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CRO yield themselves, and we, knowing that hunger must compel them, set only good guards to secure them from running away… Notwithstanding their condition, they killed and wounded some of our men. When they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head, every tenth man of the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped for the Barbadoes. The soldiers in the other tower were all spared as to their lives only, and shipped likewise for the Barbadoes… I believe all their 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… Now give me leave to say how it comes to pass that this work is wrought. It was set upon some of our hearts that a great thing should be done, not by power or might, but by the Spirit of God… That which caused your men to storm so courageously, it was the Spirit of God who gave your men courage,… and therewith this happy success; and therefore it is good that God alone have all the glory… I wish that all honest hearts may give the glory of this to God alone, to whom, indeed, the praise of this mercy belongs… I am persuaded that this 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." The Parliament, on the receipt of the news, appointed a thanksgiving day, and voted a letter of thanks to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and to the army, "in which notice was to be taken that the House did approve of the execution done at Drogheda, as an act of justice to them [that were slain], and of mercy to others who may be warned by it." There is sufficient evidence that several women and children were sacrificed in the slaughter at Drogheda. The massacre had the desired effect. "It spread abroad," says Carte, "the terror of his name; it cut off the best body of the Irish troops, and disheartened the rest to such a degree, that it was a greater loss in itself and much more fatal in its consequences, than the rout at Rathmiues." Drogheda was taken on 11th September. On the 13th Colonel Chidley Coote was despatched with two regiments of horse and one of foot, to Dundalk. The Ulster Scotch, who garrisoned the place, retired by Ormond's order. Ulster was then open. Venables took up Coote's command, and strengthened by another regiment of foot and two troops of dragoons, pressed north to effect a junction with Sir Charles Coote, who was shut up in Derry. Carlingford and Newry surrendered almost without a blow. In a few days, Lisburn, Belfast, and Coleraine opened their gates, and before the end of September every port and every stronghold in the north, Carrickfergus excepted, was in the hands of the Parliamentary army. Immediately after the capture of Drogheda, Cromwell returned to Dublin at the head of his division; and on 17th September he wrote to the Speaker, giving details of the northern successes, and urging that additional troops should be sent over to Ireland. After a week's rest, Cromwell proceeded southwards with 7,000 foot and 2,000 horse. Before leaving Dublin he published, says Carte, "a proclamation forbidding his soldiers, on pain of death, to hurt any of the inhabitants, or to take anything from them without paying for it in ready money. This being strictly observed, and assurances given that they were for the liberties of the commoners; that everybody should enjoy the liberty of their religion; that those who served the market at the camp should pay no contribution; all the country people flocked to his camp with all kind of provisions: and due payment being made for the same, his army was much better supplied than ever any of the Irish had been." Upon the march, two soldiers were hung for stealing a chicken from a farm-house. The capture of Wexford was indispensable for the reduction of the country. It was a seaport through which the Confederates obtained their principal supplies of arms and ammunition and kept up communication with the Continent. To have the support of his ships if necessary, Cromwell marched south by the sea road. He thus continues: "The army marched from Dublin about the 23rd of September, into the County of Wicklow, where the enemy had a garrison about fourteen miles from Dublin, called Killincarrick, which they quitting, a company of the army was put therein. From thence the army marched through almost a desolated country, until it came to a passage over the river Doro [Avoca], about a mile above the Castle of Arklow, which… was upon the approach of the army quitted, wherein we left another company of foot. From thence the army 108