CHAPTER XVIII

Cromwell's Campaign in Ireland. Affairs in Scotland. Charles Stuart takes the Covenant. English Invasion of Scotland. Leslie's Generalship. Battle of Dunbar. Battle of Worcester. Vane's Visit to Paris. Goes as Commissioner to Scotland. Negotiations for the Union.

NEARLY eight years had passed away since the first tidings of the cruelties of the Irish rebellion had aroused a fury in the hearts of the Protestants, like that following the massacres of Meerut, Delhi, and Cawnpore in the Indian Mutiny. The parliament judged that the time for vengeance had now come. The Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy, one of the ablest of the Cavaliers, in the collapse of the royal power in England, found nothing better than to unite in a loose confederacy his own party with the Irish rebels. Owen Roe O'Neill, the general of the old Irish party, had offered to submit to the parliament, if security to their lives, estates, and religion were accorded; but this was refused. Ormonde's army advanced to besiege Dublin, which was held for the parliament by Colonel Michael Jones. By a welltimed sally the parliamentary leader put the besiegers to rout with great loss. Such was the situation when Cromwell, with a well-trained army of 12,000 men, landed at Dublin in August 1649. "We are come ". such were the ominous words of the Puritan general

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"to ask an account of the innocent blood that hath been shed, and to endeavour to bring to an account all who, by appearing in arms, shall justify the same. At the head of sixteen or seventeen thousand men, Cromwell advanced upon Drogheda, which had been recently taken by the enemy, the parliamentary garrison being allowed to march to Dublin, or to return to their homes. A breach was made and stormed after a strenuous resistance, Cromwell leading on his men for the second time to the assault.

"I believe," writes Cromwell, "we put to the sword the whole number of the defendants; I do not think thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives. Those that did are in safe custody for the Barbadoes. This," he adds, "hath been a marvellous great mercy." According to Ludlow, the garrison consisted of about 3000 men, mostly of English birth, who therefore could not be accounted guilty of the massacres of Ulster. In a much less civilised age, Froissart, a Froissart, a favourite guest at the English court, ventures to condemn the massacre of the inhabitants of Limoges by the Black Prince; and Cromwell must appeal for an example to the butcheries of Alexander of Parma, Des Adrets, and Count Tilly. The course of history scarcely justifies the assumption that to refuse to take prisoners at a siege or a battle really relaxes the resistance of a spirited people, and a merciless use of victory often leaves a deadly legacy of hate to the victors. Though Trim and Dundalk were abandoned, the massacre of Drogheda had to be repeated at Wexford, and Waterford resisted so vigorously that Cromwell was forced to raise the siege. On receiving this grim

dispatch announcing the taking of Drogheda, the parliament ordered a thanksgiving day to be held throughout the kingdom: indeed, no one on their side seems to have thought that the Irish were worthy of mercy. The parliament had already decreed that no quarter should be given to the Irish soldiers brought across to fight on the king's side during the civil war, and after the battle of Naseby some hundreds of Irish prostitutes in the Cavalier camp had been killed by the victorious Puritans; after the battle of Philiphaugh, 300 Irish women and some children had been put to death.

Cromwell returned to England after an absence of nine months, with the glory of having revenged the papist massacres, and led the troops of England to victory against a detested enemy. The subjugation of Ireland was completed by Ireton and Ludlow. The death of Ireton at the siege of Limerick was bewailed by the republican party, of which he was one of the ablest and most uncompromising leaders. Those who knew them both by personal intercourse, expressed their belief that, had he lived, his personal influence might have restrained the ambition of Cromwell and saved the cause for which they had both so bravely fought.

Since his appearance in the pillory, John Lilburne had fought his way to be lieutenant-colonel. Falling into the hands of the royalists at Oxford, he had saved his life by managing to send letters to the Speaker, and to Sir Henry Vane, the younger, who threatened to retaliate on prisoners in their hands. Always ready to attack the abuses of those in power, Lilburne had issued pamphlets inveighing against

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some of the proceedings of the parliament, blaming Hesilrige as too eager to get sequestrated the estates of his political opponents, and warning his countrymen against the aspiring designs of St Oliver as he styled Cromwell. The council of state resented these criticisms by putting Lilburne on his trial for high treason, October 1649. Their legal officers pushed for a conviction. Denied the aid of counsel, the undaunted Lilburne defended himself with signal ability, and the jury showed a spirit quite new in government prosecutions by acquitting the accused. This was greeted by the audience with acclamations loud and long, which were taken up by the crowd outside, a salutary lesson to the parliament to be more tolerant of free writing.

Some of Lilburne's criticisms were not without reason. Enthusiasts like him and idealists like Milton are pretty sure to be disappointed in the realisation of the reforms they have longed for, and there are few reforms which do not bring evils as well as benefits with them. The success of the parliamentary cause brought with it a swarm of time-servers, who sought to enrich themselves through the troubles of the times and the sequestrations of the defeated royalists. Ireton showed a noble example in refusing a grant of £2000 a year offered him as the reward of his services. The exaltation of Puritanism attracted a brood of worldly men, who assumed the forms of piety while seeking "to translate the gospel into pence and plate." Those who are attracted by a cause because it is successful, are ready to betray or abandon it, as was seen too soon. As for Lilburne, about two years after, he got a

man to join with him in a petition against some of Hesilrige's doings in the north, which the parliament declared to be false and scandalous. He was fined and banished from the British Islands on pain of death. After the expulsion of the Long Parliament the indomitable John returned, was again tried, and again acquitted. He was imprisoned by Cromwell, and finally set free to die of consumption at the age of thirty-nine, one of those honest but turbulent men who are sure to appear in seasons of public excitement. His brother, Colonel Robert Lilburne, distinguished himself in the war with Scotland, and was commander-in-chief for above a year (1653).

The lords and clergy who ruled Scotland had no wish for a republic, and the people no conception of it. When news of the execution of Charles reached Edinburgh on February 4, 1649, it was received with horror and indignation, and the very day after, his son was proclaimed King of Scotland, of England, and of Ireland. The proclamation was guarded by the proviso that before being admitted to the exercise of royal power, Charles II. should subscribe to the national league and covenant. Commissioners were sent to treat with the prince, who was then at the Hague. As he refused to listen to these terms the commissioners returned without effecting their object; but the negotiations were renewed the next year when he was more yielding. To the republican party in England the outlook was alarming. A king north of the Tweed affording a rallying-point to the English royalists, who though depressed were still a powerful party, and with all the Scottish ports open to succours from abroad, meant a new civil war,