[1]
The very first of these petitions, praying for a cessation of arms, had
suggested a new line of policy to the king.[2] He privately informed the
marquess of Ormond of his wish to bring over a portion of his Irish army
that it might be employed in his service in England; required him for that
purpose to conclude[a] an armistice with the insurgents, and sent to him
instructions for the regulation of his conduct. This despatch was secret;
it was followed by a public warrant; and that was succeeded by a peremptory
command. But much occurred to retard the object, and irritate the
impatience of the monarch. Ormond, for his own security, and the service of
his sovereign, deemed it politic to assume a tone of superiority, and to
reject most of the demands of the confederates, who, he saw, were already
divided into parties, and influenced by opposite counsels. The ancient
Irish and the clergy, whose efforts were directed by Scaramp, a papal
envoy, warmly opposed the project. Their enemies, they observed, had been
reduced to extreme distress; their victorious army under Preston made daily
inroads to the very gates of the capital. Why should they descend from the
vantage-ground which they had
[Footnote 1: Carte, iii. 110, 111, 136.
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