Lord General be written to, to hasten the departure of Col. Hacker's regiment of horse for Ireland.'

Cromwell however had no intention of waiting for those reinforcements before he began his campaign. Having remained at Dublin about a fortnight, he marched to Drogheda, or Tredagh as it was then usually called. On his march to Drogheda Cromwell set forth a declaration to assure the country "that none of them should be injured behaving themselves peaceably and bringing in their provisions." 2 He also issued a proclamation against the soldiers plundering the country upon pain of death; and three men were condemned to die for plundering and for straggling from their colours of whom two were hanged.3

4

Drogheda was garrisoned with near three thousand foot and two hundred horse, and was considered by the governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, to be almost impregnable. Ormond, expecting that Drogheda, being not far distant from Dublin, would be first attempted by Cromwell, had thrown into it a strong garrison of his best troops under an officer of reputation, with the view of occupying the enemy sometime in the siege of it, while he repaired his forces broken by the defeat they had received from Michael Jones before Dublin. But Cromwell was not a man to lose in a siege time of which he well knew the value. Having completed his batteries on the 10th of September, he summoned the governor to deliver the town to the use of the Parliament of England. Not receiving a satisfactory answer, Cromwell then effected "two reasonable good breaches

1 Order Book of the Council of State, 30th August, 1649. MS. State Paper Office.

2 Whitelock, p. 426.

3 Letter dated Dublin, Sept. 13, 1649, in Cromwelliana, p. 64.

Cromwell to the Speaker, Dublin, 17th Sept. 1649.

in the east and south wall; and upon Tuesday the 11th of September about 5 o'clock in the evening proceeded to storm the town. Through the advantages of the place," he says in his dispatch, "our men were forced to retreat quite out of the breach, not without some considerable loss, Colonel Castle, whose regiment commenced the attack, being shot in the head whereof he presently died." Cromwell's troops led by himself in person then made another attempt, "wherein " he says, "God was pleased so to animate them that they got ground of the enemy, and by the goodness of God forced him to quit his intrenchments; and after a very hot dispute, the enemy having both horse and foot, and we foot only within the walls, the enemy gave ground, and our men became masters." Then, a passage having been effected for his cavalry into the town, "divers of the enemy" he continues, "retreated into the Mill Mount, a place very strong, and of difficult access, being exceeding high, having a good graft, and strongly pallisadoed. The governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and divers considerable officers being there, our men getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword; and indeed, being in the heat of action, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town, and I think that night they put to the sword about two thousand men. Divers of the officers and soldiers being fled over the bridge into the other part of the town, where about one hundred of them possessed St. Peter's church steeple, some the west gate, and others a strong round tower next the gate, called St. Sunday,—these being summoned to yield to mercy refused; whereupon I ordered the steeple of St. Peter's church to be fired. The next day the other two towers were summoned, in

score, but they knowing that

one of which were about six or seven refused to yield themselves; and we, hunger must compel them, set only good guards to secure them from running away, until their stomachs were come down. From one of the said towers, notwithstanding their condition, they killed and wounded some of our men. When they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head; and every tenth man of the soldiers killed; and the rest shipped for the Barbadoes. I believe all the friars were knocked

on the head promiscuously but two; the one of which was Father Peter Taaff, brother to the Lord Taaff, whom the soldiers took the next day and made an end of. The other was taken in the round tower, under the repute of a lieutenant, and when he understood that the officers in that tower had no quarter, he confessed he was a friar; but that did not save him." Of Cromwell's men not one hundred were killed, though many were wounded; and, besides Colonel Castle, he lost several officers: while, according to the list subjoined to Cromwell's dispatch to the Speaker, the enemy lost all their officers, 220 reformadoes and troopers, and 2500 foot soldiers'-a hint to the Medici, Valois, Bourbon, and Stuart school of politicians that a massacre of English Protestants might turn out rather an expensive sort of speculation. In a letter to Bradshaw, president of the Council of State, Cromwell says "I do not believe, neither do I hear, that auy officer escaped with his life save only one lieutenant, who, I hear, going to the enemy said that he was the only man that escaped of all the garrison. The enemy upon this were filled with much terror. And truly I believe this bitterness will save much effusion of blood

1 Cromwell to the Speaker, Dublin, 17th Sept. 1649.

through the goodness of God." In the minute of the Council of State of Saturday 29th of September 1649, ordering a public thanksgiving on the following day in all the churches of London and the neighbouring districts, it is stated that "there were about three thousand of the enemy slain and of our men only sixty-five private soldiers and two officers." 2

The reasons which Cromwell in his dispatch to the Speaker assigns for this severity are precisely the same as a British commander might in 1857-8 have assigned for ordering no quarter to be given to sepoys taken in arms, and will be better appreciated now than they were some years ago. "I was persuaded he says "that there is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood, and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future; which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." If on the other hand it be asserted that the garrison of Drogheda were not chiefly Irish, since according to Ludlow the royalists had “put

1 Cromwell to Bradshaw, 16th Sept. 1649.

2 Order Book of the Council of State, Die Saturni, 29 Sept. 1649. MS. State Paper Office. The following is the minute :-"Whereas it hath pleased God to bless the endeavours of the forces of the Commonwealth against the Irish rebels and their adherents in the town of Drogheda which was taken in by storm there being in it a strong garrison of the choice of Ormond's army put into it. There were about three thousand of the enemy slain and of our men only sixtyfive private soldiers and two officers. It is therefore this day ordered that all the ministers in London &c. do publish

the same to the people to-morrow being the Lord's day the 30th of this instant September in their several churches and chapels and stir up the people to give thanks to God for his goodness in still crowning and blessing the endeavours of this Commonwealth, for the settling of peace against the enemies thereof." On the 17th of October the Council of State made an order "That a warrant do issue out to Mr. Jackson to pay unto Capt. Porter who brought the good news out of Ireland of the taking of Drogheda the sum of £100 according to an order of Parliament made to that purpose."— Ibid., 17th October, 1649.

most of their army into their garrisons, having placed three or four thousand of the best of their men, being mostly English, in the town of Tredagh (Drogheda), and made Sir Arthur Ashton governor thereof," the answer is that if Englishmen will join with Nana Sahib, they must take the fate of Nana Sahib. In regard to the assertion that women and children were slaughtered in the storm of Drogheda, it is an assertion unproved and most probably altogether false.1

The garrison of Wexford having offered resistance shared the fate of the garrison of Drogheda. Cromwell in his dispatch reckoned that there were lost of the enemy not many less than 2000, while of the besiegers not twenty were killed.2 Most of the other places of strength yielded at his approach, and the Protestant troops under Inchiquin revolted to the Parliament. season was so far advanced (24th of November) before he attempted Waterford that he was obliged to raise the siege, and soon after retire into winter quarters. He first however reduced Dungarvan, at which place he had the misfortune to lose by a rapid fever his lieutenant

Mr. Carlyle (Cromwell's Letters, vol. ii. p. 205, note) says the old Parliamentary History, vol. xix. pp. 207-9, has added after the concluding "Surgeons, &c.," in Cromwell's list of the slain, "and many inhabitants," of which there is no trace in the old pamphlets. And yet M. Guizot in his Histoire de la République d'Angleterre et de Cromwell (Paris, 1854), tom. i. p. 94, in quoting the list in question has concluded thus-"les chirurgiens et beaucoup d'habitans," and has actually cited Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters as the first of his authorities, adding Parl. Hist. vol. xix. pp. 201-210, &c., without noticing Mr. Carlyle's note on

The

the most important, and as it would appear altogether unwarrantable addition of " many inhabitants," made by the royalist compilers of the Parliamentary History. In regard to the question, Had children or women also imbrued their hands in innocent blood? the depositions on oath printed in Sir John Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion or Massacre show that they had not that even this might be a valid ground for retaliating upon them, and I do not believe that Cromwell's soldiers did so.

2 Cromwell to the Speaker, Wexford, 14th October, 1649.