[CHAPTER V]
THE TREATY WITH THE IRISH NATIONALISTS
About the middle of February, 1649, Dr. Winstad, a worthy English Catholic physician residing at Rouen, went to welcome his friend, Sir Kenelm Digby, who had just ridden into the town on his way from Paris with several young gentlemen in his company. He was surprised to find amongst the party a "wry-necked fellow" with manners to match, and was pained to see his respected friend making a great fuss of the stranger although he did not scruple to "openly dispute against the blessed Trinity." He was certainly not fit company for Catholic gentlemen. But worse was yet to come. The doctor was soon informed that the wry-necked scoffer was none other than Scoutmaster-general Watson, the Head of the Intelligence Department of the New Model Army, and the whole party were possessed of passes to go into England, which he had procured for them from headquarters.
Thoroughly alarmed, the doctor wrote off to Secretary Nicholas to warn him that a desperate plot was on foot. Lord Byron happened to be there, too, on his way to Paris to urge the King's departure for Ireland, and just as he was getting into the saddle the news came to his ears. Sir Kenelm and his young gentlemen had kept their secret ill, and so soon as Byron reached Caen he was able to send off post-haste to Ormonde a warning that the ultra-Catholics were conspiring with the Independents to abolish hereditary monarchy in return for toleration of their own religion. He begged him to keep his eyes open in Ireland, where the plot might have very serious consequences. Secretary Nicholas caught the alarm and warned Ormonde of a possible alliance between O'Neill and the English officers.
At a moment when the great Presbyterian body was in the last stage of exasperation at the expulsion of its members from the House by Cromwell it seemed almost incredible that the Independents should dare to try and strengthen their position by the very scheme which ruined Charles. Yet it was all true. In spite of the storm which Glamorgan's attempt had raised less than three years ago, the Council of State was secretly holding out its hand to the blood-stained savages who were the very authors of the massacres about to be avenged. Such at least was the sentiment which the name of O'Neill and the Ulster Nationalists called up in England, and yet the risk must be run.
Ever since the preceding August, Jones had been in communication with O'Neill. An emissary of Monk's had been caught in secret negotiation with an officer from the Irish army. In October the Nuncio had announced to his superiors that there was a danger of the Nationalists joining with the Independents and "steeping the kingdom in blood." How far the proceedings were authorised from headquarters it is impossible to say. All we know is that for some time past there had been strange rumours about in London and mysterious goings and comings of Catholic gentlemen whose passports were always in order. But now Ormonde had got definite information to go upon, and he acted with his usual address. His attempts to gain Jones and Coote were redoubled, and offers were made which seem to have shaken O'Neill himself. Monk was not spared. The Ulster Presbyterians, who had revolted from him, were set on to appeal to him with the only reasons to which his ears were open, and he found himself face to face with the moral dilemma that was to haunt him year after year till the Restoration brought him rest. To whom was the duty of his place? The Presbyterians argued that they could not recognise any authority but that of a covenanted Parliament, and urged Monk to join them in supporting their position. Monk replied that he considered himself bound by his commission to stand by the de facto authority in England, which was the Purged Parliament and the Council of State, and demanded why they refused to do the same. They replied that the de facto government was not a lawful authority. It existed merely by virtue of its coercion of the lawful authority which was Parliament as it existed before Pride's Purge; and as an ultimatum they required him to take the Covenant and obey no orders but those of the Council of War at Belfast. Monk flatly refused. It was a difficult question. But his notions of duty pointed clearly to the thorny path of resistance, and he determined to defend Dundalk to the last.
Meanwhile the Independent plot had been maturing. Towards the end of March an agent from O'Neill had appeared in London and managed, probably through Jones's recommendation, to communicate with the Council of State. The Council refused to receive him, but appointed a secret committee to hear what he had to say. The effect of their report was that the game was too dangerous, and the agent was ordered to leave London. Still if the game were too dangerous for the Council, Cromwell knew it was too good not to carry on a while longer, and there is little doubt that Jones received from him some secret instructions to that effect, which were communicated to Monk. It was absolutely necessary for the success of the coming expedition to Ireland that the Scotch and northern Royalists should be kept from joining hands with Ormonde, Clanrickarde, and Inchiquin, and so completing the investment of Dublin. The maimed and shattered forces of Monk and O'Neill were all that held them apart.
O'Neill for some time had been in receipt of ammunition and supplies from the English officers, and Cromwell either now or not long afterwards was giving him regular pay; but this would no longer do. At the end of April O'Neill wrote a Latin letter to Monk urging him to press the Council once more to conclude a treaty on the terms his agent had unsuccessfully offered. But for this there was no time. A strong force was advancing upon O'Neill under Lord Castlehaven. It was a crisis in view of which Monk may or may not have had his instructions. At any rate he replied to O'Neill's letter asking what his terms were, and then after a short negotiation concluded with him on May 8th an armistice for three months, in order to give time for communication with England. The convention included a general defensive and offensive alliance between them against Ormonde for the time, provided always that no agreement was to be made by either with any one in arms against the Parliament.
The effect was immediate. The Scots lost heart and ceased to press Monk, and he had leisure to forward O'Neill's new terms to England. How far he knew Cromwell was behind "the special friends and well-wishers to this service" who were advising him is uncertain. At any rate he was aware the Council must not know all, and that Cromwell was the man to address. So he sat down and wrote a long letter thanking the general for his many favours, and telling him the whole story of how his own desperate position and the necessity of keeping O'Neill from accepting Ormonde's terms had decided him to take the step he had. "I do not think fit," he continues, "to signify this to the Council of State, but do wholly refer the business to you either to make further use of it, or else to move it, or as you conceive most fit to be done. Since there was great necessity for me to do it, I hope it will beget no ill construction." And so he concludes beseeching Cromwell "to continue his good opinion" towards him.