[282] Bellings gives the two documents referred to. He was a member of this Parliament, and one of the Joint Committee. Irish Commons Journals.
[283] Rushworth, iv. 398-406; Nicholas to the King, November 1, 1641, in Evelyn’s Correspondence; Macray’s edition of Clarendon’s History, i. 408; May’s Long Parliament, p. 127. May is a good authority for what happened in London, but for events in Ireland he depends chiefly on Temple. Lords Journals, November 1; Lang’s Hist. of Scotland, iii. 100; Vane to Nicholas, October 27, Nicholas Papers, i. 58.
[284] Nalson, ii. 898; Rushworth, iv. 413; Diurnal Occurrences, December 20-25, 1641.
[285] Despatch of December 14, in Nalson, ut sup. Monck’s letter from Chester, ib. 919, shows how little money Parliament had to spare. In clerical circles abroad it was rumoured a little later that Dublin would soon fall, and that five hundred Protestants who objected to the cross in baptism had been marked with it on the forehead and sent back to England—Roman Transcripts, R.O., February 2, 1642. Four letters from Sir Simon Harcourt, January 3, 1641-42 to March 21, in vol. i. of Harcourt Papers (private circulation). As late as September 16, 1642, Sir N. Loftus wrote from Dublin that the enfeebled garrison could not hold out for six weeks if seriously attacked. Food and ammunition were wanting, and the surviving soldiers sick or starving—Portland Papers, i. 700.
[286] Bellings, i. xxxii. 35; George Leyburn’s Memoirs, Preface; Borlase’s Irish Rebellion, p. 104, ed. 1743. Coote was killed May 7, 1642; when the name occurs later the reference is to his son, also Sir Charles.
[CHAPTER XX]
PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION
Outbreak in Ulster.
Savage character of the contest.
Contemporary accounts of the massacre.