this place." Of "the former
inhabitants ... most of them are run away, and many of them killed in
this service. It were to be wished that some honest people would come
and plant here[12]."

[12] "Cromwell's Letters and Speeches"--Carlyle.

The grim candour of these despatches needs no comment. We see the whole
situation with that vividness which only a relation at first hand ever
gives. The effect of these two examples was instantaneous. Most of the
other towns surrendered upon the first summons. The Irish army fell back
in all directions. An attempt was made to save Kilkenny, but after a
week's defence it was surrendered. The same thing happened at Clonmel,
and within a few months of his arrival nearly every strong place, except
Waterford and Limerick, were in the Lord-General's hands.

That Cromwell, from his own point of view, was justified in these
proceedings, and that he held himself--even when slaughtering English
Royalists in revenge for the acts of Irish rebels--a divinely-appointed
agent sent to execute justice upon the ungodly, there can be little
doubt. As regards ordinary justice his conduct was exemplary. Unlike
most of the armies that had from time to time ravaged Ireland, he
allowed no disorder. His soldiers were forbidden by proclamation to
plunder, and were hanged, "in ropes of authentic hemp," as Carlyle
remarks, when they did so. The merciless slaughter of two entire
garrisons is a hideous deed, and a deed, too, which appeals with
peculiar force to the popular imagination. As compared to many acts
perpetrated from time to time in Ireland, it seems, if one examines it
coolly, to fade into comparative whiteness, and may certainly be
paralleled elsewhere. A far deeper and more ineffaceable stain rests--as
will be seen in another chapter--upon Cromwell's rule in Ireland; one,
moreover, not so readily justified by custom or any grim necessities
of warfare.

The final steps by which the struggle was crushed out were comparatively
tedious. Cromwell's men were attacked by that "country sickness" which
seems at that time to have been inseparable from Irish campaigns.
Writing from Ross in November, he says, "I scarce know one officer
amongst us who has not been sick." His own presence, too, was urgently
required in England, so that he was forced before long to set sail,
leaving the completion of the campaign in the hands of others.

In the Royalist camp, the state of affairs was meanwhile absolutely
desp