116 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1645. 



him by that Council, met with a body of Irish troops 

 marching to besiege Sligo, and joined with them. When 

 they came near that town, the garrison made a sally on 

 the 17th of October, charged the troops, utterly routed 

 them, killing the Archbishop of Tuam in the encounter ; 

 among whose baggage was found an authentic copy, 

 attested and signed by several bishops, of the treaty 

 concluded with them by the Earl of Glamorgan ; to 

 gether with an order from the Supreme Council for the 

 arrears of his Archbishopric ; a bull of the Pope ; and 

 several letters between the Archbishop and his agents 

 at Rome, Paris, and other places.* 



The result of these disclosures was, that when the 

 Council was assembled at Dublin on the 2 6th of Decem 

 ber, 1645, the Lord Digby came to the board, and 

 charging the Earl with suspicion of high treason, moved 

 that his person might be secured. This done, he pro 

 ceeded to substantiate the charge on most irrefragable 

 evidence ; wherefore the Lord Lieutenant and Council 

 gave a warrant for the commitment of the Earl to the 



custody of the Constable of Dublin Castle, in condition 



i/ 



of a close prisoner. 13 



We have uninterruptedly, thus far, followed Lord 

 Herbert, seen him created Earl of Glamorgan, and 

 eventually engaged by Charles the First in an extraor 

 dinary and extra-official capacity in Ireland ; where he 

 was delegated by the King to act in certain matters 

 intended to promote the royal cause. So secret and so 

 unheard of was this mysterious affair, that it is without 

 a parallel in history. A Protestant monarch and a 

 Koman Catholic nobleman are the sole actors in this 

 strange drama ; a monarch whose crown was tottering 

 to its fall consequent on successive losses, opposed to 



* Husband s Collection, p. 787, &c. edit. London, 1646, fol. and Kushworth, 

 Part IV. Vol. I. p. 239. 13 Birch, p. 94. 



