of 1643, when we
find him inflicting a serious defeat on the English army under Monk and
Moore at Portlester in Meath, in which Moore was killed and his forces
driven back within the walls of Drogheda.

The General Assembly continued to exercise sovreign authority at
Kilkenny, collecting revenues, maintaining courts of justice in the
provinces, and keeping several armies in the field, most effective of
which was undoubtedly that of Owen Roe O'Neill. We find matters still in
this condition three years later, in May, 1646, when Monroe and the
Scottish forces prepared to inaugurate an offensive campaign from their
base at Carrickfergus. General Robert Monroe had about seven thousand
men at Carrickfergus; his brother George had five hundred at Coleraine;
while there was a Scottish army at Derry, numbering about two thousand
men. It was decided to converge these three forces on Clones, in
Monaghan, and thence to proceed southwards against the government of the
General Assembly, then centered at Limerick. Clones was sixty miles from
Derry, and rather more from Coleraine and Carrickfergus, the two other
points of departure.

Owen Roe O'Neill was then at Cavan, fourteen miles south of Clones, with
five thousand foot and five hundred horse, all "good, hopeful men," to
use his own words. General Robert Monroe, starting from Carrickfergus,
and marching by Lisburn and Armagh, expected to reach Glasslough, some
sixteen miles from Clones, on June 5th. By a forced march from Cavan,
Owen Roe O'Neill reached Glasslough a day earlier, and marching along
the northern Blackwater, pitched his camp on the north bank of the
river. Here he was directly in the line between the two Monroes, who
could only join their forces after dislodging him; and Robert Monroe,
who by that time had reached Armagh, saw that it would be necessary to
give battle without delay if the much smaller forces from the north were
not to be cut off.

Robert Monroe began a movement northwards towards Owen Roe's position at
dawn on June 5th, and presently reached the Blackwater, to find himself
face to face with Owen Roe's army across the river. The two forces kept
parallel with each other for some time, till Robert Monroe finally
forded the Blackwater at Caledon, Owen Roe then retiring in the
direction of the current, which here flows north. Owen Roe, in his
movement of withdrawal, brought his army through a narrow pass, which he
left in charge of one of his best infant