“Your most assured friend, CHARLES R.[I] “Oxford, 3rd Feb. 1645.” But this letter was no doubt written by the King under some restraint, as it might be read both by Ormond and Digby. Yet no further evidence need be required of Charles the First’s consummate duplicity, or how thoroughly he could make a convenience of his subjects to serve his own subtle and deceitful policy. The tone of these last three letters sufficiently shows the weakness of the cause in which they were interested; if we credit the statements they contain we are required to believe that Lord Herbert presumptuously assumed the title of Earl of Glamorgan; and that his treaty with the Irish Catholic party was without the privity, much less instructions of his sovereign! Lingard says, “I have in my possession the original warrant itself, with the King’s signature and private seal; bearing the arms of the three kingdoms, a crown above, and C. R. on the sides, and endorsed in the same handwriting with the body of the warrant,--‘The Earl of Glamorgan’s especial warrant for Ireland.’”[62] The Earl’s imprisonment created great sensation, many insisting on his release by force of arms. The General Assembly of the Confederate Catholics pressed for his being liberated, as absolutely necessary for the relief of Chester, then besieged, and in distress; for which service 3000 men were reported as being ready to embark, waiting only for the ships contracted for by the Earl, for their transport; the expedition being thus delayed through his imprisonment, and likewise the treaty of peace frustrated. The Earl of Glamorgan was set at liberty on the 21st of January, on giving up to the Lord Lieutenant the Instrument by which the Confederate Catholics obliged themselves to the articles of their treaty; but he would not resign the command of the Irish troops, for England, intended for the King’s service; bail being accepted in £20,000, on his own recognizance, and the Marquis of Clanricarde, and the Earl of Kildare, for £10,000 each, to appear on thirty days’ notice. Returning to Kilkenny, he zealously endeavoured to obtain from the Confederate Catholics acceptance of the Lord Lieutenant’s offer of terms to conclude a peace; but they, persisting in their exorbitant demands, refused to accept the slightest modification of their own views, so that the Earl was at length compelled to abandon his own measures in despair, only to fall under the suspicion of his own party as well as of his opponents. On the 11th of March, he wrote the following letter to the Marquis of Ormond:--[J] “MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,