334 Timehri. 
does notset hismen’sthoughtsso high. His word is “ Ormonde,” the name of tha 
loyal but narrow-minded Marquis of the great Irish Norman house of 
Butler, under whose feeble leadership the opponents of the Parliament 
of England are, for the moment at least, nominally united. The word indicates 
the composition of the garrison, English royalists of both religions and royalist 
Catholic Anglo-Irish of the Pale, the latter greatly predominating ; scarcely a 
Mac or O among the whole three thousand. No General would have dared to 
give a purely Irish army the name of this particular King’s Lieutenant as a 
gathering word. They distrust him and will soon deny him admission to their 
remaining towns. Patriotic Butlers are numerous enough: his uncle Mount- 
garret, Muskerry his brother-in-law, and many of his kin are Confederate 
Generals, but James of Ormonde is playing the safer game of the astute house 
of Argyle. Drogheda atleast he is slow to relieve. The dead, under high 
authority, are to bury their dead. ; 
Twice the Roundhead storming parties force the breach and twice they are 
hurled back by the gallant defenders. Then as the dusk of the early October 
evening gathers in, Cromwell leads the third charge in person. The memories 
of Marston and Naseby are revived as the Ironsides see once more the gleam 
of the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. They will see it yet again in the 
valley of Dunbar. A berserker rage seizes both leader and followers and 
a fierce onrush gives them the command of the entrenchments and of 
St. Mary’s Church. Let us first hear Cromwell’s own story as written 
forthwith to the Parliamentof England :— 
“* Divers of the enemy retreated to the Millmount, a place very strong and of 
“ difficult access, being exceeding high, having a good graft and strongly pali- 
““sadoed. The Governor, Sir Arthur Aston, and divers considerable officers 
“ being there, our men getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all 
“to the sword. And indeed being in the heat of action, I forbade them to 
“‘gpare any that were in arms in the town ; and I think that night they put to 
“the sword about 2,000 men. ”’ 
The slaughter, however, did not end with the night nor with the armed 
men. Down the street leading to St. Peter’s Church local tradition says that 
streams of blood flowed from the indiscriminate slaughter of soldiers and 
citizens. It bears the name of Bloody Street to this day. St. Peter’s Church 
was fired and a hundred desperate defenders perished in the flames. They 
refused to yield. They had seen the massacre of all who had surrendered— 
some at least on terms of quarter. Cromwell continues :— 
“The next day the two other towers were summoned in one of which was about 
“six or seven score, but they refused to yield themselves, and we knowing that 
“hunger must compel them set only good guards to secure them from running 
“away until their stomachs were come down. From one of the said towers 
* notwithstanding their condition they killed and wounded some of our men. 
“ When they submitted their officers were knocked on the head and every tenth 
“ man of the soldiers killed and the rest shipped for the Barbadoes. The soldiers 
“in the other tower were all spared (as to their lives only) and shipped likewise 
“for the Barbadoes. ” 
