About the close of the last summer, Ormond had despatched the Lord Taafe
to Brussels, with instructions, both in his own name and the name of the
supreme council,[2] to solicit the aid of the duke of Lorrain, a prince of
the most restless and intriguing disposition, who was accustomed to sell at
a high price the services of his army to the neighbouring powers. The duke
received him graciously, made him a present of five thousand pounds, and
promised an additional aid of men and money, but on condition that he
should be declared protector royal of Ireland, with all the rights
belonging to that office--rights as undefined as the office itself was
hitherto unknown. Taafe hesitated, but was
[Footnote 1: Castlehaven's Memoirs, 116, 119, 120.]
[Footnote 2: Compare the papers in the second part of Clanricard's Memoirs,
17, 18, 27 (folio, London, 1757), with Carte's Ormond, ii. 143.]
encouraged to proceed by the queen mother, the duke of York, and De Vic,
the king's resident at Brussels. They argued[a] that, without aid to the
Irish, the king must succumb in Scotland; that the duke of Lorrain was the
only prince in Europe that could afford them succour; and that whatever
might be his secret projects, they could never be so prejudicial to the
royal interests as the subjugation of Ireland by the parliament.
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