Divers of the poor English were preserved by Joseph Everard and Redmond English, Franciscan friars, in their chapel; some under the altar, as was proved in Cromwell's time, 6th November, 1652, upon the trial of the said Father English, who was acquitted and privileged to live in the country; and the like privilege was offered to Father Joseph Everard, as Colonel Sankey well knows; and soon afterwards the said English inhabitants preserved, were, by a guard of the Irish inhabitants of Cashel, safely conveyed to the County of Cork as they desired."

We will only add one other example, and it will be from the province of Leinster. The parish of Naas had been for many years the scene of Father O'Higgins's evangelical labours, and we are informed by Clarendon and Borlase that, on the first outburst of popular fury in 1641, he preserved the lives of many English Protestants who, being scattered through that district, were exposed to imminent danger: at his own risk he concealed them in his church, and subsequently had them conveyed in safety to Dublin. We shall allow Lord Clarendon to describe the treatment which he, in return, received at the hands of Sir Charles Coote, who, by authority from the Lords Justices, freely exercised all the powers of Martial Law:"In the town of Naas," he writes, 'some of the soldiers of the Marquis of Ormonde found Mr. Higgins, who might, 'tis true, have easily fled, if he had apprehended any danger in the stay. When he was brought before the Marquis, he voluntarily acknowledged that he was a papist, and that his residence was in the town, from which he refused to fly away with those that were guilty; because he not only knew himself very innocent, but believed that he could not be without ample evidence of it, having by his sole charity and power preserved very many of the English Protestants from the rage and fury of the Irish; and, therefore, he only besought the Marquis to preserve him from the violence of the soldiers, and put him securely into Dublin to be tried for any crime. Which the Marquis promised to do, and performed it, though with so much hazard, that when it was spread among the soldiers that he was a papist, the officer into whose custody he was entrusted was assaulted by them; and it was as much as the Marquis could do to relieve him and compose the mutiny.

"When he came to Dublin he informed the Lords Justices of the prisoner he had brought with him-of the good testimony he had received of his peaceable carriage, and of the pains he had taken to restrain those with whom he had credit from entering into rebellion; and of many charitable offices he had performed, of which there wanted not evidence enough,

there being many then in Dublin who owed their lives and whatever of their fortunes was left purely to him; so that he doubted not he would be worthy of protection. Within a few days after, when the Marquis did not suspect the poor man's danger, he heard that Sir Charles Coote had taken him out of prison and caused him to be put to death in the morning before, or, as soon as it was light; of whose barbarity the Marquis complained to the Lords Justices, but so far were they from bringing the other to be questioned, that he found himself to be under some disadvantage for thinking that proceeding to be other than it ought to have been."

Thus far Lord Clarendon in his "History of the Irish Rebellion." We learn from De Burgo, that the day of Father O'Higgins's death was the 23rd of March, 1642: his constancy in suffering, and the heavenly joy depicted in his countenance, moved many of the puritans to tears; others, however, redoubled their fury on witnessing his calm composure; nor did they cease their insults even after his death, discharging their muskets at his dead body, and dragging it for sepulchre without the city walls.-(De Burgo ex Actis Capit. Gen. 1644, P. 561). Richard Beling, a friend of Ormond, and well acquainted with the early scenes of the Revolution, attests that Father O'Higgins not only sheltered the English Protestants who were exposed to danger, but, moreover, supplied them with food and clothing. When he was brought to Dublin "no fewer than twenty petitions were presented to the Lords Justices by Englishmen whom he had thus succoured, and who now attested in his favor, that at the risk of his own life he had rescued them from peril." A servant of Ormond's, named Edward Butler, happening to pass by early in the morning, saw Father O'Higgins led out to the gallows, and was the first to bring to his master the news of the execution. Beling adds, that Ormond deemed it his duty to lodge a formal complaint on this head before the Lords Justices, "for he judged that it was a crime against prudence as well as against justice; and that whilst the English were still in such difficulties, and dispersed through the provinces, it would have been much more. wise to heap rewards on one who had often defended them against the attacks of the infuriated populace."-(p. 159).

The contemporary Bishop of Ferns, Dr. French, also mentions this execution of Father O'Higgins, and he further informs us, that after execution the body was dragged through the public streets, and subjected to every indignity. Such was the gratitude shown by the Puritans to this worthy priest, their benefactor!

We have already seen the general statement that the county

Cavan was free from massacres, although the English settlers were despoiled of their newly gotten possessions there. Among those who suffered most in this spoliation were Dr. Bedell, Protestant Bishop of Kilmore, and his family. He had for twelve years held that See when the storm of 23rd October, 1641, burst upon his head. He had laboured strenuously to promote the interests of the Anglican community, and on that account his memory was cherished by his Protestant contemporaries, whilst his amiable character had endeared him still more to his immediate friends. Hence it is, that several authentic records have come down to us connected with his episcopate, and we are thus enabled to test at the same time the accuracy of the above general statement regarding Cavan, and the truthfulness of those writers who, whilst they accuse the native Irish of a general and premeditated massacre, impute a special malice to the Catholic priesthood. Cavan was one of the most populous of the northern counties, and the newlyimported English settlers, even at Kilmore, its Protestant head quarters, were scarcely one-fifth of the population. In a few days after the 23rd October, the whole county and all its strongholds, with the exception of the two small castles of Keilagh and Crohan, passed into the hands of the Irish, and if there had been any preconcerted scheme of massacre, surely we should here find at least some traces of bloodshed.

The "Life of Bedell," by Clogy, his son-in-law, is already well known to those interested in Irish history. It attests that the greatest forbearance was shown to the Protestant Bishop and his friends: that Doctor Swiney, the Catholic Bishop, even wrote to him that if he so desired, he himself would take up his residence with his family in order to protect them from violence or insult; and it further attests that any of the English settlers who so wished were safely conducted by the Irish to Dublin or other stations of their choice. I will take a few extracts from another "Life of Bishop Bedell," written by Mr. Bedell, his son, who shared his shelter as well as his imprisonment and other perils at this trying period. This work, long known to exist in MS., was only published at the close of 1871, at the Cambridge University Press, from the Tanner MSS., by Rev. John E. B. Mayor. Among the causes which gave rise to the disturbances of 1641, and brought down such a calamity on the English settlers, Mr. Bedell mentions "the manifest height and fulness of pride in all ranks and sorts of men; pride, gluttony, uncleanness, deceit, oppression, extortion, and a supine neglect of religion and the worship of God." He gives the following description 1 "Life of Bishop Bedell," by his Son, Cambridge, 1871, p. 98.

of the Bishop's place of residence: "His house was situate in the county of Cavan, in a country consisting altogether of hills very steep and high, the valleys between being most commonly bogs and loughs: the country was then meetly well planted with English, but scatteringly here and there, which facilitated their ruin. . . . . Kilmore itself was but a mere country village, of good large bounds, but so thinly inhabited that nowhere in the whole parish any street or part of a street was to be found. There was a competent number of English, but the Irishmen more than five times their number; and all these obstinate Papists. The Bishop's house joined close to the church, being built upon one of the highest hills in the country, not near any neighbour of any quality by a mile. In this posture, altogether unfit both for offence and defence, in a manner solitary and naked, and exposed to any insolencies, our Bishop being then at home, was on a sudden environed and involved with that horrible and ever lamentable rebellion. . . . Yet the Bishop had very strange respect in such a time as that was. For all the country round about, and in a manner the whole country, was dispeopled of the English before any violence was used either to his house or his person."

Mr. Bedell then enters into minute details regarding the revolution and the hardships to which the Bishop was subjected. "In the county of Cavan the rebels carried their business at first with a kind of hesitation; here and there some particular houses of the English were spoiled, and that was all. The chief of the Irish gentlemen there, being of the name of the O'Reillys, rather sought to persuade the English by fair words and promises to depart the country, than to fall upon them by main force. . . . But before the first fortnight was expired there began to come a great confluence of poor stripped English people to the Bishop's house for some shelter; like Job's messengers, bringing one sad report after another without intermission. They heard that the Bishop was yet permitted the enjoyment of his house and goods, and the place was near to fly unto, and thither they were glad to retire. The Bishop most freely entertained all that came, and filled all his outhouses with these guests. . . . But Edmund O'Reilly would no longer bear this expense of provision, which he said must be for the maintenance of the soldiers. And, therefore, in short space a course was taken that the Bishop's cattle, some by night and some by day, were driven all off his ground. They began with the oxen and cows; next they seized upon the horses both abroad and in the stable; and, lastly, they took away the sheep out of the courtyard. . . . The Bishop, for all this,

...

still relieved many poor stripped people in his outhouses. From henceforth the Bishop was more closely besieged, or rather taken in his own house nothing without doors being now left, nor any freedom or safety to him, or any with him within, but at the courtesy of the Irish, which, in comparison to what others met withal, was very much. For they suffered the Bishop thus to continue, and, in some measure, to enjoy himself from the first beginning of the Rebellion, October 23rd, till near upon Christmas following. And though he was prohibited from protecting or relieving any without the doors of his dwelling-house, yet those that were within the ark with him were all this while free from violence."—(p. 106).

All this time, we are then told, the Irish "offered the Bishop, if he pleased, to see him and his company safely guarded and conveyed to Dublin, or what other place he should choose" (p. 108). His English friends also urged him to adopt this course, but finding that he persisted in residing in Kilmore, "they that were sheltered with him took their opportunities, the best they could, some at one time and some at another, and departed to Dublin.”—(p. 110).

We have next an account of the formal imprisonment of the Bishop. The Scottish garrisons of the two small garrisons which still held out, in one of their raids made prisoners of some of the Irish leaders. O'Reilly resolved, in return, to hold the Bishop prisoner, but first "called for an account of what was in the house, especially the plate, which was presently brought forth. It was not much: the chief was plate belonging to the Church. This, the Bishop told O'Reilly, was the Church's and not his; and therefore desired it might not be converted to any other use, but be committed to his brother, as he called him, meaning the Popish Bishop." To this O'Reilly readily assented. Then came the question of his library: "The greatest thing that stuck with our good Bishop was his library, yet some little satisfaction he had by thinking it should come into the hands of scholars, for O'Reilly told him, such things should be left to the Bishop." Doctor Bedell, however, was allowed to retain all "his monies," and at his request, his two sons and their wives were permitted to accompany him to Loughouter castle, which was the place marked out for his imprisonment. O'Reilly was so civil as to furnish them all with horses, and with a small guard conveyed them to the water side, and so, by boat, wafted them over to the castle, standing in the midst of a great lough or lake. Being come into the castle, they were accommodated well. The governor, Mr. Owen O'Reilly, a very civil and honest gentleman, used the Bishop with all possible cour