Lord Roche's Daughters of Fermoy. An historical romance ... founded upon authentic incidents of the Cromwellian era, etc

Front matter

OF FERMOY. <&xi Historical Romance of tfje Stbentecnti) Œenturg, FOUNDED UPON AUTHENTIC INCIDENTS OF THE CROMWELLIAN ERA IN IRELAND. l.V M. L. O'BYRNE, AUTHOR OF l BARON OF BELGRADE,' ' THE PALE AND THE SEPTS,' 'LEIXLIP CASTLE,' ' ART MACMORROUGH O'CAVANAGH,' ' ILL-WON PEERAGES,' ' THE COURT OF RATH CROGHAN,* ETC. DUBLIN : SEALY, BRYERS AND WALKER (A. THOM AND CO. LTD.) 94, 95 and 96 MIDDLE ABBEY STREET. 1892. DUBLIN PRINTED BY SEALV. BRYERS AND WALKER (A. THOM & CO., LTD.), MIDDLE ABBEY STREET.

Introduction

. Little more than a century since the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland had elapsed when, notwithstanding the struggle still maintained between Gaelic chief and English baron, to determine between them the yet rather unsettled question of meum and tuum, in reference to their validity of title to land tenure, the descendants of the colonists, through frequent intermarriage and various connecting associations, were fast losing their individuality, and merging in one with the genial and all-absorbing Celtic element, insomuch, that the British Government, with sudden alarm, forecasting in this amalgamation of interests the contingency of a rival power at no distant period starting into existence antagonistic to Britain's sovereignty of dominion in the country, and certain to lessen the pre-eminence which to-day she proudly held among the young rising nations of Europe, speedily took counsel to avert such climax, and dominate as a vassal a nation whose prosperity must be a clog upon the wheel of England's advancement.

Hence, as an old house is taken down that the material may avail in the construction of a new edifice, Ireland must be pulled to pieces, that out of the wreck may be reared a colossal empire second to none among the reigning powers. To prepare the way, the means and the instruments to achieve the programme, a Parliament was convened in Kilkenny in 1367, in which, with a view to the dissection of the realm, was passed the statute known as the " Penal Code of Race," the bitter fruits of whose con ception have from that hour set men's teeth on edge, and A VI

INTRODUCTION.

. convulsed society with unchristian antipathies, that culmi mated in virulent intensity at the period of our story, 1642, when, added to the acrimony engendered of racial distinc tion, a second apple of discord, in the name of religion, was flung out ; a further incentive to strife in the pandemonium so inaugurated. Cooped within their separate line of demarcation, hitherto, contemptuous Palesmen and scornful Milesians had held on their course. On one side heart-searing memories of spoli ation, outrage and wrong ; on the other, perpetual dread of stern reprisal, like the sword of Damocles ever suspended bya hair in the hand of the avenger. Yet, though sundered thus, far as the poles, in human sympathy, there was in the disjointed machinery one spring that ought to have connected its parts in some degree of harmony — it was the bond of Catholic creed, which at this time a large portion of the colonists professed in common with the native Celt.

It was, nevertheless, a fact, that in the rising of the latter to shake off the incubus of penal enactments that pressed them even to death, not one of their co-religionists of the Pale aided in the effort ; so far from it, that they even prayed the Lords Justices to put them in possession of arms to march against the Irish enemy. Sir Robert Talbot volunteered to proceed against the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes of Wicklow, while Lords Gormanstown, Dunsany, Westmeath, and Netterville joined in the petition of all the Anglo-Catholics of the country to hunt down anddestroy. Nor did they cease in their prayer for native blood until, in the Puritanical storm just broken out, and raging around the tottering British throne, they found themselves, to their dismay, involved, loyal though they were, and included in the proscription of all Papists, without reservation, menaced with fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture of their, in many instances, ill-gotten estates. Then, and only then, in self-defence against the Government

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. VII of their mother country, as administered through the executive of the Castle, once temple of their worship, did they turn to seek in the patriot ranks which they had strained every nerve to crush, refuge and succour in the hour of need. Girded for battle in the noble cause of Faith and Father land, the National leaders, waiving all by-gone scores, welcomed the fugitives, little dreaming, as they clasped the luke-warm hand presented, of the vacillating mind, shallow trust, mean jealousies, selfish interests, timorous councils, deceit and treachery, which, coming along with them, should eventually paralyse their best endeavours, and in the very flood-tide of success strand them among breakers. Auxil iaried, however, for the present by proselytes, whose advent they hailed as auspices of a happier future, they flung out their banner, and proclaimed to the astounded world — astounded at the swift transition of a people from helot subjection to heroic purpose, to shake off their fetters, and assert their manhood's prerogative to freedom : " The National Confederation, inaugurated to insist upon the right of Catholic subjects to exist in the land unharassed by fanatical persecution and tyranny of the ascendant faction."

No sooner was issued the bold manifesto of Independence, when simultaneously, from " Royal Madrid to the banks of the Tiber, and from the City of the Seine to Oporto," rang out the responsive cheer of applauding nations, " bidding God-speed to their emprise." And now, alarmed and con founded at "the defection of the Pale," the Lords Justices, unable to lay the spirit they had madly conjured, found it needful to enlist the aid of England ; but aware the while that at this very juncture the mother country, distracted by the revolutionary demon struggling within her own realm, must needs be dilatory in response, and probably leave

INTRODUCTION.

. VIII them to their own resources to work through the crisis, and these being wholly inadequate, it became imperative to coerce her to active sympathy by soul-thrilling, blood freezing accounts hurrying in post after post of the massacre of innocent Protestants by diabolical Papists. Indeed, upon such scale of magnitude were some of the reported holocausts that, had they not been firmly sworn to by handsomely-fed eye witnesses, the good sense of English men would have rejected as too ridiculous the marvellous horrors concocted for their acceptance. However, it so happened that Albion, by reason of her own domestic trouble, was not then in a mood for dispassionate reflection or wise investigation. So the fiction prevailed, and in due time troops, under Monroe and other generals, were sent over to Ireland to protect loyal Protestants from the atrocities of the Irish enemy.

Behold once again war's red ensign waving over the land — Wicklow ravaged by Sir Charles Coote, lighted with con flagration the midnight sky ; Clontarf and Finglas reeked with the blood of aged men, women, and infants — oblation to imputed Protestant manes. On all sides call to arms. The Earl of Cork and the President, St. Leger, make a Gehenna of Munster — the Marquis of Ormond devastated Carlow and Maryborough — and Morough O'Brien, sixth of his house, who wore an English coronet, wrote his name in blood upon the site of " Cashel of the Kings." Meanwhile, north, south, and west, the people gather round the National banner, under Owen Roe O'Neil, who relinquishing the Spanish service in which he had dis tinguished himself, at the call of fatherland hastens to cast the weight of his sword into the scale, and Preston, of the house of Gormanstown, deputed by Cardinal Richlieu to aid the great movement with his interest. And now arrayed in gloomy opposition, loyal Nationalists, leavened with

INTRODUCTION.

. IX sprinkling of liberal Protestants, devoted to the Crown, but bent upon achieving liberty of conscience, confront two distinct" adversaries— one party being that of the loyal Pro testant colonists, with Ormond at their head, sworn to extinguish the old Apostolic Church, and Ireland as a nation ; the other, Parliamentarian Puritans, vowed to the overthrow of Monarchy and Royalists of every denomination, and the extermination of Popery and the native race, and the replanting of the country with a population drawn from the slums of England and Scotland, whose service in the cause of the " Saints " was to be requited with the estates of nobility, and a " goodly heritage in a land flowing with milk and honey," marshalled to debate at sword's point " Which should conquer in the strife."

Into this seething vortex of conflicting passions and shift ing politics we have dived to gather material for our story from the abundance of the wreck of noble lives, to glean from the unrecorded multitude reminiscences of a few, who at their nativity seemed decreed but to eke out in routine of commonplace life their span betwixt cradle and grave, into whose day-dreams no vision of heroic achievement had entered, and in whose tranquil bosoms the germ of possi bilities lay dormant until events startling as electric shock developed latent energies of mind and stimulated nature to demonstrate the sublimity to which spirit cumbered with flesh may soar to be crowned with aureola of glory, and in dark contrast to exhibit deeds perpetrated upon this small fraction of the terrestrial globe, so terrible as to justify surmise, whether in semblance of man, fiends unamenable themselves to the penalties of mortality and raging from the fathomless deep, had not made here their abode — "And fixed on heavenly thrones should dwell The freed inheritors of hell." ' ' Yet Freedom ! yet thy banner, torn but flying, Streams like the thunder storm against the wind ; Thy trumpet voice, though broken now and dying, The loudest still the tempest leaves behind ; Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the rind Chopped by the axe, looks rough and little worth, But the sap lasts — and still the seed we find Sown deep, even in the bosom of the North ; So shall a better spring less bitter fruit bring forth." — Byron. CONTENTS. Chap. pAGE

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. . . . . , v I. THE CONVENTION OF KILKENNY . . I II. A CHILD'S DREAM . . . . . 13 III. A FAMILY CIRCLE 20 IV JULIA CARSTAIRS 30 V. WOODSTOCK 33 VI. A CASTLE CONFERENCE .... 40 VII. PERFEDIOUS PRESTON .... 47 VIII. THE MAIDENS OF ALDEARG . . -52 IX. A HEROINE ...... 58 X. THE PARLEY 6l XI. HUGH O'SHEIL 65 XII. THE ASSAULT OF ATHY . . . . 71 XIII. BEFORE THE WEDDING 75 XIV. SUNSHINE AND GLOOM .... 79 XV. ROGUES FALL OUT 9 1 XVI. THE BALL AT DERRY .... 95 XVII. THE BATTLE OF RATHMINES . . . IOI XVIII. EVIL DAYS , 106 XIX. SIEGE OF DROGHEDA . . . -US XX. ROSCOMMON HOUSE 120 XXI. THORNTON THE IRONSIDE . . .126 XXII. THE ALARM 132 XXIII. THE ASSAULT OF ALDEARG . . -1,35 XXIV. VISCOUNTESS ROCHE . . 141 XXV. O'NEIL . . ... . . . CONTENTS. Chap. Page XXVI. TABLES TURNING 153 XXVII. THE MYSTERIOUS PILGRIM . . .156 XXVIII.

A SURPRISE 1 62 XXIX. A COUNCIL OF WAR . . . . .166 XXX. REVERSE OF FORTUNE . . . -173 XXXI. PUT TO THE TEST — LIFE OR DEATH ? . 1 79 XXXII. THE APPARITION . . . . 1 88 XXXIII. THE BATTLE OF LETTERKENNY . . -195 XXXIV. LIMERICK DECLINES THE AID OF ORMOND AND INCHIQUIN ..... 201 XXXV. THE ELEVE OF THE COURT OF WARDS. . 207 XXXVI. THE SURRENDER OF LIMERICK. . . 220 XXXVII. IRETON THE REGICIDE AND THE BISHOP OF EMLY 225 XXXVIII. AN INTERRUPTED PARTY .... 230 XXXIX. THE SAINTS — " TO HELL OR CONNAUGHT " . 236 XL. BEN BEOLA ...... 243 XLI. O'HANLON THE OUTLAW . . . .252 XLII. THORNTON'S HEIR ...'.. 257 XLIII. BERNARD CLIFDON 261 XLIV. THE ISLAND CHAPEL .... 267 XLV. THE BELATED WANDERER .... 280 XLVI. THE BETRAYED ..... 288 XLVII. THE MYSTERIOUS BELL .... 295 XLVIII. A RENCONTRE NEAR LOUGH INAGH . . 302 XLIX.

INCHIQUIN'S DREAM ..... 308 L. THE BELL TOLLS . . . .313 LI. A GREAT HOLOCAUST . . . .318 LII. THE SNOW ANGELS . . . . -327 LIU. THE PIRATE CAPTAIN .... 334 LIV. CONCLUSION 342 NOTES . . . of Fermoy ,*■ ■*■

Chapter I. The Convention Of Kilkenny

" The land's high soul is roused And moving onward like a breeze, or a swift sunbeam Kindling nature's hues to deeper life before it — In his chains the peasant dreams of freedom." Hemans. CLOSING an interval of sanguinary conflict, fruitless negotiation, and unflinching opposition of Government to the prayer of the Catholic people of Ireland for religious toleration and freedom of worship, a grand convention of the chiefs of the nation was organized to meet within the old Cathedral walls of the City on the Nore, January ioth, 1647, where, for the first time since the proclamation in " Clarence's Parliament " of " The Penal Code of Race," the alienated posterity of the Milesian and the Colonist at length fused into alliance by the fell spirit let loose whose barbarous fanaticism surpassed in cruelty even the merciless persecution inflicted by Aben Humaya and his Morisco followers upon the Christians in Spain.

Summoned by the loud pealing of jubliant bells, 224 of the representative flower of the Pale and of the Clans met round the altar of St. Canice, blazing with waxlights, and a curious and soul-stirring scene it was, to behold as in the days of yore, each party distinguished by its characteristic traits, individual and national — the Palesman proud of lineage, dating from time anterior to the Crusades, arrayed in the Cavalier mode of the day, plumed hat, ruffles, etc., bearing superbly his heraldic honours, and the Celt in flowing mantle, crom meal and coolun, displaying mien of dignity that four centuries of oppression had not subdued — also, commingled B in the train were prelates and clergy, who, because of penal enactments, educated beyond sea, conversed only in the language of France, Spain, or Italy, prepared to cast the weight of their influence into the popular cause, and sanguine of happy termination of long disastrous ages of strife as they beheld the cheering spectacle of O'Neils and O'Donnels from the north, O'Connors and MacDermots from the west, O'Briens and Macarthys and O'Sullivans from the south, and O'Tooles, O'Byrnes and O'Cavanaghs from the east —hand locked in amity with their hereditary foes, Nugents, Butlers, Barnwalls, Talbots, etc., etc , to hold watch and ward for the welfare of their country.

Beneath the beams of a wintry sun streaming through the great stained glass window, whose artistic beauty had engaged the admiration of the French and Spanish envoys in the train of the lately arrived Nunico — Rinuccini — the Bishop of Ossory, surrounded by eleven mitred prelates with the Primate, Hugh O'Reily, at their head, celebrated High Mass, previous to opening of the Council, and while the organ rolled waves of solemn harmony, what deep aspirations wafted with clouds of incense to the ear of heaven. But soon as the " Ite Missa est " and benediction dismissed the congregation, the scene shifts to the great gallery of Kilkenny Castle, and never perhaps has been depicted by pen or pencil, tableau vivant more imposing and of deeper interest than that upon which the closing eye of the Day-god looked through the dim windows of this historic pile.

Elevated upon a dais draped with velvet, and conspicuous by his foreign aspect — pale, austere, and beaming with intel lectual mind — sits enthroned, cynosure of all eyes, Rinuccini, delegated by Pope Innocent to aid by his presence and counsel, the great wrestle for home and altar in native land ; and beside him stands a claimant to interest not less absorbing, in the person of Owen Roe O'Neil — " the Fabius of his country " — expressing in every lineament, grave and mournful, type of ancestry that had worn diadem in hall and helmet in field. On the left of the Nuncio is Preston of the house of Gormanstown, a general also of no small repute in arms, whose curled lip, acute eye, and countenance more suggestive of discontent and chagrin than complacency, seemed to indicate the aversion, founded upon jealousy' which he, in common with his peers, had conceived to the popular idol, in whom they intuitively recognised an ascendant spirit qualified to rule in camp, or guide in council — in their narrow-minded egotism not reflecting how welcome should be the hand capable of guiding the helm through the raging tempest in this crisis of fate, but wrathful that such hand should have arisen to their aid from the despised native ranks, and aggrieved that the favoured Celt, ignoring the proprieties as dictated by racial code, not humbly reveren tial, or seemingly impressed by the honour, should stand upon the same platform beside their magnate, sustaining with dignity, his prentension to chronicals, that classed him with the oldest of old world dynasts.

Wherefore no prescient sybil is here needed, to foreshow the proximate disrupture of parties so unassimilating, that no heroic magnanimity — no divine sentiment of patriotism — no fraternal bond of creed— no instinct of self-preservation, can weld in unity the disintegrate mass doomed to be scattered as the sand of the desert by the blast of the Simoon into every land.

Meanwhile, the Nuncio — no stranger to the history of the country which he has learned in the Franciscan Convent upon the Janiculum at Rome, from the lips of Father Luke Wadding, in his eloquent description of the sufferings of her children, and their constancy under persecution equal to the worst efforts of Antiochus against the Hebrews, or those of Nero and Domitian, to establish their reign upon the ruin of the Christain Church — comes forward, all his ardent southern temperament glowing in his dark eyes, flushing in his sallow cheeks, and vibrating in the tone of his voice, as he addressed the audience : "My friends — Convened as we are to day, for the just object of using every fair, but strenuous endeavour to rescue the Catholic people of two countries, from the severe thraldom to which they have been subjected by cruel enactments of intolerant bigotry — to emancipate the fettered Church, and set free our clergy to perform their sacred functions untrammelled by iniquitous penalties, and to restrict the arbitrary action of a party which, vested with temporary power, con strains you, whose religion has been a dearer consideration than the homes and properties of which you have been plundered, to offer your worship to the Supreme Being in deserts and in caves, even as the Christian of old in the Catacombs — I rejoice to witness the unanimity of spirit which cementing you in resolute purpose to achieve your object, must render you an invincible phalanx against whose power that oppression which has condemned you to the miserable alternative of apostacy or extermination, must break or scatter, like the spume of billows upon ocean cliffs.

Yes, my friends, I rejoice that you have at length risen in dignity of manhood to assert your freedom, and to wring from a dissimulating monarch driven by his rebellious subjects to appeal to your loyalty, and from the Ministers of the Crown, as a condition of your support, the charter of your prerogative to exist not as mere serfs at the pleasure of a faction, but as free-born subjects in his dominion. Forward, then, champion brethren, in a sacred cause. Grand is the arena of your gallant tournament, your spectators are the nations of Europe, be but true to yourselves, let no flaw appear in your serried band, and whether standing firm as the eternal hills, or marching onward with gigantic stride, I know not what force might shake your strong foundation or bar your way ! " A murmured hum — an ominous silence — and the Nuncio, who continued standing, observed with surmise and wonder, an undercurrent of agitation fluttering the assembly.

Presently the voice of O'Neil, clear and sonorous, arose : " It will grieve your Excellency to learn that even now a flaw exists in our band ; our allies, ignoring us, have already entered into treaty with the Government, and agreed to accept a compromise that secures nothing beyond a present permission that Catholics may exist by connivance of our rulers — aye, without consent or knowledge of the Council, prelates or people. Our confederates, we have learned by sure intelligence, have taken upon themselves to depute com missioners to conclude a ' base peace' with prefidious Ormond and sacrilegious Inchiquin. What seer may foretell the issue ? " With pain and astonishment legible in every feature, Rinuccini turned to General Preston, behind whom mustered the representatives of the Pale, evidently not much disconcerted by the grave charge of O'Neil, and said in tone of expostulation : " My friends, was this well done ?

Was it not an infraction of your oath of fealty, to make no terms without the general sanction, and accept of no overture to bate one iota of our claim to equitable government, upon footing with our com patriots of every denomination ? " "Softly, I pray your Excellency," cried Sir Robert Talbot eager to vindicate his party, and with irate glance directed to O'Neil. " Was it not in view of the general advantage, and to put an end to this harassing warfare of which we are sick, that when we found the king inclining to us, we deemed it more expedient to be satisfied with graces which we knew that the ' no compromise' faction would spurn, and trusting to future concessions, we subscribed to the Peace, you so unreasonably, methinks, disapprove." The Nuncio was silent, but O'Brien, Bishop of Emly, replied : " With the volleyed thunders of Benburb yet sounding in our ears, there should have been no capitulation; we could well have insisted upon our terms."

But O'Sullivan of Beara, who being gifted with much penetration, had detected from the outset a disposition in their colleagues to take high head over the native Irish, and make them subservient to their policy, exclaimed in accents marked by disdain : " Those silken lords and gentry of the Pale be of soul so poor, they would leifer groan in fetters than die by the sword. So minded are not we of the Gael, who through ages have stood the battle brunt of which they so soon weary." Indignantly retorted Plunket of Louth : " Methinks, the proven valour of our Lords of the Pale, more wont to clothe in armour than to don silken gear, needs no voucher to rebut charge so false ; but amongst us, it providentially happens, we have heads competent to direct in any Senate, and if your perverse will thwart our better judgment, we have no alternative to save a dead lock, but to follow our .own course."

"We do not seek to thwart your judgment," said O'Ferral of Annaly, " but so to formulate our opinons that we may all act in concert." " AfterO'Neil's signal victory over Monroe," putin O'Toole of Ferracullen,* " and with three armies even now in the field, why need ye have been so timorous of result, and * Ferracullen, now Powerscourt. squander in vain treaty with dishonourable foes, time better given to chastise them on the field ? " " And well aware," supplemented O'Cavanagh of Idrone, " that such is Ormond's hatred of ' Papists,' as he dubs us that our prayer for free exercise of our religion he scouted upon every appeal. Scouted as ' too scandalous to entertain,' he will suffer no understanding, far as he can, to exist between the king and his Irish lieges. Such wisdom, I own, baffles my plain sense."

" You don't believe, Sir, in the prudence of temporizing and biding the turn of the tide," smiled Lord Roche of Fermoy, with suavity that contrasted finely with the impassioned look and gesture of the vehement Celt who made concise rejoinder : " Not much." Lord Barnwall of Trim came forward, looking bored and angry. "You Irish extremists want too much, and if we yield to your programme we may lose all. O'Neil, your organ, is by far too inflexible, and has provoked hostility where he could have secured what we want on any terms — ■ ' Peace.' " " Such is all our cry," shouted Nugent of Westmeath, looking pugnacious as a gladiator, "Peace! peace! at any cost." Here advanced O'Neil a few paces, and in accents deliberate and measured, addressed the malcontents : " Gentlemen, should you deem it better separate from us and adopt your own course, the sooner you come to a decision it will please us.

We can as heretofore proceed without your co-operation." "We don't ask to separate," cried Lord Netterville, peevishly, " but we want you to be united with us." " And blindly follow your lead into a swamp," bluntly returned O'Reilly of Loughoutre. MacMahon of Farny, derisively smiling, whispered to his kinsman the Bishop of Clogher : " I read those folk with insight deeper — all Catholic though they be — the clause which we have inserted among our stipulations, of restitution of Church property, chokes some of them ; hence if suffered, they would leifer exist as cyphers in possession of their stolen goods, and consign O'Neil and ourselves to Gehenna." Sir Walter Bagnal overheard, and made response more acrimonious than well considered : " Doubting little that by' some among you, worst construction will impugn our best motives — I can tell you, Sir, that had Ormond a better opinion of your chief, whom he swears is ' deeper than Styx' and fears to be circumvented by sinister play at his hand, he would not have so persistently rejected our suit."

" Has the Marquis no more definite impeachment ? " smiled O'Neil. " I know that outside of this charmed circle — wherein I trust that even those who in opinion differ may yet be counted friends — I have enemies such as the Scotch Lord Leven, whose expressed surprise ' that one of my reputation ' should come over from Spain to support a bad cause, I reprimanded with the reply : ' That I had a better right to come over to defend my countrymen than he had to march into England against his king.' And Fennel, the cowardly cock with the feather, who stood idly by, and saw my kinsmen serving under Castlemain cut to pieces in skirmish with the enemy — such as those would, I am aware, endeavour to prejudice Ormond — but let pass, squibs are small arms against fortresses. Of graver import is my charge against you, Sir Walter — who in ward of the pass at Leighlin bridge, opened it and let Willoughby march to succour Ormond at Carlow, thus favouring his escape to Dublin, but for which I would have taken him prisoner and held him, until he had paid for his ramsom, every iota of our just claim.

It was a woeful error; there be some that would construe it treason." Bagnal, astounded at finding his breach of trust in favour of Ormond known to O'Neil, was struck dumb. The Bishop of Emly remarked : " In truth we are coiled by a network of treason. Who is ignorant of Ormond's negotiations with the Puritans to deliver up Dublin to them ? " " To secure it against the loyal confederates whom he stigmatizes as 'the Irish Enemy,'" — cried MacDermot, Prince of Coolavin — " and we have inkling that a supply of war munitions has been ordered from Bristol." " Moreover," added O'Byrne of Avonmore, " he is strengthening the fortifications from the College to James' Gate. My brothers, Hugh and Art, have seen the Marchioness of Ormond with ladies of quality, carrying baskets of earth to the workmen on the ramparts."

" If this be so," cried the Nuncio, " we should move to counteract the antics of this knave or madman — who, professing loyalty to the King, makes overtures to the Puritans, and denounces as rebels the Catholics, who alone are faithful to their oath of allegiance. What is your opinion, General O'Neil ? " " There seems to be but one course, your Excellency impeach the Marquis of treason, demand surrender of his trust, and get the city out of his hands at once." A roar of astonishment from the Anglo-Colonists notified their disapprobation of this measure ; but General Preston hurt, that waiving his presence, the Nuncio had thought proper to consult O'Neil, threw up his hands exclaiming : " Good heavens ! how void of reason the impetuous Hibernian jumps to a conclusion. Have you weighed, Sir, the obstacles to this fine theory ? — supperadded to Ormond's probable refusal to coincide with your dictum — are you so sure that the citizens will readily open their gates to an influx of barbarians from the hills — such as your troops are said to be — an undisciplined rabble ?

" Rinuccini with a wave of his hand interrupted : " General Preston — to rescue the metropolis from being made head-quarters of Ormond and the Puritans it behoves us to prompt action ; but, lest the citizens, betrayed into apprehension of O'Neil's fine soldiers by malicious calumnies, demur to open their gates, it might prove expedient to associate with him in command of the army one in whom they could repose confidence. Whom then is it proposed by the assembly to appoint coadjutor?" Silencing the buzz of excitement that ensued, French, Bishop of Ferns, advanced. Intimately acquainted with Preston and O'Neil, none knew better than he that characters so dissimilar could never pull together — but Preston was his beau ideal of excellency, and juggling him self into the argument that the Leinster candidate was the suitable party to nominate, he proposed him to the consternation of the Irish, with whom he was no favourite, and the satisfaction of the Anglo-Catholics.