The commissioners sent by the two houses
were compelled[a] to leave the island; and four of the counsellors, the
most hostile to his designs, were imprisoned[b] under a charge of high
treason.[1]
So many reinforcements had successively been poured into Ireland, both from
Scotland and England, that the army which opposed the insurgents was at
length raised to fifty thousand men;[2] but of these the Scots seemed to
attend to their private interests more than the advancement of the common
cause; and the English were gradually reduced in number by want, and
desertion, and the casualties of war. They won, indeed, several battles;
they burnt and demolished many villages and towns; but the evil of
devastation recoiled upon themselves, and they began to feel the horrors of
famine in the midst of the desert which they had made. Their applications
for relief were neglected by the parliament, which had converted to its own
use a great part of the money raised for the service of Ireland, and felt
little inclination to support an army attached to the royal cause. The
officers remonstrated in free though respectful language, and the failure
of their hopes embittered their discontent, and attached them more closely
to the sovereign.[3]
In the meanwhile, the Catholics, by the establishment of a federative
government, had consolidated their power, and given an uniform direction to
their efforts.
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