Ireton a dilatory general.
Hugh O’Neill at Limerick.
Athlone town occupied, Sept. 16.
After the surrender of Waterford, Galway, Limerick and Athlone were the only walled towns still held by the Irish, and the next work awaiting Ireton was to find a passage over the Shannon. Vast quantities of cattle, some stolen, had been driven into the Wicklow mountains, which were diligently searched by Ireton’s parties. In Glen Imale, where the Royal Artillery now practise, a great herd was captured, and part of it was handed over to Sir Hardress Waller, who was detached at the beginning of September to summon Limerick, and to blockade it as far as that could be done from the left bank of the Shannon. By his defence of Clonmel Hugh O’Neill had earned the respect of his foes, and civilities passed between him and Waller, but he declared his resolution to maintain the city to the death, ‘for the use of his Majesty King Charles.’ The citizens were well disposed to resistance, but the unfortunate governor had no soldiers, and the corporation would admit none. He himself was not ‘excommunication-proof,’ to use Preston’s phrase, and he thought it best to keep quiet until circumstances changed. His personal safety even was doubtful, and he begged Ormonde’s pardon for not going to bid him farewell, since he ‘gloried in nothing more than to be esteemed a faithful observer of monarchical government.’ If Ireton had been a great commander he would not have divided his army, and probably he could have taken Limerick by pressing it resolutely when no preparations had been made for resistance, and while dissensions were rife within the walls. Instead of this he went to Athlone, where the garrison abandoned the town on the Leinster side. Sir Charles Coote established a camp among the half-burned houses, and Ireton occupied himself in reducing scattered garrisons, which might safely have been neglected. The most important was Birr, which was deserted by its garrison on the approach of the army and occupied on September 28. Roscrea, Thurles, Cashel, and Thomastown near Tipperary were visited, and on October 4 Ireton encamped near the old Desmond stronghold at Lough Gur, whence he approached Limerick on the western side. He asked for a passage through the city, which he would then protect, but of course this was refused, and on October 9 the Deputy went to see what could be done about making a bridge at Castle Connell.[196]
Clanricarde invades Leinster, October.
Slaughter at Meelick, Oct. 25.
Axtell left Kilkenny with 800 men on October 6, and marched towards Athlone, from which Coote had withdrawn northwards. While he was on his way Clanricarde crossed the Shannon with over 3000 men, took Ferbane and besieged Kilcolgan in King’s County. In the face of a superior force Axtell was unable to cross the Brosna, and drew back to Roscrea. The Irish then summoned Birr, taking Streamstown and two other castles near it, but retired again before a fresh advance of Axtell, whose force was trebled in a few days by the arrival of contingents from Tipperary and Wexford. On October 25 the Parliamentarians advanced to the Shannon, where they found the enemy strongly posted in the island or peninsula of Meelick, near Banagher, which was then accessible only by one passage flanked with bogs and defended by three separate entrenchments one behind the other. The two first were carried pretty easily, but at the third it came to a hand-to-hand fight. Axtell’s men burst into the island and the slaughter was very great, five hundred being driven into the river and drowned in one body. Out of at least 3000 men only 300 escaped by swimming across. Clanricarde, who thought there was no danger, was away, but his waggon and tent fell into the victors’ hands. The lately captured castles were abandoned, and Axtell returned to Kilkenny, having sent a part of his force to help Ireton in besieging Nenagh. The latter place surrendered on October 30, its garrison of 108 men marching out without arms, and the army soon afterwards went into winter quarters at Kilkenny.[197]
Charles Duke of Lorraine.
A belated condottiere.
Charles IV., Duke of Lorraine, who, according to Voltaire, spent his life in losing his dominions, had been a lover of the open-hearted Duchess of Chevreuse, for whose sake his state was made the focus of intrigue against Richelieu. Louis XIII. when dying ordered this mischievous lady to be kept out of France, and Mazarin afterwards noted how disaster had dogged her footsteps in Lorraine and everywhere else. Her sojourn in England preceded the rebellion there, her voyage to Madrid was followed by the loss of Portugal and Catalonia, and her stay at Brussels coincided with the progress of French arms at the expense of Spain. Acknowledging the suzerainty of the Emperor and repudiating that of the French king, the Duke of Lorraine had visions of an eighth electorate, and of a commanding military position like that of Wallenstein. He lost his duchy, he did not gain his electorate, and the mercenaries whom he gathered from all sides, and supported by plunder or by forced contributions, were used by the Emperor or the King of Spain with very little regard for the permanent interests of their leader, who, however, made money by the business like an Italian condottiere of the fifteenth century. At the beginning of 1646 he gave a commission to Colonel Thomas Plunket to raise an Irish regiment for service in Flanders, and sought the assistance of Ormonde in so doing. Plunket brought letters to the Confederate Catholics, also, with money enough for recruiting purposes, and with a gift of four field pieces, thirty barrels of powder, and some pikes and muskets. Through the Spanish ambassador in London he had also obtained a safe conduct for himself and a passage for his men through the places held for the Parliament, and he was allowed to carry some of his levies to Flanders. As the Parliamentarians had command of the sea, it was easy for Ormonde to say that he countenanced nothing against the French court, and that there was little chance of Irish recruits being obtainable for the service of Louis XIV.[198]