pretending still to be zealous for the Irish cause; and having done all he could to intimidate the townsmen of Wexford, and persuade them to capitulate, quitted the place upon Cromwell's approach, and retired with his goods and effects to the fort of Passage, letting them see by that action his own terror, and inviting them to follow his example, in a juncture when their fears might be supposed to have the greatest influence on their conduct." It is difficult exactly to qualify such conduct as that of Recorder Rochfort; but Carte's judgment of it is not altogether reasonable. In Wexford the Lord Lieutetenant of the King was as little liked as the Lord Lieutenant of the Parliament. Wexford had always been on the Nuncio's side in the various Cessations and Peaces, and had always, consequently, regarded Ormond with distrust, if not detestation. One of the most zealous supporters of the Nuncio's policy among the Irish bishops was Dr. French, the Bishop of Ferns, who ordinarily resided at Wexford, eminent for his abilities, of which a graceful, penetrating, and pathetic rhetoric was not the least, his utter devotion, his high courage, and his fiery and indefatigable zeal. Dr. French, it was known, had vainly endeavoured to induce the Nuncio to withdraw the interdict which he had pronounced against all cities and towns that accepted the Peace; and, as a matter of fact, Wexford had not accepted the Peace, and was still somewhat doubtful of its duty. Certainly, within the six months that had elapsed since the Nuncio's departure, circumstances had considerably changed, and in a way that he had never contemplated. But in those times news travelled scantily and slowly; and the people of Wexford, who were asked to open their gates to Inchiquin's regiments, might be excused yet a while for doubting whether there was much to choose between the soldiers who had sacked Cashel and the soldiers who had sacked Drogheda.

In the last week of September Cromwell commenced his campaign. Again the march lay through a land pleasant as any promised to the saints of old. Not Canaan itself, seen with desert-weary eyes from Pisgah's slope, can have looked more beautiful than that fair vale which opened to their view as the turrets and spires of Dublin sank in the rear-the broad, blue expanse of sea; the fine semicircular sweep of strand; the glory of the hills, mantled with purple and variegated by rich autumnal lights; the fair map of dell, and stream, and meadow between; ahead the bold conical outlines of the Golden Spears, and the grim, black mass of Bray Head, looking to the soldier's eye like a base fit for some mighty fortress, which fleets and armies might assail in vain. And here began

the entrance to Wicklow through perilous passes, with the boulder-strewn hill overhead, and the rough, shingly beach below, leading on through deep ravines and thickly-wooded glens, narrow mountain-gaps, and the rugged channels of unbridged rivers, -a country that was all one vast natural intrenched camp, where a hundred men could every now and then with ease bar the road of a thousand, and where, if other weapons were wanting, the steep declivities, which for miles together enclosed the only practicable roads, would give to the huge mountain stones, once set rolling, all the force of artillery. For three hundred years, behind these mountain bulwarks, the Wicklow clans had maintained almost unceasing war against the English authority, carrying their frequent forays to the gates of Dublin, and trapping expedition after expedition sent to destroy them in ambuscades. But now the Puritan soldier marched through Dargle and Downs, under Dunran, by the Devil's Glen, across Vartry and Ovoca, as safe as to-day's tourist. It is difficult to conceive why Ormond should have made no effort to defend the passes of Wicklow. The people were not in a condition to do anything themselves. The fighting men of the O'Byrnes appear to have been exterminated, with their colonel and chief, at Drogheda. For great part of the road to Arklow, Cromwell says the country was almost desolate. But enough of the people surely remained to act as scouts and guides. Ormond must have been certain that Cromwell in moving south was in a sense compelled to move by the coast, in order to have the advantage of being supported by his fleet; and he had accordingly occupied one or two posts, but only apparently as posts of observation. There was one garrison at Killincarrick, fourteen miles from Dublin, which instantly retreated; another, three marches further on, at Arklow, in a strongly fortified castle. This was also at once evacuated. In the course of the next day's march Cromwell reached Limbrick, just beyond the Wicklow border, which he describes as "a strong and large castle, the ancient seat of the Esmonds, where the enemy had a strong garrison, which they burnt and quitted the day before our coming thither." In five days of steady marching at the rate of about ten Irish miles a day, the army of the Parliament had traversed Wicklow, and were now across the mountains which curtain Wexford to the north and west. The great opportunity for that war of passes which O'Neill had advised Ormond to make, was lost. It was evidently the only war that Ormond was able to make, and there can be little doubt that had he disputed the Wicklow passes one by one, with all the infinite advantages that the native knowledge of

the country and native rapidity of movement would have given him, he might have easily delayed Cromwell for a month-a month of incessant struggle with a ubiquitous enemy with whom he could never come to close quarters-a month in which his provisions would be in constant jeopardy and in a desolate land yielding no forage-a month of frequent wet weather, in a country that gave no shelter; and at the end of the month, as O'Neill had said, the winter to deal with, and "the disease of the country." Had O'Neill encountered Cromwell under such circumstances with even the force contained in the Wicklow garrisons, there can be little doubt that he would have forced him to retreat, and so postponed the war until spring; but if he had had his own army, with only a hundred gillies of the old Kilmantan septs as guides, some Wicklow gap might now be known as the pass of the Roundheads, and an Irish cairn mark the spot where General Cromwell's career came to an untimely end. Such, when he heard that the Parliamentary army had entered Wexford, may have been the bitter dreams which haunted the dying Ulster chief as he was carried along in a litter at the head of his army, now moving slowly through the flooded moors of Cavan. Wexford, though it does not offer the same opportunities for the guerilla as Wicklow, is still a county with strong military points, bounded for a considerable distance by mountains with few and difficult passes, beneath which spreads a rolling wooded country, veined by wide streams, and bisected diagonally by the broad line of the river Slaney. But there was actually no resistance organized. Through Wexford as through Wicklow Cromwell marched on velvet. Each town had a castle, and each castle held a garrison, and the garrisons only waited to be summoned to surrender. First fell Ferns; then Enniscorthy. At Enniscorthy, Cromwell says, "We summoned the castle, which was very well manned, and they refused to yield at first; but upon better consideration they were willing to deliver the place to us, which accordingly they did, leaving their great guns, arms, ammunition, and provisions behind them." Another day's march brought the Parliamentary army, on Monday, the 1st of October, before Wexford.

Seldom does it happen in war that a town or a nation is ruined by a scruple of conscience; but such seems upon this occasion to have been in the main the case of the citizens of Wexford. The interdict of the Nuncio was always before their eyes. They had never accepted the Peace. They could not, therefore, so it seemed to them, honestly avail themselves of the aid of Ormond's army in defending the town. Two days

before Cromwell laid siege, they with difficulty agreed to accept Colonel David Sinnott as military governor. Under ordinary circumstances, Sinnott's should have been a most popular appointment. He was the head of one of the Welsh families which followed Strongbow into Ireland, and, settling in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, have ever since been one of the most peculiar elements of the Wexford population, into whose character certain traits of the strange race that have never quite mingled with theirs, seem to have gradually infiltrated, so that the Wexford peasant of the present day has a less fiery, but more condensed, character than that of any other southern peasant. Sinnott was a Wexford man, a friend of the Bishop of Ferns, and had been lieutenant-colonel of Preston's own regiment. Yet, and although Cromwell's fleet had actually arrived in the harbour, the townspeople were almost as well disposed to resist the entry of one army as of the other. Carte says, that "if Sir Edmund Butler had not luckily come himself, they would have opposed Sinnott's entrance with his men, and delivered up the town to the enemy at the first summons." Two days afterwards, however, they appear to have had no difficulty about receiving a reinforcement of 1,500; but then these were Ulster regiments, commanded by Magennis, Lord Iveagh; and no one could suppose that the Nuncio's excommunication was intended to affect an Ulster regiment. On the 3rd of October, Cromwell summoned the place to surrender. Sinnott, quietly strengthening his defences, for three days parleyed with him as to the terms of capitulation. On the 4th Cromwell suddenly struck, under cover of his fleet, a fierce blow at the defences covering the town. A troop of his dragoons succeeded in surprising the fort at the harbour's mouth, then turned its guns on a frigate of twelve guns which lay alongside, and so captured both, as well as another smaller vessel, brig or corvette, which had just run down the river. Inland, beyond the right bank of the Slaney, between Wexford and Ross, lay Ormond's camp, gradually swelling in strength. Clanricarde had sent him 1,000 foot and 300 horse out of Connaught, and Inchiquin two regiments of Munster cavalry. The Ulster army was beginning to arrive. Ormond, always resolute and hopeful, exhibits commendable activity, and presses still more and more reinforcements on the town, hoping evidently that here the war would come at last to a conventional scientific state by way of a due, slow, and regular siege. Castlehaven also, seeing something that reminds him of the orthodox contingencies of a campaign in the Low Countries, is always in the saddle to and fro from Duncannon to Wexford, from Wexford to Ross, great in contrivances for

ferrying over troops and settling the great guns in the best possible positions up to the last moment. This last moment did eventually come on the 11th of October.

On the 10th, Cromwell had his batteries all built and mounted, and on the following morning he opened fire. He lay to the south-east of the town, where there was a strong castle without the walls; and he says he at first bent the whole strength of his artillery against the castle, being persuaded that if the castle fell, the town would speedily follow. After about a hundred shots had been fired, the Governor hung out a flag of truce and offered to treat-which, says Cromwell, in his report to the Speaker, "I condescending to, two field officers, with an alderman of the town and the captain of the castle, brought out the propositions enclosed, which for their abominableness, manifesting also the impudency of the men, I thought fit to present to your view."

These abominably impudent propositions were:-I. That the people of Wexford should have leave to hold and practise the Roman Catholic religion. II. That the regular and secular clergy should be permitted to hold their livings and exercise their ministry. III. That the bishop should be suffered to continue to govern his diocese. IV. That the garrison should be allowed to withdraw with the honours of war. V. That such of the inhabitants as pleased to withdraw might carry goods, chattels, ships, or military stores with them. VI. That the municipal privileges of the town should not be curtailed. VII. That the burgesses should continue to be capable to hold property elsewhere in Ireland. VIII. That burgesses wishing hereafter to leave should have liberty to sell their property and have safe conduct to England or elsewhere. IX. That the inhabitants be regarded as in all respects freeborn English subjects. X. And that there be an absolute amnesty in regard to all past transactions. To these propositions Cromwell instantly gave a point-blank negative. What parts of them he considered most abominable may be inferrred from his counter propositions. He would agree to allow the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers quarter for life, and leave to go to their several habitations with their wearing clothes, on engaging not to serve against the Parliament again; to the commissioned officers quarter for life, but to consider themselves prisoners of war. As for the inhabitants, he added, "I shall engage myself that no violence shall be offered to their goods, and I shall protect the town from plunder." He demanded its absolute surrender on these terms within an hour. But within the hour the town fell into his hands by an act of the most infamous treachery