looking any further after him conceiving that hee was past care to tell tales wheresoever he was and so fell to their mirth and jollitie again But not long after in the midst of their mirth came some of the Guard belonging to the Lords Justices entred the House where there was little or no resistance apprehended Captain Mack-Mahowne and one Rory Magennis being the chief in that place at the Artichoake and brought them bound before the Lords about five of the clock in the morning being upon the Saturday which was the three and twentieth day of October last At the same time and hour the rest of the Guard apprehended the Lord Mack-Gueere in Cookstreet in the house of Master Cadowgan where they found him under a bed with a case of Pistols charged and a Skeene by his side but did not offer to shoot Captaine Mack-Mahowne upon his examination confessed the whole plot how that morning the Castle of Dublin should have beene surprized by forty Irish Papists desperate Villains in this manner following First they should have gone into the Castle to avoid suspition one by one some at the water-gate and some at the Castle-gate each man with his Skeen and so to have met in the great Court and suddenly to have rushed upon the Warders and to have murthered them and so to have possest themselves of their Halberds and other weapons and then to have stood in the entrance of both Gates to let in the rest being three hundred and sixty more appointed for the execution of that Hel-hatcht Designâ— they could not have wanted help the ods was so great on their side I mean the bloudy Romish party and I am of opinion there would have been but little or no resistance their party would have beene so strong there being at that time one hundred Papists to five Protestants within the very City of Dublin to my knowledge and so they are generally throughout the whole Kingdome what a combustion had there been in Dublin that day what a distraction had our poore Country-men I meane the English Protestants been in and I my self being then one belonging to the Crowne Office in Dublin and an eye witnesse of their passages amongst the rest I dare be bold to say that if they had taken that Castle being so richly furnished with all manner of Munition as powder shot and Armes being also strengthened with above one hundred pieces of Ordnance of all sorts with their carriages that all Ireland had been before this day an Acheldama or a field of bloud and I am of opinion that of all the English Plantators in Ireland there would not have been living one Family Some of those Villains that should have surprized the Castle to wit Rory Mack Mahowne William O Neale Thady O Duffe and others have been taken and examined before the Councill and upon their examinations have confessed that upon the Sabbath day night after they had surprized the Castle being the day following their intent was to have marked all the Irish houses with a Crosse to have distinguished them from the English and so to have murthered them by entring forcibly and treacherously upon them and also to have seized all the shipping at the Rings end neere Dublin that there had beene no way or meanes left for man woman or child to have escaped their fury nor any place of refuge left to have found mercy Stand and pause a while and consider the depth of this horrid treason to have cut off all the Protestants Oh the cryes the shreeks the teares of poore souls flying this way and that way still into the mouth of these ravenous Lions and this would have beene their Sabbath dayes work a fit sacrifice for him whose servants they were But praysed be the Lord their net is broken and we have escaped What man so blinde as may not herein behold the handy worke of God and how the hands and hearts of those malicious furies and firebrands of Rome are bent to shed inocent bloud that notwithstanding they have so often failed in their wicked bloudy purposed and intents both private and publike which they have secretly attempted in darknesse will not see although they live in the light nor take warning but still run on in their bloud-thirstinesse to extirpate whole States to suppresse the Truth and to shed the bloud of Gods Saints but I trust they shall fall into the pit that they digged for others It was concluded by the Lords Justices and Councell of Ireland that the aforenamed Owen Mack-Connel who had discovered this Treason should be sent with Letters to the Parliament here in England the King being at that time in Scotland who at his comming was rewarded with a gratuity of five hundred pounds in money and an allowance towards the mayntenance of himselfe his wife and children of two hundred pounds a yeere until his Majesty finde out some better gift to bestow upon him I am verily perswaded that his discovery of this Treason hath preserved the lives of a hundred thousand men women and children and many more in the severall Provinces and Counties of Ireland Now to enter into this direfull Tragedy every step being a step in bloud Heere followeth a true description or relation of sundrie sad and lamentable collections taken from the mouthes of verie credible persons and out of Letters sent from Ireland to this Citie of London of the perfidious outrages and barbarous cruelties which the Irish Papists have committed upon the persons of the Protestants both men women and children in that Kingdome Anno Dom. 1641. THe Irish Nation is well knowne to be a people both proud and envious For the Comonaltie they are for the most part ignorant and illiterate poore and lazie and will rather beg or starve then worke therefore fit subjects for the Priests and Jesuits to spur on upon such bloudy actions and murth ' rous Designes Ignorance is their Mother which is devoid of mercy God deliver all good Christians from the cruelty of such a Mother and Children It is too well knowne the more is the pitie and to be lamented that the Irish have murther'd of the Protestant party in the Provinces of Vlster Lempster Connaght and Munster of men women and children the number of fifty thousand as it is credibly reported by Englishmen who have beene over all parts of the Kingdome and doe protest upon their oaths that there are above five thousand Families destroyed The Kingdome of Ireland hath foure Provinces wherein there are contained two and thirty Counties besides Cities and County Townes in all which places the English are planted up and downe in all parts where the Irish have most murtherously and trayterously surprized them upon great advantages and with out respect of persons either of age youth or infancy of yongmen or maids or of old men or babes stript all to their skins naked as ever they were borne into the World so they have gone out of the
he had so that he was forced to fly away for his life with his friends who was pursued by the Rebels above twelve miles but through Gods mercy he escaped with his precious life which they hunted after with the loss of his whole estate and wife whom they turned out of doores having first abused her where shee was delivered in straw without the helpe of any woman and so perished She was a charitable Gentlewoman and in her life time had relieved many hundreds of the poore Irish and this mercy they afforded her for her charity The Lord Blany escaped their cruelty being forced to ride fourteene miles upon a poore carrion jade without either bridle or saddle to save his life his vertuous Lady being surprized by these Villains the same day and his children who use her most ignobly and cruelly neither regarding her noblenesse of birth nor her Lord but forc'd her to lodge in straw with a poore allowance of two pence a day to relieve her and her children and to adde affliction to the good Ladies misery slue a Kinsman of hers and caused him to be hanged up before her face two days and two nights in the roome where shee lay to terrifie her telling her withall she must expect that end the Lord Blany forced to ride 14 Miles without Bridle or Sadell to saue his life his Lady Lodged in Strawe beeing allowed 2 a day to releue her her Children slew a kindsman of hers and hanged him up before her face 2 dayes telling her she must expect the same to terrifie her the moore Mr Dauenant and his Wife bound in their Chaires Striped the 2 Eldest Children of 7 years old rosted them upon Spittes before their Parents faces Cutt heir throte and after murdred him At the Borough of Kello or as some Letters report at the Borough of Trim being both in the County of Meath in the Province of Vlster the Rebels surprized the house of one Arthur Robinson he himselfe being at that time in Dublin which was upon the sixt day of November last about some suits hee had in law being in the last Michaelmas Terme he not knowing that the Rebels were risen in those parts there hee intending to have gone home to his wife and family five or six days after hoping by that time to have ended his businesse and indeed when he came from his house to Dublin which was on the twentieth day of October the Rebellion was not begun in any part of Ireland but before his appointed time to return home a Messenger prevented him with heavy tydings even his only Daughter whom hee quickly knew though shee were much disguized for the Rebels have slain most of his Family robbed and pillaged the house after they had stripped his wife and ravished her they sought ought for this young Virgin being about fourteene yeares of age who had hid her selfe in a Barne where the Villains quickly found her but she made what resistance she could to preserve her Chastity and with a Knife shee had unseen to them wounded one of them which the rest perceiving seized upon her violently stripped her and then bound her with her armes abroad in such manner as she could not help her self any way and so like hel-hounds defloured her one after another till they had spoiled her and to shew their unheard off malice were not herewith content but puld the haire from her head and cut out her tongue because shee should not report the truth and their cruelty but the maid could write though shee could not speak and so discovered their inhumane usage to her and her mother The maid was sent with a letter from her Father in Dublin to Mynhead in Somersetshire to her Uncle William Dyer her Mothers Brother living within three miles of Mynhead which letter I have seen here in Towne containing the contents above-written being dated at Dublin the twentieth of November last About the eighth of January last a distressed Minister came to Dublin that had left some goods with a supposed Friend sent for them the goods could not be delivered unlesse he or his wife came for them hee would not goe but she went and when she came where her goods were as if that were too little to lose her estate but her life must goe also they hanged her up Was there ever such Barbarisme among the Heathen Arthur Robinsons daughter 14. yeares old the Rebbels bounde her armes a broad deflowerd her one after an other tell they spoyled her then pulled the haire from her head and cut out her tongue that she might not tell of their Cruelty but she declared it by writing A Minister and his wife came to Dublin Ian 30. 1641. left behinde him some goods with a supposed frend sent for them but could not be deliuered vnlesse he or his wife come for them she came and presently they hanged her upe In the Countie of Fermannagh in the Province of Vlster they murthered one Master Champion a Justice of Peace and a Burgesse of the Parliament for the Borough of Iniskillin in the said County who was betray'd by an Irish Villaine his Tenant whom hee had saved himself twice before from the gallows The Rogue's name was Patrick Mack-Dermot who finding one of his Companion brings him to Master Champion's House and tels Master Champion that he found this Thiefe stealing of his cattle The Gentleman knowing this Mack-Dermot said unto him before one Master Iremonger an Attorney I am glad thou art turn'd from a Thiefe to catch a Thiefe whereupon he return'd him this peremptory answer That hee was no more Thiefe than himselfe No sooner had he utter'd these words in the Court before his house but there rushes in upon them a great number of these rebels who without respect of mercy stabb'd Master Champion instantly before hee could get into his house so that hee fell down immediatly but their fury went further then death for they wounded him with their Skeins in thirty places after hee was dead and then cut off his head to make sure worke while the rest ran into the house after Master Iremonger whom they followed so close that hee had not time to lay hold on his sword to help himself but falling down upon his knees and calling upon God for mercy they fell upon him and ran him thorow and thorow and so he died One of Master Champions servants escaped to Dublin and reported this in my hearing in December last A third was likewise slaine then the Rebels entred the House and kild more his wife's sister and her brother in law with two others in the house they keep prisoners to this day taking possession of all they had within the house and without his wife was down on her knees to beg a sheet to put her hubands dead body in And another Gentleman with other Friends that came to visit him over night lost their lives next morning Mr: FFordes house rifled and to make her Confesse where
the present employed in his Highnesse Service for the taking of this your Castle you are therefore to deliver unto us free possession of your said Castle promising faithfully that your Ladiship together with the rest in the said Castle restant shall have a reasonable composition otherwise upon the yielding of the Castle wee doe assure you that we will burn the whole Town kill all the Protestants and spare neither man woman nor child upon taking the Castle Consider Madam of this our offer and impute not the blame of your owne folly unto us thinke not that here wee brag your Ladiship upon submission shall have a safe convoy to secure you from the hands of your enemies and to lead you where you leave A speedy replyis desired with all expedition and thus wee surcease Henry Demsy Charles Demsy Andrew Fitz Patrick Conn Dempsy Phelim Demsy John Vicars James m Donel The Lady Offalia her answer to the Rebels For my Cosin Henry Dempsy and the rest I Received your Letter wherein you threaten to sack this my Castle by his Majesties authority I am and ever have beene a loyall subject and a good neighbour amongst you and therefore cannot but wonder at such an assaul I thank you for your offer of a convoy wherein I hold little safety and therefore my resolution is that being free from offending his Majesty or doing wrong to any of you I will live and die innocently and will doe my best to defend my owne leaving the issue to God and though I have beene and still am desirous to avoid the shedding of Christian bloud yet being provoked your threats shall no whit dismay me Lettice Offalia These stories I relate that all true-hearted Protestants may take heart and likewise take notice that God is vindicating his owne glory against these desperate Atheists that began to insult and to aske as wee are credibly informed what is become of the God of the Protestants and likewise what spirit and courage God is able to put into the hearts of those that fight for him and for his cause against his bloud-thirsty enemies And therefore be not dismaid you Protestants 't is a great honour to fight under the Banner of Christ they fight under the Banner of Antichrist the Lord is with you while yee are with him See the blasphemies and cruelties of these bloudy men it is that their names as Amalek may be blotted out from under Heaven for surely the day of recompence is comming that God will make his arrowes drunke in their bloud they love bloud and therefore God will give them bloud in great measure As for instance I shall relate you a bloudy story of one of those cruell beasts The Protestant Troopers about the beginning of February last marched out of Dublin as they use to do to view the Coasts they espied a cruell Rebell hewing and mangling a woman in so horrid a manner that it was not possible to know her having acted his Devillish part he triumph'd over her dead corps and washed his hands in her bloud whereupon the Troopers apprehended this barbarous Villaine in the very act of crueltie and brought him to Dublin with his hands all bloudy and was adjudged to be hang'd immediatly hee ascended the Ladder and would not stay till the Executioner turned him off but desperatly lept off and hanged himself This was in the beginning of February last and is credibly reported by a Citizen of Dublin who saw him thus hanged with his hands all bloudy It is remarkable to take notice of the rice of this bloudy act it was thus A Frier and this Villaine was drinking together in a Village the Frier hearing of a poore English woman there hee commanded this Rebell to murther her which he did as you have read attested by a Gentleman of Ireland of good credit A Woman mangled in so horred a manÌ„er that it was not possible shee should be knowne after the Villaine washed his handes in her bloode was taken by the Troopers adiuged to be hanged leaped of the lader hanged himselfe like a Bloodey Tyger Companyes of the Rebells meeting with the English flyinge for their liues falling downe before them cryinge for mercy thrust theire Pichforkes into their Childrens bellres threw them into the water Would any man believe that these Villains should take children and tosse them with pitchforks like dung into Riversâ— one was an eye witnesse who lost a great estate there and since have received reliefe from the Parliament who saw a cruell wretch throw a woman crying with teares one way and her Childe with a pitchfork another way They have cruelly murdered women great with child and then left them in ditches to the fury of their dogs who learned to be cruell from their bloudy Masters for they have eaten the Children out of the bowels of the mother At Lesgoole Castle in the County of Four managh they have burned fifty Scots men women and children Sixteen Scots more they have barbarously hanged at Cloynes in the County of Monaghan Thirty Scots they burned in Tolagh It is remarkable that they deale thus cruelly with those Noble Scots who have bin renowmed through the Christian World for their zeale against that Antichristian Rabble that these Rebels would wish they had but one neck that they might cut them off at one blow but the Protestant Cause shall stand in England and Scotland when they and their Babel shal be cast into the Bottomlesse pit Rory Mackqueere at New towne in the County of Fourmanagh above foure hundred poore Protestants fled in the Church to shrowd themselves under its roofe for safety from the rage of those men of bloud where they might have been famished but the mercy of this mercilesse Beast affords them quarter to goe away with their clothes to Dublin and vows he will not hurt them before they got out of the Town his Souldiers stript some and killed others like base perfidious wretches The Iresh Lievtenant pretending they came for the King perfidiously come under favour pretends to borrow the armes of the inhabitants as they say to quell the Rebels then breake into their houses and turne their weapons against themselves make havock taking their featherbeds throw out their feathers and in the tikes put up what precious things they can find in the house and carry all away and so turns them out of doores the next company takes away their clothes and clothe them with their rags The next company thinking they may have mony in those rags they will take them also search their mouthes and those parts which modesty will not admit of an expression if they can find none they set their Skeins at their breasts that if they can extort any thing when the poore Protestants are naked Blush ô Sun to behold the inhumane cruelties and beastly usages of these unheard of Cannibals George Forde hanged on a tree in his owne ground cut his flesh a peaces carying it up downe sainge this is the flesh of one of the traitors against our Holy Father the Pope a Proclamation that nether English nor Irish should either sell or keepe in their houses any Powder upon the losse of goods life nether any 〈◊〉 mos whatsoeuer exept with a liconse then but fiue pound at most at 2 Shill ye pound Some Ministers they whip others they set in the stocks and make others goe to Masse against their wils then tell them now they have saved their souls they would hang their bodies A Minister seeing his Wife abused his children roasted desired them to put him out of his extremity of anguish to see such cruelty on those so neere him they most inhumanely cut his tongue out of his head And for a conclusion of this dreadfull Tragedy It is related from one of the last Letters from Ireland that seventeen of those barbarous Monsters came to a Ministers house where they violently fell on him and his wife stript them naked bound them back to back then cut off the Ministers privy members afterward ravished his wife on his back and then inhumanely cut their throats transcendent cruelty exceeding Pagans and Atheists For the oppression of the poor and for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord and set him at liberty from him that puffeth at him Psal. 12. 5. FINIS a Abbot Downham Sharp c. de Antichristo b 2 Thess. 2. c Sâ—egedin Spec. Pontificum Rom. d Selnâ—ccer v. â—ae Pontif. e Idea reform antichrist tom. 1. part 2. sect. 2. c 7. f Espens in tit. 1. dig 1. musâ— loc. com g Bellar. de pont Rom. lib. 4. c. 5. h Idaea refor Antichrist vide supra c. 6. i Baleus de actis Rom. Pontif. l. 7. k Hist. Waldens l Sleidanus m Thuanus o Idaea reform Antich tom. 1. part 2. c. 6. p Hist. Waldens q Booke Martyrs tom 1. r Bulla Pii 5â—â— against Queen Elizabeth s B. Carleton t Prideaux Serm. on the Gunpowder Treason u Azorius instit. moral li 8. de poenis haeretic w Symanch instit. lib. 23. 5. 11. Saunders de visibil Monarch l. â— c. 4. x Bannes in 2 2. q. 12. artic 2. y Symanchâ— ubi supra z Azor. inst. mor. l. 8. c. 13. a Eudaem Apol. pro Garnet cap 4. Collect for Gunpowder treason D. Davenan determ. qu 17. D. Prideaux sex Higgajon and Selab b In 32. â— â—ide suprà c Abbor Antilog c. 6. p. 85. England Scotland Witnesse Germany that field of bloud as a book of their miseries called the Lamentation of Germanyâ—â—ely printed â—elates Deut. 32. 30.