had been promised, 'so as never a man escaped but two men and two women'; but these charges were generally made by both sides during the war, and it is not always possible to test them. The Sligo district was now at the mercy of Sir Frederick Hamilton and his allies, but recruits flocked to Taaffe's standard in considerable numbers, and he turned his attention to Roscommon. Tulsk was taken by storm, and Major Robert Ormsby, a redoubtable partisan of the Parliament, was taken prisoner. Carrigdrumrusk and Boyle also fell, and then Lord Taaffe was recalled to Dublin. The chief authority in Connaught was for a short time in Archbishop Queely's hands, but Major Luke Taaffe appears to have commanded the force which attempted to recover Sligo in October. A priest is out of place at the head of any army, and probably some of the evils attending a divided command were felt. At all events a very bad look-out was kept. On October 17 a cavalry detachment from Sir Robert Stewart's army, under Lord Coloony and another Coote, fell upon the Irish and put them to flight. Sir Frederick Hamilton came up in time to take part in the pursuit, and there was great slaughter. Archbishop Queely was killed, and upon him was found the copy of the Glamorgan treaty which played so important a part.[77] [Sidenote: The nuncio Rinuccini.] [Sidenote: His instructions.] [Sidenote: The Curia imperfectly informed.] [Sidenote: Scope of the nuncio's mission] Giovanni Battista Rinuccini was of a good old Florentine family, and had been carefully educated. He was in his fifty-third year, and had been Bishop of Fermo since 1625. In 1631 he refused the archbishopric of Florence, telling the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. that he was too much attached to his flock to leave them. When the Irish Confederacy begged for a regular nuncio, Luigi Omodei, afterwards a cardinal, was first chosen, but passed over as a Spanish subject, whose appointment might be disagreeable to France. This was the reason given, and it seems sufficient, but according to Bellings Rinuccini was preferred to please Ferdinand, and that the revenues of Fermo might be applied for a time in liquidation of the bishop's debts. He was given almost unlimited ecclesiastical authority and patronage in Ireland, with power to visit all monasteries and nunneries, even exempt jurisdictions, and to settle disputes between the various orders. He was directed to be chiefly guided by the advice of archbishop Queely and Bishop Emer Macmahon, and he was to establish the Tridentine decrees firmly. With regard to church lands in lay hands, he was to use his own discretion, treating each case on its merits, and giving grants or leases as he thought best, but always with the proviso that a sufficient part of the profits should be retained for the support of the clergy. About ecclesiastical matters in Ireland the Roman court was very well informed, Luke Wadding being at hand to answer every question. But political affairs were less