system at Drogheda; but as the troops within were animated by the presence of leaders who would rather be buried under the ruins of the place, than submit to the fanatical host under the command of Cromwell, he met, on this occasion, with a most determined resistance. In his letter to the Parliament he admits, that "through the advantages of the place, and the courage God was pleased to give the defenders, our men were forced to retreat quite out of the breach, not without some considerable loss." His veterans were induced to make a second attempt, "wherein," says he, "God was pleased to animate them so, that they got ground of the enemy, and by the goodness of God forced him to quit his intrenchments; and after a very hot dis pute, the enemy having both horse and foot, and we foot only within the walls, the enemy gave ground, and our men became masters." As the humanity of Cromwell has been impeached on the evidence of the cruelties which he commanded or allowed in the sacking of Drogheda, the reader will be enabled to form his judgment on this head by perusing part of the dispatch which the victor sent to his colleagues at Westminster. After he had made a passage for his cavalry into the town, "the enemy retreated, diverse into the Mill-Mount, a place very strong, and of difficult access, being exceeding high, having a good graft and strongly palisadoed; the Governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and diverse considerable officers being there, our men getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword: And indeed, being in the heat of action, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town, and I think that night they put to the sword about two thousand men. Diverse of the officers and soldiers being fled over the bridge into the other part of the town, where about one hundred of them possessed St Peter's church steeple, some the west gate, and others a strong round tower next the gate, called St Sunday. These being summoned to yield to mercy, refused; whereupon I ordered the steeple of St Peter's church to be fired. The next day the other two towers were summoned, in one of which was about six or seven score, but they refused to yield themselves; and we, knowing that hunger must compel them, set only good guards to secure them from running away, till their stomachs were come down. From one of the said towers, notwithstanding their condition, they killed and wounded some of our men ; when they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped for the Barbadoes; the soldiers in the other tower were all spared, as to their lives only, and shipped likewise for the Barbadoes."- "I believe all the friars were knocked on the head promiscuously but two, the one of which was Father Peter Taaf, brother to the Lord Taaf, whom the soldiers took the next day and made an end of; the other was taken in the round tower, under the repute of lieutenant, and when he understood that the officers in that town had no quarter, he confessed he was a friar, but that did not save him."* *Letters from Ireland, &c. printed by John Field, printer to the Parliament of England, 1649. Having given these details, Cromwell adds, "I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God, upon these barbarous wretches who have embrued their hands in so much innocent blood, and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future; which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret. And now give me leave to say how it comes to pass that this work is wrought. It was set upon some of our hearts that a great thing should be done, not by power or might, but by the spirit of God; and is it not clearly that which caused your men to storm so courageously? It was the spirit of God who gave your men courage and took it away again, and gave the enemy courage and took it away again, and gave your men courage again, and therewith this happy success ; and therefore it is good that God alone have all the glory."* The apology that Cromwell suggests for his severity, which assuredly in most minds would have created remorse and regret, is founded on two circumstances, neither of which can be admitted in his justification. He asserts that the barbarous wretches whom he put to the sword, had imbrued their hands in much innocent blood, alluding, we may presume, to the massacre which disgraced the insurrection of 1641. But the defenders of Drogheda were not Irish. Ludlow, on the contrary, assures us, * The same letter already quoted. It is dated Dublin, September 17, 1649, and addressed to the Speaker, Lenthal. that when Oliver arrived at Dublin, the Royalists "put most of their army into their garrisons; having placed three or four thousand of the best of their men, being mostly English, in the town of Tredagh, and made Sir Arthur Ashton governor thereof."* The same author mentions, that when the place was taken," the slaughter continued all that day and the next; which extraordinary severity, I presume, was used to discourage others from making opposition." This, there is no doubt, was the real motive; and it is implied in the expression employed by Cromwell in his letter to the Speaker, where he says that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future. In short, his object was to set such an example of military execution as would terrify other garrisons from resistance-a policy of the most barbarous nature, and which cannot be defended upon any principle of humanity or of international law. But the cruelty with which Cromwell is justly chargeable, has been aggravated by the assertion that quarter was actually granted before the walls of Drogheda were entered, and that the subsequent massacre took place in violation of a sacred promise. Dr Lingard relates, that "in the heat of the conflict, it chanced that the royalist officer who defended one of the trenches fell; his men wavered, quarter was offered and accepted; and the enemy, surmounting the breastwork, obtained possession of the bridge, entered the town, and successively overcame all opposition. The pledge which had been given Vol. i. p. 301. was now violated; and as soon as resistance ceased, a general massacre was ordered or tolerated by Cromwell. During five days the streets of Drogheda ran with blood-revenge and fanaticism stimulated the passions of the soldiers-from the garrison they turned their swords against the inhabitants, and one thousand unresisting victims were immolated together within the walls of the great church, whither they had fled for protection." Justice requires that this charge should not be hastily admitted. It does not appear that Cromwell promised quarter to the unfortunate garrison of Drogheda, beyond what is usually implied in the terms of a surrender. "I sent,' says he, "Sir Arthur Ashton, the then governor, a summons to deliver up the town to the use of the Parliament of England, to the which I received no satisfactory answer, but proceeded that day to beat down the steeple of the church.” Nor is the authority to which Dr Lingard refers altogether decisive of the point at issue. It may be true, as Lord Ormond asserts, that Cromwell's officers and soldiers promised quarter to such as would lay down their arms, and performed it as long as any place held out, which encouraged others to yield; and that when they had all in their power, and feared no hurt that could be done them, then the word no quarter, went round, and the soldiers were, many of them, forced against their wills to kill their prisoners.+ It may even be true, that, in * History of England, vol. xi. p. 37 |