Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

1650. tured, in person, to meet Cromwell, Ireton, or Jones, after his disgrace at Rathmines. He strengthened as much as he could the regicides, by sending, as Orrery expressed it, "all those worthy protestants, who till then had served him, to come off to the rest of the protestants, (then headed by Ireton himself) esteeming those less ill, to whom he sent his friends, than those, from whom he sent them." After Ormond had done what lay in his power, to encrease the strength of the regicides, and reduce that of the confederates, he quitted Ireland, leaving to the Earl of Clanricarde the wrecks of his boasted, dissipated, and bartered powers. He fled to France, and in a foreign clime, basely vaunted of his attachment to a cause, which he had sold, betrayed, and ruined. Lord Broghill sold himself to Cromwell personally, and received from his hand the lieutenancy of Ireland, upon an assurance, that he should have no oaths or engagements imposed upon him, nor be obliged to draw his sword against any but the Irish rebels. Coote, (afterwards Lord Montrath), with less ceremony, went over with the protestants of his northern army to the regicides. It was the object next to Cromwell's heart, to raise every power against the only force that still remained staunch to the cause of royalty. It was his policy to disfigure the enviable firmness of loyalty by the fashionable hatred of popery.

For the particulars of this treacherous negociation between Cromwell and Broghill, see my Historical Review, Vol. I. p. 162, &c.

He had the address to avail himself of the enthusiasm of the day, and represent his own as the protestant cause, notwithstanding independency were more remote than popery from the principles and practice of the established church.

arts.

1650.

massacre at

and Wex

Cromwell too well knew the consequence of Irish Siege and loyalty not to postpone all other views to the crush- Drogheda ing of this last stay to the sinking power of the Stu- ford. He landed at Dublin on the 15th of August, 1650, with 8000 foot and 4000 horse, an immense quantity of ammunition, and a rich military train. After that city had been sold to the Parliamentarians by Ormond, the possession of it was confirmed to the regicides by the disgraceful defeat at Rathmines. Here Cromwell remained a fortnight to refresh his men and make proper arrangements for the conquest of the kingdom. He marched to Drogheda with a force of 10,000 men, Sir Arthur Aston, who commanded the garrison, consisting of about three thousand men, rejected his summons to surrender. Cromwell battered the town incessantly for nearly 48 hours. Twice were his men repulsed in attempting to force a breach. Cromwell, enraged at the firm resistance of the brave defenders, headed the third attack in person, and carried the place by storm. In order to damp the vigour of the garrison, he proclaimed quarter to all that would lay down their arms. The governor, to spare the effusion of human blood, yielded to the intreaties of the inhabitants, and surrendered. Cromwell kept his word for two days, and when he had completely disarmed the garrison, he ordered the

Cromwell marches to

whole to be massacred in cold blood. Thirty only escaped the butchery, and they were transported to Barbadoes. This extraordinary severity, Ludlow coolly says, he presumed was used to discourage others from making opposition. With the like apathy does the same republican general observe, that at Wexford the slaughter was almost as great as at Drogheda. Wexford was betrayed by colonel Stafford, whom Ormond had appointed Governor of the Castle.

The situation of Ireland was at this juncture lathe South. mentably distracted. The confederates were the most numerous and powerful party that hung together. They were odious to Ormond: and Ormond was suspected, dreaded, and detested by them. Cromwell added vigilance and vigour to the terror and dismay of his inhuman severity. The few protestants, who still remained loyal under Ormond, were not unmindful of the encouragement he had given them to go over to the parliamentarian rebels. His inability and reluctance to face the enemy encouraged Cromwell to pro

* The Marquis of Ormond in his letter to the king and lord Byron, says, "that on this occasion Cromwell exceeded himself, and any thing he had ever heard of, in breach of faith and bloody inhumanity; and that the cruelties exercised there for five days after the town was taken, would make as many several pictures of inhumanity as are to be found in the Book of Martyrs, or in the relation of Amboyna." 2 C. Orm. 84. Pity it was, that Ormond had not been as prompt to check the progress of Cromwell with his sword, as he was to describe his inhumanity with his pen. According to Dr. Anderson, Roy. Gen. 786, Cromwell made his soldiers believe, that "the Irish ought to be dealt with as the Canaanites in Joshua's time."

ceed to the South: his success in this progress was chequered. Ross surrendered on conditions. Duncannon resisted under the valiant Wogan, and with the aid of Lord Castlehaven obliged Ireton to raise the siege. Inchiquin, the peculiar confidant of Ormond, was defeated by Cromwell, and Ormond was forced to retreat to Kilkenny. Cromwell failed in two attacks upon Waterford *. He surprized Carrick-upon-Suir: and retired from Kilkenny on his first approach, upon receiving information, that one Tickle, through whose treachery the place was to have been surrendered to him, had been detected and hanged two days before his troops had arrived before the town. The winter was now set in, and Cromwell, whose army was not in a situation to return for winter quarters to Dublin, and who was so little of a general as not to have provided for this imperious exigency of an exterminating army in an hostile country, found relief in perfidy, which, next to inhumanity, he mostly throve by. Through the secret efforts of Broghill, whom Cromwell had seduced from his allegiance and honour, the whole protestant army of Inchiquin, in whose possession all the chief towns of Munster then were,

* The citizens of Waterford had the utmost mistrust of Ormond. They refused to admit his soldiers into the garrison, or even permit them to be lodged in huts under the walls. It is reported, that in a solemn council of the corporation, it was proposed to seize the person of Ormond, and declare all, who served under him enemies. Such was the horror, in which he was holden by the generality of the Irish confederates.

[blocks in formation]

1650.

1650.

Siege and

surrender of

at once revolted, and admitted the regicide troops as friends and allies. Here they safely wintered.

[ocr errors]

In the month of February they again took the field, Kilkenny. and commenced the siege of Kilkenny. The garrison of that place had been reduced by the plague from 1200 to 450 men, the command of whom had been left to Sir Walter Butler by Lord Castlehaven, who had been urged to retire from the danger of that pestilential infection *. Yet they defended themselves with such determined resolution, that the English general was about to raise the siege, when the mayor and citizens advised him secretly to persevere. He renewed the assault, and the city and castle surrendered on honourable terms; Cromwell condescending to applaud them for the bravery of their defence. The town of Kilkenny was the property of Ormond, and every magistrate and citizen in it his creature. Cromwell, finding that his troops made no progress in Ireland, but by treachery or cruelty, resolved to leave them to his generals, who certainly had more military skill than himself. He gave out that he was summoned to England to head the army against a threatened invasion by the Scots in favor of the young Charles Stuart. When he sailed from Dublin, he deputed the command of his English forces to Ireton, to lead them against Ormond and the confederates. Most of the strong holds and fortresses in Munster successively surrendered to the rebel forces under Ireton. One of the last public acts

Of this same plague the rebel general Ireton died at Limerick, on the 26th of November, 1651.

« AnteriorContinuar »