trecheries that ever I heard or read of compared to this me thinks they look but like so many Piaefraudes and the torments of all past ages may be thought to have proceeded more from the favourable mercies of men then from their cruelty I am confident that God that has so preserved you has done it partly for this end that your owne eyes might behold the Vyals of his wrath and vengeance which he has filled and laid up in store plentifully poured out uon them and I am perswaded if we can but with patience expect his owne time the time will come and your eyes shall see it when those tongues that cryed so loud in the day of Jerusalem Race it raee it even to the foundation shall cry as loud but all in vaine to those same mountaines whereon you were scattered and hunted like Partridges to fall and cover them and those hands that have laine so heavy on the backs of so many thousands of you shall strike as hard their owne brests and cleave as fast to their owne loynes and those feet that have been so swift to shed blood shall not carry them away so fast but that the fierce anger of the Lord shall overtake them Though I cannot be so eloquent as my friend CIVILIS Marcus yet my Amen may very well stand at the end of his speech So let thine enemies perish O Lord and those that hate thee flee before thee I perceive MARCUS that the sad Relation which you have newly heard has not wrought so kindly with you Civilis as it has done with me since you can so soon abuse your friend but I will beare it for once if you promise me to be content with our company all this evening and you DECIUS will be pleased I hope to beare part of his burden Both being well satisfied CIVILIS turning to DECIUS spake to this purpose Since you have been pleased to trouble your selfe thus farre give me leave to disturb you a little more and to know how long you have been in this Kingdome and what occasions brought you out of Ireland I doubt not but you will excuse me knowing how particular an interest my affection gives me in every thing that concernes you and I know MARCUS will take it for the best part of his entertainment in this house to sit and heare you MARCUS agreeing to what was said for him he sate downe by CIVILIS and DECIUS spake as followes You cannot desire that of me which I shall not be ready to grant you you must know then that at my first coming to Dublin Decius I found the City in great perplexity the English not knowing which they should feare first either the Irish without or those within amongst themselves they were all as it were at their wits ends and no body almost knew which way to turne himselfe The Rebels were infinite for numbers and within the City onely a poore company of raw ignorant Townsmen that for their number could not be thought able to conquer so often as their enemies might be overcome Notwithstanding all these discouragements though I saw palenesse in every mans face each one accounting himselfe already as it were amongst the dead I observed so much courage and resolution in those that then sate at the Helme that I for my part could not at all feare a shipwrack and therefore at that time could not think of quitting the Kidgdome though I saw many take that course as the safest hazarding themselves in a storm at Sea in open Botes to scape that they feared on Land if they should stay behind Those that onely attended the service and were carefull to discharge their duties though with the apparent danger of their lives by sitting constantly at Counsell-Board whither multitudes of such as were then secret and afterwards professed Rebels daily resorted and might if God had not stayed their hands have put their plot in execution for many weeks after their three and twentieth of October as well as they could have done at that day Those I say that in al that foul weather when the Heavens were all blackk about them and not so much as one beame of comfort to be seen stood still to their tackling and plyed their work without ever giving over were onely the two Lords Justices by name Sir William Parions and Sir John Bortase and Sir Adam Lofius Vice-treasurer Sir John Temple Master of the Rolls Sir Charles Coot from the time that he arrived at Dublin and when he was not abroad in the Field and Sir Robert Meredith Chancellour of the Exchequer Those other blazing-starres and unlucky meteors that have since hung over our heads and have had such ill influence on all the affaires of that Kingdome and put all into combustion being some of them at that time not exhaled from the earth as little known by name of Privy-Counsellours as they deserved it and others some for feare and some for dis-affection to the service keeping themselves at home and seldome or never comming to Counsell or having fled into England It was the great mercy of God Civilis that a that time of extream hazard and necessity sent you such men as were not afraid to stand for you and to open their mouths in your defence when yours and their enemies fists were ready to enclose them with a blow and truly they ought to be had in everlasting remembrance and those that absenced themselves in that time of pressing necessity by my consent should have had the Counsell-chamber-doores for ever shut in their faces I can as little excuse those that kept themselves away through feare as those others that did it through dis-affection it being a breach of trust in both and he that feares even his life when his Religion and Country cals for and requires his help will to save his life or perhaps a poorer commodity betray both We have found what you say very true and could have wished that they that kept themselves then away ahd done so still and not to have come to doe the English the greatest mischiefe instead of service But if you please I shall proceed You will doe us a speciall favour in it Civilis Decius Sir Charles Coot by a speciall providence being sent to Dublin when the English stood in so much need of a man of his spirits was immediately made Governour of that City how he carried himselfe in that charge and what resolution and gallantry he shewed in the field against the Rebels with that small handfull of men which the State put under his command If I were able to expresse to you I might very well be thought to speak a piece of a Romanse It shall suffice that I tell you that by his couragious execution and the as faithfull contrivement of those that sate at Counsell-board the blessing of God accompanying their endeavours whereas at first for the English with all their strength to march out of the City
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