and Sir T. Lucas.  The combat was short but murderous.  The confederates left 700 men, including Sir Morgan Cavenagh and some other officers, dead on the field; the remainder retreated in disorder, and Ormond, with an inconsiderable diminution of numbers, returned in triumph to Dublin.  For this victory the Long Parliament, in a moment of enthusiasm, voted the lieutenant-general a jewel worth 500 l.  If any satisfaction could be derived from such an incident, the violent death of their most ruthless enemy, Sir Charles Coote, might have afforded the Catholics some consolation.  That merciless soldier, after the combat at Kilrush, had been employed in reinforcing Birr and relieving the castle of Geashill, which the Lady Letitia of Offally held against the neighbouring tribe of O’Dempsey.  On his return from this service he made a foray against a Catholic force, which had mustered in the neighbourhood of Trim; here, on the night of the 7th of May, heading a sally of his troop, he fell by a musket shot—­not without suspicion of being fired from his own ranks.  His son and namesake, who imitated him in all things, was ennobled at the Restoration by the title of the Earl of Mountrath.

The Long Parliament would not trust the king with an army in Ireland.  They consequently took the work of subjugation into their own hands.  Having confiscated 2,500,000 acres of Irish land, they offered it as security to ‘adventurers’ who would advance money to meet the cost of the war.  In February, 1642, the House of Commons received a petition ‘of divers well affected’ to it, offering to raise and maintain forces at their own charge ’against the rebels of Ireland, and afterwards to receive their recompense out of the rebels’ estates.’  Under the act ‘for the speedy reducing of the rebels’ the adventurers were to carry over a brigade of 5,000 foot and 500 horse, and to have the right of appointing their own officers.  And they were to have estates given to them at the following rates:  1,000 acres for 200 l. in Ulster, for 300 l. in Connaught, for 450 l. in Munster, and 600 l. in Leinster.  The rates per acre were 4 s., 6s., 8s., and 12 s. in those provinces respectively.

The nature of the war, and the spirit in which it was conducted, may be inferred from the sort of weapons issued from the military stores.  These included scythes with handles and rings, reaping-hooks, whetstones, and rubstones.  They were intended for cutting down the growing corn, that the people might be starved into submission, or forced to quit the country.  The commissary of stores was ordered to issue Bibles to the troops, one Bible for every file, that they might learn from the Old Testament the sin and danger of sparing idolaters.