levies; superseded the incompetent Sir Phelim, who from that
moment fell away into contempt and impotence; suppressed all disorders,
and punished, as far as possible, those who had been foremost in the
work of blood, expressing at the same time his utter detestation of the
horrors which had hitherto blackened the rising.

Almost at the same moment Colonel Preston, a brother of Lord
Gormanstown, and an officer who had also served with credit in the
European wars, landed in the south, bringing with him a store of
ammunition and field artillery, and between four and five hundred exiled
Irish officers. The two forces thereupon began to assume a comparatively
organized appearance. Both, however, were so far perfectly independent
of each other, and both openly and avowedly hostile to the king.

To effect a union between these northern and southern insurgents a
meeting was summoned at Kilkenny in October, 1642, consisting of over
two hundred Roman Catholic deputies, nearly all the Irish Roman Catholic
bishops, many of the clergy, and some fourteen peers. A council was
formed of which Lord Mountgarret was appointed President. Owen Roe
O'Neill was at the same time confirmed in the command of the northern
forces, and Colonel Preston in that of the southern. The war was
declared to be a Catholic one, to be known henceforward as the Catholic
Confederacy, and between old Irish and Anglo-Irish there was to be no
difference.

Charles's great aim was now to persuade the Confederates to unite with
one another in his support. The chief difficulty was a religious one.
The Kilkenny Council stood out for the restoration of the Catholic
Church in all its original privileges. This, for his own
sake--especially in the then excited state of feeling in
England--Charles dared not grant, neither would Ormond abet him in doing
so. Between the latter and the Catholic peers there was, however, a
complete understanding, while between him and the Dublin Lords Justices
there was an all but complete breach.

The King decided upon a _coup de main_. He dismissed the Lords Justices,
and ordered several of the more Puritan members of the Privy Council to
be tried for treason. The result was a rapid exodus of nearly the whole
governing body to England. Early in 1644 Ormond was made Lord-deputy,
and a truce of a year was entered into with the Confederates. Only the
extravagance of the latter's demands now stood in the way of a
complete union.

XXXVII