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Major-General' Ireton is expected here:-both in good health, God be praised. This week, I believe, they will visit Kinsale, Bandon Bridge, and other places in this Province that have lately declared for us, and that expect a return of his affection and presence, which joys many. Some report here that the Enemy burns towns and provisions near our quarters: but the example may at length turn to their own greatest prejudice. Colonel Deane and Colonel Blake, our Sea-generals, are both riding in Cork Harbor."* Dated on the morrow is this Letter:

LETTER LXXXI.

For the Honorable William Lenthall, Speaker of the Parliament
of England: These.

MR. SPEAKER,

Cork, 19th December, 1649.

Not long after my last to you from before Waterford, by reason of the tempestuousness of the weather, we thought fit, and it was agreed, To march away to Winter-quarters, to refresh our men until God shall please to give further opportunity for action.

We marched off, the 2d of this instant; it being so terrible a day as ever I marched in all my life. Just as we marched off in the morning, -unexpected to us, the Enemy had brought an addition of near Twothousand horse and foot to the increase of their Garrison: which we plainly saw at the other side of the water. We marched that night some ten or twelve miles through a craggy country, to Kilmac Thomas; a Castle some eight miles from Dungarvan. As we were marching off in the morning from thence, the Lord Broghil,-I having sent before to him to march up to me,—sent a party of horse, to let me know, He was, with about Twelve or Thirteen hundred of the Munster horse and foot, about ten miles off, near Dungarvan, which was newly rendered to him.

In the midst of these good successes, wherein the kindness and mercy of God hath appeared, the Lord, in wisdom, and for gracious ends best known to Himself, hath interlaced some things which may give us cause of serious consideration what His mind therein may be. And we hope we wait upon Him, desiring to know, and to submit to His good pleasure. The noble Lieutenant-General,f-whose finger, to our knowledge, never

*

Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 73).

Michael Jones: Ludlow (i., 304) is a little misinformed

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ached in all these expeditions,-fell sick; we doubt, upon a cold taken upon our late wet march, and ill accommodation: and went to Dungarvan, where struggling some four or five days with a fever, he died; having run his course with so much honor, courage, and fidelity, as his actions better speak than my pen. What England lost hereby, is above me to speak. I am sure, I lost a noble friend, and companion in labors. You see how God mingles out the cup unto us. Indeed we are at this time a crazy company :-yet we live in His sight; and shall work the time that is appointed us, and shall rest after that in peace.*

But yet there hath been some sweet at the bottom of the cup;-of which I shall now give you an account. Being informed that the Ene my intended to take in the Fort of Passage, and the Lieutenant-General Ferral with his Ulsterst was to march out of Waterford, with a considerable party of horse and foot, for that service,-I ordered Colonel Zanchy, who lay on the north side of the Blackwater, To march with his regiment of horse, and two pieces of two troops of dragoons to the relief of our friends. Which he accordingly did; his party consisting in all of about three hundred and twenty. When he came some few miles from the place, he took some of the Enemy's stragglers in the villages as he went; all which he put to the sword: seven troopers of his killed thirty of them in one house. When he came near the place, he found the Enemy had close begirt it, with about five hundred Ulster foot under Major O'Neil; Colonel Wogan also, the Governor of Duncannon, with a party of his, with two great battering guns and a mortarpiece, and Captain Browne, the Governor of Ballihac, was there. Our men furiously charged them; and beat them from the place. The Enemy got into a place where they might draw up; and the Ulsters, who bragged much of their pikes, made indeed for the time a good resistance; but the horse, pressing sorely upon them, broke them; killed near an Hundred upon the place; took Three hundred and fifty prisoners, amongst whom, Major O'Neil, and the Officers of Five hundred Ulster foot, all but those which were killed. The renegado Wogan with twenty-four of Ormond's kurisees, and the Governor of Ballihac, &c. Concerning some of these, I hope I shall not trouble your justice. This mercy was obtained without the loss of one on our part, only one shot in the shoulder. Lieutenant-General Ferral was come up very near, with a great party to their relief; but our handful of men marching towards him, he shamefully hasted away, and recovered Waterford. It is not unworthy taking notice, That having appointed a Day of public Thanksgiving throughout our territories in Ireland, as well as a week's * Yes, my brave one; even so! † Ulster-men.

warning would permit, for the recovery of Munster, which proves a sweet refreshment to us, even prepared by God for us, after our weary and hard labor,That that very day, and that very time, while men were praising God, was this deliverance wrought.

Though the present state of affairs bespeaks a continuance of charge, yet the same good hand of Providence, which hath blessed your affairs hitherto, is worthy to be followed to the uttermost. And who knows, or rather who hath not cause to hope, that He may in His goodness, put a short period to your whole charge. Than which no worldly thing is more desired, and endeavored by

Your most humble servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.*

Ormond witnessed this defeat at Passage, from some steeple, or 'place of prospect' in Waterford; and found the Mayor,' whom he sent for, a most unreasonable man.†

'The Renegado Wogan:' Captain Wogan, once in the Parlia ment service, joined himself to Hamilton and the Scots in 1648; 'bringing a gallant troop along with him.' His maraudings, pickeerings, onslaughts, and daring chivalries became very celebrated after that. He was not slain or hanged here at Passage; there remained for him yet, some four years hence, his grand feat which has rendered all the rest memorable: 'that of riding right through England, having rendezvoused at Barnet, with a Party 'of Two-hundred horse,' to join Middleton's new Scotch Insurrection in the Highland Hills; where he, soon after, died of consumption and some slight hurt.‡-What 'kurisees' are, I do not know some nickname for Ormond's men,-whom few loved; whom the Mayor of Waterford, this very day, would not admit into his Town even for the saving of Passage Fort.§ With certain of these 'your justice' need not be troubled.

This Letter, with two others, one from Ireton and one from Broghil, all dated Cork, 19th December, were not received in the

*

Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, pp. 73, 74).

† Carte, ii., 103; whose account is otherwise very deficient.

Clarendon, iii., 679; Whitlocke, Heath's Chronicles, &c. § Carte, ibid..

Commons House till Tuesday, 8th January; such were then the delays of the winter post. On which same day it is resolved, That the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland be desired to come over, and give his attendance here in Parliament.* Speaker is ordered to write him a letter to that effect.

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"The ground of this resolution,' says Whitlocke, was That the news of the King's coming to Scotland became more probable than formerly.' Laird Winram's dealings with him, and Cromwell's successes, and the call of Necessity are proving effectual ! 'And,' continues Whitlocke, 'the proceedings of the Scots in raising of new forces gave an alarm to the Parliament: and some of their Members who had discoursed with the Lord General Fairfax upon those matters, and argued how necessary it would be to send an Army into Scotland to divert the war from England, -had found the General wholly averse to any such thing; and, by means of his Lady, who was a strict Presbyterian, to be more a friend to the Scots than they,' those Members, wished. Therefore they thought this a fit time to send for the Lieutenant of Ireland, the rather as his Army was now drawn into winterquarters.'+

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The Lord Lieutenant thought, or was supposed to think, of complying straightway, as the old Newspapers instruct us, but on better counsel, the Scotch peril not being very imminent as yet, decided to settle Ireland in a safe posture' first. Indeed the Letter itself is long in reaching him; and the rumor of it, which arrives much sooner, has already set the Enemy on false schemes, whereof advantage might be taken. The Lord Lieutenant has been rehabilitating Courts of Justice in Dublin, settling contributions, and doing much other work; and now, the February or even January weather being unusually good, he takes the field again, in hopes of perhaps soon finishing. The unhappy Irish are again excommunicating one another; the Supreme Council of Kilkenny is again one wide howl; and Ormond is writing to the King to recall him. Now is the Lieutenant's time; the February weather being good!

* Commons Journals, vi., 343, 4.

† Whitlocke, p. 422

Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 77).

LETTER LXXXII.

HERE is another small excerpt from Bulstrode, which we may take along with us; a small speck of dark Ireland and its affairs rendered luminous for an instant. To which there is reference in this Letter. We saw Enniscorthy taken on the last day of September, the 'Castle and Village of Enniscorthy,' 'which belongs to Mr. Robert Wallop ;' a Garrison was settled there; and this in some three months time is what becomes of it.

January 9th, 1649, Letters reach Bulstrode, perhaps a fortnight after date, 'That the Enemy surprised Enniscorthy Castle in this manner: Some Irish Gentlemen feasted the Garrison

Soldiers; and sent-in women to sell them strong-water, oi which they drank too much; and then the Irish fell upon them," took the Garrison, and put all the Officers and Soldiers to the sword.' Sharp practice on the part of the Irish Gentlemen; and not well-advised! Which constrained the Lord Lieutenant, when he heard of it, to order that the Irish,' Papist suspected Irish, should be put out of such Garrisons as were in the power of Parliament,'*-ordered to seek quarters elsewhere.

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For the Honorable William Lenthall, Speaker of the Parliament of England: These.

MR. SPEAKER,

Castletown, 15th February, 1649.

Having refreshed our men for some short time in our Winter-quarters,† and health being pretty well recovered, we thought fit to take the field; and to attempt such things as God by His providence should lead us to upon the Enemy.

Our resolution was to fall into the Enemy's quarters two ways. The one party, being about fifteen or sixteen troops of horse and dragoons, and about two thousand foot, were ordered to go up by the way of Carrick into the County of Kilkenny under the command of Colonel Reynolds; whom Major-General Ireton was to follow with a reserve. I myself was to go by the way of Mallow, over the Blackwater, towards the County of Limerick and the County of Tipperary, with about twelve

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