gation. Hitherto it is evident, I thought not of my escape. The council, after fome debate, confined me to mafter Woodcock's houfe, one of the fheriffs of Dublin. From whence, after a day or two, I fent a petition to the ftate, and it was to this effect, laying down by many particulars the improbability of my affociating myself in this war, as that I was a peer of England, that the main of my eftate lay there, and the little intereft or power I had in this kingdom; that my accufers were of base condition, and would have been taken off for a fmall fum of money, and that two of them, namely, Ennis and his fon, ran away from the English colours with their arms, and afterwards ferved against them at the battle of Kilrush; and the third, William Collis, had been fadler to fome of the Irish army, whereby it is most evident, that befide what other reward thofe men might be promised, they were made fure of their lives; that the jury who found this indictment, on the evidence of these men, were perfons of the fame nature and condition, as particularly one Francis Dade, who affociated himself with the Irish, changed his religion, and went to mass. This man having forfeited his life, according to their rule, they make a leading juryman, and I believe a witness, he not daring to deny what they would have him do or fay. In fine, that there was not one gentleman, or scarce a landed-man amongst them. For thefe reafons, and for that it had been frequently granted to others in the like cafe, I defired to be bailed. Anfwer was returned to this modeft petition, that the witneffes were no rebels, but efpies; fo that what I had faid, was no impeachment to their teftimonies, and in general they thought not fit to grant the petition. Well, though I thought that as well this anfwer, as the whole proceedings, fomewhat harsh, yet I did not much weigh it; for fhortly after was to follow Trinity term. At which time I affured myself, that by my innocency I fhould be set free both from prifon and blame.

Oh! but here I was much deceived. For this term must be otherwife employed. For though, through hanging, racking, and barbarous treating of fuch as fubmitted on the king's proclamation, thousands had declared themselves for the country, who were in all poft hafte going to Dublin, to put themselves under the protection of the ftate; yet there were as many more that stood at a gaze, as most unwilling to run the common course, and yet loth to be handled after this rude manner. Against these, muft bills of indictment prefently be drawn, and grand-jury-men picked for the purpose. And to ftrike the bufinefs dead in the eye, fearing these men were not wicked enough, the judges of the king's chief place, on the bench delivered, as part of their charge, that they must not be fcrupulous; for that common fame was now evidence enough to find a bill of indictment. Notwithstanding

Notwithstanding this great and holy employment of these reverend fathers of the law, they must yet do fomething more to fhew their grandeur; that was, I by a habeas corpus must be brought into the court before them, where after I had been fufficiently looked at by their lordships and the people, I was remanded back to the place whence I came, without any thing said unto me. This term finished, and the jury-men having well acted their parts, fome of the judges are dispatched for England, to fhew there, that the pen in Ireland had been as active as the fword, and that now, for the deftruction of at least all the prifoners, there wanted little, but that old faying, Hangman, do your office.

It is no great wonder that now, how innocent foever I was, my head fhould begin to ake. Yet a feffion of parliament being fhortly to follow, I conceived good hope of fair play there: but when I faw the compofure of this great tribunal; that the upper-house confifted of no more than five or fix temporal lords, and fome bishops; the house of commons (anciently the reprefentative body of the kingdom) for the major part of clerks and clerks-men, few having any land, and thofe illegally chosen, as by musketteers, and a rabble of fuch like freeholders; I began to think that fuch a kind of parliament might err, and feared nothing more than a trial there. And furely I had reason when nothing would ferve their turns, but a ceffation of Poyning's act, during that feffion; by which they were freed from tranfmitting their bills into England, and fo might make laws, as in their difcretions they thought fit; and I have too great cause to believe, they would have made one for attainting me, and the reft of the prisoners.

All this while, no means are untried to make matter against me; for, as before, witneffes were rewarded, by giving them their lives, being forfeited; fo now to others, rough language must be used. One John Bird being examined before Sir Robert Meredith, concerning me, and not answering as was expected, the faid Sir Robert demanded his religion, the honeft man replied, a protestant: Ah! quoth he, by thy answers thou shouldest have a little pope in thy belly.

And now, having by many fuch indirect ways, furnished themselves with plenty of evidence, they begin to affront me, by difarming my men, by pulling one mafter Henry Slingsby out of my chamber, coming by accident with a gentlewoman to vifit me, saying he was a Romish popish Jefuit, it being well known, he was no such man; and fo carried him to prison.

And lastly, the fheriff's house is now thought too weak for fo great a traitor. Hereupon a writ is iffued to the sheriff, to bring me with a strong guard to the inns, where the judges were, being near half a mile from whence I must be sent to the castle, a loathfome prison of itself; but the inhumanity of the gaoler, by

name

name Manwaring, after Hell, makes it the fecond place for mifery and affliction. Well, I thought it now high time, as the judges had fummoned my body, I fhould recollect my wits. And as I ftood confidering my cafe, a paffage in the Earl of Strafford's trial occurred to my memory. He stood much upon his justification, and demanded the benefit of the law, but mafter St. John replied, that to hares, deer, and other innocent creatures, law was afforded; but to wolves, foxes, and other' fuch like vermin, any means might be fought for their deftruction. Now, I finding myself hitherto dealt with as one of these, although I waved the malice of the wolf, I made fome little ufe of the fox's craft, and for that prefent feigned myself fick, and on information thereof given, my attendance on the judges was fpared till the morrow.

Having thus gained time, I well pondered all which hath been before related, together with, If I were a traitor, to whom it was? The king himself, I found pursued both with men and sword, by an army of his own people; whofoever followed or adhered unto him, declared rebels and traitors; the queen, his royal confort, flying from place to place, like an exiled or banished woman; and, by Mr. Martin's, and divers the like fpeeches in the house of commons in England, that his facred majesty was not fit to bear the office of a king, and that he might be depofed; and much more to this effect, as may be seen in divers printed papers : which language in that place going unpunished, I could not conceive that the authors of fuch infolencies, or the swaying malignant part of the ftate here, who from time to time took their directions from them, could adjudge any thing against his majefty treafon. O, but I remember, that in a book of the king's, relating truly all the paffages, from the first of this parliament to the twelfth of Auguft, he complains of two great officers, lately fet up in England, who ufurped the regal power, the one is a general for the land, the other admiral of the fea: but to these I never owed allegiance, and fo confequently could be no traitor to them. I then began to confider the condition of this kingdom, as that the ftate did chiefly confift of men of mean birth and quality; that most of them fteered by the influence and power of those who were in arms against the king: that they had by cruel maffacring, hanging and torturing, been the flaughter of thousands of innocent men, women, and children, better subjects than themselves; that they, by all their actions fhew, looked at nothing but the extirpating of this nation, the destruction of monarchy, and by the utter fuppreffing of the ancient catholic religion, to fettle and establish puritanifm. 'To these I could be no traitor. Near about the time of this my exigency, I was much cheared by a vifit I received from Sir Arthur Loftus, fon to Sir Adam Loftus, a leading instrument in all wicked designs against his majesty, telling me (as joyful news) that the parliament had lately given the king a total overthrow; VOL. II.

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and that he was now reduced to fo low a condition, that by the next, we should certainly hear the king had fubmitted to the parliament, and till that were done, things would never do well. Here I took my refolution, with God's help, not tamely to die butchered, and fo to have my innocency fmothered; but to preferve my life, I hoped more to the honour of God, and fervice of king Charles, and that by efcape. Now forafmuch, as the most immediate way into England was blocked up, I resolved upon a trial, to gain a paffage by Wexford into France, and from thence into England; conceiving, I fhould have been forthwith able to have put myself into a fum of money, to have borne my charges, by the fale of fuch plate, goods, and stock, as I had in the country: but I was not many hours out of Dublin, before I was purfued by fome troops of horse, Sir Arthur Loftus leading them, who that night came to my house in the county of Kildare, and miffing me, killed fome of my fervants, hurt divers, and, after having rifled the house, they fet it, and all about it, on fire and befides all my fervants prifoners, they carried away more than the worth of five thousand pounds in plate, and other goods.

Here my wings being clipt, all that I had to carry me abroad, or keep me at home, being thus taken from me, together with the distractions in England, fo that I could make little or no account of my eftate there; in this ftreight, I thought fit to apply myself to the great affembly of the kingdom of Ireland, who having given me full fatisfaction for their affembling, and that their taking arms was but natural, as to defend themselves and theirs from those aforefaid barbarous cruelties; and that they defired (as may appear by many of their inftruments in writing) nothing but the free exercise of their ancient religion, their juft liberties, and the preservation of this crown unto his majesty, I having fome intereft both in honour and eftate in the country, affociated myself with them; and they, after fome time that I was amongst them (more out of charity than merit in me) offered me the generalfhip of their horfe, of the province of Leinster, which thankfully accepted: and now in my colours bear this device, Sagitta tua acuta in corda inimicorum regis. For the executing whereof, I defire God no longer to prosper my actions, than my heart, hand, fword, and prayers, fhall be readily and chearfully employed therein.

Having, with much trouble to the reader, endeavoured to vindicate myself in this remonftrance, I conceive it both proper and charitable, in this place, to labour to acquit him, who, I understand, hath unjustly suffered for my fake, I mean fheriff Allen. The proteftant fheriff Woodcock, to whofe cuftody only I was committed, went unpunished for my escape, as really he knew nothing thereof. But sheriff Allen being a catholick, who had no charge of me, nor acquaintance with me, other

than

than that I often saw him, when he came to treat with his brother sheriff about the city affairs, he, poor innocent man, for fo I take God to witness he was as to my escape, or as to any word let fall to that effect to my knowledge, or that I can guess, was, with great inhumanity, dragged to prifon, most of his goods feized upon and taken away, and a great number of soldiers ceffed upon his house. Whereby, and being made uncapable to receive his rents or debts, or to follow any other way he had to gain a living by, his wife and children, from that day forth, were expofed to the charity of their friends, and he condemned to imprisonment for a whole year in mifery. How justifiable or confcionable, this proceeding was, I will not argue, much lefs aggravate, having difcharged my confcience thereupon: the matter itself, both to God and the world, crying loud for justice.

NUMB. XI.

[From Defiderata Curiofa Hibernica, vol. ii. p. 78.] The heads of the caufes which moved the northern Irish, and Catholicks of Ireland to take arms. Anno 1641.

1.IT

[See Review, vol. i. p. 190, &c.]

1.1T was plotted and refolved by the puritans of England, Scotland, and Ireland, to extinguish quite the catholick religion, and the profeffors and maintainers thereof, out of all those kingdoms; and to put all catholicks of this realm to the fword, that would not conform themselves to the proteftant religion.

2. The flate of Ireland did publickly declare, that they would root out of this realm all the natives, and make a total second conqueft of the land, alledging, that they were not safe with them.

3. All the natives here were deprived of the benefit of the ancient fundamental laws, liberties, and privileges, due by all laws and justice to a free people and a nation, and more particularly due by the municipal laws of Ireland.

4. That the fubjects of Ireland, efpecially the Irish, were thrust out forcibly from their ancient poffeffions, against law, without colour or right; and could not have propriety or fecurity in their eftates, goods, or other rights, but were wholly fubject to an arbitrary power, and tyrannical government, these forty years paft, without hope of relief or redress.

5. Their native youth here, debarred by the practice of state, from all learning and education, in that the one only university here excludes all catholicks thence; neither are they fuffered to acquire learning or breeding beyond feas, of purpose to make them rude and ignorant of all letters.

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6. The