"--Perfect Diurnal from Oct. 1 to Oct.
8. Now Cromwell in his despatch says "The governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and
divers considerable officers, being there (on the Mill-Mount), our men,
getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword." In my
opinion this passage affords a strong corroboration of the charge made by
Ormond. If the reader compare it with the passage already quoted from the
Diurnal, he will find it difficult to suppress a suspicion that Axtell
and his men had obtained a footing on the Mill-Mount through the offer of
quarter; and that this was the reason why Cromwell, when he knew that they
had obtained possession, issued an order forbidding the granting of quarter
on any account. The consequence was, that the governor and his officers
went into the mill, and were there disarmed, and afterwards all slain. The
other prisoners were treated in the same manner as their officers.
7. Ormond adds, in the same letter, that the sack of the town lasted during
five days, meaning, probably, from September 11 to September 15, or 16,
inclusively. The same is asserted by most of the royalists. But how could
that be, when the storm began on the 11th, and the army marched from
Drogheda on the 15th? The question may perhaps be solved by a circumstance
accidentally mentioned by Dr.
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