isolated houses to gratify his spite against the people whose soldiers had so grievously humiliated him. O’Neill’s fine military instinct impelled him to follow up his success by giving Monroe no rest until he had driven him from Ulster, but, unfortunately, there came at this crisis a request, which really meant an order, from the Nuncio, to march the Ulster army into Leinster in order that it might support those who were opposed in the Council at Kilkenny to entering into further peace negotiations with the bigoted Ormond and the now impotent king. O’Neill could hardly decline this misdirected mission, but it proved to be, in the end, a fatal act of obedience. From that hour the Irish cause began to decline. General Preston, O’Neill’s fierce Anglo-Irish rival, and fanatically devoted to the cause of Charles, engaged in battle with the Parliamentary general, Michael Jones, at Dungan Hill in Meath, and was totally routed, with immense loss. It is only proper to remark here, that the “Old” Irish did the best fighting during this war, because their hearts were in the struggle, while the Anglo-Irish, who mainly composed the armies under Preston and Lord Taaffe—the latter of whom was ignominiously defeated at Knockinoss, near Mallow in Cork—were only half-hearted in their efforts. Taaffe’s defeat was aggravated by the cruel murder of the brave “Left-handed” MacDonnell of Antrim, who, after having been made prisoner, was barbarously put to death by order of the murderous renegade, “Murrough the Burner,” who commanded the victors. This bloody-minded wretch further signalized his cruelty by storming the city of Cashel and sacking the grand cathedral, founded by one of his own princely ancestors, in the twelfth century. Hundreds of non-combatants of all ages and both sexes, who had taken refuge in the holy place, were ruthlessly massacred, and twenty priests were dragged from under the high altar and wantonly butchered. Lord Broghill emphasized his brutality in Cork County by hanging before the walls of Macroom Castle the saintly Bishop MacEagan of Ross, who refused to counsel the Irish garrison to surrender. Dr. Madden, a gifted poet, summed up the noble refusal and its tragical consequences in the following lines: “The orders are given, the prisoner is led To the castle, and round him are menacing hordes: Undaunted, approaching the walls, at the head Of the troopers of Cromwell, he utters these words: “‘Beware of the cockatrice—trust not the wiles Of the serpent, for perfidy skulks in its folds! Beware of Lord Broghill the day that he smiles! His mercy is murder!—his word never holds! “Remember, ’tis writ in our annals of blood, Our countrymen never relied on the faith Of truce, or of treaty, but treason ensued— And the issue of every delusion was death!’