3 11 
IRE] 
■ cliffs in Ulfter; but, as a ftep preparatory to this enter- 
prife, it was neceflary to obtain poffeflion of Liffiurn. Five 
hundred ill-armed men were affembled for the defence of 
this town: being feafonably reinforced by the arrival of 
fir Arthur Tyringham and fir George Rawdon, they re- 
pulfed a body of 4000 infurgents in a moll furious at¬ 
tempt to ltorm this pod, in which they are laid to have 
killed thrice their own number of the afl'ailants. Enraged 
by this and other Ioffes, the rebels wreaked their revenge 
on their unhappy proteftant prifoners, mod of whom had 
fallen into their hands without refillance. On the furren- 
der of Lurgan, the inhabitants, in defpite of a folemn ca¬ 
pitulation, were perfidioudy fiaughtered. On one occafion 
the protedants of three contiguous parilhes were maflacred, 
and at another, lord Caulfield and fifty perfons with him 
were put to death. The rebels, as Leland informs us, 
fometimes fecured their vidlims in fome houfe or cadle, 
which they fet on fire with a brutal indifference to their 
cries, and a hellifli triumph over their expiring agonies. 
Sometimes the captive Englifh were plunged into the fird 
river to which they arrived with their tormentors. One 
hundred and ninety were at. once precipitated from the 
bridge of Portedown. Irifli ecclefiadics were feen encou¬ 
raging the carnage. The women forgot the tendernefs of 
their lex, purfued the Englilh with execrations, and im¬ 
brued their hands in blood. Even children, in their feeble 
malice, lifted the dagger againd the helplefs prifoners. 
Thofe whoefcaped the utmodfury of the rebels,languifhed 
in miferies horrible to be defcribed. Their imaginations 
were overpowered and difordered by the recollections of 
tortures and butchery. In their diftraftion every tale of 
horror was eagerly received,and every fuggeftion of phrenzy 
and melancholy implicitly believed. Miraculous efcapes 
from death, miraculous judgments on murderers, lakes 
and rivers of blood, marks of daughter indelible by every 
human effort, vifions of fpirits chaunting hymns, ghods 
rifing from rivers, and fhrieking out revenge ; thefe and 
fuch-like fancies were received and propagated as incon- 
tedable. For the fake of humanity, it were to be wiflied 
that atrocities equally favage with thofe here defcribed by 
the hiftorian, could not be laid to the charge of the Irifli 
protedants. It is related that the troops in garrifon at 
Carrickfergus, making an incurfion, one night in January 
164?., into the neighbouring didriCt of Ifland Magee, in¬ 
habited by about thirty catholic families who had taken 
no part in the rebellion, murdered all thefe unoffending 
and unrefiding people in their beds, without didinftion 
of age or fex. 
The king, finding himfelf incapable of making any ef¬ 
fectual exertion for the reduction of the rebels, recom¬ 
mended the care of Ireland to the Englifh parliament. 
The popular party refolved to convert this conceffion 
into an'engine for Charles’s dedruCtion. It was their 
policy to prevent a fpeedy pacification, as a protraCted 
war would afford various pretexts for augmenting their 
own power, and for providing money and* arms, appa¬ 
rently to be irfed againd the rebels, but in reality againd 
the king. In this fydem they were feconded by the 
lords jullices, who were moreover influenced by the hope 
of gain from extenfive confifcations. By this mifcon- 
duCt of the adminidration, the rebellion acquired con- 
fiderable extent before the end of the year 1641. Drog¬ 
heda had been early befieged by the rebels* who cut off 
a detachment of fix hundred men fent to relieve the town. 
This fuccefs made fuch an impreflion on the catholics of 
the Pale, who were befides left unarmed and expofed by 
the government to the violence of the rebels, that fome 
of the principal nobles were perfuaded to join the latter. 
The flame of infurreftion fpread with rapidity through¬ 
out Connaught; the county of Clare was overrun by the 
O’Briens; the town of Kilkenny was feized by lord 
Mountgarret, and in a few days almofl every place of 
drength in that county, and in thofe of Waterford and 
Tipperary, fell into the hands of the infurgents. All Mun- 
Acr, indeed, would have foon been in their poffeflion, had 
A N D. 
they not been weakened by difunion. In that province 
fir William St. Leger, the lord prelident, was taking the 
molt cruel vengeance on the innocent as well as the guilty, 
for fome petty ravages ; and fome flaughters were alfo 
committed there by the rebels on defencelefs proteftants. 
The principal military operation hitherto undertaken 
by the infurgents, to whom Roger Moore, their leader 
had given the appellation of the Catholic army, was the fiege 
of Drogheda, in which, though their number amounted to 
zo,ooo, they were foiled in every attempt. Notwithftand- 
ing the arrival of fome reinforcements from.England, no 
enterprife of confequence was undertaken by the lords 
jullices, who refilled all the importunities of the earl of 
Ormond, and other officers, for permiffion to attack the 
rebels, and were content with fending out detachments to 
ravage and lay wade the country. At length fir Henry 
Tichburne, governor of Drogheda, having obtained from 
Ormond a reinforcement of five hundred men, attacked 
the rebels with fuch fury, that they were defeated in fpite 
of their vail fuperiority, on which he purfued them to 
Dundalk, and diflodged them from that polt. The ca¬ 
tholics of the Pale, who had affefled to aft ieparately from 
the northern Irilh, finding from their condufl in thefe 
affairs how little reliance could be placed on their fupport, 
now defired to be admitted under the proteflion of the 
government; but, by the command of the lords jullices, 
all who made application for this purpofe were feized, 
thrown into confinement, and threatened with the utmoll 
rigour of the law. In order to procure information favour¬ 
able to their primary objefl,an extenfive forfeiture of lands, 
the rapacious chief governors even applied the torture to 
fome of thefe prifoners, and among the reft, to gentlemen 
of fortune and character. Finding, from thefe proceed¬ 
ings, that every avenue to an accommodation with the 
government was doled, the catholics of the pale relin- 
quilhed all hopes of fafety except by arms, and united 
their forces with thofe of Mountgarret. Thefe confede¬ 
rates, conipofing an army of 8000 foot and fome troops 
of horfe, proceeded to intercept the earl of Ormond, who, 
with about half their number, had marched into the 
county of Kildare, to ravage the poffeflions of the rebels, 
and to relieve the blockaded caltles. Coming up with 
him at Kilrulh, they made a furious, but confufed and 
unfteady, attack. At the firlt charge their left wing was 
broken ; the right retired in good order to an eminence, 
but foon fled with precipitation ; feven hundred were kill¬ 
ed, and the reft difperfed. Ormond, dellitute of provifions 
and ammunition, was unable to purfue his advantage. 
The fucceffes of the troops employed againlt the infur¬ 
gents were but too frequently fullied with cruelties cal¬ 
culated only to confirm them in their oppofition. Lord 
Clanricard having, in order to prevent the devaftation of 
the country, entered into an accommodation with the in¬ 
habitants of Galway, this meafure was leverely cenfured 
by the chief governors, who forbade officers to grant pro¬ 
tections, and to hold correfpondence with Irifli or papilts, 
but commanded all rebels and thole who harboured them 
to be profecuted with fire and fword. Thefe orders are 
faid to have been punctually obeyed by fome bodies of 
the army. Among the reft, fir William Cole's regiment 
is recorded with horrible applaul'e by Borlafe, perhaps 
with boaftful exaggeration, to have ftarved 7000 perfons, 
whofe goods were ieized by that regiment. 
A treaty having been concluded with the Scottiffi par¬ 
liament for the furnilhing of 10,000 men for the reduc¬ 
tion of Ulfter, the firft divifion took poffeflion of Carrick¬ 
fergus in April 1642. Being joined by a detachment of 
the royal army, they reduced the caltle of Newry, and 
then employed themfelves in plundering the country. 
Thefe were followed by the reft of the Scottiffi auxiliaries 
under the earl of Leven, who on his arrival in Ireland 
found himfelf at the head of 20,000 foot and 1000 
cavalry. On the other hand, the drooping fpirits of the 
rebels were fomewhat revived by the long-sxpected arri¬ 
val of Owen O’Nial, an able and prudent officer, who, 
landing 
