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264 We have already spoken of the confederate Irish catholics, who maintained an army for their own defence, and had a council at Kilkenny. Charles had instructed the marquis of Ormond, the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, to make a peace with these confederates: he had some time ago obtained a cessation of hostilities, but they would not consent to a permanent peace, nor to furnish the king troops until they obtained a legal guarantee for the establishment of their own religion. Lord Ormond, in his endeavours, did not satisfy the king, or rather his position disabled him from consenting publicly to such a treaty, as it would have roused all the protestants, and the Scotch and the English parliament against him. Charles, therefore, who was always ready with some underhand intrigue to gain his ends, and break his bargain when it became convenient, sent over lord Herbert, the son of the marquis of Worcester, and whom he now created earl of Glamorgan, to effect this difficult matter. Glamorgan is known to literary readers as the author of "A Century of Inventions," which he published when marquis of Worcester, and which Hume describes as "a ridiculous compound of lies, chimeras, and impossibilities." It is clear that Hume never read the book, which any one in Partington's modern edition may convince himself of. The marquis was of a scientific and speculative turn, and one of the "chimeras and impossibilities" in the book, is the mention of poor De Caus, whom the marquis saw in the Bicêtre prison, in Paris, confined as a madman, for having written a treatise, "Des effets de la vapeur," the wonderful effects of steam, which, if De Caus's urgent memorial to the French ministry had been attended to, might have anticipated our steamships and railroads two centuries.

Glamorgan was as zealous in his loyalty as in his speculative pursuits. He and his father had spent two hundred thousand pounds in the king's cause, and he was now engaged in an enterprise where he risked everything for Charles—name, honour, and life. He was furnished with a warrant which authorised him to concede the demands of the catholics regarding their religion, and to engage them to send over ten thousand men. After many difficulties he reached Dublin, communicated to Ormond the plan, saw with him the catholic deputies in Dublin, and then hastened to Kilkenny, to arrange with the council there. But at this time occurred the revelation of the scheme by the seizure of the archbishop of Tuam's papers. The parliament was thrown into a fury; the marquis of Ormond, to make his loyalty appear, seized Glamorgan, and threw him into prison, and the king sent a letter to the two houses of parliament, utterly disavowing the commission of Glamorgan, and denouncing the warrant in his name a forgery. All this had been agreed upon before, betwixt the king and Glamorgan, should any discovery take place, and on searching for Glamorgan's papers, a warrant was found, not sealed in the usual manner, and the papers altogether informal, so that the king might by this means be able to disavow them. But that Ormond and the council of Kilkenny had seen a real and formal warrant, there can be no question. The king, by a second letter to the two houses, reiterated his disavowal of the whole affair, and assured them that he had ordered the privy council in Dublin to proceed against Glamorgan for his presumption. The proceedings were conducted by lord Digby, who assumed a well-feigned indignation against Glamorgan, accusing him of high treason. The animus with which this accusation appeared to be made has induced many to believe that Digby was really incensed, because he had not been let wholly into the secret of Glamorgan's commission; and his letter to the king on the subject, noticed by Clarendon as rude and unmanly, would seem to confirm this. However, Glamorgan, on his part, took the whole matter very cheerfully, allowed the king's disclaimers without a remonstrance or evidence of vexation, and produced a copy of his secret treaty with the catholics, in which he had inserted an article called a defeasance, by which the king was bound by the treaty no further than he pleased till he had seen what the catholics did for him, and that the catholics should keep this clause secret till the king had done all in his power to secure their claims.

Surely such a system of royal and political hocus-pocus never had been concerted before. Ormond, on seeing the defeasance, declared that it was quite satisfactory, binding the king to nothing; in fact, he had to avoid the danger of alarming the catholics and losing their army for the king; and the protestants having seen the affected zeal to prosecute Glamorgan had become greatly appeased. Glamorgan was, therefore, liberated, and hastened again to Kilkenny, to urge on the sending of the forces. But the late disclosures had not been without their effect. One part of the council insisted on the full execution of the king's warrant, the open acknowledgment of catholicism as the established religion, and the pope's nuncio, Runcini, who had lately arrived, strongly urged them to stand by that demand. But another part of the council were more conceding, and by their aid Glamorgan obtained five thousand men, with whom he marched to Waterford, to hasten their passage for the relief of Chester, where lord Byron was driven to extremities by the parliamentarians. There, however, he received the news that Chester had fallen, and there was not a single port left where Glamorgan could land his troops; he therefore disbanded them, except three hundred, who proceeded with Digby, to form a guard for the prince of Wales.

That young prince, now sixteen years of age, had had a council appointed him by his father, and he had been made nominal commander in the west of England. The miserable cabals and squabbles of the generals down there—Goring, Grenvil, and others, must have only shown him some of the miseries of a king in trouble. Fairfax and Cromwell, however, did not leave these quarrelsome generals too much time. He defeated lord Hopton, the general-in-chief, at Torrington, and pursued him into Cornwall as far as Bodmin Charles, anxious for the safety of the prince, repeatedly ordered him to get out of the kingdom and proceed to the court of Denmark, having very natural fears of his falling into the power of the French government. The prince not leaving, Charles now insisted on his getting over to Holland, France, or anywhere, so that he got out of the reach of the parliamentary generals. Accordingly, the prince retreated in February to Truro, thence to Pendennis Castle, and thence on the second of March to the Scilly Isles. Feeling insecure in the Scilly Isles on account of the parliamentary fleet, he took the opportunity to escape to Jersey, where Digby met him, and endeavoured to persuade him to go