Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/232

MacMahon public exercise of their religion. The minority at Kilkenny were soon afterwards emboldened by O'Neill's great but fruitless victory at Benburb, and MacMahon was one of those who in August solemnly declared that all who accepted the peace were guilty of perjury (Unkind Deserter, chap, vi.) In October Rinuccini, Owen Roe, and MacMahon were together at Athy (Contemp. Hist. i. 710). In December Dumolin, writing to Mazarin from Kilkenny, says that MacMahon, whom he elsewhere calls proud and factious, was all-powerful there, and that he was entirely devoted to Spain (Confed. and War, vii. 302). On 15 Feb. 1647 MacMahon wrote to the pope himself (Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 803) to beg a red hat for Rinuccini. The whole world, he said, wished to see the nuncio a cardinal, except a few dogs who could bark but who could not bite. The letter reached Rome, but had no effect there.

Ormonde was forced to surrender Dublin to the parliament, and left Ireland for a time in July 1647. In the miserable struggles which followed MacMahon was one of the minority who adhered to Rinuccini's falling fortunes. The majority, willing to be rid of an opponent, ordered MacMahon on a mission to fiance ; but he scornfully refused to go, saying that he spoke neither French nor English, that he was odious to Queen Henrietta Maria, as a beginner of war and notorious enemy to peace, and that his life would be in danger, since Jermyn and Digby had both threatened him (Rinuccini, 18 Dec. 1647). In the wrangle which followed Preston and his friends wished to imprison MacMahon for contempt. A hollow reconciliation between the factions followed, and Antrim went to France instead of MacMahon (ib. 9 Jan. 1648). A little later MacMahon was actually intriguing with Michael Jones against Ormonde and the confederates (App. to, No. 192). In April 1648 MacMahon was one of fourteen who made it a matter of conscience to condemn the truce with Inchiquin, as 'wholly tending to the ruin of the Catholic religion and the professors thereof in this kingdom' (Spicllegium Ossoriense, ii. 31). The nuncio excommunicated the persons, and interdicted the nlaces favouring the truce, and then withdrew into Connaught. MacMahon turned his attention to Ulster. On 30 Sept. he and Owen Roe O'Neill were proclaimed traitors by the confederates, but they sent a messenger on their own account to Charles II as soon as his father's execution was known. Rinuccini left Ireland not long afterwards, and Ormonde then began to think of gaining Owen Roe.

Sir Phelim O'Neill [q. v.], who took service under Ormonde, was at Kilkenny when the nuncio left Ireland in March 1649, and his regiment, accidentally surprising MacMahon, took him prisoner to Charlemont, whence he escaped about two months later. Colonel Michael Jones's victory at Rathmines and the subsequent landing of Cromwell drew Ormonde and O'Neill together. The marquis at first believed that MacMahon was a 'principal obstructor of any agreement,' but in time discovered, or pretended to discover, that this was not so. He found him, says Carte, 'a man of better sense than most of his brethren,' and as such convinced that unity was absolutely necessary. MacMahon was a party to the articles concluded between Ormonde and O'Neill on 20 Oct. 1649 (Contemp. Hist. ii. 300). Owen Roe died a fortnight afterwards, and Mac-Mahon lost no time in offering his services to Ormonde (ib. p. 317). In December he took part in the proceedings of the clergy at Clonmacnoise (Spicilegium Ossoriense, ii. 88). In the south Cromwell was carrying all before him, and in the meantime the Ulster army was headless. There were several candidates, but MacMahon was chosen general in March 1650, after a series of intrigues, detailed in the narrative called ' Owen Roe's Journal' (Contemp. Hist. Hi. 812). In May he wrote to Rinuccini, saying that he had been constrained to accept the position lest it should fall to some one less earnest for the common cause (Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 337). Ormonde, as the king's representative, gave him a confirmatory commission. No military skill could be expected from an ecclesiastic, and none was shown ; but there was no want of vigour. 'I do assure you,' he wrote to Colonel Beresford, who with some twenty men held Dungiven against him, 'if you shed one drop of my soldiers' blood, I will not spare to put man, woman, and child to the sword.' Dunrnven was stormed, and the garrison killed, except Beresford himself. One or two other trifling successes so emboldened MacMahon that at the end of June he insisted on fighting Sir Charles Coote at Scariffhollis, near Letterkenny. His officers — true to Owen Roe's Fabian system — were against running the risk, and MacMahon's obstinacy resulted in a crushing defeat (21 June 1650). The horse only were in a condition to escape with him, and after riding for twenty-four hours the jaded fugitives were intercepted by the garrison of Enniskillen. Quarter was given to MacMahon, who was badly wounded in the scuffle that took place, and he remained a prisoner for some months. The governor, Colonel John King, tried to save him, but