Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/335

A.D. 1651.] Oliver was very affable, and presented to each of the commissioners a horse taken in the battle and a couple of Scotch prisoners. At Acton, the speaker of the commons, the lord-president, and many other members of parliament and of the council, the lord-mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, and crowds of other people, met him, and congratulated him on his splendid victory and all his successes in Scotland. The recorder, in his address, said he was destined to "bind kings in chains and their nobles in fetters of iron." Oliver, in his usual style, assigned all the glory to God. In London he was received with immense shoutings and acclamations. Parliament voted that the 3rd of September should be kept ever after as a holiday, in memory of his victory; and, in addition to twenty-five thousand pounds a year already granted in land, settled on another forty thousand pounds a year in land.

O'Brien and Ireton.

Thus the royal party was for a time broken and put down. In Ireland Cromwell had left his son-in-law Ireton as his deputy, who went on with a strong hand putting down all opposition. The catholic party growing weary of Ormond, he had resigned his lord-deputyship for the king, and Clanricarde had succeeded him. Still the catholic party was divided in itself, and Ormond, and after him Clanricarde, entered into a treaty with the duke of Lorraine, who agreed to send an army to Ireland to put down the Parliament, on condition that he should be declared protector-royal of Ireland, with all the rights pertaining to the office; an office, in fact, never before heard of. The Irish royalists obtained, however, at different times, twenty thousand pounds from Lorraine, and his agents were still negotiating for his protectorship, when the defeat of Charles at Worcester showed Lorraine the folly of his hopes. Disappointed in this expectation of assistance from abroad,the Irish royalists found themselves vigorously attacked by Ireton. In June he invested Limerick, and on the 27th of October it surrendered. Ireton tried and put to death seven of the chief leaders of the party. The court-martial refused to condemn the brave O'Niel, though Ireton urged his death for his stubborn defence of Clonmel. When Terence O'Brien, bishop of Emly, was condemned, he exclaimed to Ireton, "I appeal to the tribunal of God, and summon thee to meet me at that bar." These words were deemed prophetic by many, and were remembered with wonder when, about a month afterwards, Ireton fell ill of fever and died.

Cromwell appointed general Lambert his deputy in Ireland. This appointment was set aside before Lambert could pass over to that country, as it is said, through the management of Ireton's widow, Cromwell's daughter Bridget. Meeting the handsome and showy wife of Lambert in St. James's-park, that lady, as her husband was now lord-deputy, refused to give precedence to Mrs. Ireton. Offended at this, she prevailed on her father to revoke the appointment, and give it to Fleetwood, whom she soon after married, and so Lambert returned to Ireland in his former position. But there is reason to believe that Lambert never forgave the affront, though Cromwell endeavoured to soothe him, and made him compensation in money; for he was found to be one of the first to oppose Richard Cromwell after his father's death, and depose him from the protectorate. Ludlow and three other commissioners were joined with Fleetwood, so far as the civil administration was concerned, and they were ordered to levy sufficient money for the payment of the forces, not exceeding forty thousand pounds a month; and to exclude papists from all places of trust, from practising as barristers