CHAP. This prince who had married a second wife, while XXVII. his former was living, hoping to prevail on the pope Negociation with the duke of Lorrain. to legitimate the children of his second marriage, affected an extraordinary zeal for the catholics of Ireland. Previously to Ormond's departure, an offer had been made for the delivery of Duncannon fort into the duke's hands as a security for twentyfour thousand pounds. The treaty had failed, and the fortress had fallen into the power of the republicans: but the negociation was renewed by lord Taafe, who presented letters of credence from the duke of York brother of the nominal king, and offered the security of any other place for the repayment of any sums which should be advanced. Taafe, who flattered the prince by the proposal of a match between a daughter of his second marriage and the duke of York, obtained five thousand pounds to purchase arms and ammunition, which arrived in the bay of Galway in time to influence the general assembly to reject the overtures of a treaty with Ireton. The prince even declared his willingness to come in person into Ireland with such aids as must soon recover the kingdom; but hinted that he must be quite uncontrolled, and without commission from any person whatsoever. Taafe, not authorized for such conditions, proposed that his highness should send an ambassador into Ireland to treat with men in authority; and Stephen de Hennin, Abbé de Saint-Catherine, chosen for this purpose, landed at Galway, while the bishop of Ferns was on his way to Brussels. Clanricarde appointed a committee, composed of prelates, nobility, and gentry, to receive and report the pro posals XXVII. posals of this envoy, which were, that the duke of CITA P. Lorrain, his heirs and successors, with a saving to his Majesty's rights, and those of his subjects, should be accepted as protectors of Ireland, with all the prerogatives of royalty, until all disbursements made by him for the defence or recovery of the island should be repaid. These proposals, which indicated a secret aim of the duke at the sovereignty of Ireland, were so résented by Clanricarde, that he refused to admit the envoy to an audience of leave, though he had consented to some qualification of his demands. The prélates insisted on the acceptance of the envoy's terms, but declined to subscribe this advice. The abbé consented to advance twenty thousand pounds on the security of Limerick and Galway, and to leave the adjustment of all articles concerning the protectorship for a treaty at Brussels. Nicholas Plunket and Geoffry Browne were commissioned to negociate this treaty, in conjunction with Taafe, with express orders to be guided in their proceedings by the directions of the queen, the duke of York, and the marquis of Ormond. But on their arrival at Brussels, in the absence of Taafe, who had gone to consult the queen at Paris, they disobeyed these orders, influenced by French, the seditious bishop of Ferns, who in a blasphemous cant inveighed against Clanricarde and his adherents, whom he declared to have been consigned to Satan by the nuncio's excommunication. Plunket and Browne, disclaiming the lord-deputy's commission, signed a treaty in the name of the Irish nation, by which the duke of Lorrain XXVII. CHAP. Lorrain was virtually declared invested with the entire sovereignty of Ireland under the title of protector Progress of the republi cans. 1651. royal. To a petition to the pope, signed by Plunket in the name of the people of Ireland, professing an entire submission to the holy see, and imploring absolution from the nuncio's censures, Browne had the spirit to refuse his subscription, but that of Taafe was affixed without his knowledge. The clergy, exulting in the success of their schemes, and hoping the speedy establishment of a glorious hierarchy protected by a catholic prince, proceeded to take measures for the constitution of a new supreme council entirely under their own direction, and thereby for a usurpation of the whole power of the kingdom. But they were soon awakened from their airy dream by the progress of the republicans, which rendered the state of affairs so desperate, that the duke of Lorrain could have no inducement to interfere, and he was furnished with a fair pretence to decline any farther treaty by a formal protest of the Lord-deputy against the unauthorized proceedings of his agents. To force an entrance into Connaught, as a preparatory step to the siege of Limerick, with which Ireton resolved to open the campaign of 1651, Coote advanced toward Sligo; and, on the approach of an Irish force to protect that post, he suddenly retired, and passing with some difficulty the Curlew mountains, laid siege to Athlone, of which he gained possession before Clanricarde could collect sufficient forces for its relief. Castlehaven, summoned to the assistance of the lord-deputy to oppose Coote, who seemed to threaten Galway, had marched only a few XXVII. miles, when some troops, which he had left to guard CHAP. a pass over the Shannon, were driven from the post, and so communicated their panic to the main body, consisting of four thousand, that the whole dispersed without attempting to impede the enemy. Another pass on this river at Killaloe was about the same time abandoned by an officer named Fennel, from treachery or cowardice; and Ireton, having thus gained a passage for his troops into the western province, was enabled to invest Limerick on every side. Limerick. Clanricarde, on his proposal to take on himself Siege of the defence of the place, and to share the fortune of the citizens, had been refused admittance by the magistrates, who at length, on the approach of danger, consented to receive a garrison under Hugh O'Neal, the defender of Clonmel, but subject to such restrictions, that the real command rested in themselves. Such distraction prevailed within the walls, while suggestions were made by those Irish, who had submitted to the republican general, of the tolerant spirit of the independants in matters of religion, that in three days the citizens were proposing to surrender; but the clergy, who dreaded lest themselves should be excepted from the benefit of the treaty, prevented the design by violent opposition. O'Neal continued to make an obstinate defence, notwithstanding his disappointment of relief by the defeat of lord Muskerry, who, on his march from Kerry to his assistance, was repelled with great loss, after a well supported battle, by lord Broghill. The destructive sallies of the garrison, skilfully conducted by O'Neal, the severity of the approaching winter, and XXVII. CHAP and the sickness of his troops, must have obliged the republican general to raise the siege, if a surrendry had not been forced by internal sedition. A tumultuous assembly, who clamoured for that measure, despised even the sentence of excommunication, which was thundered against them by the prelates ; and Fennel, who had fled from Killaloe, seizing two of the principal gates, turned the artillery against the town, and sent commissioners to Ireton. The soldiers and citizens were allowed to depart unmolested; the former without arms; the latter with their effects. Twenty-four were excepted from mércy; and, in the execution of these and others, the punishment fell chiefly on the adherents of the nuncio, the most violent opposers of the royal authority, and consequently the greatest promoters of republican victory. Executions. Of the twenty-four excepted at Limerick the bishop alone of that see effected his escape. Among the executed were O'Brien, the Romish bishop of Emly; Wolfe, the friar, who had excluded the marquis of Ormond from Limerick; Fennel, who had cómmittéd so many murders as the service could not expiate which his cowardice had performed for the republicans; and Geoffry Browne, who was seized on his return from Brussels. This man pleaded that he had been engaged in the same cause as the republicans themselves, the defence of the liberty and religion of his country. Ireton told him in his reply that in respect of religion the difference was great, since the republicans contended only for their right in the freedom of their worship, without attempting to |