proclaimed Lord and Master in Ulster, with the title of the native princes, as Tyrone had been, and who in his proclamations assumed the tone of a sovereign, was not at all the man to check these cruelties. Rather cast upwards by a sudden eruption, than raised by his own services and exertions, he added fuel to the flame already kindled: either when drunk, or when for a moment he believed himself in danger, he ordered the massacre of all the prisoners. Or did this happen in consequence of their deliberations? Did they wish to put an end for ever to the claims of the rich settlers by taking their lives? With all this letting loose of ancient barbarism there was still some holding back. The Scottish settlements were spared, although they were the most hated of all, for fear of incurring the hostility of the Scottish as well as of the English nation. Immediately there was a rising in the five counties of the old English Pale: the gentry of Louth, under the [A.D. 1641.] leadership of the sheriff, took the side of the rebels. The younger men of Meath assembled on the Boyne, and commenced hostilities against the Protestants: so completely had their religious sympathies prevailed over their patriotism. They told the King that being in the midst between the government which mistrusted them and forbade them arms, and the advancing rebels, threatened on both sides, they had no escape left except by joining the latter[273]. This agrees with their original suggestion that if they sought him he might treat them no worse than the Scots: if he would be gracious to them, they would shed the last drop of their blood for him. As the Scots had won from the King the recognition of their national and religious independence, so also the Irish aimed at a national and Catholic independence. There is certainly a resemblance, but a far greater difference. In the one it was a controversy which found vent, as it were, prematurely in violent demonstrations and domestic feuds; the other was one of the most cruel insurrections recorded in history.