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] to Owen O'Conolly. a servant of Sir John Clotworthy, and a protestant. He instantly carried the news to Sir William Parsons; the city gates were closed, and a quick search made for the conspirators. All but M'Mahon and lord Maguire escaped, but the castle was saved.

Ignorant of the failure of the pilot, the people of Lister rose on the appointed day. Charlemont and Dungannon were surprised by Sir Phelim O'Neil, Mountjoy by O'Quin, Tanderagee by O'Hanlan, and Newry by Macginnis. In little more than a week all the open country in Tyrone, Monagan, Longford, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Cavan, Donegal, Derry, and part of Down, were in their hands. The other colonies in which there were English or Scotch plantations, followed their example, and the greater part of Ireland was in a dreadful state of anarchy and terror. The protestant people on the plantations fell beneath the butchering revenge of the insurgents, or fled wildly into the fortified towns. The horrors of the Irish massacre of 1641 have assumed a fearful place in history; the cruelties, expulsions, and oppressions of long years were repaid by the most infuriated cruelty. Men, women, and children, fell indiscriminately in the onslaught, and they who escaped, says Clarendon, "were robbed of all they had, to their very shirts, and so turned naked to endure the sharpness of the season, and by that means, and for want of relief, many thousands of them perished by hunger and cold."

Much pains have been taken by catholic writers to contradict these accounts, and to represent the atrocities committed as of no extraordinary extent. They remind us that no accounts of these barbarous slaughters were transmitted in the reports to the English parliament, which would have been only too glad to spread, and even exaggerate bloody deeds of the catholics. They reduce the number of people slain during the whole insurrection to about ten thousand, instead of the grossly exaggerated statements of Milton in his "Iconoclastes," that there were one hundred and fifty-four thousand in Ulster alone, or of Sir John Temple, that three hundred thousand were slain or expelled altogether. But nothing less than a most frightful massacre could have left the awful impression which still lives in tradition, and the calculations of moderate historians do not make the number massacred less than from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand. The earl of Castlehaven, a catholic, says that all the water in the sea could not wash from the Irish the taint of that rebellion. Whilst remembering the vengeance, however, we must never forget the long and maddening incentives to it. Great blame was attached to the deputy-governors, Borlace and Parsons, who, shut up in security in Dublin, took no measures for suppressing the insurgents. They were charged with purposely allowing the rebellion to spread, in order that there might be more confiscations, in which they would find their own benefit; but it must be remembered that they had few soldiers on whom they could rely, for they were nearly all catholics, nor did the insurgents escape without severe chastisement in many places, for wherever there was a trusty garrison, the soldiers easily repelled the disorderly mob of plunderers; and Sir Phelim O'Neil suffered during the month of November severe losses.

Before Charles reached England, O'Conolly, the discoverer of the plot, arrived in London, with letters from the lords justices, and was called before the house of lords to relate all that he knew. They immediately called the house of commons to a conference on the state of Ireland, and on the better providing for the security of England. They presented O'Conolly with five hundred pounds in money, and settled on him an annuity of two hundred pounds a year. It was resolved to look well after the catholics in this country, and to put the ports into a state of defence. The commons followed out this policy by voting two hundred thousand pounds to the requirements of Ireland; that six thousand foot and two thousand horse should be raised for service there, and that the fleet should carefully guard its coasts. The earl of Leicester, the lord-lieutenant, was desired to furnish a list of the most suitable officers for the service, and arms and ammunition were prepared in haste, to be despatched to Dublin. A pardon was offered to all rebels who laid down their arms by a certain day, at the same time that a reward was set on the heads of the leaders. But they did not stop there; they passed a resolution never to tolerate the catholic worship either in Ireland or in any part of his majesty's dominions. Commissioners were appointed to disarm the recusants in every part of the kingdom; pursuivants were sent out in every direction to seize priests and Jesuits; orders were given for the trial of all such persons; and the king was advised not to pardon or reprieve them. The queen's chapel was closed, her priests dismissed, her confessor sent to the Tower, and no less than seventy catholic lords and gentlemen were denounced by the commons to the lords, as persons who ought to be secured to prevent their doing injury to the state.

Such was the state of things when Charles arrived in London. He was well received by the lord mayor and aldermen of the city, and in return gave them an entertainment at Hampton Court; but he was greatly chagrined at the proceedings of the commons, telling them that they were converting the war in Ireland, which was a civil war, into a war of religion. He took umbrage also at the houses of parliament sitting with a guard round their house. The earl of Essex, on the king's arrival, surrendered his command of the forces south of the Trent to the king, and announced to the lords, that having resigned his commission, he could no longer furnish the guard. A message was sent from the houses, requesting the king to restore them the guard, but he refused, saying he saw no occasion for it; but the commons let him know that many dangerous persons, Irish and others, were lurking about, and that the "Incident" in Scotland, and the late attempt to surprise the castle in Dublin, warned them of their danger; and that not only must they have a guard, but they must nominate the commander of it themselves.

Whilst Charles was pondering on the answer which he should return to this unwelcome message. Sir Ralph Hopeton appeared at Hampton Court with another address from the commons yet more ominous. This bore the alarming title of a "Remonstrance on the state of the kingdom." It had been drawn up and passed by the commons before the king's return from Scotland, that is, on the 22nd of November, and it was resolved to present it to the king on his return. It was the act of the commons alone, and had not been