ests were dragged out as objects of special vengeance; and the
total number of those were thus massacred amounted to 3,000.

An engagement took place in November between Inchiquin and Lord Taaffe,
in which the Confederates were again beaten and cruelly massacred. Thus
two of their generals had lost both their men and their _prestige_, and
O'Neill alone remained as the prop of a falling cause. The Irish now
looked for help from foreign sources, and despatched Plunket and French
to Rome, and Muskerry and Browne to France; but Ormonde had already
commenced negotiations on his own account, and he alone was accredited
at the court of St. Germains. Even at this moment Inchiquin had been
treating with the Supreme Council for a truce; but Rinuccini, who
detested his duplicity, could never be induced to listen to his
proposals. A man who had so mercilessly massacred his own countrymen,
could scarcely be trusted by them on so sudden a conversion to their
cause; but, unhappily, there were individuals who, in the uncertain
state of public affairs, were anxious to steer their barks free of the
thousand breakers ahead, and in their eagerness forgot that, when the
whole coast-line was deluged with storms, their best chance of escape
was the bold resolution of true moral courage. The cautious politicians,
therefore, made a treaty with Inchiquin, which was signed at Dungarvan,
on the 20th of May. On the 27th of that month the Nuncio promulgated a
sentence of excommunication against all cities and villages where it
should be received, and, at the same time, he withdrew to the camp of
Owen Roe O'Neill, against whom Inchiquin and Preston were prepared to
march. It was a last and desperate resource, and, as might be expected,
it failed signally of its intended effects. Various attempts to obtain a
settlement of the question at issue by force of arms, were made by the
contending parties; but O'Neill baffled his enemies, and the Nuncio
withdrew to Galway.

Ormonde arrived in Ireland soon after, and was received at Cork, on the
27th of September, 1648, by Inchiquin. He then proceeded to Kilkenny,
where he was received in great state by the Confederates. On the 17th of
January, 1649, he signed a treaty of peace, which concluded the seven
years' war. This treaty afforded the most ample indulgences to the
Catholics, and guaranteed fairly that civil and religious liberty for
which alone they had contended; but the ink upon the deed was scarcely
d