any biscuit, cheese, or any other victuals to be spared, to send us some good proportion thereof. So being at present in great haste and perplexity, with our service presented to your honour, we remain your humble servants, &c." (24)

The situation of Derry, as well as of Coleraine and the other British garrisons in the north-west of Ulster, had become extremely critical. For no sooner had Sir Phelim ascertained that the Scottish forces had returned to Carrickfergus, than again collecting his scattered followers, he set out from Charlemont to occupy his former quarters at Strabane ; with the view of expelling the protestants from Donegall and Tyrone, and if possible obtaining possession of Derry. But he was so vigorously opposed by Sir William and Sir Robert Stewart, that he was not only compelled to retire, but the castle of Strabane was re-taken, and several important places, which had for some time been closely besieged in the county of Derry, were relieved by these active and enterprising commanders. The services of the Lagan forces in that district, during the month of May, will be best narrated in the words of one of their own officers.

"Sir Phelim O'Neill drew down to Strabane about five thousand men, intending to burn Raphoe, and to raise Ennishowen; and we being, as he absolutely conceived, defeated, to draw the other forces to the contrary side of Lough Foyle, and so assault the Derry. Our regiments assisted by two strong companies of captain Pitt's and captain Lawson's of the city of Londonderry, by break of day, were upon march an unusual way to Strabane, thinking to have beset him and his forces which quartered there visibly. But Sir Phelim was newly departed with his forces; only the castle

24 This letter is copied from a small pamphlet, entitled, " A true relation of the proceedings of the Scottish armie now in Ireland, by three letters," &c. Lond. 1642, pp. 9. It is dated Londonderry, the 27th April 1642;' and is signed, Robert Thornton, mayor, Henry Osborne, John Vaughan.'

he committed to captain Hugh Murragh O'Devin, a bloody fellow, and a hundred of his choice musketeers, and a hundred pikes to guard much of his own baggage and my lady Strabane's goods. But we easily forced the castle, and put the men to the sword; only captain O'Devin's life respited, 'who is now in the Derry gaol. The castle we left a garrison in, commanded by captain Wisher, a discreet gentleman, under the command of Sir William Hamilton.

"From Strabane we marched up on the O'Cahan's country, on the other side of Lough Foyle; and coming over against Derry, four companies of the Derry joined with us to relieve Lymavaddy castle and Ballycastle, which had been, ten weeks before, strongly beleagured by great forces; and yet had sallied forth and killed many hundreds of the ene mies, being commanded by a resolute young gentleman, captain Thomas Philips; his elder brother, Mr. Dudley Philips, being gone about with three boats to bring provision from Derry. That night we were welcome guests to the two castles who despaired of all succour ;-next morning we advanced our march into the enemy's country, where at Magilligan, we encountered the enemy, the O'Cahans, the Magilligans, the O'Hagans, and the O'Neals; we killed upwards of five hundred of them, and scattered the rest.

"Having received late letters from Coleraine of their miserable wants and narrow beleaguer, we continued our march towards the mountains, that we might find some prey, that we might be the welcomer to almost famished Coleraine." They accordingly encountered a large body of the enemy in these mountains of the county of Derry, whom they routed, and from whom they recovered a considerable booty which had been carried off, not long before, from the neighbourhood of Coleraine and the river Bann. "Then with our prey and abundance of horse, &c., we marched to Dungiven castle, one of the king's houses, which was kept by colonel Manus MacGuy Ballagh MacRichard O'Kane. He, upon parley, delivered up the castle. Hence we marched to Coleraine, every

regiment bestowed some [of their plunder] upon the town; the soldiers at easy rates sold the rest, but such as were delivered to the right owners. At Castle Roe, a mile from Coleraine, were lodged seven colours of the enemy to secure the Bann fishing to themselves. We took the colours, put many to the sword; and the town of Coleraine hath a garrison there now, and enjoys the fishing to themselves, being the greatest salmon fishing in Christendom." (25)

By the zeal and courage of these forces, the power of the rebels, in the north-west of Ulster, was in a great measure subdued; and the chief places of strength were in the occupation of the protestants. "We have at present," concludes the officer, already quoted, writing in the end of May, "these garrisons, castle of Strabane, Lifford, Raphoe, Drumboe castle, Letterkenny, Ramelton, Lymavaddy, Ballycastle, Ballyshannon, Donegall, Castle Rahin, [near Donegall,] being places of great consequence by situation and strength."

These proceedings were regularly communicated to the Scottish general at Carrickfergus, who was looked upon by the British regiments throughout Ulster, as their chief ally and protector. Urgent applications were also made to him for supplies of provisions and military stores; but he was wholly unable to afford them any assistance. From his despatches to general Leslie at Edinburgh, dated the day after his return from Newry and Armagh, it appears that so far from being in a capacity to afford aid to others, his own troops had already begun to feel a deficiency in their supplies -a want, by which the activity and usefulness of the Scottish forces were impaired, during the entire period of their stay in Ireland. The English parliament, who had engaged to support them, were soon compelled to provide for hostilities at home; and while they accused Charles of converting to his own use the supplies intended by them for their Irish forces, he, in his turn, justly condemned a vote of the com

23 Colonel Audley Mervyn's "Exact Relation," &c.

mons, by which one hundred thousand pounds were appropriated, under the pretext of a loan, to the equipping of the parliamentary army, out of the fund raised for the relief of Ireland. The state of affairs, therefore, in this country, became a subordinate matter in the eyes of the English commons; the immediate result of which was a deficiency both in the pay and provisions promised for the support of their Scottish auxiliaries in Ulster. Monro was consequently compelled, even at this early period in the campaign, to quarter some of his forces upon the country. "Lord Lindsay's men," he writes to general Leslie, "I have quartered in Broadisland and Isle-Magee, where they have houses and no victuals; and if all should be trusted to the mayor of Carrickfergus's furnishing, a thousand must live on a hundred men's allowance a-day."(26)

Together with these despatches, he forwarded to Edinburgh the copy of a letter which he had received from the earl of Antrim, and which was dated from Dunluce on the last day of April. This wary and perfidious nobleman had no sooner learned the failure of the attack upon Dublin, and seen the precipitancy and cruelty of O'Neill, than he withdrew from the enterprise. The original conspirators having gone far beyond the scheme of the insurrection laid down by himself and Ormond, he cautiously forbore co-operating with them. "The fools," as he afterwards stated in his celebrated INFORMATION, "well liking the business, would not expect our time or manner for ordering the work; but fell upon it without us, and sooner, and otherwise than we should have done, taking to themselves and in their own way, the managing of the work, and so spoiled it."(27) But notwithstanding this disappointment, he was far from being an unconcerned spectator of the progress of the insurrection. He remained in the vicinity of Dublin until the month of April. He

26" A true relation of the proceedings of the Scottish armie," &c. ut

supra.

27 Cox, ii. App. 208.

then removed to Ulster, and took up his residence in his castle at Dunluce, which had been held by captain Digby for the king from the beginning of the rebellion. Here he acted with the utmost duplicity, and endeavoured to acquire an ascendancy over both the conflicting parties. While he encouraged and directed the Romanists, so far as was consistent with his not identifying himself with that party; he employed every artifice to induce the protestants to confide in him as their ally and protector. On the one hand, he held secret interviews with O'Neill, and occasionally mingled with the insurgents, among whom his brother Alexander, afterwards the third earl of Antrim, was a most influential leader; on the other, he professed sympathy for the plundered British, and officiously sought to alleviate their distresses.

In accordance with this policy, so soon as Antrim heard of the arrival of the Scottish forces at Carrickfergus, he endeavoured to conciliate the favour of Monro, and induce him to accept of his services in restoring peace to the country. Such was the purport of the letter which he now addressed to the Scottish commander. He apologized for some acts of hostility which his followers had committed upon the Scots shortly after their arrival; he professed the warmest friendship for Monro, and concluded with inviting him to a confidential interview at his castle at Glenarm. (28) But the vigilant general was not to be so easily duped. He already possessed abundant evidence of the insincerity of Antrim, and of his enmity to the protestant cause. At the same time that he sent the earl's letter to Leslie, he stated in his own despatch," he is joyned strong with the rebels, making a pretext of laying downe of armes, in the meantime doth what he can to cut our throats." (29) Accordingly, early in June,

28 Pike, in his letter to Sedgwicke from Carrickfergus, already quoted, writes under date of May 30th,-" The earl of Antrim is now at Glenarm, a place twelve miles off Carrickfergus, and would fain be received into this towne."

29❝ A true relation of the proceedings of the Scottish armie," &c. ut supra, p. 6.