France. On the 21st of that month, he sailed for Ireland, from Havre; and on the 29th, reached Cork. He was received with great demonstrations of joy. Soon after his landing, he signified to the supreme council of the confederates, then sitting at Kilkenny, that he was arrived, with full powers to treat and conclude a peace with the confederate catholics, pursuant to the paper, delivered to their agent at St. Germain's, and which granted them their own terms. On the receipt of the message, the supreme council invited the marquis to Kilkenny: he made his entry into it, with great splendour. On the 16th of January 1649, a peace between his majesty and the confederates was proclaimed with great solemnity, and the English and Irish forces were placed under the command of the marquis. By the terms of the peace, it was stipulated, that all the laws, which prevented the free exercise of the catholic religion in Ireland, should be repealed; and that the catholics should not be disturbed in the possession of their churches and church livings, till his majesty, upon a full consideration of the decree respecting them in parliament, should declare his further pleasure.

On the following day, the assembly drew up several articles to be transmitted to the pope, containing heavy accusations against the nuncio. They intimated to his excellency, at the same time, the necessity of his immediately repairing to Rome, to answer the articles. On the 23d of February following, the nuncio left Ireland, "to the great "joy," says Dr. Curry, "of the principal nobility

"and gentry, and the most respectable ecclesiastics "in Ireland."

It should be observed, that his proceedings were contrary to the instructions which he had received from the court of Rome. By these, he had been directed, in case a peace were made, to do nothing indicating that he either approved or disliked it. Dr. Curry produces reasons, which render it highly probable, that the peace, made by the confederates with the marquis of Ormond, was not displeasing to the pope. Carte mentions*, that, soon after his infraction of the peace, the nuncio received a reprimand from Rome, for having acted, in this respect, contrary to his instructions. On his return to that city, he was received coldly by the pope. His holiness told him, that he had "carried himself 'rashly in Ireland," and exiled him to his diocese. The disastrous result of his nunciature, and the reception which he met with at Rome, affected him so much, that in a short time afterwards he died of grief. In 1655, pope Alexander the seventh, empowered four of the prelates of Ireland to grant a general absolution from the censures of the nuncio.

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At first, the greatest harmony and zeal for the service prevailed among the officers and soldiers of the confederate army, now placed under Ormond, and they became masters of Sligo, Drogheda, Waterford, Trim, and Newry, and most of the strong holds and towns in Ireland, except Londonderry and Dublin. Ormond was advancing to Vol. i. p. 570.

Dublin; but, at Rathmines, a place about three miles distant from it, his whole army was surprised and routed, on the 2d of August 1649, by Michael Jones, the governor of Dublin for the parliament.

A new scene now opened :- On the invitation of the Scottish covenanters, Charles the second left Breda; and, on the 23d of June 1650, arrived in Scotland. Before he landed, he was compelled to sign both the national and the solemn covenant. Two months after his landing, he issued a declaration, that "he would have no enemies, but the enemies "of the covenant;-that he did detest and abhor "all popery, superstition, and idolatry, together "with prelacy; resolving not to tolerate, much "less to allow those, in any part of his dominions, "and to endeavour the extirpation thereof to the "utmost of his power." He pronounced the peace with the confederates "to be null and void;” and added, that, "he was convinced in his conscience "of the sinfulness and unlawfulness of it."

The afflicting intelligence of this conduct of his majesty soon reached the confederates. They suspected, not without ground, that the marquis of Ormond had advised it. Under these impressions, several catholic bishops, in the following August, assembled at Jamestown. They published a declaration against the lord lieutenant, charging him with improvidence and ill-conduct, with gross partiality to the protestants, hostility to the catholics, cruelty to the clergy, and wicked councils to the king. They proceeded to excommunicate all such catholics, "as should enlist under, help, or adhere

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"to his excellency; or assist him with men, money, or any other supplies whatsoever." But they delayed the promulgation of the sentence till the meeting of a general assembly then convened to sit at Loughrea. They also appointed six of their body, as a board, to reside in that city, in order, as they declared, to provide for the safety of the nation, the preservation of the catholic religion, and the maintenance of the royal authority. To this, in all their vicissitudes of fortune, every Irish catholic professed the warmest attachment. On the fifteenth of the following September, they published their excommunication, in the usual form. "But all the sober professors of the catholic religion," says lord Clarendon, in his History of the

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Rebellion, abhorred their proceedings, and most "of the commissioners of trust, or the principal "nobility, and most considerable gentry, remained "firm in their particular affection and duty to the king; and in their submission to the authority of “his lieutenant, notwithstanding this excommunication."

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Soon after this event, the northern army generally went over to the parliament, and in December 1650, the marquis of Ormond quitted Ireland, having appointed the earl of Clanrickard his deputy.

Then, the Irish catholics,-finding themselves reduced to irremediable distress, with the dismal prospect of its daily increase, and its ending in their total destruction, showed, for the first and only time, some willingness to treat with the parliamentarians. -But, before any progress was made in a treaty

with them, an ambassador from the duke of Lorraine arrived in Ireland, with offers of powerful assistance for the preservation of the catholic religion, and his majesty's Irish subjects. The earl of Clanrickard took his proposals into consideration; the Jamestown bishops, and their adherents in general, were desirous that they should be received; and this had the approbation of the queen, the duke of York, and the marquis of Ormond himself. The treaty, however, was broken off. The rebels advancing on the marquis of Clanrickard, he retired to the town of Carrick; being encompassed on every side, he submitted to the parliament; and, in 1652, left Ireland, carrying with him the royal authority.

"The Irish," says Mr. Matthew O'Conor, “now "received the chastisements due to their dissen"tions. All the male adults capable of bearing "arms, with the exception of a sufficient number "of slaves to cultivate the lands of the English, "were transported to France, Spain, and the "West Indies. A great number of females were transported to Virginia, Jamaica, and New Eng"land. The rest of the inhabitants of all sexes, 66 ages, the young, the aged, and the infirm, were "ordered, on pain of death, to repair, by a certain day, into the province of Connaught, where,

being cooped up in a district, ravaged by a war "of ten years continuance, desolated by famine "and pestilence, and destitute of food or habita"tions, they suffered calamities, such as the wrath "of the Almighty has never inflicted on any other