When Cromwell came to Drogheda; a memory of 1649

WHEN CBOMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA

BY THE SAME AUTHOR
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THE PERFECT REST

KISM SQUIREENS
ILEEM MAVOURNEEI*
POOR MOLLY TRESSADY

When Cromwell Came
to Drogheda

a flfcemonp of 1649

EDITED FROM THE RECORD OF

CLARENCE STRANGER, A CAPTAIN IN TBh ARMY
OF OWEN ROE O'NEILL

BY

RANDAL MCDONNELL

Owen Roe, our own O'Neill, ^

He treads once more our land I
The sword in his hand is of Spanish steel,

But the hand is an Irish hand." —

DK VKREt

4 By suffering worn and weary,
Lvt beautiful as some fair angel yet."

M. H. GILL & SON, LTD,

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Wften Cromfoell camr

A MEMOEY OF 1649.

CHAPTER I.

Which tells of my first great sorrow, and how a
stranger came to my father's house in the dead
of the night.

WHEN my father died at Galway in the
year '41 he left me little but his
own good name and the old sword
which had served him well on
many a hopeless field.

I remember well the day he died — one summer
evening at the close of fair July when the good
priest Father Latham called me in to hear his
final message.

I knelt beside the bed and took the worn
white hands within my own and my tears fell
silently as he feebly blessed me and pointed to
the sword upon the wall.

a N CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

" Wear it always," he whispered, " for Ire-
land. I have been hunted from my home and
ruined for the sake of a false king. I have been
trar ross the desolated land like a beast of

prey, but I never swerved from the call of
honour or changed sides like the others when
they saw the game was lost. For Ireland I have
fought a good fight, I have kept the Faith."

He died that evening, passing with the setting
sun and leaving me alone in the world.

That night I took the old sword from the wall

and kissed the rugged hilt, and prayed that I

might wear it too as he had done, and leave

ind me when the years had passed away as

stainless and as sweet a name.

Two days afterwards the funeral took place
and the coffin was conveyed to Tuam, for he had
expressed a wish that he might rest in the old
churchyard of Temple Jarlath where my mother
had been buried some ten years before.

How well I remember that melancholy journey.

The rain was falling heavily as we left old
Galway town, and as I looked back from that
_^ht from which so 1 iew of sea and land

is to be obtained on a summer's day I saw nothing
but a leaden sky and angry ocean, and a fog-
screened ci1

A MEMORY OF 1649. 3

We passed along the road to Tuam (God knows
the worst road ever planned by man) until we
reached Clare-Galway ; and then after some
twenty miles of desolation we touched Clare-
Tuam, and then the old Cathedral city of St.
Jarlath which nestles in a hollow of the land.

This is a town to be remembered not without
pain by one who has lived as many years as I
have in sunny Spain and among the vine -clad
hifts of France. Two small streets around the
old Cathedral and the little churchyard and then
away on every side long stretches of desolation.

After the funeral I stopped here for five whole
days with my cousin, Rupert Gannon, at his house
beside the Bridge.

I found these five days far too much.

Filled with the sorrow of my father's death I
found myself unable to appreciate the charms
of the country which my cousin set forth in suoh
glowing language. On the first day I had felt
in all conscience sad enough, but on the last day
my gloom had so increased that I felt a strong
desire to wander to the top of Knockma and
turning my gaze from Tuam towards Croagh-
Pa trick to die without further pain.*

* For a modem account of Tuam after a lapse of nearly three
centuries there would appear to be no immediate necessity for
re-editing Captain Stranger's melancholy description.

4 WHEN CPOMWFM. CAME TO DROGTIEDA.

was tlirn-fnTv with a sense <»f d«-.-p /olio! that
I Irit the town and turned my steps towards
Galway.

But it must be confessed that if the town of
Tuam is not one of the beauty spots in a land of
beauty, it is at least redeemed by sweet and holy
memories.

1 1 ere on this sacred spot once walked the holy
Jarlath whose name and memory live to-day
enshrined hi faithful hearts.

A few short miles away lie the ruins of Cluain-
fois, that mighty school of learning which he
founded and among whose names are written
those of Cuthbert, St. Colman, and the gentle
Brendan.

Hard by Cluainfois is the churchyard and
Round Tower of Kilbannon where the good
Benin taught a future race of saints, the fore-
runners of that faithful band who at the risk of
life and limb still minister the consolations of
the old religion, and soothe the horrors of the
grave and draw the sting from Death.

It was late on that day when I reached my
home in Galway now only occupied by Father
Latham and by me.

Our house was situ: it rd on the rising ground

A MEMORY OF 1649. $

above Salt Hill, and only distant a few hundred
yards from the sea. How often has the in-
expressible sadness of the moaning waves soothed
my tired eyes to slumber or awakened the spirit
of restless longing when I paced the sandy shore
— the longing for an opportunity to follow in my
father's steps.

This house and a small plot of land beside it
was all that had been left to our family after the
recent confiscations, for we had once possessed
broad lands in the County of Roscommon, but
that scoundrel, Wentworth, had carried out his
work with ardour and an English family had
been " planted " on the old ancestral home.

One evening Father Latham came in to bid
me a hurried good-bye.

" I am off to join Mr. 0' Moore," he said,
" and to aid as far as I can the cause of Ireland."

I little knew at that time that he alluded to
the Rising of '41 which broke out a short while
afterwards and was waged with a terrible ferocity
by both combatants — the Irish Catholics on one
side and the English Planters on the other.

Those were lonely days that followed his
departure. I used to spend them in reading the
books that were grouped in our dusty library or

6 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

by wandering along the quays and watching with
interest the ships of different styles that came
from Spain and France; for our commerce
with those countries was still considerable
although England had done her best to ruin and
destroy it.

The monotony of my home life was often
broken by a visit from my distant relatives, the
Brandons, who drove in from Oranmore, for my
cousin Shiela was nearly always with them, and
when she came the world for me seemed brighter
and the shadows of my recent sorrow faded in
the sunshine of her presence.

A lovely girl she was in those well remembered
days — cold like ice to strangers but very sweet and
very gentle to those whom she knew and loved.

One day she fixed her dark eyes on me and
looked me over with some contempt.

' What are you staring at, cousin ? " said I.

" I was thinking that it was time you stopped
this fooling and set about doing something in
the world," she cried.

For shame I could make her no reply.

" Is there nothing to be done for this poor
land," she went on angrily, " no fight to be won
for the old Religion ? "

A MEMORY OF 1649. 7

At this I could stand her no longer and I fairly
broke down. It was foolish enough I grant you,
but you must remember that I was little more
than a boy at that time, and though my cousin
was of the same age she treated me like a six-
teenth younger brother. Besides all this I had
come to love her deeply even then, and she was
perfectly aware of it.

" You talk of the old Keligion," I cried in a
broken voice, " but what does your religion teach
you ? "

The frown faded from her face and the dark
eyes lit up with the old gentle smile.

" Surely it tells us to love one another," she
answered softly and with a fine air of innocence.
" Oh, forgive me, cousin, for my seeming harsh-
ness, but I want you to do something worthy of
our name ! "

If she had only understood then as she
understood afterwards how entirely such a longing
had already taken possession of my heart.

The year '41 with its terrible memories now
passed away and it was not until July, '42, that
Father Latham returned to me at last.

He came in as I was sitting in the lonely parlour
reading my favourite book — Edmund Spenser's

8 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

ierie Queen "—and taking my hand in his
strong firm clasp he gave me a hearty greeting.

" Tlu-rc will be more stirring times in Ireland
soon," he said, " and a great blow is about to be
st ruck for the old Faith and for the lost freedom.
Your chance of carrying out your father's will
may come sooner than you expect, for I have
received news that a great Leader will soon land
secretly on the coast of Donegal, and I expect a
messenger from him to-night with dispatches.
Shall I tell you more ? "

I took his hand in mine, this faithful friend of
cur fallen fortunes, this good brave man who
had risked so much for his religion and was
willing to yield his life.

" Tell me everything," I cried, "tell me that
my father's dream is about to be realised, and
tell me the part that I may bear for the honour
of our name."

' You speak too quickly," he answered gently,
" you must be discreet as well as brave and wait
iu patience for your part in the great approaching
drama."

1 This is essentially a Catholic movement,"
Father Latham went on, " but nevertheless
Irishmen of all creeds are welcomed to our ranks

A MEMORY OF 1649. 9

if they are willing to combine with us against
the common foe. A united Ireland was your
father's dream, and when we were together in
Spain some five years ago waiting upon Colonel
O'Neill he wrote some lines on the same subject
that stick in my memory still. They sounded
like a trumpet call to Ireland," he added wist-
fully, " God grant that they may some day be
fulfilled," and he repeated the following lines in
his clear unfaltering voice : —

' Comrades, who the vigil keeping
Watch and tend the sacred fire,
Though the land we love lies weeping
Plundered of her hearfs desire.
Through the darkness thickly falling
Gleams the dawning silver light,
Hark ! the, sound of trumpet calling
Rouse you, gird you for the fight ;
Hear the music, mark the token
When upon our ranks unbroken
Shall a shaft of glory shine —
You and I, and all the others —
Different creeds — and yet as brothers
Marching to a song divine ! "

He stopped speaking, and we both looked out

10 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

over the Bay where a great full moon threw her
silver light over the waters.

Suddenly Father Latham rose from his chair
and looked towards the moon-lit sea.

" Hush ! can you hear anything ? " he said.

I listened intently.

Far away in the dim distance came the sound
of muffled oars, and the creaking of the oars in
the row-locks was borne clearly on my ear.

" My God," I cried, " can this be the messenger
from O'Moore ? "

He pushed me back gently into the chair from
which I had arisen.

" Not from O'Moore," he said, in a tone of
triumph, while his eyes lit up with a peculiar
brightness, " not from O'Moore, for the Leader
I spoke of is a far greater man. This is an Irish
soldier fresh from the battle-fields of Spain,
whose name has rung through Europe. This is
the last hope of Ireland in whom she puts her
trust — in the Defender of Arras— in Owen Roe
O'Neill ! "

CHAPTER II.

How I first saw the messenger from Owen Roe
O'Neill, and how I set out with dispatches for
his kinsman, Sir Phelim, and Mr. O* Moore.

THE figure of a man advanced slowly in
the moonlight up the winding
avenue, and his shadow fell on
the grassy slopes near the entrance
to the hall door.

Then we both went out of the parlour to greet
him on the threshold, and as he advanced and
shook hands with Father Latham I saw that he
was dressed in the uniform of a Spanish officer.

" The Captain has not landed after all," he
said, in answer to Father Latham's enquiry.
" We heard that Monroe has spies in Galway
and thought it safer to take no risk. I have
been sent to bring you on board to him for a
consultation of the utmost importance. The
vessel is lying one mile off Barna and there is
not a moment to be lost."

Father Latham saw the look of disappoint-
ment in my face, and said in answer, " I will be

WHEN CROMWF.I.L CAMK TO DROGHEDA.

ready in five minutes, and you must let me take
my young friend with us as I have important
reasons for introducing him to the Captain."

The officer raised no objection and we all set
out together.

That voyage was delicious over the quiet
moon-lit sea, and my spirits rose when the dark
hull of the vessel loomed in the distance.

After boarding her Father Latham went down
into the Captain's cabin while I remained upon
the deck, and it was not until half an hour had
passed that a Spanish sailor came to conduct
me into his presence. He was talking eagerly
to Father Latham when I entered and the small
swinging lamp which was attached to the ceiling
lit up his handsome face. As I advanced into
the cabin Father Latham introduced him as
Captain O'Farrell, and after his cordial greeting
I was soon perfectly at my ease.

"I knew your father in Spain," he said,
"and the good Father here has told me your
story. You seem young to be a soldier but you
have a comely bearing, and can ride and shoot
and use the broad-sword well. I have arranged
with Father Latham to give you your first com-
mission, which is to bring important dispatches

A MEMORY OF 1649. *3

to Colonel Phelim O'Neill and Mr. O'Moore at
Enniskillen," and he unlocked a small drawer
and handed me a sealed packet, giving me at the
same time some careful instructions. As I was
thanking him the captain of the vessel came
down to tell us that the tide had turned, and
that the ship must sail at once.

We bid Captain O'Farrell a hearty farewell,
and as he held my hand he said — " Young man,
if you should prove yourself a faithful messenger
for the cause, you may rely upon it that O'Neill
will not forget."

How my heart beat at those words, and it was
with a glow of pride that I mounted to the deck
with the precious dispatches buttoned into the
pocket of my coat.

Father Latham's pride was only equalled by
my own, and as we rowed home he praised the
General's nobleness of character in glowing
language, and he told me that his ship had
already started from Dunkirk, and sailing round
the north of Scotland would soon reach the coast
of Donegal.

As we landed near the house three figures came
suddenly round the bend of the road from Barna
and passed by us going towards the city.

14 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

When we had gone on a few yards Father
Latham suddenly turned his head in their
direction.

" Oh, I thought so," he muttered angrily,
" they are watching us."

Neither of us spoke again but passed quietly
into the house.

That night it was arranged that I was to set
out on my mission on the following evening.

In the early morning, after a few hours rest,
I saddled my horse and rode over to Oranmore,
but only to receive a keen disappointment, for I
found that my cousin, Shiela, had left three days
before on a visit to her uncle, at the old castle
of Dardistown in the County of Meath, some few
miles from Drogheda.

That evening after sunset, armed with my
sword and double pistols, I led my horse round
to the hall-door where Father Latham was
waiting to bid me farewell.

" Be faithful to the cause," he said, " dare
all except dishonour. May the good God watch
over you, my boy, and grant that you may live
*-o do good work for O'Neill and for Ireland."

Then he gave me his solemn blessing and I set
out upon my journey towards the city

CHAPTER III.

Which tells of a ride for life, and how fate out-
witted the spies of General Monroe.

THE night shadows were falling as I
entered the walled city through
one of the southern gates.

As I passed through the market
street at the back of St. Nicholas' Church I
glanced at the old house of James Lynch Fitz-
stephen, a former warden of Galway, who more
than a hundred years before had hung his own
son for crime. An action truly laudable,
showing how an overwhelming sense of justice
could stifle all decent parental feeling.

In the fading light I could just catch the faint
inscription beneath a skull and cross-bones on
the wall : —

1624.

REMEMBER DEATH VANITI OF VANITI

AND ALL IS BUT VANITI.

And the quaint inscription gave me food for
solemn thoughts as I pondered on Father
Latham's words.

l6 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Thus musing I rode to the northern entrance
of the town and passed out towards the Tuam
road.

The bells of St. Nicholas were tolling solemnly
as I turned and looked back at the frowning
walls and the towers of the city gates. Then I
crossed myself and rode on into the increasing
darkness.

I had ridden for about four miles at a good
sound trot and was walking up a slight hill near
Clare-Galway, when a sudden sense of danger
fell upon me and I stopped to listen.

Faint and far away came the sound of galloping
horses, and through the clear warm July evening
I could distinctly hear the tapping of many hoofs.
Then I remembered what Captain O'Farrell had
said about Monroe and his covenanting spies,
and determined to be on the safe side of my
suspicions I broke into a hard gallop.

My horse was running finely and the oppres-
sive sense of danger was fading from my breast
when I reached Clare-Galway and passed over
the bridge. I was almost opposite the massive
square tower of the old castle which had been
garrisoned by the Marquis of Clanricarde during
the recent rising of '41, and which lies on the

A MEMORY OF 1649. 17

right of the road, and I thought I could just
catch a glimpse of the tower of the Franciscan
Monastery on my left looming through the dark-
ness, when suddenly from one of the central
loop-holes I heard a harsh voice cry out—
" Halt ! in the King's name, or with the help
of God I'll put a bullet through your head,"
and I saw a musket barrel gleam from the tower.

A pleasant greeting truly for a hunted man !
For as it turned out afterwards the horsemen
behind me were three of Monroe's spies who had
been watching for the arrival of O'FarrelFs ship,
and who having tracked Father Latham and
me on the night of our visit had drawn their own
conclusions with a remarkable correctness.

Here, then, I was with my horse drawn up upon
the bridge and the three soldiers of the Parlia-
mentarians drawing nearer and nearer, while an
enthusiastic soldier of King Charles wished to
end my further progress in this world with an
ounce of lead.

But as I belonged to neither the King's party
nor to the Puritans I had but little intention if
I could help it of being either caught or killed,
and so striking spurs into my horse I dashed

forward past the castle, and as I came under the

c

l8 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

loop-hole of the tower I flung myself forward on
my horse's neck.

As I passed a musket shot rang out in the
night air and a bullet buried itself in the further
side of the road.

Once more I breathed freely and sped on
through the darkness.

Soon I passed Laghtgeorge and took the
Tuam road.

Thundering on behind me came the three
pursuers, but after I had covered some six miles
more I could hear the sound of pursuit growing
fainter, and I might indeed have outridden
them altogether when unfortunately my horse
fell lame and in spite of all my efforts of en-
couragement the pace fell woefully off.

When about one mile from the cross-road
which leads to Tuam or to Headford I could again
hear them coming up on me hand over hand.

The immortal hope that was burning in my

breast seemed suddenly quenched, and I had

<-n myself up for lost when the hand of fate

intervened and in a moment changed the entire

situation.

Approaching the crossing my horse stumbled
and fell on his knees and shot me like an arrow

A MEMORY OF 1649. IQ

from a bow into a deep damp ditch by the side
of the road. Then recovering himself and stung
by the pain of his bleeding limbs he galloped
furiously away round the bend of the Headford
road and was well on his way towards Castle -
Hackett when my pursuers dashed by me in the
darkness.

I could see the foam on the bridles and the
smoking flanks ; I could hear the rattle of the
swords and the straining of the girths as they
passed me on the full gallop leaving a cloud of
dust behind them, and choking the sweet night
air.

When the sound of hoofs had died away and
the blessed silence of a summer's night reigned
once more on all around, I raised myself from
the miry ditch and taking the turning towards
Tuam I ran with all the strength that my tired
limbs permitted, constantly pausing to listen in
terror and hearing imaginary sounds of pursuit
in the unbroken stillness of the night. Twice I
felt like fainting with weariness but managed to
struggle on, and some three-quarters of an houi
afterwards I was knocking loudly at my cousin's
house at the bridge — faint and weary and foot-
sore, but very thankful !

CHAPTER IV.

How I stopped in the city of Refuge, and how
cousin Rupert showed me the secret of the King.

Jl M Y cousin Rupert opened the door,
I VI for the old servant, Bridget, had

I (5) \ ^on8 a8° re^re(^ *° res^ an^ ke
stared in amazement at my dis-
hevelled appearance.

" I thought you had had enough of Tuam,"
he said.

" I have had enough of the Gal way road and
the Galway ditches," I answered, " and have
chosen the lesser of two evils."

Then he led me into the well lighted parlour
where he had been reading, surrounded by his
favourite books ; and then I told him all.

" And where was your mission to ? " he asked.

I blushed deeply and held up my hand, for
my cousin was one of the Catholic Royalists and
had no great love for the O'Neills.

" Promise not to ask any questions," I said,
u it must be sufficient for you to know that my
mission is one of honour in a righteous cause."

A MEMORY OF 1649. 21

"It is sufficient," he answered, " my lips are
sealed."

My cousin, as I have said, was a member of
the Koyalist Catholic party in Ireland and was
as infatuated a follower of the Stuarts as the
most ardent Cavalier in England could have
desired.

He would have sold his house and small be-
longings to have assisted in that cause, and would
have been rewarded with the same measure of
treachery and lies which seem to have been the
chief inheritance of the Stuart Race.

The life of the first Charles, whose throne was
tottering day by day, was dark with broken
vows ; while his son, who afterwards at the
Restoration had the most glorious opportunity
ever offered to a King, sold his country's honour
for the gold of foreign kings or to gratify the
whims of foreign mistresses.

Nothing, I think, could have shaken my
cousin's loyalty or his faith in England — not
even the book which I now saw lying open on
his table — Spenser's " View of the State of
Ireland."

And then, as final proof of what I have written,
on the wall near the window side of the fireplace

\VHKN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

was a full length portrait of Charles I.— a copy,
and a very bad one I think, of that picture of a
kingly face which Van-Dyck has made immortal.

My cousin soon went out and brought in some
supper — a chicken pasty and some wine — which
I treated with that justice which was due from
one who had youth and health and some twenty
miles of horse and pedestrian exercise to tempt
his appetite.

I watched my cousin while I ate, and knew
that he was thinking deeply. When I was
finished he rose up and went to the side of the
fireplace, and I saw him push something on the
wall.

To my utter astonishment the entire portrait
of the King slid sideways and disclosed a flight
of wooden steps leading underground.

4 Why did you never tell me of that before ? "
I said.

" I only show that secret," he answered, " to
those whose lives I value — when they are in

' What danger ? " I said scornfully, for the
good win i', I think, had made me mighty brave.

' You young fool," my cousin said, " do you
think that the class of men who are hunting you

A MEMORY OF 1649. 23

will be so easily avoided. They will overtake
your horse finally and find out their mistake ;
they will then retrace you here and will enquire
for your relations or your friends."

" And who will tell them ? " I said.

" Dear God," he cried, " you speak like a
child. How long do you think will they take
to find out all about you in a town where every-
body knows more about everybody else's busi-
ness than they do about their own ? "

At this I felt myself growing distinctly feeble —
the wine and the valour were beginning to wane.

" Is it that sort of a town ? " I said.

" It is," he cried, " and more. Oh it's a place
to be proud of — this Galway Paradise, and
peopled with the angels ! Firstly, there are the
few Protestant upstarts who infest the place, and
who gravely labour under the delusion that they
were born gentlemen ; whose purity of life is
beyond approach — not reproach. But it takes
a good many generations to make a gentleman,
and an overflow of wealth may gild an upstart,
but sure it cannot refine him. Then there are
the numerous Catholics who tamely gather round
these pillars of the Protestant faith in admira-
tion, instead of rising up and crushing out the

24 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

low-born adventurers. Sure this is enough to
make an honest man feel sick in his inside.
Then lastly comes his Grace — who being a man
of common sense keeps circling round his
ese — for the oftener round your Diocese the
longer out of Tuam. A week ago when he
returned they had a banquet in his honour,
and to judge by the grandeur of the talk one
might suppose that they mistook their mud
village for the centre of Catholic Christendom.
And all this, mind you, in a place that is scarce
marked upon the map. But enough of this,"
my cousin cried, " I shall ride off now to Captain
Anderson at Dunmore who has a party of the
King's men with him, and they may make
a great catch yet. But you had better keep
clear of both parties," he added, "or the
King's men may prove as inquisitive as the
Covenanters."

He then showed me the working of the secret

door which was simplicity itself. By pressing

the hidden knob at the fireplace the catch was

ased and the door slid back by means of

a weight. It was then drawn to by hand,

i could be re-opened on the farther side by

means of a similar knob.

A MEMORY OF 1649. 25

Then he showed me a slit in one side of the
picture where a watch could be kept on what
was taking place in the room.

" It did good service last year," cousin Rupert
said, " for it saved Father O'Rourke's life when
he was being hunted to certain death. The
secret passage runs under the bed of the river
and on for some four hundred yards, emerging
at last in an old disused well* only a shoit
distance from the Dunmore Road."

My cousin then rose to leave the room.

" A toast," he cried, " before I go."

" A toast to whom ? " I said.

" To the King," he cried.

" Oh, cousin, spare me that," I said, " it makes
me sick, the name of Charles of England. Ask
the Archbishop of Tuam and see what De-
Burgo thinks. Ask Burke, of Castle-Hackett,
or, better still, Clanricarde — for if ever a man
was staunch and true Clanricarde was, and yet
he knows that after all this blood and suffering
this King of yours would cast him off like a
shrunken rind on the day he had sucked him

* From a rough sketch on the side of the Stranger MSS. the
disused well was evidently situated on the rising corner of the
Palace demesne, next the JJunmore Road.

26 WHEN CROMWELL r.\ME TO DROGHEDA.

dry ; or if needs be would have him decoyed
across the Channel to make that last lonely
journey towards Tower Hill. Has the Rising
of '41 taught you nothing ? Will nothing prove
to you that these English robbers are bent on
the extermination of our race — the blotting out
of the old religion. Yet look at Ireland now
and what do you find ? The Catholic party
stands divided — one-half is flirting with His
Holiness the Pope and the King of France, the
other half is gazing on His Majesty of England.
One half looks southwards where the help can
never come, the other eastwards for the old
promises, for the broken pledges, for the
ancient lies ! Oh, Rupert will you never
understand ? "

The stern, intellectual face lit up angrily.
4 You have said enough," he cried, " my
God, you have said too much ; " and he turned
like a beast at bay and left the room.

I knew, however, that his anger would soon
cool, and it was not long before I heard him
giving Bridget orders that if anyone called
during his absence she was to give an evasive
answer, and after that he passed the window
on horseback and waved his hand to me. Then

A MEMORY OF 1649. 27

I heard him cantering up the rising ground
which leads to the Dunmore Road.

It was now one hour past midnight, and I
threw myself back in the covered armchair
by the fire to rest myself until my cousin's
return.

I could not, however, resist the drowsiness
which fell upon me, and in spite of a few feeble
efforts to conquer the inclination I was soon
in the land of dreams.

I slept for about an hour, and then suddenly
awoke and sat bolt upright in my chair, and
it did not take long I can tell you to shake off
all the effects of slumber, for through the open
parlour window, clear and hard, and terrible
to me, came the sound of horsemen riding down
the street. I gathered up my hat and cloak
from a neighbouring chair, blew out the lamp,
and muttering " with your Majesty's permission,"
I pressed the knob of the secret panel, when
the portrait of the King slid slowly backwards
and I stepped into the secret passage.

CHAPTER V.

How capture and death passed by me and fell
upon the spies of General Monroe.

FEW seconds after the horsemen wheeled
up outside the house, and after
some conversation, I heard them
knocking loudly with their sword
hilts against the hall door.

Bridget, the servant, aroused from her
slumbers, after a while opened the door with
considerable indignation, but at the same time
took in the situation, as was her wont, in a
single glance.

" The master might be in or he might not,"
she said in answer to the loud enquiries ; " the
divil only knows, for master Rupert's always
wanderin'." The three men pushed her
aside and began a thorough search through the
house.

Soon they came down disappointed into the
parlour and ordered some supper as though the
place belonged to them.

The remnants of my meal on the table puzzled

A MEMORY OF 1649. 29

them, but they came to the conclusion that
my cousin must have been banqueting before
his departure ; for all their cross -questioning
could draw nothing out of Bridget who was
attentive to their wants, polite beyond her usual
condition, and perfectly unfathomable.

They had eaten and drunk heavily, and my
body was growing weary from my cramped
position behind the secret panel, when the door
was quietly opened and my cousin stood before
them.

The three men started to their feet and drew
their swords.

" It will be useless, gentlemen," my cousin
said, " there will be no defence," and he pointed
to the open window.

To my intense surprise I saw three musket
barrels resting on the sash, and behind them
in the shadow I could discern faintly a group
of soldiers, while at that moment Captain
Anderson from Dunmore entered behind my
cousin, and was soon followed by half a dozen
more.

" It would, indeed, be hopeless to resist," he
said, advancing towards the tallest of the three
spies. " You are surrounded upon every side

3O WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

of the house, and are caught, gentlemen, like
rats in a trap ; so be good enough to give me
your swords and surrender in the King's name."

They saw, of course, that the game was up,
but yielded, I thought, rather tamely.

For my own part I think they might have
had a chance of escape had they charged the
soldiers at the open window and tried to cut
their way through. There were horses, too,
outside, and fortune, as we all know, favours
the brave and daring.

They must have imagined, I think, that
Captain Anderson would have treated them
as ordinary soldiers of the Parliamentarian
forces in Ireland, and that he could have had
no idea of their real calling. If so, they must
have had a rude awaking, for when searched
by the soldiers in charge fatal documents were
found upon one of them and they were con-
demned to be shot at sunrise.

It seemed a cruel thing to me, who was as
yet unused to the rapid military law which
gives the spy but a brief period of mercy, as
they were led away with a file of soldiers on
either side and conducted to a temporary
barrack at the end of the street

A MEMORY OF 1649. 31

When the house was empty and Captain
Anderson had set out on his return to Dunmore,
my cousin came back to the parlour and knocked
three times on the panel which I took for a
signal that all was clear, and came forth from
my hiding place.

" You are all right now," he said, smiling,
cc whatever other adventures fortune may have
in store for you these men at least will never
hurt you more."

" It seems terrible," I said, " that they must
die so soon and with so little preparation."

His face hardened as he answered.

" It is enough," said he, " that they were
spies and enemies of our King."

I was about to reply, " of your King," but
had received a sufficient dose of his bad temper
before on this subject and was wise enough to
hold my tongue. I thanked him, therefore,
very heartily for his kind actions in saving my
life, and retired at his request to his own bed-
room to get some few hours rest before con-
tinuing my journey to the north.

I had slept soundly for some two hours, and
had been dreaming of Shiela and home and

32 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO t>ROGHEt>A.

Galway, when the rattle of a musket volley
awoke me from my happy slumber.

I got up and went to the window. It was
the hour when the world around us always
seems to me most beautiful — when the dewy-
coated fields and lanes are bathed by the risen
sun, and the birds sing their happy songs of
welcome to the newly-awakened day ; but away
to my right in the back yard of a deserted house
I saw where death had cast her shadows on
the rapture of the scene.

A group of soldiers were carefully cleaning
their muskets and laughing coarsely among
themselves, while lying huddled together at
the foot of a back wall some ten paces away
I saw the bodies of three men.

The spies of General Monroe had passed into
eternity.

CHAPTER VI.

How I delivered the despatches in safety to Sir
Phdim O'Neill, and how I first met Owen Roe.

IT was far past noon on that eventful day
when I bid my cousin good-bye, and
took the Claremorris Road to the
north, and it was with a glad heart
that I left Tuam and its memories behind me,
and rode eagerly onwards to complete my
mission for O'Neill.

The memory of that ride comes back to me
clearly although the years are many that have
passed me by since then, and few would recognise
in the wrinkled grey-haired man the happy
youth whose heart was glowing with the love
of fatherland and whose mind was weaving
pictures of future glory under the banner of
O'Neill.

It was a good thing to leave the ugly country
around Tuam and to pass into the improved
scenery of Claremorris. From that point
onwards the country grew at every step more
pleasing to the eye, and when very late that

34 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

evening I reached the County Sligo, God knows
I would ask for nothing sweeter than the land
which lay around me.

That night I slept at a cottage some ten miles
from Collooney, and on the following morning
I passed through this lovely district and struck
north-east for Enniskillen.

On reaching Enniskillen I heard that Sir
Phelim O'Neill had retreated to a place called
Glasslough in the County of Monaghan, and
had there summoned together all his downcast
followers for a consultation as to the advisability
of ending the Rebellion on account of the
deplorable misfortunes into which his leadership
had been the means of leading them.

Upon reaching Glasslough on the following
day I found them on the point of breaking up
and departing to their several homes, when
my despatches announced to them the glorious
news of Owen's arrival in a few days off Donegal.
Then all was suddenly changed, and where
despair had reigned supreme there now sprang
up new hopes of future glory for the shattered
land of Erin.

A few days afterwards a messenger arrived
from Owen himself announcing his safe arrival

A MEMORY OF 1649. 35

at Doo Castle on the coast of Donegal with a
good supply of arms and ammunition for the
war.

On the following day we left Glasslough and
met our great Captain at Charlemont where
the other chiefs of Ulster also assembled to
do him honour. Sir Phelim presented me to
him in person, and he spoke a few kind words
of encouragement to me and thanked me for
my successful mission.

" When you are drilled and properly in-
structed," he said kindly, " I shall give you
your commission and have you attached to
my bodyguard."

Overcome at such a prospect, I thanked him
awkwardly and withdrew.

I can see him now in my imagination — that
lofty brow and strong-bearded face, with the
sharp straight nose and large dark eyes which
could pierce you with angry scorn or grow
tender like a woman's when he smiled.

It was not until many years afterwards that
I came across that portrait of him in Flanders,
painted by Van Brugens, but it seemed to me
to give but a faint resemblance of the martial
grandeur of the man.

30 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Immediately on his appointment as Com-
mander of the Ulster Forces O'Neill took up
the reformation of what was simply a rabble.
He saw at a glance that it would be utterly
useless to lead such men against the trained
warriors of Coote and of Monroe, but he knew
that with proper drilling and decent discipline
imposed they would make some of the finest
soldiers in the world.

The months following his arrival, therefore,
were devoted to this purpose, and the success
which attended his efforts will be shown to you
later on. In the meantime let me turn from
the drilling grounds of Ulster and tell you of
the different men and the different parties in
Ireland now striving for supremacy in those
stirring days.

CHAPTER VII.

Which contains a little history showing the state
of the different parties in Ireland on the
arrival of Owen Roe.

IT was towards the close of July, 1642,
that Owen Roe O'Neill had landed in
Ireland, and it was just one month
later when war was declared between
Charles I. and his Parliament.

To understand my memoir properly you
must understand the state of Ireland at this
time. There were four great parties in the
country. In the first instance there was the
party of the old Irish, whose members had been
so hopelessly oppressed by the English when
the Plantations took place and whose Catholic
religion had been so insulted that their hopes
were founded on an entire separation from
England. The leader of this party was our
gallant general, Owen Roe.

The next party was composed of the old
Anglo-Irish Catholics, who also suffered for their

38 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

religion and were affected also in a small degree
by the Plantations. They were, however, loyal
to the English connection and only looked for civil
and religious liberty. Their leader was Colonel
Preston, who was brother to Lord Gormanstown.

Thirdly comes the party of the Puritans, in
which was included the Presbyterians and the
Scots of Ulster, and the leader of this party
was General Monroe, who worked in conjunction
with the Covenanters of Scotland and the Par-
liament of England against King Charles. This
party was, therefore, the especial opponent of
the old Irish party — firstly, because of their
Catholic religion, and secondly, because of their
national aims which, should they prove success-
ful, would mean the driving back of the Scotch
into Scotland or else into the Irish sea.

Lastly came the Royalist party who were in
possession of the city of Dublin. The men
composing this party were chiefly of the
testant religion, and acting with that peculiar
sense of honour which has always characterised
the Protestants of Ireland they endeavoured
to prove to the King that the Catholic Anglo-
Irish party (which was perfectly loyal) ought
to be branded as a pack of rebels.

A MEMORY OF 1649. 39

This, then, was the condition of the various
parties in Ireland when Owen Eoe first planted
his banner on the Irish shore.

But to return to my own adventures.

On the day when I received my commission
from the General I also received the joyful news
that Father Latham had returned from business
in the south and had been searching the camp
for me.

CHAPTER VIII.

How Father Latham told me of Sir Phelim' s failure
in the attempt to take Drogheda.

LATE that night when the camp was silent
in sleep Father Latham and I met at
the little hillock which overlooked the
plain and told our several adventures
since we parted in Galway.

" I noticed," said I, "that you kept aloof from
the officers when they met together, and am
I right in thinking that you shunned Sir Phelim
O'Neill purposely ? "

' You are," he cried angrily, " and had ever
a man a better cause. You remember how I
left Galway after your father's death to help in
the Ulster Rising. It was O'Moore who started
it, but it was Sir Phelim who had the winning
or losing of a great cause ; and if ever a great
cause was ruined by bad generalship — behold
the man !

" I was with him at the commencement of the
campaign, and I was with him when he lost the
famous fight round Drogheda, when he lost the

A MEMORY OF 1649. 41

grandest victory God ever put within a soldier's
grasp. Drogheda was of the utmost importance
to us. It meant the breaking up of all com-
munication between Dublin and the North, and
it meant an ideal camping place from which to
pour our men for the attack on Dublin. But
he was there, that man who bears the same name
as Owen Roe, but how different in all else. The
same blood, but without the fire, without the
genius, without the sense of military glory that
burns in our great Captain's heart. One word
from Owen Roe acts like a trumpet call, and I
have seen on many a Spanish field tired men
spring up with renewed strength at the sound
of that martial voice, and only rest again
when Death had touched them into everlasting
silence.

" But when this man commands, our men of
war grow cold, and only prophecy disaster ; and
well they may as you shall hear.

" It was in the beginning of November that
Sir Phelim led his combined forces against
Drogheda. Although he knew for certain that
messengers would be sent to Dublin for aid
when his approach was known, yet he made no
efiort to send scouts on in front to intercept

VELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

them, with the result that Lord Moore escaped fct
Dublin and fully alarmed that city.

" The Lord Justices and the Council of Dublin
now sent up Sir Henry Tichburne with one
thousand foot and one hundred horse who safely
entered Drogheda, and this commander im-
mediately set about improving the fortifications
of the place, strengthening with peculiar care
the Mill-Mount, which is a great stronghold on
the Meath side.

"In the meantime Sir Phelim was dallying
and undecided round the town. On the 23rd
of November we won a considerable success.

" On the day before six hundred more foot and
fifty horse had been despatched as further
reinforcements from Dublin, and they only
reached Swords that night where they mutinied.
Sir Henry Tichburne, however, had sent out
a force to meet them, and after some delay they
combined and marched to Drogheda. Under
cover of a dense fog a portion of our army
advanced upon them and met them face to face
at the Bridge of Julianstown. With a roar
like the angry ocean our men rushed in upon
them. For some minutes they fought bravely
enough, then suddenly broke and fled while our

A MEMORY OF 1649 43

men pursued them for miles along the banks
of the Nanny water. Our triumph was com-
plete, and had the rest of the siege been under-
taken in this spirit the whole face of our campaign
and perhaps the history of Ireland might have
been changed.

" Sir Phelim now surrounded Drogheda closely,
and the sentinels were as thick as flies to prevent
anyone approaching or leaving the town.

" Meanwhile Sir Henry Tichburne was not idle,
I could see his men working day and night
increasing the strength of the walls and gates ;
placing breast-works before each gate and
erecting platforms where the walls were most
defective. Those powerful weapons of war
called Morning Stars were fixed upon the ram-
parts and a world of crescents threw their bright
light across the town when the night was specially
dark. They also threw an iron chain across
the river, and tried to bring in all the corn they
could obtain outside the walls. But Sir Phelim
now awoke for awhile from his lethargy and
put a stop to this.

" He was now quartered with his bodyguard
at a place called Bewly, and had placed detach-
ments at the villages of Bettystown, Mornington,

44 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Oldbridge, Tullyullcn and Ballymakenny, and
also in the Castle of Rathmullen.

" The garrison in Drogheda were suffering
badly from dearth of food, and on the 3rd of
December some three hundred and fifty foot and
two troops of horse sallied out with great gallantry
from St. Lawrence's Gate and catching our men
totally unprepared defeated them badly, killing,
I think, near two hundred of them before
returning to the town with several cars full of
com from the adjacent townland of Greenhills.

" On the night of St. Thomas's eve, the 20th
December, Sir Phelim ordered a grand assault to
be made, but this, like all his other movements,
proved a grand failure.

" The fiercest attack was directed against St.
John's Gate, as our spies had brought us infor-
mation that this had been but indifferently
fortified, but our men here met with a bloody
resistance and were hurled back in hundreds,
dead and dying from the ramparts. After this
defeat it was decided to reduce the town by
starvation, for a number of the garrison who
had leaped over the walls and had escaped in
order to avoid the chances of starvation had
informed us that disease was already making

A MEMORY OF 1649. 45

itself felt owing to a constant diet of salt herrings.
Towards the close of December the Boyne was
frozen across and this enabled us to move our
men from either side of the river without any risk.

" On the llth of January a number of vessels
arrived at the mouth of the Boyne filled with
provisions and ammunition forwarded from
Dublin for the garrison.

" Sir Phelim now ordered a vessel to be sunk
at the entrance of the river and caused a chain
to be stretched across in order to block the
passage, but his efforts were again in vain for
the enemy's ships broke through and sailed up
the river to the beleaguered town.

" During their natural rejoicings at this good
fortune we effected an entrance through an old
blind door of an orchard between St. James's
Gate and the water. Some five hundred men
got inside and, as far as I could see, never got
out again.

" Had they been properly led, and had they
advanced direct to the Mill-Mount, the artillery
there could have been turned on the besieged,
and then, I think, Sir Henry Tichburne's day
had been well nigh over. But the good God
had ordered it otherwise.

46 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

" After this affair Sir Phelim set out for the
North to collect more men, and returning soon
after he made another attempt to take the
town.

" Being again repulsed with heavy loss, and
having done sufficient harm to his own cause
to give him proper pause, he never again
attempted the assault.1*

CHAPTER IX.

How our great Captain marched against Monroe,
with an account of the glorious victory ai
Benburb.

ROM the summer of 1642 events moved
slowly. The party composed of
the old Anglo-Irish had established
a government oi their own in the
Marble City, which was known by the name
of the Confederation of Kilkenny. It was
established in October, 1642, and was composed
of eleven spiritual and fourteen temporal peers,
together with two hundred and twenty-six
commoners. It was regarded by our party in
the North with considerable contempt on account
of the vile jealousy that it displayed in all trans-
actions with O'Neill. The policy of our General
was a policy of war. He desired that all Ireland
should unite as one body and drive the English
from the land.

The policy of the Confederation of Kilkenny
was a policy of peace. The Confederates acted on
no definite lines, but fought among themselves

48 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

and intrigued with the English, wasting many
golden opportunities in useless talk instead of
uniting in rapid action with O'Neill and the other
leaders. Meanwhile the weary years rolled by,
and it was at the close of 1644, 1 remember, that
I stopped with the Brandons at Oranmore.

One afternoon in the late November I walked
with Shiela by the shores of Galway Bay and
told her the story of my love and hopes.

" I knew it always, cousin," Shiela said, as I
stooped to kiss her, and to take her hands in mine.

So we were betrothed that year and would be
married when the long war ended.

Why do I dwell so briefly on this happy time ?
Read on to the close of this brief memoir and you
will surely understand.

The years '45 and '46 were occupied by con-
stant drilling and occasional skirmishes with
the Scotch under Monroe, and during this period
also Father Latham and I made several journeys
to Kilkenny with messages from O'Neill to the
Confederation.

It was not, however, until the arrival of the
Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini, in November, 1645,
with large quantities of ammunition and arms
that affairs took on a more hopeful aspect, and

A MEMORY OP 1649. 49

the first move that our General made in the
June of the following year resulted in the glorious
victory of Benburb.

Owen Roe had received information that that
able general, Monroe, had arranged that the
three Scotch armies under himself, his brother,
and the Stewarts should unite at a certain place
and march upon Leinster, and he determined
to defeat this plan by dividing the two brothers
(whose forces were far the largest of the three)
and beating them in detail.

We marched from Cavan and reached Grass-
lough on the fourth of June when Monroe had
arrived in sight of Armagh and was camping at
Dromore.

On that same day we marched for Benburb and
camped beside the Blackwater, while Owen ordered
Henry Roe O'Neill to push on with the light horse
beyond Bagnal's Bridge towards Armagh.

Late that night Monroe's horse reached Armagh
but his infantry encamped at Hamilton's Bawn
and at dawn marched into the Cathedral city.
That morning six thousand foot and eight
hundred horse marched towards Dungannon,
and midway on their line of march our troops
were waiting. In the open air Father Latham,

E

50 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

assisted by others, celebrated Mass, and the whole
of our great army knelt there in silent reverence.

It was then that O'Neill addressed us in words
of fire.

" Remember Ireland and her long night of
sorrow, and acquit yourselves like heroes in the
battle. Whoever falters or retreats deserts
Ireland and deserts me."

The Blackwater lay between the two armies,
and as Monroe marched his men along one bank
and endeavoured to find a ford, so our General
moved his men along the other, and it was not
until Caledon was reached that Monroe was able
to cross over and to face O'Neill's army on the
Tyrone bank. But it was at the junction of the
Oona and the Blackwater that O'Neill had
decided to give battle, and he was now occupied
in trying to draw the enemy from Caledon to
the chosen ground. Early in the day I had
been sent with Brian Roe O'Neill to hold the
second army of the enemy under check as it
advanced from Coleraine, and O'Neill pointing
out a narrow pass that they must march through
told us to take it and hold it at all costs. These
orders we effectually carried out later in the
day, and assisted by the nature of the ground we

A MEMORY OF 1649. 51

completely shattered George Monroe's small army
in the attempt to join his brother at Benburb.

Meanwhile O'Neill had sent on General
O'Farrell with his own regiment of foot to the
pass of Ballaghkillagwill to harass the forces of
Monroe and retreating slowly to entice them on
towards the chosen position at Benburb. This
manoeuvre O'Farrell successfully carried out and
fell back slowly on the Hill of Knocknacloy. It
was here that O'Neill had decided the battle
must take place, and our troops now took up
the positions assigned to them. Our centre
was resting on the Hill, while the right wing was
protected by a bog and the left by the rivers
Oona and Blackwater. Our front line was
formed in four columns with open spaces be-
tween them, and so arranged that our second
line of three columns could fill in these open
spaces if necessary and so present an unbroken
front to the enemy. Then our cavalry on the
wings was massed behind the front column and
ready to repel an attack or to charge through the
open spaces in our ranks upon the foe.

We had no cannon, while the enemy had a
powerful park of artillery, but our infantry
were well armed with musket and pike.

52 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Monroe's men now came on to the attack and
spent the greater part of the afternoon in trying
to force our centre.

Lord Blayney seized a little hill some short
distance from Knocknacloy and pounded away
right merrily but with very small results, it
being a case of a great deal of gunpowder wasted
and a great deal of noise. Under cover of this
fire a large body of Scotch musketeers were
moved along the banks of the Oona. When
our men perceived them coming they rushed
upon them with a great cheer, and by means of
the deadly pike they utterly routed them.

After this the enemy again rallied, and Lord
Ards with the Scottish cavalry made a bold
attempt to turn our left flank, but they were
here met by Henry Roe with the Irish horse, and
being utterly routed they fell back again on the
main body. Monroe's army was now packed
into a very narrow space, and after this last
repulse he concentrated all his cavalry for
another desperate assault.

But our great Captain's time had now come,
that supreme moment when his military genius
flamed up in splendour.

Massing his men on the right flank he suddenly

A MEMORY OF 1649. 53

took the offensive and ordered O'Farrell to keep
pressing the forces of the enemy towards the
angle where the Oona and Blackwater met.

O'Neill now dispatched all his best troops to
the enemy's right and attacking them fiercely
compelled them to change their front, which
proceeding forced them towards the junction
of the rivers, and increased their confusion.

It was at this point that Brian O'Neill and I
returned from our successful fight against George
Monroe, and came galloping at full speed along
the road from Dungannon. The General now
raised his hat, and called his staff around him.
" Gentlemen," he cried, as he pointed to the
enemy's centre, " in a few moments we shall be
there. Pass the word along the line, Sancta
Maria, and in the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, charge for the old land"

With a roar our men sprang forward against
the Scottish and English lines. Monroe ordered
his cavalry to charge our foot soldiers, when
suddenly between the open spaces of the in-
fantry the Irish horse rushed out and scattered
the enemy again. Then the infantry on both
sides came together, the pikes stabbing and
flashing in the air, while over the tumult and

54 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

the clash of steel we could hear our Captain
calling — " Redouble your blows, strike home, and
the day is ours."

Colonels sprang from their horses and pike in
hand dashed up the little hill where Monroe's
guns were firing. Like a living wall our men
came on behind, and sweeping all before them
like a wave of ocean they swept in upon the
guns. The battle was now won. The Scotch
and English turned and fled from the stricken
field, pursued at every point by the Irish horse,
and the sun sank down at last upon an annihi-
lated army.

The victory was complete. We took tents,
baggage and cannon, 1,500 draught-horses, 20
colours, prisoners of war and provisions for two
months. Lord Ards fell into our hands, but
Monroe escaped, and with a few horsemen re-
treated to Carrickfergus.

The following description was given to me by
a Scottish exile whom I met in after years in
Spain, and who fought upon the losing side on
that glorious day :

" Sir James Montgomery's regiment was the
only one which retired in a body, and it was to
this regiment I had the honour to belong. All

A MEMORY OF 1649. 55

the others fled in the utmost confusion, and
most of the infantry were cut to pieces. Colonel
Conway, after having two horses shot under
him, made his escape almost miraculously to
Newry with Captain Burke and about forty
horse. Lord Montgomery and Lord Ards were
taken prisoners with about twenty-one officers
and one hundred and fifty common soldiers.
There were found three thousand two hundred
and forty-three slain on the field of battle, and
others were killed next day in the pursuit,
O'Neill had only about seventy killed, and two
hundred wounded. He took all the Scots'
artillery, being four field pieces, with most of
their arms, thirty-two colours, their tents and
baggage. The booty was very great : one
thousand five hundred draught-horses were
taken, and two months' provisions for the Scotch
army — enough to serve the Ulster Irish (a hardy
people, used to live on potatoes and butter, and
content generally with only milk) double the
time. Monroe fled without his wig and coat to
Lisnegarvy, and immediately burned Dundrum,
deserted Portadown, Clare, Glanevy, Down-
patrick, and other places."

CHAPTER X.

Which tells how matters were moving in the South,
and all about the battle of Dungan's Hill, the
sack of Cashel and the battle of Knock-na-noss.

li M EANWHILE matters were not going

I V \ we^ w^ ^ne Confederates m ^ne

I L I South. In the summer of 1647

the Duke of Ormonde surrendered

Dublin to the Parliamentarians and Colonel

Jones took possession of the Castle. The

Confederation now ordered General Preston to

march towards Trim and mano3uvre against the

Puritan forces.

Jones, however, did not let the grass grow
under him but marched in hot haste from
Dublin, and meeting with some reinforcements
from the North he faced Preston at Dungan's
Hill, near Trim, with 12,000 foot and 700 horse.

He advanced against the Confederates who
were strongly entrenched and who might easily
have maintained the fight against superior
numbers only for Preston's rashness. For

A MEMORY OF 1649* 57

suddenly ordering his troops to act on the
offensive they charged down the hill on the
serried ranks of the Puritans who shattered
their attack and threw the whole army into
confusion.

Sir Alaster M'Donnell, who was acting under
Preston, made desperate efforts to change the
fortune of the day, but all bravery was hopeless
in the face of such blundering, and the Irish
army was driven into a morass where, no quarter
being granted, it was cut to pieces.

The Confederates lost in that fight some 5,470
of their men, of whom 400 were M'DonnelTs brave
followers.

Frightened at this terrible disaster the Con-
federates now looked towards our General for
protection, and, at the urgent desire of the
Council, O'Neill set out with some 12,000 men
for the scene of Preston's defeat, and we so
harassed Jones by our rapid movements that he
was glad to leave the open country and seek
shelter behind the walls of Dublin.

O'Neill followed him to the very borders of
Castleknock, ravaging the land behind him, and
it was then that the terrified citizens of the
Capital, watching from the tower of St. Audo3n's,

58 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

could count 200 Irish watch-fires burning through
the night.

It was about this period, I remember, that
that turn-coat, Inchiquin, who was now siding
with the Puritans, entered Tipperary and com-
menced his march of woe. He crossed the Suir
in September and attacked the fortress of Cahir
and captured it in one day, although it was
reckoned one of the strongest castles in all
Munster ; for I have been told that in the days
of Elizabeth it had held out for some two months
against the entire army of Essex.

Towards the close of September Inchiquin
came to the town of Cashel and ordered it to be
surrendered immediately.

The authorities refusing he at once proceeded
to storm it, and with small trouble battered down
the walls. The small garrison threw down their
arms and were slaughtered without mercy. He
now turned his soldiers on the inhabitants, who
were all cut down in turn irrespective of age or
sex. Many of the people fled to the Cathedral
on the Rock in the hopes of gaining protection
in the sacred building, but Inchiquin poured
volleys of musket balls through the doors and
windows and then sent in his troopers to

A MEMORY OF 1649. 59

complete the business with cold steel. The inside
of the building was soon crowded with the
mangled and dying men, and some priests who
had sought shelter underneath the altars of the
sacred building were dragged outside, and there
slaughtered with indescribable fury.

It was said that the death roll in Cashel on
that day amounted to some 3,000 people.

The town of Fethard now threw open its gates
to Inchiquin, being terrified at the fate of Cashel,
which had spread horror throughout Munster.

He next approached Clonmel and demanded
its surrender, but only met with a stern defiance.
For here the gallant Sir Alaster M'Donnell,
with as many of his brave followers as could be
collected after the slaughter of Dungan's Hill,
had erected his standard, and his name was a
host in itself. So after some time Inchiquin
slunk away and retreated on Cahir.

In the commencement of November he again
took the field and set up his camp at Mallow, on
the 12th of that month, with some 6,000 foot and
1,200 horse.

Meanwhile the Confederate General, Lord
Taaffe, with some 7,000 foot and nearly 1,200
horse, was stationed at Kanturk, some ten miles

60 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

away, and on finding out Inchiquin's position
he advanced to a hill called Knock-na-noss and
opened out his army in order of battle. To Sir
Alaster M'Donnell, whom he had made his
Lieutenant- General, he gave the command of
the right wing, which was supported by Colonel
Purcell with a couple of regiments of horse, while
he himself took command of the left wing on the
slope of the hill. Here he posted the Munster
troops, consisting of some 4,000 foot and sup-
ported by two regiments of horse. His front
was defended by a morass and a small stream
which encircled the base of the hill, so that he
held a sound position.

Inchiquin now advanced from Mallow and
commenced the attack at a very great dis-
advantage.

M'Donnell's Northerns, following the Highland
custom, flung away their muskets after the first
volley and rushed in upon their foes with the
broad-sword. They shattered Inchiquin's left
wing and took his artillery, and pursued his men
for miles across country killing some 2,000 of
them.

On General Taaffe's wing, however, the same
success was not apparent, for Inchiquin taking

A MEMORY OF 1649. 6l

advantage of a mistake on the part of the Con-
federate General sent in a squadron of horse so
as to capture the summit of the hill. These
horsemen charged from the rear and caused a
complete panic in the left wing of the Confederate
army. The Munster troops now fled in dismay
and were slaughtered without resistance as they
ran. Meanwhile McDonnell's Northerns, re-
turning from routing the enemy, were surprised
by the victorious Inchiquin and cut to pieces.

Their heroic leader now yielded his sword to
Colonel Purdon, but Inchiquin ordered that no
quarter must be given, and so Sir Alaster
M'Donnell was slain in cold blood.*

According to the account which Father
Latham heard afterwards in Kilkenny some
4,000 of the Confederates were slain, and all
their arms, colours and baggage were lost. On
receiving the news of the victory the Parliament

* The death of Sir Alaster (Alexander) M'Donnell has added
not a little to the tragic interest of Knock-na-noss. That brave
soldier, who is famous in Scottish history as Sir Alaster M'Donnell
and Colkitto (Collathe left-handed), having been sent by Randal,
Marquis of Antrim, to Scotland in command of Irish troops, had
borne a chief part in the victories gained by Montrose for the
King in 1644.

His name is still remembered in the south of Ireland by a
singular piece of music composed in his honour, and remarkably
spirited and expressive of war. It was published by Bunting in
his last collection of Irish melodies under the title of " M'Donnell's
March."

62 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

of England voted £10,000 for Inchiquin's army
and £1,000 as a present for himself.

They only sent him, however, a portion of the
money, and feeling somewhat vexed at such
conduct Inchiquin began to look about him and
to consider if it would be possible to change
sides again !

CHAPTER XI.

How I carried despatches to the Duke of Ormonde,
and was present at the Battle of Rathmines.

IN the year 1648 matters became even more
confused, for that turn-coat, Lord
Inchiquin, who had formerly sided
with the Puritans, now changed sides and
combined with Preston against Jones.

The Duke of Ormonde now returned to Ireland
and rallied around him the lay party of the
Confederation, who were in reality English
Royalists.

So the Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini, denounced
Ormonde and all his friends, and departing from
the Confederation he joined our army under
O'Neill at Maryborough.

The Confederation then proceeded to proclaim
the Hero of Benburb as a rebel, and then
Rinuccini in return excommunicated the
Confederation.

In February, 1649, Rinuccini set out from
Ireland in utter disgust, which can hardly be
wondered at, but promised O'Neill that he

64 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

would send him foreign aid. Our Captain in
the meantime held his little army well together,
sometimes treating with the Puritans and some-
times with the Confederation simply for the
purpose of gaining precious time until the
promised aid should come, when he could
march against their combined forces and crush
them both.

So events were now rapidly approaching a
crisis. On the 30th of January, 1649, Charles I.
was executed at Whitehall, and on May 19th
England was declared a Commonwealth. At
the beginning of August, O'Neill sent me down
to Ormonde (who was lying outside Dublin) with
despatches in answer to the Duke's, who was
now anxious to induce O'Neill to unite with
him against the Puritan forces in Ireland.

I reached Dublin on the 20th of July and
presented my despatches to the Duke of Ormonde,
sometimes spoken of as the great Duke of
Ormonde, though no one seemed to know the
reason why. Perhaps because he proved him-
self so great a turn-coat and a bigot. He was,
in fact, great at everything except his business —
which was to win battles for the Royal cause,
which he invariably lost.

A MEMORY OF 1649. 65

It was told me in Clonmel that when General
Cromwell was lodging in Ross town they showed
him there a picture of my Lord of Ormonde,
and he, gazing upon it, asked who it might be.

On hearing who it was he smiled and said :
" The man whom the picture concerned was
more like a huntsman than any way a soldier."
Which was, indeed, most true, my Lord being
more inclined that way both by education and
by nature.

On my arrival I found him preparing to invest
Dublin on all sides, although his army was by
no means strong enough for a sure success.

It consisted of some 7,000 foot and about
1,700 horse-soldiers.

Lord Dillon was left with some 2,000 men to
press the siege on the north side of the city, and
then Ormonde crossed the Liffey with the re-
mainder and encamped at Rathmines. Here
it was his intention to extend his works to the
east so that he might command the river's
mouth and effectually prevent all supplies
reaching the besieged in that way. His con-
fidence in his soldiers was tremendous, and he
told me that he truly believed that his men
would undergo even starvation for the love of

F

66 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

King Charles! Before his plans could be
carried out the garrison received reinforcements
from England, when Colonel Reynolds, Venables
and Huncks arrived with 1,600 foot and some
600 horse.

These men brought the information that the
Parliament of England considered that Dublin
was sufficiently garrisoned, and had decided to
send General Cromwell into Munster with an
army to crush all the disaffected towns of that
province ; and that he was only waiting for a
favourable change in the weather to set out
upon the journey.

The events which now followed are well set
forth in that despatch which I assisted the Duke
of Ormonde in drafting and which was after-
wards forwarded to the King.

" Some two or three days before the defeat at
Rathmines, we had it from many good hands
out of England and from Dublin that Cromwell
was at the seaside ready to embark for this
kingdom with a great army, and that his design
was for Munster, where we were sure he had
intelligence, and which, if lost, not only the best
ports in the kingdom would fall into his hands,
but His Majesty's fleet riding in them, blocked

A MEMORY OF 1649. 67

up with a mastering number of the rebels' ships,
would doubtless be lost.

" So that if we had taken Dublin, which was
very doubtful, and lost those ports, which it was
very evident we should if he landed there, as
they were then guarded, it was but an ill ex-
change ; but if these places were lost and Dublin
not gained, our army must have inevitably come
to nothing, and the kingdom fallen to the rebels
without resistance.

" These considerations at a council of war pro-
duced these results : first, that the Lord Inchi-
quin, with two regiments of horse, should then
immediately march to secure the province of
Munster ; that the army should lie still where
it was till Rathfarnham should be taken in ; and
that done, we should remove to a securer quarter
at a place called Drimnagh, not far from Rath-
farnham, if after the taking of Rathfarnham we
found not cause to change that part of our
determination.

" The next day, or the next day but one, Rath-
farnham was taken by storm ; all that were
there were made prisoners ; and though five
hundred soldiers had entered the castle before
any officers of note yet not one creature was

68 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

killed, which I tell you by the way, to observe
the difference between our and the rebels making
use of a victory.

" It was then taken into consideration what was
to be done, and it was held necessary that we
should possess a place called Baggotrath* and
fortify it ; which, if effected, must necessarily
have starved all their horses within, which, by
access of new forces whilst we lay at Finglas,
were 1,200 ; and besides, that place being well
fortified, it was easy then to have approached
to the river side, that a work being cast up there
it would be impossible for any further succour
of men to have got into them.

" I should have told you that we had a strong
party of horse and foot left on the other side of
the river, which hindered their grazing that way,
and hay they had none in the town.

" Thereupon it was ordered that my Lord of
Castlehaven, General Preston, and Major-General
Purcell should view the place ; and if they found
it capable of strengthening in one night's work
then to cause men with materials to be sent as
soon as it was dark. Accordingly the Major-

• P.apgotrath Cn-tle was close to the spot now occupied by
I'.ubb IJarnt

A MEMORY OF 1649. 69

General conducted thither 1,500 foot ; but he
met with so ill" guides that, though it was within
half a mile of our leaguer, he got not thither till
a full hour before day.

" I sat up myself all that night, as well to be
ready to answer any falling out of the enemy as
to finish my despatches then ready for France.

" But as soon as day broke I rode down to
Baggotrath, where I found the place itself not
so strong as I expected, nor the work at all
advanced, and strong parties of the enemy drawn
out under their works ; yet they hid themselves
the best they could behind some houses at
Lowsy Hill and in a hollow betwixt us and the
strand. Hereupon I considered whether I had
best go on with the work or draw off my men :
draw them off I could not without great danger,
but by drawing near them the whole army, and
doing that, their work might be as well coun-
tenanced as their retreat. Then I called to
me the Majors-General of the horse and foot,
Purcell and Sir W. Vaughan, and showed them
where I would have the horse and foot drawn,
desiring them accordingly to see it done, telling
them and all the officers there that I was con-
fident Jones would hazard all to interrupt our

70 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

work, which effected, would so much annoy
him.

" With these orders I left them, determining to
refresh myself with a little sleep for the action
I expected, and on my way to my tent I caused
all the regiments to stand to their arms.

" It was by this time about nine of the clock,
and I had not slept above an hour when I was
awakened by volleys of shot, which I took to be
much nearer me than Baggotrath. However,
before I got an hundred yards from my tent, all
those I left working were beaten out, and the
enemy had routed and killed Sir W. Vaughan,
and after him divers parties of horse drawn up
in closes, into which the enemy could not come
to them but through gaps and in files.

" This was the right wing of our army ; and it
was not long before I saw it wholly defeated,
and many of them running away towards the
hills of Wicklow, where some of them were
bred and whither they knew the way but too
well.

" Hereupon I went to the battalia, consisting
of my Lord Inchiquin's foot, commanded by
Colonel Giffard, with whose assistance I put
them into the best position I could ; and desired

A MEMORY OF 1649. 71

my brother and Colonel Reilly to stand in a field
next these foot, where I left them till I should
either come or send them orders.

" How they were forced thence, or upon what
occasion they charged, I know not ; but I soon
after perceived the ,' enemy's horse had gotten
round and was going through a lane, close by
Giffard's foot, where I stood, to meet a party
of foot of their own that were coming up hi front
of us.

" Giffard's foot gave good fire at them and so
disordered them that had not the two regiments,
which for that purpose I left there, been forced,
or by some appearing advantage drawn off, but
had charged these disordered horse in the rear,
it is probable they had been driven over their
foot ; to which when they had come they rallied
by them and with them advanced against us,
who by this time were environed ; another party
of theirs of horse and foot being then come
behind us into the field we stood in and giving
fire both ways at us.

" At this and at the running away of Reilly's
regiment our foot were so discouraged that they
fought no more.

" On the contrary, I heard the enemy offer

72 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

them quarter, and observed them inclined to
hearken to it.

" Then, leaping over a ditch, I endeavoured to
get to our left wing, hoping to find it firm ; but
they had no sooner apprehended and too well
seen how the world went with the right wing and
battalia, and had most of them, horse and foot,
provided for themselves.

" It is true that a great reserve of the enemy
stood all this while facing them ; which was the
reason why I drew not to the assistance of the
rest of the army, and that made them think
themselves desperate. Yet some of them
rallied ; but as I advanced a step towards the
enemy they broke away behind me, even upon
the sight of their own men running away, taking
them for the enemy."

CHAPTER XII.

Which tetts of the attack on Dardistown Castle and
how Shiela and I escaped to Drogheda.

FTER the defeat of Ormonde at Rath-
mines I retreated with him to Kil-
kenny, and in the following August
I set out from that town in company
with Captain Armstrong with despatches for Sir
Arthur Aston, who was holding the town of
Drogheda for the King.

We lodged for one night outside Dublin and
next day set out on the Balbriggan road for
Drogheda.

When lodging that evening at Julianstown I
remembered that the Castle of Dardistown was
close by, and I prevailed upon Captain Armstrong
to pay it a visit on our way and to rest there if
possible for the following night.

I did this in the hopes of hearing some news
of my cousin Shiela, whom I had never met
since the summer of '44. We arrived at the
Castle at about noon the next day and found

74 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

it strongly guarded by soldiers from the Drogheda
garrison, who, however, admitted us without
further parley on our presenting letters from the
Duke of Ormonde.

On learning who I was Sir Richard Carvell
greeted me very warmly and informed me that
Mistress Brandon had been stopping here with
her people for the last month, but that all the
residents were setting out for Drogheda on the
morrow as Sir Arthur was determined that the
Castle must be abandoned and destroyed to
prevent so valuable a place from falling into the
hands of the Parliament. For it was well known
that Cromwell had already arranged to seize and
hold all the strongholds in the County Meath.

When the news of my arrival was brought to
her, my pretty cousin came tripping down the
stairs, holding out her hands to me and crying
out my name ; and when our greeting was fully
over I could see Captain Armstrong leaning on his
sword and smiling, and waiting to be presented
to the blushing maid.

I like to think of her like that before all the

dangers commenced and the great sorrow came

—leaning over the balustrade and talking rapidly

to us both, the colour rising to her cheeks at

A MEMORY OF 1649. 75

every pretty compliment, and then paling when
she heard about Oliver's advance.

" Then you cannot stay with me for any time,
cousin," she said. " These, indeed, are sad
times for us poor ladies who have to spend such
lonely hours through all this cruel war, and bear
so much inconstancy." I made her no answer,
for a great heaviness had fallen on my heart as
she spoke the words, but I remember Captain
Armstrong humming those lines of Richard Love-
lace's, which were the last words often spoken
in those days by many a gallant cavalier —

" Yet this inconstancy is such
As thou, too, shalt adore;
I could not love thee9 dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more/"

" I suppose so," she said sadly, " the honour
of our land."

" And the honour of our King," added Captain
Armstrong, who was smitten like my cousin
Rupert Gannon, and had caught the Stuart
fever badly.

We were all gathered round the table that
evening in the great dining hall and had drunk
the usual healths, and the usual confusion to

76 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Oliver, when a great knocking was heard at the
outer gate — like the knocking of men not used
to much delay.

In another moment the officer on guard came
rushing in to tell us that the castle was sur-
rounded upon every side with soldiers, and that
a group of them around the main entrance were
clamouring for admission in the name of the
Parliament of England.

Sir Richard Carvell was very cool and collected
in this emergency.

" We must at all cost get you away, Stranger,"
he cried, " and with your despatches for Sir
Arthur. We must make a sortie and you shall
escape in the confusion."

To our surprise Shiela now broke in upon the
consultation.

" No, Sir Richard, there is a better way than
that. I know the secret of the passage to the
river which will bring Captain Stranger out
upon the banks of the Nanny water below the
bridge, and we can both proceed from there to
the Drogheda road and bring the news of your
condition to Sir Arthur Aston."

Just as she had finished speaking a terrific
report rent the air.

A MEMORY OF 1649. 77

" They are trying to shatter the outer gates
with a petard," Captain Armstrong said. ' We
must up into the main tower and fire down upon
the scoundrels," and he rushed from the room.

Shiela looked at me imploringly.

" For all our sakes, come quickly," she cried.
I followed her to the far end of the old Hall and
saw her press the wooden panelling under the
ancient portrait of Hugh de Lacy, which revolved
slowly inwards and disclosed a narrow passage
at the back of the woodwork.

We pushed a small table under the picture
and mounting upon it clambered in through the
opening. Then as Shiela turned round and
was calling to one of the men near the table to
hand her a light from the silver candlestick I
heard a second explosion and the crash of a door
falling inwards.

Shiela caught me by the hand.

" We must risk the darkness," she cried, and
as she spoke she swung the portrait back into
its place and I heard the click of the secret catch
closing underneath it.

" Follow me, Clarence, and walk carefully,"
I heard her whisper, and then we passed down,
down into the sloping passage, through the

78 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

sickening smell of damp earth and on through
the impenetrable darkness.

We must have travelled on for about a quarter
of a mile, stumbling and groping our way, when
our further progress was obstructed by an iron
door which blocked the entire passage.

Shiela, however, stooped down and pressing
against the foot of the door told me to push
against the centre with my entire strength, when
the huge mass of iron swung slowly outwards
on hinges.

The mouth of the passage was carefully
cloaked by thickets which grew so closely across
it that it could not be detected from the road or
the bridge above it.

Pushing these aside we stepped out into the
open and caught a glimpse of the dark river
flowing beside us.

We ascended on to the bridge and walking as
rapidly as the darkness would permit we turned
to the left by the old forge and took the Duleek
road. Looking back in the direction of the
Castle we could hear the distant sounds of the
attack, and once or twice caught the gleaming
flash of the musketry from the towers.

I caught Shiela by the hand and we ran on for

A MEMORY OF 1649. 79

some distance, and then walked to gain breath
and again took up the running. Very trying
work this was and very bravely endured by her,
for her heart was beating I expect with some-
thing more than bodily strain.

" Will they pursue us ? " she kept asking
again and again, and was constantly turning
round to look behind.

I tried to laugh her out of all fear. There
was little chance, I told her, even if they took
the Castle of their noticing our absence. No
one knew I was carrying despatches, or the road
I had taken from Dublin.

I had hardly finished speaking when the rain
began to fall in great heavy showers which
drenched us through, and the wind rose, too, at
this time and began moaning through the trees.

We had reached the bottom of the rising
ground some two hundred yards from the church
of Kilsharvan when I thought I heard the sound
of horses' hoofs between the pauses of the wind.

We stopped and listened.

At first we heard nothing, for the fury of the
wind seemed to have increased and to have
effectually blotted out all sounds upon the road,
but suddenly a great lull came and we could

80 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

hear plainly the horrid tapping of horses on the
gallop.

I stood there in the middle of the road with
my arm round about my cousin, whose long
hair was dripping over her shoulders and her
cold cheek pressed against mine. I could feel
the poor little body shivering with fright and
cold, and I daresay that there were tears
enough washed away that night by the pitiless
never-ending rain.

We struggled on to the top of the rising ground
and there we heard the horsemen clearly, and
not very far off.

" We must hide behind the church," I said,
" and trust that they may pass along to Duleek."

It is at this point of the road that another
branch to the right leads the traveller into
Drogheda, some four miles away, and I hoped
if the horsemen were soldiers of the Parliament
they might ride straight on and leave our pro-
gress free.

We climbed over the low stone wall which
protects the little churchyard, and stumbling
over some of the tombstones we crouched down
behind the back wall of the church and listened.

Soon out of the intense darkness of the trees

A MEMORY OF 1649. fcl

two Cromwellian troopers emerged at the full
gallop, but on drawing level with the church
they suddenly drew up and held a short consul-
tation. Then they both dismounted, drew their
swords, and dividing came slowly towards the
spot where we were hiding.

I passed one of my pistols into Shiela's hands,
drew out my sword, and waited.

What passed after that comes full upon me
now like a horrid dream.

I remember the foremost of the two troopers
had come within ten yards of us when I rose up
from my place by the wall and challenged him
to halt.

He answered with a great cry and said some-
thing which sounded like a concatenation of
oaths, though being a Puritan it should have
been a prayer, and then he rushed in upon me
with his uplifted sword.

As he came on I fired the pistol in my left
hand at the lower part of his body and missed
him badly, and then we came together hacking
and slashing at one another in the half darkness.

I often wonder how we managed to thrust and
parry in that awful night, for though the dawn
was breaking I could barely catch the outlines

$2 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

of his body, so I take it that we must have been
gifted like cats in the dark, and that I was the
better cat.

As I passed my sword through him and he
sank against one of the tombstones, his com-
panion, who had gone round the other end of
the church, now came up behind, and had made
as fair an end of me as I had of his comrade,
when Shiela raised her pistol and gave him the
full contents.

He lurched and fell his full length backwards,
sobbed for a few moments and then died.

The rest of that cruel journey is soon told. I
led my little trembling lady to the churchyard
wall and placed her on one of the troopers' horses
taking the other for myself. Then we took the
turning to the right and rode on past Crofty
Wood, reaching Drogheda when the dawn had
fully broken.

After the usual explanations we were admitted
by the Duleek Gate ; and having placed my cousin
in the safe keeping of Sir Richard Carvell's wife,
who lived in the old house beside St. Lawrence's
Gate, I rode forward to present myself to Sir
Arthur Aston.

CHAPTER XIII.

How Father Latham visited Dublin in disguise,
and was present at the landing of Cromwell.

ST the date of my arrival with Shiela in
Drogheda, which was late in the
month of August, 1649, Oliver
Cromwell had already landed in
Dublin with the forces of the English Parliament
some days before, and was mustering his men
for an assault on this stronghold. When I
delivered my despatches to Sir Arthur Aston (as
gallant a soldier as one could wish to meet) he
informed me that Father Latham had arrived
the day before with despatches from General
O'Neill, who mentioned that I would remain
under Sir Arthur's command until further
notice. For O'Neill had now entered into a
treaty with the King's party to combine against
Cromwell, whom he rightly recognised to be
more dangerous than Ormonde, Inchiquin and
Jones all rolled into one.
When I saw Father Latham that afternoon

<^4 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

ho told me the sad news which I had alre ly
expected, namely, that our gallant General was
slowly dying and that a great name and a great
fame would soon be quenched in Erin.

So at the very hour when Ireland wanted
him so badly, when he had already arranged to
march southwards to measure his sword against
Cromwell's, Death stood in the path of the only
general among the Irish commanders who under-
stood the real art of war.

It was this sad news that prevented me from
desiring to return to the North, and also the
knowledge that in Drogheda I would be close
to Shiela to protect her in the hour of danger.

That evening I was placed in charge of a
company defending part of the south wall near
St. Mary's Church, and I was under the com-
mand of Colonel Wall.

When I was on guard that night Father
Latham came and shared it with me, and the
time passed very pleasantly while he related
his adventures in Dublin.

For he had visited that city disguised, and
was present when Cromwell had arrived.

Oliver had landed, he told me, at Ringsend,
near Dublin, and Sir George Ascough had

A MEMORY OF 1649. 85

secured the mouth of the river for him with his
ships.

His original design, however, was that Ireton
should have landed with part of the army in
Munster, which was looked upon as the key of
the kingdom, having many cities and walled
towns and great fruitfulness. Besides all this
there were many fine harbours lying open both
to France and Spain. He had also received
assurances that his forces would be received with
favour in the South.

The success, however, of Jones, and the
necessity of recovering some of the garrisons
near Dublin, made him alter these intentions
and order all the troops to land in Dublin.

At this time Inchiquin, too, was master of the
South and was fighting on the King's side,
though no one ventured to guess how long this
would continue.

The invading army was made up of Scroop's,
Lambert's, Horton's, Ireton's, and Cromwell's
own regiments of horse. Also Fletcher's,
Garland's, Mercer's, Abbott's, and Bolton's
troops of dragoons. To these must be added
Cooke's, Hewson's, Ewer's, Deane's, and Crom-
well's regiments of foot, together with Colonel

86 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Phayre's Kentish regiment, and you will see
that Father Latham had not been idle.

The divisions of Jones and Monk, which had
been in Ireland for some time, all came under
Cromwell's command, so that we both calculated
that he must have had a total army of close
upon 17,000 men ; most of whom were veterans
in war and in high spirits at their recent smashing
up of the English Cavaliers.

Besides all these men he had an abundance
of military stores, several pieces of artillery,
and large sums of money.

Among his officers Father Latham had seen
his son Henry Cromwell, Jones, Blake, Sankey
and Ingoldsby, all equally prominent in bringing
about the death of Charles I. and in raising up
the Commonwealth of England.

On his arrival in Dublin Oliver was heroically
entertained with salutes from all the guns
round about the city, and a great crowd went
out to see him. When he reached the centre
of the town he caused his carriage to stop and
made a great speech to the people, and all the
while holding his hat in his hand. " He did
not doubt that, as God had brought him thither
in safety, so he would be able by Divine Provi-

A MEMORY OF 1649. $7

dence to restore them all to their just liberties
and properties. All these persons whose hearts'
affections were real for the carrying of the great
work against the barbarous and bloodthirsty
Irish and all their adherents and confederates,
for the propagating of the Gospel of Christ, the
establishing of truth and peace, and restoring
of this bleeding nation of Ireland to its former
happiness and tranquillity, should find favour
and protection from the Parliament of England
and from himself, and withal receive such rewards
and gratuities as should be answerable to their
merits."

When he had finished speaking the people
gave him great applause, and some of them cried
out " We will live with you and die with you."
His audience was chiefly Protestant at this
time, as no Catholics were allowed to remain in
Dublin ; for when Ormonde had surrendered the
city to Colonel Jones they were all forced to
leave.

They were forbidden to return under severe
penalties, and no one could pass the night
within the city walls except under pain of death.

This order was renewed by the English Parlia-
ment, with the additional clause that anyone

88 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

giving shelter to a priest or a Jesuit, even for a
single hour, should lose his life and forfeit his
property.

Before setting out on his northward march
Oliver with great cleverness issued a proclama-
tion stating that all the country people not in
arms would be free from molestation by the
soldiers. Also, that all food-supplies brought
in by them for his army would be punctually
paid for ; the result of which was that his men
were far better supplied with food than any of
the other armies in Ireland.

Before leaving Dublin Father Latham saw
Oliver face to face one evening when he was
returning to his house at the corner of Werburgh
and Castle streets. He also told me that there
was a deal of preaching from the Puritans and
much exhortation. But in spite of their deep
religious feeling the troopers had stabled their
horses in St, Patrick's Cathedral.

CHAPTER XIV.

Which tdls of the state of Drogheda when Cromwell
marched from Dublin.

N the 23rd of August the Confederates
had held a council of war and had
decided that Drogheda must be
held against the enemy at all cost.
Sir Arthur Aston had, therefore, given orders
that the castles of Bellewstown, Athcairne,
Belgard and Dardistown must be destroyed in
order to prevent the Puritans from using them.
But the enemy proved too quick for him, and
securing some of them without resistance had
advanced with a great body of horse to Dardis-
town, and attacked it as I have already related ;
the castle finally falling after a very brave
defence. The Duke of Ormonde, who believed
that Drogheda would be the first point of Crom-
well's attack, had ordered all the fortifications
to be thoroughly repaired and the town to be
well stored with food and ammunition.

QO WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

He then ordered all suspected persons to leave
the town, but it was not until the last moment
that he left himself.

To give him his due he seemed anxious to
share our dangers, but stated that it would never
do for him to be shut up there and be unable to
give orders to his forces in the different parts of
Ireland.

He believed that the town was in a fit state to
stand a prolonged siege, and by detaining the
enemy around it he hoped to have good time
for uniting his forces with those of Inchiquin,
and, if possible, of Owen Roe O'Neill. As a
matter of fact, however, the town was in a very
indifferent state. We had not a sufficient
supply of powder and very little match, and
were short of round shot as well. The provi-
sions, too, would not have lasted our numbers
for any length of time.

It was true that we had managed to get rid
of most of the suspected persons, but some of
the ladies had proved themselves too clever for
Sir Arthur Aston, who learnt to his dismay that
Lady Wilmot and some others who happened
to be his near relatives were in treasonable
communication with Colonel Jones and other

A MEMORY OF 1649. 91

officers of the Puritan forces now about to set
out from the city of Dublin.

Our garrison consisted of some 2,220 foot and
320 horse, most of whom were Irish.

We had Ormonde's regiment of 400 men,
under the command of Sir Edward Verney ;
Colonel Wall's regiment (where I served) ;
Colonel Byrne's and Colonel Warren's regiments
which amounted to close upon 2,000 men ;
Lord Westmeath's with 200 more ; Sir James
Dillon's with 200 foot and 200 horse, besides
500 foot sent to us at the last moment under
Lieutenant-Colonel Griffen Cavenagh. The
horse-soldiers were divided into five troops,
commanded respectively by Major Butler,
Captain Harpole, Sir John Dungan, Sir James
Preston, Lieutenant- Colonel Dungan, and
Captains Plunket, Fleming, and Finglas. Our
entire artillery force consisted of one master-
gunner, two gunners, and three gunners' mates.

Our commander, Sir Arthur Aston (who was
residing in a house at the corner of Patrick's
Well Lane, formerly belonging to the Elcock
family), was a Catholic and came of an ancient
Cheshire family. He had served in the army
of Sigismund, King of Poland, against the Turks,

Q2 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

and when the Civil War had broken out he
returned to England and was made a Colonel-
General of dragoons.

At Edgehill he fought with great valour, and
afterwards was made Governor of Reading and
Oxford. There was not, I think, in the King's
army a man of greater reputation, or one of
whom the enemy had a greater dread. When
discussing the mode of defence with us before
Cromwell delivered his attack he seemed full of
confidence about the final issue. Father Latham
told me afterwards that he actually sent a letter
of confidence to Ormonde saying that he would
find the enemy play for some time, and that the
garrison being select men was such a strong one
that the town could not be taken by assault.
Finally, that we were all unanimous in our
resolution to perish rather than deliver up the
place.

The fortifications of the town consisted of
a wall about one mile and a half in length
which enclosed an area of close upon sixty-four
Irish acres.

In height it was about twenty feet, and in
thickness from four to six feet, which diminished
as the summit was approached in order to allow

A MEMORY OF 1649. 93

a space of about two feet for the defenders to
stand upon.

The gates which guarded the northern side
of the town were the West Gate, composed of
two towers with a strong portcullis between ;
Fair Gate ; Sunday's Gate, which was a square
castle having close to it two towers, the
Tooting and Boulter's ; St. Lawrence's and St.
Catherine's.

On the Meath side were St. James' or the
Dublin Gate ; the Blind Gate, Duleek Gate, St.
John's Gate, and finally, the Butter gate, which
was an octagon perforated with an arched
passage. These, then, were the defences of our
town, and the numbers of our garrison, when on
the night of the 2nd of September news was
brought in to Sir Arthur Aston that a large
body of the enemy's horse was encamped some
two miles beyond the town.

CHAPTER XV.

Which tells of the nine days before the final assault
of Drogheda.

IT was on Friday, 31st of August, that
General Cromwell mustered all the
forces under his command, and having
chosen from them some 10,000 choice
men he set out upon his march for Drogheda.

Placing himself at their head he crossed the
Liffey and encamped some three miles to the
north of Dublin in the field of Lord Barnwell.

On the following day he resumed his march,
passing along the high road through Swords
and Balbriggan, and late that evening he pitched
his camp at Ballygarth near to the Nanny
water and some twenty miles from Dublin.
On the following evening he reached Drogheda.
We heard afterwards that on passing Germans -
town he had attempted to seize the heir, who
was a mere infant in arms, but had been foiled
in his endeavours by the parish priest, who fled
with the child to France and had him brought
up afterwards in the Catholic faith.

A MEMORY OF 1649. 95

During this northward march Sir George
Ascough had attended the army with his ships
and had now blocked up the mouth of the
Boyne, thus preventing all chance of aid in that
direction. On the morning of the 3rd of
September Sir Arthur Aston sallied forth with
his horse, but found that the enemy were a
great deal too strong to engage, and so he
ordered Captain Finglas to remain on the field,
engaging himself only with small parties of the
enemy upon advantage, and to gain any infor-
mation with regard to their movements.

In the afternoon he brought us news that
five hundred of the enemy's horse were advancing
towards Oldbridge, and later on the greater
part of Cromwell's army appeared before the
walls. We saw their foot being convoyed over
by an overawing power of horse, and they soon
took up all the advantageous positions before
the walls, so we expected them to make their
batteries that night.

During the skirmishing that day we lost one
captain out of Colonel Warren's regiment, and
Major Butler had two horses killed and one or
two soldiers wounded.

The days which followed were full of anxiety.

96 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

We made constant sallies on the enemy and a
few men were killed on both sides.

One day I remember particularly when Sir
Thomas Armstrong made a gallant sortie with
about two hundred men, but they were all so
well entertained by the enemy that the entire
body was captured, with the solitary exception
of Sir Thomas, who escaped within the walls
owing to the excellence of his horse.

On the 8th of September Sir Arthur Aston
himself made a very strong sortie and inflicted
considerable injury on the foe. Then at last
came that memorable 9th of September when
Cromwell gave the order for the batteries to
begin to play.

When the guns had opened fire he sent a
summons to Sir Arthur asking him to deliver
the town to the Parliament of England, or else
to take the full consequences of refusal.

Not receiving a satisfactory answer, he
immediately took down the white flag which
hung over his quarters, and I could see him
from the Millmount* ordering a red ensign to
be hoisted in its place.

He then proceeded to beat down the steeple

* The Millmount is where the Martello Tower now stamln

A MEMORY OF 1649. 97

of St. Mary's Church with a battery of guns
on the south side of the walls, while another
battery playing against the east side was occupied
in destroying the tower which protected the
south-east corner of our defences.

The long day ended at last without any
breaches large enough for a successful assault
having been made, but the destruction of the
steeple of St. Mary's was a great loss to us, for
we had placed some guns in position there, and
these in conjunction with some long fowling-
pieces had wrought considerable destruction
among the enemy.

I remember late that night when we were
gathered round Sir Arthur Aston on the Mi 11-
mount to receive his final instructions for the
defence on the morrow, the men outside the
walls lifted up their voices suddenly in song.

We all gazed to the south.

" Is that a Puritan hymn ? " said young
Lieutenant Duncan. " Do they think sweet
music will assist them in storming the strong
walls of Drogheda ? "

" They sang b'ke that," said Colonel Cros-
waithe, an old cavalier who had shared in many
a hopeless fight for the glory of King Charles ;

H

g WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

" they sang like that at Marston Moor and
Naseby, and when they rose up they scattered
us like chaff before the wind."

A silence fell upon us all.

The night was clear and fine, and the heavens
were studded thickly with the peaceful stars.
Far below I could see the waters of the Boyne
glimmering in the starlight and winding their
way towards the distant sea, while away to the
south and east where the Cromwellian army
lay I saw the darkness lighted by a hundred
watch fires.

Once more the stillness of the night was broken,
as clear from a thousand rugged throats burst
forth in solemn grandeur the old Hundred and
Seventeenth Psalm :

" 0 give ye praise unto the Lord,

All nati-ons that be,
Likewise ye people att, accord
His name to magnify!

For great to-us-ward ever are

His lovingkindnesses,
His truth endures for evermore :

The Lord 0 do ye bless ! "

CHAPTER XVI.

How Cromwell stormed the walls of Drogheda, and
how Sir Arthur Aston died.

URING the morning of the 10th of
August their guns began to play
furiously against the south and east
walls of the city, and while this terrific
cannonade was in progress we were hard at work
making entrenchments to impede their advance
should they succeed in making an entrance into
the town.

The enemy succeeded at last in knocking two
good breaches in the walls, and it was about
five o'clock in the afternoon when they advanced
to the storm.

They had taken their positions opposite St.
Mary's in the hope that when they had taken
the church they could use it as a protection
against our men, until such a time as the
remainder of their horse and foot had got in
through the broaches.

In through the two openings these Roundhead

TOO WHEN CROMWEI L CAME TO DPOGHEDA.

warriors poured and were met by a sweeping
lire from our men, who then dashed in upon
them with the cold steel.

Here in this south-east corner the assault
raged furiously until inch by inch, amid the
crying of the wounded and the dying, the rattle
of muskets, and the clash of steel, our men drove
them back again into the open, defeated and
disheartened for the time.

After a short breathing space Oliver ordered
them to advance again, and once more the
flower of the Puritan army swept in upon us
for the second time.

Again the same hand-to-hand fighting took
place and again for the second time they were
driven from the breaches, their brave leader,
Colonel Castle, being shot through the head,
and divers of their officers and men killed and
wounded.

Now came the supreme moment of the attack.
As the light was beginning to wane I saw from
my position on the rampart of the south wall
General Cromwell placing himself at the head
of the storming party and waving them on again
towards the breaches.

As he advanced towards the wall I saw his

A MEMORY OF 1649. 101

face clearly for the first time, and it has haunted
me for many a night since then in horrid dreams
— those harsh and cruel features, showing,
however, great sagacity and depth of thought ;
the grey piercing eyes and the large reddish nose
out of all proportion to the face. Then I
lost sight of him in the tide of battle.
Now that they were led on in person by their
General the Puritans were not to be denied,
and so fierce was their onslaught that we were
driven back into our entrenchments, and finally
had to quit these and retreat, being greatly
disheartened by the death of Colonel Wall, who
commanded this part of the defence and who
was shot through the head. The enemy now
took possession of the entrenchments and of
St. Mary's Church, and still forcing our men
backwards they let in all the remainder of their
horse and foot through the undefended breaches.
I had retreated to where Sir Arthur Aston
was standing at the foot of the Millmount, and
I remember how Captain Harvey rode up in the
confusion and besought him to retreat with us
to the top : ' * Where we must fight to the last,"
said he, " but never surrender to these Puritan
dogs."

102 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Then I caught the answer of old Colonel
Croswaithe clear above the roar of battle, " God
flimn you, sir," he cried out fiercely, "would
you teach Sir Arthur Aston how a cavalier
should die ? "

The fight raged furiously on, our men resisting
gallantly, but against overwhelming numbers.
Soon the greater part of our army were driven
across the bridge into the northern portion of the
town, while I, with the other officers and some
fifty men had retreated with Sir Arthur Aston
to the top of the Millmount, and being assisted
there by the palisades were making a warm
defence.

At this point of the fight I was shot through
the left shoulder, and what with the burning pain
and the loss of blood, I grew sick indeed, and
must have fainted for a short time. When I
came to I found myself lying alongside of a
dead soldier. On looking round I saw that
the enemy must have captured the Millmount,
for Sir Arthur and some of the others were
standing there without their swords, and I saw
that there was some kind of parleying going on.
All of a sudden someone cried out that they
were the General's orders, and at a sign from

A MEMORY OF 1649. I03

one of the Roundhead rascals the heated soldiers
fell on these defenceless men.

They hacked Sir Arthur Aston into pieces,
and tearing off his wooden leg under the delusion
that it was built of gold, they dashed his brains
out with it in their disappointed fury.

When their treacherous and bloody work was
properly completed they retreated down the
Millmount towards the Boyne leaving me alone
in my dull pain and horror.

Slowly the night deepened.

I had lain there moaning very gently and
feeling glad to die, when a cold hand pressed upon
my forehead, and on looking up I saw Father
Latham disguised as a Puritan preacher with a
long cloak and a pious broad-brimmed hat
bending over me.

" Not dead, thank God," he said.

" No," I answered, " only praying constantly
for death."

" Courage ! " was all this good man said, and
commenced to rapidly bind up the wound.
When he had finished I pointed to the mangled
bodies.

" I know," he said fiercely, " it is the same
everywhere. Noll heard he had the flower

104 WHfc.N CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

of the Irish army at his mercy and he means
to wipe it out. When they surrender at the last
he orders his desperadoes to cut them down."

I held out my right hand and caught him by
the coat, for a fresh agony had seized upon me.

" Is Shiela safe ? " I whispered hoarsely.

" I hope so," Father Latham answered.
' When our men had retreated pell-mell across
the bridge into the upper town I conducted her
and Lady Carvell to St. Peter's Church where
all the ladies of the town had assembled for
safety."

As he spoke my eyes were attracted by a
sudden glare in the direction of the Boyne,
which increased each moment in splendour and
shot up into the sky.

" What can that be, Father ? " I said feebly,
raising myself and staring towards the con-
flagration.

He gazed through the darkness for some
moments and then put his hand suddenly
across his eyes as if the sight of the increasing
fire hurt him. " My God," he said slowly, " the
tower of St. Peter's is in flames ! "

CHAPTER XVII.

Which tells of our escape to Monasterboice and
completes the story of the sack of Drogheda.

F what followed after this I have but
a faint, dreamy recollection.

I know that Father Latham lifted
me in his arms and carried me down
in the darkness through St. Mary's churchyard.
Then waiting for a favourable opportunity he
slipped through the breach made in the east
wall, and the next thing I knew was that he
was bathing my aching forehead with the cool
water of the streamlet of the Dale valley which
flows beneath the slope by the east wall into
the Boyne.

I now was able to stand up in a feeble kind of
way, and leaning heavily on my kind protector
we passed along the valley to the Boyne water
where a skill was lying at a point some three
hundred yards from St. James' Gate.

Father Latham placed me in the stern-sheets

106 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

and rowed out into the darkness towards the
mouth of the river.

When we had advanced about a quarter of
a mile we landed on the south side, and he had
me conveyed from there by a circuitous route
to Monasterboice, where, in a peasant's cottage
near the ancient churchyard, I lay between life
and death for many a weary day.

During those sad hours my illness was greatly
aggravated by the anxiety concerning Shiela's
fate, and it was now impossible for me to obtain
any certain information ; for Father Latham,
after seeing me properly cared for, had been
obliged to return to the bedside of General
O'Neill, whose last days were approaching.

It was told me, however, that some of the
ladies had escaped in the confusion through
one of the northern gates, but the account
which I received of the completion of Crom-
well's cruel work did not tend to reassure me.

After Sir Arthur Aston was slain upon the
Millmount the fierce tide of battle moved on
over the bridge and the retreating garrison
sought different positions of shelter in the
northern half of the town. All those who
could not find shelter were immediately cut

A MEMORY OP 1649. !<>7

down, no man, woman or child being spared,
while those who found an asylum in the towers
and churches only escaped death for a while.

Some hundred men with their officers took
possession of St. Peter's Church steeple, while
others entered the towers of West Gate and
more occupied the round tower hard by the
gate called St. Sunday's. All those in the
steeple of St. Peter's were summoned by Crom-
well to yield to mercy, but having noted what
mercy this murderer had dealt out to others
they declined to come down.

Upon this he ordered his soldiers to set fire
to the steeple and roasted many of them alive ;
and from the midst of the dreadful flames was
one voice heard crying out in agony, " God
damn me, God confound me, I burn, I burn,"
which from the method used of calling on his
Maker, I would interpret that this had been an
English cavalier.

Some of those imprisoned in the steeple
managed to reach the door, where they were all
hacked to pieces. One man only escaped.
He leaped from the top of the tower and was
not killed, but only broke his leg ; so the soldiers
gave him quarter for the quaintness of the thing.

IO8 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

For being filled, as they have frequently
announced, with the true spirit of religion, they
no doubt took it for an act of God.

In the street leading to St. Peter's there was a
regular torrent of blood from the number of those
slain, and it poured down the hill into the river.

On the day after this terrible work the Bolton
and the West Towers were summoned, but the
small garrison refused to yield, whereupon
General Cromwell ordered the place to be
surrounded and the men starved out.

From their favourable position the garrison
killed and wounded many of the besiegers,
but hunger telling on them at the last they came
down and submitted. Whereupon their officers
were all knocked upon the head, and after every
tenth man of the common soldiers had been
slain the rest were shipped for the Barbadoes.

When the Puritans were advancing up the
towers and along those galleries of the church
each one of them took up a child with him and
used it as a shield of defence to prevent them-
selves from being shot or brained. After they
had killed all in the church they went down to
the vaults where the choicest of the women and
ladies had concealed themselves, and slew them

A MEMORY OF 1649. IOQ

without mercy ; being moved by the spirit to
take a full revenge for the Rising of '41. Though
what these poor ladies had to do with that
affair it would be hard to know, while some of
them were the wives of English cavaliers who
had only lately come to Ireland.

One can imagine General Cromwell, when these
bloody deeds were properly completed, offering
up a prayer of thanksgiving in his raucous voice ;
while the heated murderers gathering round
would indulge for a change " in a few moments
of silent prayer " for the late mercies vouchsafed
unto them.

Upon this occasion Cromwell exceeded every-
thing that was ever heard of in breach of faith
and of inhumanity ; for the cruelties exercised
there, and for five days after the town was taken,
would make as many pictures of inhumanity as
are to be found in " The Book of Martyrs " or
" The Relation of Amboyna."

Everything in the sacred places was plundered,
the library, the sacred chalices, of which there
were many of great value, were all destroyed.

When the soldiers were searching through the
ruins of the city they came upon two priests,
Father John Bathe and his brother.

110 WHEN' CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Suspecting that they were religious, they
mined them, and finding them to be priests
they led them off in triumph to the market-place
where, pretending to extinguish the Catholic
religion, they tied them to stakes in the ground
and pierced their poor bodies with shot until
they expired.

Father Robert Netterville, who was far
advanced in years, was confined to bed by his
infirmities, but was dragged thence by the
soldiers and trailed along the ground, knocking
against every obstacle on the way.

He was then beaten with clubs, and when
many of his bones were broken he was cast out
on the highway ; but some good Catholics came
during the night and bearing him away he was
hid in safety.

Four days after, having fought the good fight,
he departed this life, to receive, as we hope,
the martyr's crown.

It was told me by an English soldier who was
present at these scenes that the thought of
mercy first entered General Cromwell's heart
at the sight of an infant trying to obtain nourish-
ment from its dead mother's breast, who was
lying slain in one of the streets. But, indeed,

A MEMORY OF 1649. I][I

the angel of mercy might have spared her
knockings at that iron door, for at that time
it was found that there was nobody left in the
place to kill.

Thus was the fate of Drogheda town decided
nine days after Oliver Cromwell had appeared
before the walls.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Telling of the death of Owen Roe O'Neill and of
the suspicions which it aroused, together with
a few words about the Lady Rosa.

AS I lay ill of my wound at Monasterboice
the sad news was brought to my
bedside that our gallant leader was
dead. He had died on the 6th of
November.

It was his hope to have joined Ormonde in
the middle of December at Carrickmacross, and
he was all eagerness to show his goodwill and
his entire forgetfulness of past injuries.

No one seemed to be certain of the symptoms
of his disease, for some said it was a defluxion
in the knee, they thought, which proved so
painful that he was unable to ride, nor could
he suffer being carried on a litter.

Others stated that his death was due to
poison from a pair of russet boots sent to him
by a gentleman named Plunket, in the County
of Louth, who afterwards boasted that he had

A MEMORY OF 1649. 113

done the English a good service by despatching
O'Neill out of the world.

There was also a rumour that he was poisoned
by Sir Charles Coote who entertained him with
a great parade of hospitality and extraordinary
plenty.

He is stated to have given him some subtle
poison at table which paralyzed his energies to
such a degree that he could not mount his horse.
This was a lingering operation, weakening him
day by day.

During the first month of his illness his
physician, O'Shiel, was absent ; and the doctor
acting in his place mistook his malady for gout
and treated him accordingly.

He battled bravely against his disease hoping
that he might soon recover sufficiently to be
able to place himself at the head of the army
which he so dearly loved.

But it was decided otherwise.

From Deny, where he had first been attacked,
he moved slowly and in great pain through
Tyrone and Monaghan into Cavan, and from
Ballyhaise he was borne to Cloughouter, where
lived his brother-in-law, Philip Maelmora
O'Reilly. It was here he breathed his last.

i

114 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Many of his comrades could not believe that
he would die at a time when his skill and valour
were so greatly needed.

Some deemed that God, in His divine clemency,
would not deal so strait with this poor nation
as to bereave them of him, their only champion ;
but rather, the world being unworthy of so good
a masterpiece, had lulled him to sleep and
snatched him away to some secret corner of the
world, to keep him there for future, better
purposes.

With regard to the Lady Rosa, his true and
faithful wife, the neice of Hugh O'Neill's
lieutenant, Tyrrell (the hero of Tyrrellspass)
she outlived all her kinsmen, and for ten more
years was the witness of her country's weight
of sorrow.

Many years after, when I was fighting in the
Netherlands for the King of Spain, I came across
her tomb near Brussels, where she rests in the
same grave with her first-born. And there I
saw, with deep emotion, the marble slab which
proudly tells the stranger that underneath
ps the "widow of Don Eugenio O'Neill, the
General of the Catholic Irish."

CHAPTER XIX.

How I joined Hugh O'Neill at Clonmel, with an
account of the Siege by Cromwell.

IT was not until the close of March, 1650,
that I had sufficiently recovered from
my wound to leave my kind protectors
at Monasterboice, and I joined my
regiment at Clonmel without having heard any
news of Shiela's fate.

We were now under the command of Owen
Roe's nephew, Hugh O'Neill ; and when I
reached my destination I found him straining
every nerve to put the town in a proper state
of defence in order to give Noll a warm reception.
For having finished his cruel treatment of
Wexford and his conquests of other places,
Cromwell was now marching against Clonmel
under the impression that a single summons
would be sufficient to ensure its immediate
surrender.

On the 27th of April he appeared before the
walls.

Il6 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Our garrison consisted of only fifteen hundred
foot, and one hundred horse, under Major
Frnnell's command, but the town itself was well
protected on the south side by the river Suir,
and on the remaining sides by a strong wall.

Hugh O'Neill had written to Ormonde telling
him that the garrison was of good courage and
resolution, and that on Clonmel the safety of the
kingdom chiefly depended.

But he besought him to prevent any tragedy
from being enacted there as in other places, for
the want of timely relief, and begged that the
army should march day and night to our succour.

Ormonde promised to send us reinforcements,
but they never turned up, and Clonmel was
left to its fate.

On arriving before the town Cromwell sent
in a summons to surrender and offered favourable
terms, but Hugh O'Neill only answered that he
was of another resolution than to give up the
town on quarters and conditions till he was
reduced to a lower station, and so wished him
to do his best.

On hearing this reply Noll immediately planted
his cannons, and during this time several sallies
were made by us with great success. For

A MEMORY OF 1649. "7

O'Neill always behaved himself both wisely,
courageously, and fortunately against Cromwell
and his party, not only in a defensive but in an
offensive way also, with many valiant sallies
and martial stratagems to the enemy's mighty
prejudice. For they lost on some days two
hundred men, and on others three hundred,
four hundred, and five hundred men.

These losses came so often that Cromwell
began to weary of Clonmel, and only that his
honour impeded him he would have quitted
the place and have raised the siege. He saw,
however, that no succour was coming to us,
and that we were losing men and ammunition
daily, and so he continued pressing us with
many stratagems which our gallant Hugh
invariably spoiled. He then decided to adopt
another measure, and receiving the information
he desired from some of Inchiquin's party,
he at length alighted upon a fit instrument
of treachery. Major Fennell, who commanded
our horse, was the traitor with whom Cromwell
entered into correspondence, and promised a
reward of £500 and a free pardon for ranging
himself against the Parliament, if he undertook
to open one of the gates on the north side of

TlS WHEN CKOMWFI I (AMI- TO DROGHEDA.

the town on the following night at twelve o'clock,
and to admit five hundred of the enemy.

I happened to be on guard at that gate, so
Fennell suspecting me and my Ulster warriors
changed us to another gate and placed some of
his own unreliable soldiers in our place.

I immediately reported the matter to O'Neill,
who had given strict orders that at least two-
thirds of the gate-guards should be Ulster men.

His suspicions were at once aroused, and
cross-questioning the officer on guard, he had
him placed in custody.

Fennell then seeing that his game was over
confessed all on condition of receiving a full
pardon.

When O'Neill knew the full plot he had all
the gates strengthened by powerful reinfo
nients, and an extra five hundred men at the
gate where the enemy were to enter. All this
was done without noise so as to raise no suspicion.

Advising then with the rest what was best to
do in this extremity O'Neill decided to open
the gate according to the former covenant.

The enemy was watching his opportunity,
and observing the signal marched towards the
gate. Five hundred did enter, but the rest

A MEMORY OF 1649. 1 19

nolens volens were kept out. The gate was then
shut, and the five hundred put to the sword.

Cromwell, disgusted at the preposterous issue
of his bargain with Fennell, was greatly troubled
in mind, and therefore sent for more reinforce-
ments and larger cannon.

He despatched messengers to Lord Broghill
telling him that his army was in a pitiable
condition from disease, and greatly disheartened
by the many repulses it had met with, and
stating that he must raise the siege unless
reinforced. Finally he conjured him by all
the ties of duty and friendship to come to his
assistance.

As soon as this additional force came up
Noll bombarded our faithful garrison with
renewed energy, and soon after, with the con-
tinual thunderings, a long breach was made near
one of the gates ; but it proved not to be level
enough when night fell.

This breach was made near the west wall
some twenty yards south of the tower, called
the magazine.

Within two hours after, Hugh O'Neill sent
two hundred chosen men and officers, with a
good guide, through byways from a place at the

120 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

wall next the river that was neglected by the
besiegers, and they fell on the backs of some
who occupied a fort not fully finished, and cut
them ofi before any relief came.

On this being accomplished the next gate was
immediately opened for them, and they got in
safely with the loss of only half-a-dozen men.

O'Neill now set everybody to work, men and
maids, townmen and soldiers (only those on duty
attending the breach and the walls) to draw dung-
hills, mortar, stones and timber, and make a long
lane a man's height and about eighty yards in
length, on both sides up from the breach, with a
foot-bank at the back of it. Then he caused
engines to be placed on both sides of the
lane, and two guns at the end of it (which were
hidden from view) opposite to the breach.

And so all things were ready for a storm.

It was about eight o'clock in the morning
when the Cromwellites advanced to the storm.
They entered without any opposition, and none
of O'Neill's men appeared until the Puritans
were well inside, and the lane which I have
described was full up with horsemen, armed
with helmets, backs, breasts, swords, musque-
toons and pistols.

A MEMORY OF 1649. I21

When those in front found themselves in a
pound, and that they could proceed no further,
they cried " Halt ! Halt ! "

Then those men entering behind them at the
breach, thinking that the front men were for
running away, cried out " Advance ! Advance ! "
and so you may take it from me that there was
a mighty confusion.

Then suddenly I rushed with a party of pikes
and musketeers to the breach and cut off and
drove back any more entering. Then O'Neill's
men in full force fell upon those crowded in the
pound with shots, pikes, scythes and stones,
and cast long pieces of timber from the engines
right into the midst of them.

Also the two guns at the end of the pound
fired into them and slaughtered them with
chained bullets, so that in less than one hour's
time there were about one thousand men killed,
and lying on top of one another.

Cromwell was now on horseback at the gate
and with his guard for company, expecting the
gates to be opened by those who had gone
through the breach and were now lying dead in
the pound. When he saw what had taken
place and heard our cannons going off he was

Vi'I.T. CAME TO DROGHEDA.

more vexed than he had ever been since he first
put on helmt't against the King; for indeed it was
seldom that he met with such a repulse as this.

He now ordered the troopers to advance to
the assault, and they surely displayed a bravery
worthy of their former fame.

Our men were driven for the while from the
breach and the enemy made their way to the
eastern breastwork opposite to the breach.

Here, however, our men opened fire from the
neighbouring houses, a galling cross-fire, and
many of their officers and men sank under it.

Determined at all hazards to storm the place
Cromwell now poured masses of troops in at the
breach, those behind forcing the front ranks on.
For some four hours the desperate slaughter
continued, the former clansmen of Owen Roe
showing the unconquered Puritans that they
had met their match at last.

The retreat was at length sounded and the
remnant of Cromwell's Ironsides retired leaving
the triumphant Hugh O'Neill in possession of
the breach.

It was little wonder that I stood there
astounded at our victory, and contrasted it with
the fight at Drogheda.

A MEMORY OF 1649. 123

I think that not only were our men here the
better warriors, but where Sir Arthur Aston
had but one stratagem to show, our Hugh would
bring out twenty.

After the fight Noll was unable to conceal
his admiration, and declared loudly that our
men were invincible.

He now determined to call in reserves from
the neighbouring garrisons, and by changing the
siege into a blockade to carry the place at last.

The Duke of Ormonde, although he had never
sent assistance, was delighted at O'Neill's
masterly resistance which seemed to show that
the fortune of the war was changing ; but not
long after we sent him word that our ammunition
was running fast, and that in truth we could
hold out but very little longer. From the time
that the siege had begun, far off and near the
walls, it was now close upon two months, and
death had thinned our ranks and the houses
were crowded with the sick and wounded.

On the night that the last of our ammunition
was served out O'Neill brought us all together
for a council of war, and it was then decided
to leave Clonmel secretly and retreat upon
Limerick.

124 \YIir\ CROMWEII. CAMK TO DROGHEDA.

O'Neill advised the Mayor to make conditions
with Oliver after we had passed out, but to keep
our departure a secret.

Two hours later we passed over the river
undetected by the guard of horse that lay upon
the other extremity of the bridge, and made no
halt until we reached Ballynasack, about twelve
miles from Clonmel.

Then the Mayor sent out to Cromwell for
a conduct to wait upon His Excellency, which
was at once sent, and an officer to bring him
from the wall to the commander's tent. Then
Noll complimented him and made suitable terms
for the yielding of the place.

At the conclusion of the business His
Excellency asked him if Hugh O'Neill had
known of his coming out, whereupon he answered
" No," that O'Neill was gone some hours ago
with all his men.

Then General Cromwell frowned and stared
at him, saying, " You knave, you have served
me so, and did not tell me before ! "

To which the Mayor replied : " If His
Excellency had demanded the question, he
would tell him."

Then he asked what that Hugh O'Neill was ;

A MEMORY OF 1649. 125

to which the Mayor answered that he was an
over-sea soldier born in Spain.

On which Noll answered hotly, " God damn
you and your over-sea," and desired the Mayor
to give back the signed treaty paper again.
To which he answered that he hoped His
Excellency would not break his conditions with
him, as that was not the reputation which His
Excellency had. Then Oliver was calm for
a while, but suddenly broke into a fury, crying
out, " By God above, he would follow that
Hugh O'Neill wheresoever he went." But he
kept his conditions with the town.

This was the strongest resistance that he had
ever met with, and the grandest fight our men
made in that war.

There was never seen a storm of such long
continuance and so stoutly defended, neither
in England nor Ireland.

CHAPTER XX.

Which tells the story of the lonely road to Connatujht,
and how sorrow crowded upon sorrow.

FTER the fall of Clonmel the war
lingered on for another two years,
and by that time Ireland was well
under the heel of the conqueror.
Concerning the Cromwellian settlement which
followed on the conclusion of the war I have
gathered most of my information from those
exiles who poured into Spain for the next few
years, preferring freedom in a foreign land to
slavery within their own.

Plague and famine had followed hard upon
the heels of war, and it was calculated that
during the last twelve years out of a population of
1,466,000 some 616,000 had perished by the
sword, by famine or by plague. Death had
been so hard at work that close upon one-third
of the population had been wiped out, and the
traveller might have ridden for some thirty miles
without encountering a single human being.

A MEMORY OF 1649. 12J

Wolves, however, he would have met vith in
hundreds, who, feeding upon human flesh, were
rendered doubly savage, and whose numbers
had increased so much of late that they could
be seen prowling close even to the great cities.

The decree now went forth from England that
all the leading Catholics who had borne a part
in the late war were to be condemned to death,
and to the complete forfeiture of their estates ;
while all other Catholics who were considered
the least guilty by the Parliament of England
were to leave the homes of their ancestors at
a given date and to take the lonely road to
Connaught. Connaught, which was the most
desolate and unfruitful of the four provinces,
was to be their future home, and to pass again
beyond its boundaries was to mean death.

All their rich lands in Ulster, Leinster and
Munster now passed into the hands of the English
adventurers and the Puritans who had fought
in the war.

The small property which I possessed in
Galway was confiscated by the Parliament,
because I had remained true to the faith of my
fathers, and had fought for my Irish land.

My second cousin, Hester Brandon, whose

128 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

husband had died fighting for the Catholic
Confederation, was banished with her three
children into Connaught at ten days' notice,
and her rich estate near Dublin was handed
over to a Protestant adventurer.

This news was brought to me in the first
month of my lonely exile in Spain, and I remem-
ber how my heart was filled with a sad pity
at the thought of this gentle lady and her little
ones being forced over the borders of the Shannon
by the cruelty of Cromwell, to dwell for the
remainder of their existence amid the wilds of
Connaught.

A proclamation was now published stating
that any Catholic priest found in Ireland after
twenty days was guilty of high treason, and
liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered ; while
any person harbouring a priest was liable to the
penalty of death. Should anyone be aware
of the hiding-place of a priest, and not inform
the people in authority, he was liable to a public
whipping and to be deprived of both his ears.

The law also enacted that anyone who was
absent on Sunday from the parish church was
liable to a fine of thirty pence.

To carry on the Irish war a large number of

A MEMORY OF 1649. I2Q

shop-keepers in London had lent money to the
Government, and it was necessary to satisfy
these people (and also a large number of the
common soldiers whose wages had never been
paid) with the forfeited estates in Ireland. As
they could not all be compensated fully, a
lottery was established, and it was a frequent
thing for some vulgar and illiterate trooper
or shop-keeper to draw the estate of a Catholic
nobleman.*

Slave dealers were now let loose across the
land and thousands of innocent girls were
captured and shipped to the Barbadoes to be
sold there as slaves to the planters.

To banish the Irish race to Connaught or to
scatter them abroad ; to break up their homes
and to exterminate them from the other three
provinces ; to blot out their religion and to
substitute the creed of the Reformation ; these
were the ambitions of the English people.

Of the Irish captains and the men of war,

* So that, in a great many cases, members of the Protestant
aristocracy are descended from Cromwellian upstarts, while thoir
tenants are descended from the old Catholic gentry who were
ruined by the Cromwellian settlement and degraded by the
Penal Laws. It was this knowledge which made the arrogant
attitude of the ascendency class towards their Catholic tenants so
peculiarly obnoxious.

K

130 WHEN* CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

some 40,000 went into exile and took up arms
under the King of Spain.

So Connaught was selected for the habitation
of the Irish people on account of its being
surrounded by the Shannon for all but ten
miles, and this portion could be guarded by
forts.

To further secure the imprisonment of the
nation and to cut them off from all relief by sea,
a belt of land some four miles wide, which
commenced one mile to the west of Sligo and so
wound along by the coast-line and the Shannon,
was reserved for the Puritans to plant.

To Connaught, then, all the Irish were to
remove by the 1st of May, 1654, with the
exception of Irishwomen married to English
Protestants, on condition that they became
Protestants. Boys under fourteen and girls
under twelve in Protestant service, and to be
brought up Protestants, were also excepted ;
and lastly, all those who had shown during the
ten years' war their constant good affection
to the Commonwealth in preference to the Kin<*.

One can imagine the faces of the steeple-
hatted Puritans adding this last farce to the
clause.

A MEMORY OF 1649. I3I

All the Irish in Connaught were to dwell there
without entering a walled town, or coming within
five miles of some, on the pain of death. All
those who had not removed by the above date
were under pain of being put to douth by a
court of military officers if they were found on
the English side of the Shannon.

Connaught was at this time the most wasted
province in the kingdom, for Sir Charles Coote,
disregarding the truce made with our nation
by order of the King, in 1644, had continued
to ravage it with fire and sword. So it was to
such a place in the winter months that the Irish
nation, their nobles, their gentry, and their
commons, together with their wives and little
children, had to set out.

The Puritan officers were struck with the
difficulty of carrying out the orders of the
Parliament at such a time, for the gentry and
farmers were then engaged in getting in the
harvest which they had been encouraged to
sow on account of the scarcity in the land.
Panic-stricken now at the thought of that
winter march to Connaught they had no
ambition to go on with the tillage, and this
meant that the land would be a wilderness in

132 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

the next year as the soldiers would not get
possession in time to sow.

The officers communicated their troubles to
the Commissioners for Ireland, and these good
men being perplexed at this report decided to
fast, and enjoined the same on all Christian
friends in Ireland, and invited the officers of
the army to join them in lifting up prayers
with strong crying and tears " to Him to whom
nothing is too hard, that His servants, whom
He had called forth in this day to act in these
great transactions, might be made faithful, and
carried on by His own outstretched arm against
all opposition and difficulty, to do what was
pleasing in His sight."

And in the meantime the transplantation of
the unhappy people went on.

Ireland now lay void as a wilderness. Women
and children were found daily in the ditches
starved and perishing, and the bodies of many
wandering orphans, whose fathers had embarked
for Spain and whose mothers had died of famine,
were preyed upon by famished wolves.

In the years 1652 and 1653 the plague and
famine swept away whole counties, but in spite
of the wastes they left behind there were still

A MEMORY OF 1649. J33

three things which troubled the comfort of the
English.

In the first united Parliament of the Three
Kingdoms, at Westminster, in 1657, Major
Morgan, member for the County of Wicklow,
deprecated the taxation proposed for Ireland
by showing that the country was in ruins ; and
besides the cost of rebuilding the churches,
courthouses and market-houses, they were under
a very heavy charge for public rewards, paid
for the destruction of three beasts.

' We have three beasts to destroy (said Major
Morgan) that lay burthens on us. The first is
the wolf, on whom we lay five pounds a head.
The second beast is a priest, on whose head
we lay ten pounds — if he be eminent, more.
The third beast is a Tory, on whose head, if
he be a public Tory, we lay twenty pounds ; and
forty shillings on a private Tory."

These Tories were Catholic gentlemen who
had been hunted from their estates and who
led a roving life in the wilds after the Irish
armies they belonged to had been disbanded.

The poor Irish peasantry, with a generosity
characteristic of their race and country, never
refused them hospitality, but maintained them

WHEN C ROM \\I-I I ( AME TO DROGHEDA.

as gentlemen, allowing them to cosher upon
ilu-m, as the Irish called the giving of their
lord a certain number of days' board and lodging.

The English adventurers who had robbed
the Tories of their estates complained much
of their pride and idleness in not becoming
their labourers. But the sense of injustice
and their use of arms prevented it.

Their sons or nephews, brought up in poverty
and matched with peasant girls, will become
the tenants of the English officers and soldiers ;
and thence, reduced to labourers, will be found
the turf-cutters and potato-diggers of the next
generation — yet keeping, even in the low social
rank they have fallen to, their ancient spirit
and courage, and their intolerance of injury
and insult.

This is the story of the lonely road to
Connaught ; this is the curse which Cromwell
left behind him.

And now some concluding words about the
fate of Galway city, which was the last fortress
which had yielded to the Cromwellian armies
on the 20th of March, 1652.

On the 23rd of July, 1655, all the Irish were
ordered to quit the town by the 1st of November

A MEMORY OF 1649. J35

following, and if they refused the soldiers were
ordered to hunt them out.

On the 30th of October this order was executed,
and all the inhabitants were banished to make
way for the English Protestants whom the
State decided to install.

In order to induce the best class of Planters
to settle there the many advantages of the
town were pointed out.

It lay open for trade with Spain, the Straits,
and the West Indies, and had many noble
uniform buildings of marble ; while no Irish
would be permitted to dwell in the city nor
within three miles of it.

There never was a better chance of under-
taking a plantation, and it was suggested that
in time it might become another Deny.

But it is one thing to destroy the trade of a city
and another to build it up again ; and Uulv
once frequented with the ships of France and
Spain bearing choice wines and other commodi-
ties to supply the wants of the O'Neills and
O'Donnells, the O'Garas and O'Kanes, her
marble palaces the property of strangers, her
gallant sons and dark-eyed daughters b;
remains to-day a splendid ruin. Her ports are

136 WHEN CKOMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

empty, for her trade is gone, while her hungry
and deserted air becomes the mock of the in-
sulting stranger.

And all this was the work"bf England.

Of England, that old tyrant, who makes her
treaties with the whole wide world, but breaks
her faith only with the weaker nations. Who
during those ten years of war marched with
her Bible in one hand and her sword within
the other, strewing her texts around her while
she burnt and killed — beating her own record
as a land of robbers and of hypocrites.

Pass it down the generations, this story of
a nation's woes.

CHAPTER XXI.

How I slew a murderer by Dardistown Castle, and
how I saw a vision of Shiela Brandon.

TV A Y narrative is now rapidly drawing to
I y I a close. After the siege of Clonm< -1

/ @ \ l Parted from HuSh °'Nei11 for
the time being, and travelling north

to Julianstown I set out from that place and
scoured the country round to try and capture
any information concerning Shiela Brandon.

I remember it was the third day after my
arrival, and I had been wandering over the
country for many hours finding all enquiries
fruitless, when suddenly I found that evening
the news long sought for.

I was returning by Dardistown and had passed
by the Nanny water soon after the dusk had
fallen, the moon slowly climbing the heavens
and lighting up the country round with her pale
sad light.

As I entered a glade not far from the Castle

WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

my attention was rivetted on a curious horse-
man who was riding slowly towards me.

He was dressed like a mixture of preacher
and soldier, wearing a cloak and high-crowned
steeple-hat, together with a long sword and
pistols.

" Greeting, friend," he said, on coming near
me ; "a goodly night to travel on when we
have so fair a lamp to guide our footsteps,"
and he waved his hand towards the sky.

" A fair night, indeed," I answered, and
broke off his praises of the moon with the
question if he had been at the taking of Drogheda,
for my first thought was always to question
anyone who had been present.

He grew excited at the name of Drogheda,
and broke into extraordinary speech.

" Drogheda," he cried, " Drogheda, where we
slew the unbelievers and divided the spoil
according to the Lord's commands and the
wish of General Cromwell. Oh, Oliver, blessed
art thou on account of thy honour ; never
has defeat come near thee, nor disaster attended
on thy banner. Ride on, great soldier, chosen
of the Lord ; gird up thy loins with resolution
and be steadfast to the mark of thy high calling."

A MEMORY OF I' 139

' Which means," said I, " that he is to sack
another Drogheda, cut down surrendered men,
and murder helpless women."

" Nay, nay, it be no murder," said the stranger
sternly, " if the Lord cries upon us for the
sacrifice. I myself slew one fair damsel, being
moved thereto by the Spirit of God."

He paused for a moment and then continued :
" It was down by the wall near the river that I
came upon Captain Thomas a Wood and found
a lovely maiden on her knees before him and
making many prayers that he would spare her
life ; and on his asking her name she cried out
that it was Mistress Shiela Brandon. As I
approached he seemed moved with a profound
pity to save her, and would doubtless have
made the attempt only I foiled his weakness.
For being mwed by the spirit to carry out the
General's orders to slay and spare not, I passed
my sword through the virgin's bosom, and then
before she had finished gasping I flung her into
the river, which was red near the banks with
the blood of those whom the Lord had slain."

After he had spoken my darling's name I
seemed rooted to the ground in a kind of horror
and could neither speak nor move for some

140 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

moments. Then my strength returned to me,
and I drew out my sword and struck him
across the cheek with the flat of it, crying out
" murderer," and again " murderer."

He sprang back into the shade of the trees.

" Why this treatment, friend, and who art
thou to strike a soldier of the Commonwealth
without cause ? Art thou one of those murderous
Irish Papists who shed the innocent blood in '41,
or art thou one of our own God-damn-me
cavaliers ? " Then he drew his sword, and
I stepped back into the open space to wait for
his onslaught.

The moon shone fair and clear into the open
space, and behind me I caught a glimpse of the
turrets of Dardistown Castle rising high above
the trees, while below us lay the silver waters
of the Nanny river glancing and sparkling in
the moonbeams.

That he was a master at fencing I have little
doubt, for though he must have been stung
at the insult of my blow he attacked with great
coolness and skill. The blades rang out again
and again in the silent night air and he had
wounded me badly in many places and my sword
arm was bleeding freely, when suddenly a queer

A MEMORY OF 1649. 14!

thing happened. Though I knew that my
strength was giving way and that the end would
not be far off when he would get in the final
thrust, I suddenly felt that his attack, too, was
weakening and growing wild. A sensation it'll
upon me also that someone was watching near
me, and this was now confirmed by the way
my foeman kept staring behind me and with
a hidden horror in his eyes, while all the time
he fought on mechanically and his attack slowly
slackened. He suddenly feinted with his
sword and made a great lunge at me which had
proved nearly fatal but that I caught it on
my hilt and turned the point. This left his
breast unguarded and I took the great chance,
passing my sword clean through him as far as
half the blade. He threw up both arms with
a cry and fell slowly backwards, sliding off
my sword point and lying groaning on the
ground. A little fountain of blood spu
up out of his breast and stained the green grass
round him, and then his moaning ceased. I
turned now and looked behind me.

Between two trees in the shadow of the
moonlight I "saw Shiela Brandon standing <•!
and fair against the dark background. Her

142 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

sweet face with the old calm smile as I had
known it in life, the same coloured dress which
she had worn during her last visit to Drogheda,
and her two hands clasped across her breast.
I stepped across the open space, holding out
my hands and crying out her name, and as I
did so the vision vanished into the glimmering
air.

I returned slowly to where the dead man
was lying with his sword beside him and the
great staring eyes looking up into the starlit sky.

Then the terrible horror of Shiela's death fell
full upon me and I knelt there beside the body
and burst into a passion of bitter tears.

For my darling to have died like that.
To have been swallowed up in those blood-
stained waters in an unknown grave, where how
many more were sleeping ? Not even for me
to have had the poor consolation of some little
country churchyard— to have carved a cross or
have raised a stone to the one loved name.

CHAPTER XXII.

Which tdls how Father Latham and I set out
for Spain, and how we saw the sun rise for
the last time over Galway Bay.

TWO years passed slowly by, two years
in which by constant action I tri<id
to forget that awful sorrow of my
life.

I followed the fallen fortunes of Hugh O'Neill,
and Father Latham and I fought side by
at the siege of Limerick town, where with the
aid of Owen's gallant yeomen we checked
fierce attacks of the Cromwellian armies.

We had kept together after Cromwell had
left Ireland, and Ireton was pursuing with :i
relentless fury the task which his accursed
master had left unfinished ; and it was not until
the fall of Galway put the last touch to our
lost cause that we decided to set out for Sp.

Under cover of a dark night we boarded a
merchant ship that was sailing for Cadiz, and

144 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

which was waiting for us by an arrangement
with the captain outside the point of Spiddal.

It was an hour before daybreak when we set
out in a small fishing boat rowed by two Clad-
daugh men, and we had scarcely been five
minutes on board when the anchor was weighed
and the white sails were unfurled to catch the
cool westerly breeze.

Ah, how long that night appeared as we stood
together by the bow and watched the white
foam falling from the cut-water, and saw the
white track far behind us fading in the night.

Father Latham was the first to break the
silence by repeating in a low tone some verses
of my father's learned by heart how many
years ago, and appropriate indeed they seemed
to me in that sad hour.

" How long, my love, how long !

Till Wrong shall yield to Right,
And dawning Liberty dispel

The darkness of your night ?
What have I left to live for now,

But mourn your bitter wrong ?
So let me pass — the last of all

To join the martyred throng.

A MEMORY OF 1649. X45

Your night of woe shall surely bring

That dawn of sweet desire,
When Freedom sweeps across tlie land

In waves of living fire !
My silent dust shall thrill to hear

That resurrection song
Burst from the grave of buried hopes —

How long, my love, how long ! "

He stopped, and after a few minutes spoke
again half to himself : — " I have loved her, too,"
he said, " this old unconquered land, and would
have gladly died if needs be for her sake, and
yet how hopeless all would seem to-day. I
have seen the red blood flowing like water down
the streets of Drogheda, and have heard the
martyr's cry. I have watched the night
shadows fall on mangled corpses that in the
morning sunlight were strong heroic men. I
have seen the murderers stalk across the land
and leave behind them where their footsteps
fell a blackened wilderness— and yet my trust
is strong."

I stopped him gently —

" Father," I said, " for me all faith is dead.
Before me lies the land of Spain ; behind me

L

146 WHEN CROMWELL CAME TO DROGHEDA.

Ireland and a hopeless cause — and all I loved
on earth."

Suddenly he raised his hand and pointed
towards the east, and I saw the old fire flashing
from the deep dark eyes.

" The dawn," he cried, " the dawn. You
say you have no faith, look there ! After the
long night and the weary watching God's light
on everything at last ! "

I drew myself up and shook off the drowsiness
which had crept upon me, and looked towards
the breaking day.

Away to the left I saw the faint outlines of
Galway city, and one or two pillars of smoke
curling slowly upwards towards the sky.

To the east, where the light was brightest,
I could see far across the expanse of ocean the
outlines of the coast near Oranmore — where
Shiela used to live ; while to the extreme right,
and tipped by the cold new dawn, lay the
misty hills of Clare.

The light increased slowly and soon a crimson
sunrise turned everything to gold.

I was gazing mournfully towards the coast
and wrapped up in the beauty of the scene

A MEMORY OF 1649. 147

before me, when Father Latham touched me
gently on the shoulder.

" Have courage, be of great cheer," he said,
" the cause shall triumph at the last," and he
pointed towards the hills. "Could God forget
a land like that, or mar so sweet a heritage ! "

THE i:\n.

APPENDIX.

Those readers who may desire to study this important
period of Irish history and the Cromvvcllian Settlement
which followed, should consult the list of authorities
given below.

A thorough knowledge of this period is essential for all
those who are anxious to understand the developments
of later Irish history.

Gilbert's (edition of)
W E. H. Lecky's

Piendergast's
Denis Murphy's
Martin Haverty's
D'Arcy M'Gee's
A. M. Sullivan's
\Val pole's
Green's
Carlyle's
D'Alton's
Carte's
Taylor's
M'Donnell's
Froude's

..'/ Discc.
History of Ireland in the Eighteenth

•:inry. (Vol. I.)
Cromwellian Settlement.
Cromwell in I r elan I.
History of Irel.iml*
History of Ireland.
Story of Ireland.
The Kingdom of 1
Short History of the English Pi-
Life and Letters of Oliver Crovi
History of Droglh

Collection, 6-c., and Life of Ormonde.
Owen Roe O'Neill.
Ulster Civil War of 1641.
English in Irda,

* This book has been recently continued to our own
an admirable supplement by Dillon Cosgrave.

By -tH« aa.me AutHor.

KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN,

A Memory of the Great Rebellion of 1798.

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McDonnell, Randal William
6025 When Cromwell came to

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