Instances of Children killed and eaten. 229 



rebels were driven to unspeakable extremities, 

 beyond the record of past histories that ever I 

 did find on that head, the ample relation whereof 

 were an infinite task ; yet will I not pass it over 

 without relating some few instances. Captain 

 Trevor, and many other gentlemen lying in 

 Newry, can witness the same. Old women of 

 these parts used to make a fire on the fields, 

 and divers little children driving out the cattle 

 in cold mornings, and comeing hither to warm 

 them, were by them surprised, killed, and eaten, 

 which at last was discovered a great girl 

 breaking from them by strength of body ; and 

 Captain Trevor sending out soldiers to know 

 the truth, they found the children's skulls and 

 bones, and apprehended the old women, who 

 were executed for the fact." 



No spectacle it seems was more frequent in the 

 ditches of towns, especially in those of wasted 

 countries, than to see multitudes of these poor 

 people lying dead, with their mouths all colour- 

 ed green, by eating nettles, docks, and other 

 things they could weed up above ground. 



Nothing can better illustrate the policy of 

 James the First, than by contrasting it with the 

 conduct of his predecessor. The principles of 

 one carrying desolation and destruction through 



