come at last, and the preservation of the town was almost Ireland's last hope. 'It is,' they wrote, 'our humble suit that the army, if in any reasonable condition, may march night and day to our succour.' But no such army was available, and Cromwell planted his battery without hindrance. Reynolds and Theophilus Jones had a force in the field sufficient to prevent Castlehaven from giving any trouble. Approaches were made from the north side of the town, and there were many sallies and much fighting before the breach was practicable. A comparison of extant accounts fortified by local tradition seems to indicate that the spot was near a gate which stood a little to the eastward of St. Mary's Church. The assault was made about eight in the morning of May 9, and the storming party entered without difficulty, but found that their work was still to do. O'Neill had manned the houses and erected two breastworks of 'dunghills, mortar, stones and timber,' making a lane about eighty yards inwards from the breach with a masked battery at the end. The 'British Officer,' who got his facts 'not only from officers and soldiers of the besiegers,' but also from the besieged, describes what followed. The stormers poured in and found themselves caught in a trap. Those in front cried 'Halt,' and those behind 'Advance,' 'till that pound or lane was full and could hold no more.' Two guns hailed chain-shot upon this dense mass, while a continual fire was kept up from the houses and the breastworks. Volleys of stones were thrown, and great pieces of timber hurled from slides which O'Neill's ingenuity had provided, 'so that in less than an hour's time about a thousand men were killed in that pound, being atop one another.' Colonel Culham, who led the stormers, and several other officers were among the slain, and the survivors were driven out again through the breach. Contemporary accounts estimate Cromwell's total loss at Clonmel at somewhere from 1500 to 2500. This repulse, said Ireton afterwards, was 'the heaviest we ever endured either in England or here.' His own regiment lost most of all. It is stated that Major Fennell, who commanded the few cavalry within the town, had plotted, like Tickle at Kilkenny, to open one of the gates. This was certainly believed at the time, but if there was such a plot it came to nothing.[174] [Sidenote: The garrison escape,] [Sidenote: and the town capitulates.]