cum Haereticis whose principles are steept bloud tolerating Rebellion against King and Kingdome murdering of Princes blowing up of Parliament sowing seeds of division betweene Confederate Kingdomes as those two Handfasted and Troth-plighted Nations in a League of love indissoluble blessed be God can testifie blowing up coals of Division hotter then coals of Juniper in the same Kingdome where they live in too much peace Witnesse England who hath had wofull experience of their plottings to breake Union betweene King and people King and Parliament But now behold these bloudy Papists with their Vizard puld off and now acting their plots like incarnate Devils as our Saviour cald their brethren the Scribes and Pharisees For the works of their father they doe I say now acting their Devillish designe on the State of Ireland our sister Nation ayming no lower then the death and ruine of the whole Kingdome at one blow For had their plot on Dublin Castle taken which they had laid with so much subtilty and secrecie as in probability it had had not the keeper of Israel which slumbers not prevented it in a most miraculous manner they had beene by the morning light at work cutting off man woman and child till they had not left one remayning among them that bore the name of a Protestant Blessed be God their snare was broken and that poore City designed to destruction delivered the relation of which Tragedie now begins Oh that our eares may tingle and our bowels yern at the relation of this horrid designe and at the relations of those cruelties and tortures exceeding all parallel unheard off among Pagans Turks or Barbarians except you would enter into the confines of Hell it selfe to see the Devils those Engineers of cruelty acting of their parts I know not where you will find their fellows making it their sport to torture and to vex those poore distressed Protestants he that is most cruell merits most of their bloudy Jesuits Those firebrands of Hell preach to them in their Massings and Conventicles as is truly related by Gentlemen of Ireland of good worth who like Jobs Messengers are escaped their mercilesse hands relating nothing but what they have heard with their eares upon examination of witnesses or seen with their eyes that so men might not be deluded with false and idle Pamphlets but reade and see the truth of things that all men may behold what bloudy Tigres and Vultures these Popish Spirits are how perfidious and basely treacherous to those Nations that succour them never any Kingdom being long at peace where they were tolerated as this fresh bleeding Nation of Ireland can sadly relate you in this ensuing Narration Here begins the bloudie attempts upon the Kingdome of Ireland in the generall and on Dublin in particular UPon the three and twentieth day of October last 1641 the Castle of Dublin should have surprized as at that time it might easily have beene for there was no feare or suspition of Treachery there being at that time foure hundred Irish Papists elected out of most parts of Ireland desperate persons designed and appointed for that bloudy and desperate attempt all lodging and sculking in severall places of the City and Suburbs waiting and expecting the time and watch-word when to give the onset But that God that keepeth Israel saw their bloudy intentions to overthrow and ruinate all the professours of the true Religion disapointed their wicked hopes and to their owne shame and confusion discovered and laid open their hellish plot to succeeding ages that the Lord alone might be admired and they confounded And this he did by moving in the heart of one of their own Countrimen at that time an abhorring of so foule and detestable a Treason and to reveale it to Sir William Parsons Knight and Baronet Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries and Sir John Borlase Knight Master of the Ordnance both Lords Justices of the Kingdome of Ireland The party who discovered the plot had been formerly a servant to Sir John Clotworthy a godly and religious Gentleman but at time when hee revealed their designe hee served one Captaine Mack-Mahowne an Irishman who lodged at the signe of the Artichoake vulgarly called Saint Maries Abbey in the Suburbs of the City of Dublin The servants name was Owen Mack-Connel who being with his Master Captain Mack-Mahown in a house in Cookstreet at the Lodging of the Lord Mack-Gueere also and Irishman in the City of Dublin Upon the two and twentieth of October being the night afore his Master did then and there reveale the whole plot unto him in the presence of the Lord Mack-Gueere and others Owen Macke-onell who discouered the plot of takinge Dublin had a Pistoll Charged with too Bullets the pane primed with powder Brimstone twice offered against him tooke not fire so the Rebells said God will not suffer him to be killed he will be on our side I warrant you Owen Macke-onell leapinge ouer a wall escaped was sent to our Parlament with letters was rewarded 500 lb 200 per Annum At the first the Lord Parsons did seem to slight it but Owen Mack-Counel confidently affirmed the thing to my Lord in the hearing of his servants to be true and withall told him thus viz. My Lord my Lord I have discharged my duty and my conscience look you to it I will goe backe to my Master because neither hee nor the rest shall suspect me Your Lordship shall find my Lord Mack-Gueere at Master Cadowgans house in Cookstreet and Captaine Mack-Mahown at the Artichoke in the aforesaid Maryes Abbey to which place I am going now This Owen Mack-Connel going homewards to his Masters lodging takes up dirt in his hands and besmuts and dirties his face that he might appear to them to have tumbled over and over in the dirt whose approach and entrance into the roome where a great many of them were assembled together drinking and making merry for they intended not to goe to bed was so ridiculous that the company burst out into such a loud and sudden laughter with shouting and hollowing that the place rung of them round about and to welcome him home the company fell to their old course to make him drinke more but at last he told them that he must needs goe down into the yard so they suffered him to goe but commanded two of his companions to attend him and bring him up againe but they let him goe into the yard by himselfe not suspecting what he had done nor what hee meant to doe no sooner was he in the yard but knowing the place leaped over the pale and so escaped from them Great search they made in the yard for him and up and downe the house thinking hee had been crept to bed or hid himself in the barn of stable so that they were amazed to think what should become of him because they generally believed him to be so drunk and in such a pickle they refrained
World many hundreds having beene found starved to death in Ditches for want of food and rayment where the rebellious Irish have shewed them no more mercy or compassion no nor so much as they would doe to their Dogs Thus much for the generall now I come to particulars At one Master Atkins house seven Papists brake in beat out his brains then ripped up his Wife with childe after they had ravished her and Nero-like view'd Natures bed of conception they then took the child and sacrificed it in the fire They have flead the skin from the bones of others like Butchers the principles of whose Religion is bloud Witnesse our Books of Martyrs those Chronicles of bloud Witnesse those thousands of butchered Protestants in France or Germany They burned others firing their Houses Towns Villages those sons of the Coale as if their habitation were in Hell At one Mr Atkins house 7 Papistes brake in beate out his braines then riped upe his wife with Childe after they had rauished her Nero like vewed natures bed of conception then tooke they the Childe sacrificed it in the fire English Protestantes striped naked turned into the mountaines in the frost snowe whereof many hundreds are perished to death many liynge dead in diches Sauages upbraided them saynge now are ye wilde Irisch as well as wee They have vowed to root out all the English Nation out of this Kingdome They have turned all the Protestants out of Kilkeny At Belturbalâ— in the County of Cavan the Popish Rebels demanded the Town on promise that if they would surrender they should passe free with bag and baggage they backt their promise with oaths and execrations cursing themselves if they did not let them goe withall On serious considerations of the inhabitants and the Governour they were perswaded to yield it up which when they had done and drawing away their goods and moneys they like treacherous Villains sent about twenty or thirty to guard them when they had guarded them seven miles from the Town they with more of that desperate forsworn rabble seized on them robbed all the Protestants being betweene five hundred and a thousand persons men women and children who submitting themselves to their mercy found no quarter but cruelty they stript them all naked and turn'd them out of their houses into the open fields in bitter cold weather in a most vile and shamefull manner not affording them one of their lowzy rags to hide those parts which should be covered Take notice of the faith of a Papist who for his own advantage casts off all bonds of fidelity and common honesty They are remarkable for perfidiousnesse and treachery as you may behold in that Master of Mis-rule the Arch-rebell Sir Philem-Oneal basely pretending to be a Suitor to the old Lady Cawfield being a Widow and made faire promises of his respects to her and when hee had his advantage of possession of her house and goods turned them out of all and bound them prisoners and made her whom he intended his neerest Companion to be his lowest Vassall In the Towne of Lurgon in the County of Armagh the Mac-kans skirmishing with the Englishmen slue divers of our men whereupon they entred parley demanding the Towne Sir William Brunlow being Governour of the Castle on some considerations thought good to yield thereupon they promised and backt it with oaths great protestations that they should have faire quarter and passe without prejudice to their lives yet behold the perfidiousnesse of these brutish creatures as men not fearing God or Devill whose practice they imitate who was a liar from the beginning Notwithstanding all these faire pretences they knew no mercy killed men spoiled women nay in their boundlesse rage slue and massacred and sript helplesse Ministers whose calling might have pleaded pity But what speake wee of pity to men that have no bowels In London Derry at the Towne of Belly-hagh belonging to the Londoners Sir Philem-Oneal promised under hand and seale to let the poore Protestants to passe with bag and baggage only to part with their Town which was a faire goodly place yet this perfidious Rebell as if it was not enough to make these poore souls harborless to lay them open to vvind and vveather but to adde to all their misery stript man vvoman and child took their clothes for a prey and sent them out naked vvithout a shirt or smock to their backs left them not vvorth a groat this vvas one of their vvorks of mercy if they scaped vvith their lives but how many lives might be lost by this immodest and inhumane act judge The tender mercies of the wicked are cruell Will you behold another mercifull act and record it Captaine Rory Mac-quire the Lord Macquires brother at the beginning of the rebellion for the first fortnight commands his Souldiers to give quarter to women and children but to massacre all the men to spare none Woe to him that makes the wife a widow and the children fatherlesse but after they began to resist and to gather into Companies then heare the Charge of this bloudy man Give no quarter no not to women though teares and prayers interpose yet know no pity no not to harmlesse babes though it was death enough to kill their parents nor spare neither man woman or child It is reported by an eminent Gentleman that hath long dwelt among the Rebels but it 's thought fit to forbeare the names of those that give intelligence of the barbarous cruelties of these savage beasts because they threaten to be the death of them that shall unmaske them It is reported by this Gentleman that the Handlowans came to Town-regis divers of them assaulted the Castle of which Captain Saint John was Commander hee with his son got away with some difficulty leaping over the wall they fearing they might fetch supplies to recover their lost Castle most inhumanely tooke the Captaines wife poore Gentlewoman and set her on the wall having stript her to her smock who was big with child and within an houre of her delivery that in case the Captain and his son should have assaulted the Towne his Wife should have beene the white at which hee must have levelled oh extreame and unheard of cruelty As for the Protestant Ministers whom they surprize their cruelty is such towards them as it would make the hardest heart to melt into teares Their manner is first to strip them and after bind them to a tree or some post where they please and then to ravish their wives and daughters before their faces in sight of all their mercilesse rabble with the basest Villains they can pick out after they hang up their husbands and parents before their faces and then cut them downe before they be half dead then quarter them after dismember them and stop their mouthes therewith They basely abused one M. Trafford a Minister in the North of Ireland who was assaulted by these bloudy wolves of Romes
back to looke them and as he returned hee met the Rebels crying Kill all Kill all the head Rebels command Thereupon hee fled over a Mountain was up to the breast in cold snow water and so scaped to Dublin very hardly with his life Three thousand six hundred poore souls fled naked into Dublin and starved with hunger came to eat something and died with eating twenty in a day lay dead in the open streets as men smitten with the plague Sir James Crag being in his Castle having many with him was besieged with the Rebels and almost famished the Knight was constrained to put forty out of the Castle which else must have beene famished with the rest behold the crnelty of these bloud-sucking Papists when they were turned out and left to their mercie they made quicke dispatch set on them and slue every man Another as savage of that Bloud-hound Rory Macqueere at the beginning of the Rebellion who came into an English Gentlemans house and found him in his bed and there began to cruciate and torture his naked body that hee might extort of him a Confession where his treasure lay which when this poore distracted Gentleman acknowledged in hopes to be eased they cruelly killed him and then stript his wife naked and turned her out of doors as if they would make all savage like themselves and lastly Makqueere took his daughter being a proper Gentlewoman and satisfied his beastly lust on her deflouring her as if this was too little to kill her father turn her mother out of doores and abuse her himselfe but like an inhumane Villain cut off her garments by the middle and then turned her to the mercy of the common Souldiers to be abused at their pleasure The Preestes Iesuites anointe the Rebells with there Sacrament of vnction before they goe to murther robe ashuringe them that for there meritorious Seruice if they be killed he shall escape Purgatory go to heauen immediatly They do usually mangell there dead Carcases layng wagers who shall cut deepest into there dead flesh with there Skeyns they destroy our English Sheepe in detestation of us although one is better then 4 of theirs they haue vowed to roote out the name of the English They doe usually mangle their dead carcasses laying wagers who shall cut deepest into their flesh with their skeins At Carvagh neere Colerant the Rebels came to begirt the Towne Master Rowly Brother to the worthy Knight Sir John Clotworthy came forth with a small Company about three hundred men to prevent them they came upon them with a very great company and slue all but eight of the Protestants base cowardize where they want courage they make it up with heaps and multitudes of frighted Hares and the more fearefull and cowardly ever the more cruell upon any advantage All their cruelties have been usually on disarmed men in small Villages where was no strength to resist them there they have tyrannizd over the weaker sex women they have basely triumphed over little children their rage hath beene exercised Oh base cowardise if they have ventured sometimes on pur men it hath beene when they were naked as they have bin flying from those Furies which their party have newly stript naked by and by they met with more of those White-livered Villaines in companies They would likewise abuse those poor naked Protestants like Dogs adding to their misery beating them and bruising their naked bodies with cudgels breaking the heads of some and wounding others that if they have not died they have beene dangerously sicke with the inhumane usage of those merciless wretches nay rather then they will be no body they will shew their manhood in abusing dead bodies as this story declares by very credible testimony from their own Countrimen Here I shall acquaint you with a remarkable Story which I received from a Citizen of Dublins testimony of good repute there and here wherein you may behold the promise made good to the Protestant side which the Lord himselfe made to his People Israel that five should chase a hundred It pleased God by one man and few with him to out-dare about thirty thousand of those cowardly Rebels whose cause is base whose Religion is but a meere pretence for their bloudy designes and thus it was as that Citizen related A very great Army of about thirty thousand Rebels besieged Drohedah wherein was that valiant and religious Commander Sir Henry Tichbourn with a few of the Protestant party with him in comparison of those multitudes of Rebels trusting to their great Army boldly demanded the Towne if they would yield no question but they should have faire quarter but Sir Henry knowing them its likely very well how perfidious they were and the lesse to be believed the more they swore and execrated themselves resolutely replyed and sent the Rebels this Answer Be it knowne to you I am a Souldier bred and wil never yield but upon three conditions 1 Before I surrender I will kill all the Papists in the Town 2 I will destroy all the Nunneries 3 I will fire the Towne and march in the light of it by the help of God to Dublin Nay rather then I will give up I will feed on a piece of a dead horse and if that faile I will eat the shoulder of an old Popish Alderman This bone hee threw among those hungry wolves and you may imagine how they relished it And that remarkable instance which was published by order of the Right Honorable the House of Lords concerning this Noble and Religious Knight Sir Henry Tichbourn how it pleased God to honour him with a succesfully victory against the Rebels now very lately they being driven in Drohedah to eat horse flesh for want of other provision The Rebels having chained up the River in hope to keepe out provision by Sea that no reliefe might come from Dublin it pleased God to raise such a storme that broke the chain and scattered the enemies boats and opened a free passage from Dublin whereby they were relieved blessed be God Thus the Lord fought for them by winds and Seas As the windes and Seas obey him and hee rules in them so on the land he rules It is not by many but by few one shall chase a hundred when God sights for his people Pulling them about the streetes by the haire of the head dashing the Childrens braines against the postes saynge these were the Pigges of the English Sowes Droghedah so bloked up that a bushell of wheate was fold for 23. Shill meate scarce to be had at any rate Ian 4. 1641. Here take notice of their cowardise againe attempted on a noble Lady by a Letter sent from seven of the grand Rebels with her resolute and undaunted answer to them as followâ— The Rebels Letter to the Lady Offalia in her Castle at Geshel To the honorable and thrice vertuous Lady the Lady Digby these give Honorable WE his Majesties loyall Subjects being at