nxious to make terms with the Royalists. The king's trial was
beginning, and his peril served to consolidate all but the most extreme.
Ormond himself returned late in 1648 from France; Prince Rupert arrived
early the following year with a small fleet of ships off Kinsale, and
every day brought crowds of loyal gentlemen to Ireland as to a final
vantage ground upon which to try a last desperate throw for the
royal cause.

In Dublin the command, upon Ormond's surrender, had been given by the
Parliament to Colonel Michael Jones, a Puritan officer, who had greatly
distinguished himself in the late war. The almost ludicrously involved
state into which things had got is seen by the fact that Jones, though
himself the leader of the Parliamentary forces, struck up at this
juncture a temporary alliance with O'Neill, and instructed Monk who was
in the north, to support him. The king's death brought all the
Royalists, and most of the more moderate rebels into line at last.
Rinucini, feeling that whatever happened, his project of a separate
Ireland had become impossible, fled to Italy. Even O'Neill, finding that
his alliance with Jones was not prospering, and that the stricter
Puritans declined with horror the bare idea of holding any communication
with him or his forces, gave in his adhesion. Old Irish and Anglo-Irish,
Protestant and Catholic, North and South, all at last were in arms for
the king.

The struggle had thus narrowed itself. It was now practically between
Dublin, commanded by Jones, the Parliamentary general, upon one side,
and all Ireland under Ormond and the now united Confederates on the
other. Cromwell, it was known, was preparing for a descent upon Ireland,
and had issued liberal offers of the forfeited Irish lands to all who
would aid him in the enterprise. He had first, however, to land, and
there was nowhere that he could do so excepting at Dublin or
Londonderry. All the efforts therefore of the Royalists were
concentrated upon taking the capital before it became the starting-point
of a new campaign. Marching hastily from Kilkenny, Ormond established
himself at a place called Baggotrath, near Rathmines, and close to the
walls of the town. Two nights after his arrival he sent forward a body
of men under Colonel Purcell to try and effect a surprise. Jones,
however, was on the alert; drove Purcell back, and, following him with
all the men at his command, fell upon Ormond's camp, where no proper
watch was being k