Scarcely had Clanricard assumed[a] the government, when Grace and Bryan,
two Catholic officers, presented themselves to the assembly with a message
from Axtel, the governor of Kilkenny, the bearers of a proposal for a
treaty of submission. By many the overture was hailed with transport. They
maintained that nothing but a general negotiation could put an end to those
private treaties which daily thinned their numbers, and exposed the more
resolute to inevitable ruin; that the conditions held out were better than
they had reason to expect _now_, infinitely better than they could expect
hereafter. Let them put the sincerity of their enemies to the test. If
the treaty should succeed, the nation would be saved; if it did not, the
failure would unite all true Irishmen in the common cause, who, if they
must fall, would not fall unrevenged. There was much force in this
reasoning; and it was strengthened by the testimony of officers from
several quarters, who represented that, to negotiate with the parliament
was the only expedient for the preservation of the people. But Clanricard
treated the proposal with contempt. To entertain it was an insult to him,
an act of treason against the king; and he was seconded by the eloquence
and authority of Castlehaven, who affected to despise the power of the
enemy, and attributed his success to their own divisions.
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