government I shall now as briefly as I can take the liberty to give your Lordship impartial Remarks upon what your Lordship hath written in justification of the Rebels or tending to caluminate his Majesties Government or English and Pretestant Subjects reserving a fuller account thereof to a fitter occasion In the first place Seeing your Lordships Memoires dedicated to the King I cannot but take notice how dangerous a thing it is and of how bad consequence it may prove especially in this case and juncture to misinform his Majesty not that I do suspect or tax your Lordship of design to abuse the King for I do charitably believe as your Lordship affirms upon your word that they do not contain a lie or mistake to your knowledge yet I must positively aver and it is my part to make it good that the Relation wants the most material and pregnant Truths in the principal part thereof and of most consequence to the Publick as I doubt not your Lordship will believe and confess upon such glances as I shall make upon particulars as I go over them But before I proceed it will import the giving clear light to an affair which contrary interests have so much endeavoured to perplex to observe the state that unhappy Kingdom of Ireland was in at the Eruption of that satal Rebellion A Parliament sitting the year before in Ireland both Houses taking notice of some Grievances growing upon them and the want of some good New Laws for advancing the Prosperity and good Government of that Kingdom did send chosen Agents or Commissioners both Lords and Commons of most esteem amongst them to attend his Majesty in England for redress of such Grievances and procuring such new Grants and Graces as they were directed to move for from a Gracious King His Majesty received them favourably and with good dispatch they returned for Ireland fully satisfied and loaden with all the Graces and Bounties good Subjects could hope to receive upon such an Address to their Prince and what needed Confirmation in Parliament was to be done when the Parliament should meet at the day to which it was Prorogued The People of Ireland were never better pleased then with the gracious Returns his Majesty had made by their Commissioners That Kingdom never enjoyed a more prosound and more like to be lasting Peace and Prosperity Commerce and Trade both at home and abroad never flourished more barbarous Customs were never more entirely subdued and abrogated there never was more Unity Friendship and good Agreement amongst all sorts and degrees except in the standing root of miscnief the difference in Religions then at this time nor more mutual Confidence I can say being that time there the Sheep and the Goats lived quietly together and there was that intire trust in one another as to all Matters Civil and Temporal that I remember very well the Summer before the Rebellion The Titular Bishop of Fernes coming his Visitation into the County of Wexford where I then dwelt at the request of a Popish Priest I lent most of my Silver Plate to entertain the said Bishop with and had it honestly restored In this serene and happy state was that Kingdom every one sitting under his own Vine and Fig-tree in peace and in the abundance of all things when whether surfeiting of Quiet and Plenty or by the just Judgment of God upon a sinful and superstitious Nation or that the said Committees having staid in England till they saw symptoms of a misunderstanding between his Majesty and his two Houses af Parliament in England and
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
A LETTER From a Person of HONOUR in the COUNTREY Written to the EARL of CASTLEHAVEN BEING Observations and Reflections Upon his Lordships MEMOIRES Concerning the WARS of IRELAND LONDON Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultrey 1681. A LETTER Written to the EARL of CASTLEHAVEN My Lord Castlehaven HAving Received your Lordships of the 24th Current with your printed Memoires which you are pleased in some sort to Intitle me to and I will not conceal from your Lordship that I am not yet ashamed now I have read them though I cannot approve all in them that I was the first incentive to your Writing them which was upon this occasion having sat along with your Lordship in Parliament and observing for the most part such a consent between your Lordship and me in proceedings there upon the most abstracted Principles of Honour and Allegiance I could not but account of your Lordship as a true Englishman and a Loyal Subject whatsoever blemish your engagement under the confederate Rebels of Ireland had before fixed on you and having heard you so often pathetically declare your self fully to mine and most honest Mens Minds against the dangers of the growing greatness of the French and the too fast Declension of the Spaniard between which great Powers of the World the Crown of England was so happy and wise in former times as to hold and guide the Ballance and finding by your frequent and as I could not but conceive Cordial Expressions against the Pope of Rome's Usurping Authority in these Dominions over and against his Majesty and Kingdoms to such a degree that you spared not like a right Ancient Peer of this Realm often to say That if the Pope himself should Attack any of his Majesties Dominions you would be one of the first to labour his Destruction I was deservedly much delighted in your Lordships Converse which having been often honoured with both by your Letters when in Foreign parts and your favourable Society here at home I was instrumental as your Lordship well knows to prevail with the Parliament to set a mark of great Honour on your Lordship by a special recommendation and intercession to his Majesty for a regard to and reparation of the Breaches time and misfortune had made upon so Ancient and Honourable a Family And looking upon your Lordship as a Peer of most noble Principles and free of the worst part of Bigotry I could not but lament your leaving the Parliament and still wish your return During our said Converse being ingaged in the History of Ireland to which I was the more inclined by an interest therein for several Generations my Great Grandfather Sir John Perrot having been Deputy thereof governing the same with great Wisdom and Success my Grandfather Annesley having been Commander at Sea in Queen Elizabeths time and one of the Undertakers for Land in Munster after the Earl of Desmond's Rebellion my Father the Lord Baron of Mountnorris and Viscount of Valentia of whom I have very often heard your Lordship speak with great Honour and as your worthy Friend having faithfully served King James and King Charles the First near Forty years in that Kingdom in Offices and Imployments of high Trust and I my self being a Native of the City of Dublin a diligent Observer of the Troubles there wherein I had some share and having both Honours and Lands descended to me in that Realm and knowing that your Lordship had heretofore a great part in the Action there and taking notice that no Memorials I had yet seen did give a full account of your Lordship whom as my own Friend and my Fathers Friend I was willing to do right to in History as far as I could ever highly esteeming the Bravery of your Actions and Wisdom of your Conduct as far as I had Cognizance thereof though I bemoaned the unhappy circumstances of your engaging under a Power usurping over your own Prince and incroaching Royal Power which I find you cannot digest either the Pope or Duke of Lorraine should have done I discoursed with your Lordship many of the most important Designs Actions and Traverses of Fortune in Ireland since the fatal 23 of October 1641 and finding by your full Relations with a perfect memory thereof that you were able to give help to History therein I moved your Lordship to which you friendly consented that at leasure hours you would reduce to writing what you could remember with as exact reference to Time and Order as you could recollect of Passages and Exploits there and that I might by your favour be possessed thereof And I wish things had rested there little expecting a formal Relation in print and much less so introduced before I had the perusal of it for I must now acquaint your Lordship that I did not after what I have above related save now and then to your self inquire after your Memoires promised me till by a Letter of the 16th of this moneth from a hand I respect I had notice he had seen them and my Censure thereon was desired they seeming to him after 28 years silence to cast a Calumny on the Government then and as he suspects with no good intention though he refers that to my Opinion knowing as he is pleased to say none to appeal to but me Your Lordship sees now how you are ingaged for want of commanding my Service before the Printers and I am confident the heat of a Battle would be less formidable to you then the Paper warre you must expect to be assaulted with wherein if I be necessitated to have the least hand your Lordship may be assured it shall be en Gentilhome en amy and chiefly with an aim to convince your Lordship of that which hath obscured the Glory of your Adventures and Exploits or Undertakings in that unfortunate Kingdom and therefore I forbear giving any Opinion to my Friend till I have vented my thoughts to your Lordship which I shall now take the liberty to do Upon serious perusal of your Book I find your Lordships Story of two parts The First till the Cessation of Arms concluded by the Rebels Commissioners at Seginstowne with the Marquess of Ormond Sept. 15 1643 all which time your Lordship was wholly of the Rebels Party and under their Pay and Command which I wish your Lordship had not thought fit for the Press though there were some Acts of Souldierly bravery in it The Second Part From that time till your Lordship finding the ill state of Affairs in Ireland was dispatched by the then Lord Deputy Clanrickord to set out the same to the King in France from whence though your Lordship procured a Letter from his Majesty to the Lord Deputy and sent the same by a safe Messenger yet you returned not again but ingaged in the Service of the Prince of Conde My Lord I am loath now to make my Remarques upon this Second Part because your Lordships acting therein at times under the Confederate