Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/232

318  CHAPTER IV.

Irish had still greater cause than the Scotch for resisting the encroachments of the English. Besides that, their religion had been on all occasions ruthlessly persecuted, and every effort used to suppress it; their property had been confiscated by whole provinces at a time; their ancient chiefs had been driven from their lands, and many of them exterminated. Elizabeth, and James, and Charles, had proffered them new titles on condition of making large sacrifices, but had never kept their word, and at this moment, the graces promised by Charles to tolerate their religion, and confirm the titles of their estates, were unfulfilled. The example of the Scots had aroused them to the hope of achieving a like triumph. Their great enemy the earl of Strafford had fallen; his acts and doctrines had been condemned; but, on the other hand, they were menaced by the parliament with a still more fierce persecution, and even an avowed extermination of their religion. They believed that the Scotch presbyterians would join with avidity in the attempt to subdue them, and come in for a share of the plunder of their estates; and they now seized on the idea of rising and reclaiming their ancient power and property. True, they were not one united people like the Scots: there were the ancient Irish, the Anglo-Irish, and the English of the pale, that is, English settled in Ireland, holding the estates of the expelled native chiefs, but keeping themselves apart from the Irish. Yet many of the pale were catholics, and the catholic religion was the unanimous object of attachment by the natives. The parliament and the Scotch were banded against this religion, and this produced a counter-bond betwixt the catholic natives and the catholics of the pale. From the British parliament neither of these parties had anything to hope for on the score of religion; but the king was in need of aid against this parliament, and it occurred to them that they might make common cause with him.

Roger Moore, a gentleman of Kildare, entered into this scheme with all the impetuosity of his nation. He saw the lands of his ancestors for the most part in the hands of English and Scotch settlers, and he made a pilgrimage into almost every quarter of Ireland, to excite his countrymen to grasp this opportunity, when the king and parliament of England were engrossed by their disputes, to recover their rights. Everywhere he was listened to with enthusiasm, and the natives held themselves ready to rise, and take a terrible vengeance on the usurpers of their lands at the first signal. The great chiefs of Ulster, Cornelius Maguire, baron of Inniskillen, and Sir Phelim O'Neil, who had become the chieftain of the sept of Tyrone after the death of the son of the late persecuted Tyrone, fell into his views with all their followers. The catholic members of the pale were more disposed to negotiate with Charles than to rush into insurrection against his authority. They knew that it was greatly to his interest at this moment to conciliate his Irish subjects, and they despatched to him a deputation previous to his journey to Scotland, demanding the ratification of those graces for which he had received the purchase money thirteen years before, and offering in return their warmest support to his authority in Ireland. Charles received them very graciously, promised them the full satisfaction of all their demands, and by lord Gormanstown, who headed the deputation, and on whom he lavished the most marked attentions, he sent word to the earls of Ormond and Antrim to secure in his interest the eight thousand troops which had been raised by Strafford, to keep them in efficient discipline, to augment rather than decrease their number, and to surprise the castle of Dublin, where they would find twelve thousand stand of arms.

But the English parliament were by no means unaware of the danger from the army in Ireland, which consisted almost entirely of catholics. They insisted on its being disbanded, as promised by the king on the Scotch pacification. He was not able to prevent this, and signed the order; but at the same time sent secret instructions by Gormanstown to Ormond and Antrim, to prevent this by enlisting the whole body as volunteers to serve the king of Spain in Flanders.

At this juncture Sir Willam Parsons and Sir John Borlace were at the head of the English government in Ireland; they were in the interest of the parliament, and were detested by almost all classes of Irish. Sir John Clotworthy, in the house of commons, had openly declared that "the conversion of the papists in Ireland was only to be effected by the Bible in one hand, and the sword in the other." Pym was reported to have said that they would not leave a priest in Ireland; and at a public entertainment, Parsons had echoed those sentiments by declaring that "in a twelve month not a catholic would be left in that country." The Irish were, therefore, delighted with their success with the king, and Gormanstown and his associates hastened home again, with two bills signed by the king, granting the possession of all lands which had been held sixty years, and setting aside all the sequestrations made by Strafford. But Parsons and Borlace were duly informed by the party with which they acted in England, and aware that the passing of these bills would attach all Ireland to the interests of the king, they defeated the object by proroguing parliament a few days before the arrival of the deputies.

It was now resolved by the leaders Ormond and Antrim to defer any movement till the reassembling of the Irish parliament in November, when they could at the same moment secure the castle and the persons of Parsons and Borlace, and issue in the name of the two houses his majesty's concession to the people of Ireland. But the native Irish, stimulated by the addresses of Moore, could not wait so long. They determined to rise, without waiting for the combined force, on the 28rd of October. Two hundred and twenty men were to surprise the castle, but at the time appointed only eighty appeared. They concluded to wait till the next day for the arrival of the rest, but that night one Hugh M'Mahon, in a drunken fit, betrayed the secret,