In Dublin courts-martial were being rapidly established.  All Protestants were given arms; all strangers were ordered to quit the city on pain of death; Sir Francis Willoughby was given the command of the castle; Sir Charles Coote made military governor of the city.  Ormond was anxious to take the field in the north before the insurrection spread further, before they had time, as he said, to “file their pikes.”  This the Lords Justices however refused to allow.  They were waiting for orders from the English Parliament, with which they were in close alliance, and were perfectly willing to let the revolt spread so that the area of confiscated lands might be the greater.

None of the three southern provinces had as yet risen, in the Pale the Anglo-Norman families were warm in their expressions of loyalty, and appealed earnestly to the Lords Justices to summon a parliament, and to distribute arms for their protection.  This last was refused, and although a parliament assembled it was instantly prorogued, and no measures were taken to provide for the safety of the well-disposed.  Early in December of the same year Lords Fingal, Gormanstown, Dunsany, and others of the principal Pale peers, with a large number of the local gentry, met upon horseback, at Swords, in Meath, to discuss their future conduct.  The opposition between the king and Parliament was daily growing fiercer.  The Lords Justices were the nominees of Parliament; to revolt against them was not, therefore, it was argued, to revolt against the king.  Upon December 17th they met again in yet larger numbers, upon the hill of Crofty, where they were met by some of the leaders of the north.  Rory O’Moore,—­a man of no little address, who was personally clear of the worst stain of the massacres, and who had lately issued a proclamation declaring that he and his followers were in arms, not against Charles, but the Parliament—­was the principal speaker on this occasion, and his arguments appear to have decided the waverers.  They agreed unanimously to throw in their lot with their co-religionists.  From that moment the rising had become a national one.  The whole island was soon in arms.  Munster followed Leinster, and Connaught shortly afterwards followed Munster.  Lords Thomond, Clanricarde, and a few others stood out, but by the end of the year, with the exception of Dublin, Drogheda, Cork, Galway, Enniskillen, Derry, and some few other towns, all Ireland was in the hands of the rebels.

Even then the Lords Justices seem to have but little realized the gravity of the crisis.  They occupied their time chiefly in preparing indictments, and cheerfully calculating the fast-growing area of land open to confiscation.  In vain Ormond entreated to be allowed to proceed against Sir Phelim O’Neill.  They steadily declined to allow him to leave the neighbourhood of Dublin.