ions
to the haughty republic, and was at last admitted to negotiate the
renewal of his alliance with England. Prince Rupert, having lost a great
part of his squadron on the coast of Spain, made sail towards the
West Indies. His brother, Prince Maurice, was there shipwrecked in
a hurricane. Every where this squadron subsisted by privateering,
sometimes on English, sometimes on Spanish vessels. And Rupert at last
returned to France, where he disposed of the remnants of his fleet,
together with his prizes.

All the settlements in America, except New England, which had been
planted entirely by the Puritans, adhered to the royal party, even after
the settlement of the republic; and Sir George Ayscue was sent with
a squadron to reduce them. Bermudas, Antigua, and Virginia were soon
subdued. Barbadoes, commanded by Lord Willoughby of Parham, made some
resistance; but was at last obliged to submit.

With equal ease were Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, and the Isle of Man
brought under subjection to the republic; and the sea, which had been
much infested by privateers from these islands, was rendered safe to the
English commerce. The countess of Derby defended the Isle of Man; and
with great reluctance yielded to the necessity of surrendering to the
enemy. This lady, a daughter of the illustrious house of Trimoille,
in France, had, during the civil war, displayed a manly courage by her
obstinate defence of Latham House against the parliamentary forces; and
she retained the glory of being the last person in the three kingdoms,
and in all their dependent dominions, who submitted to the victorious
commonwealth.[*] [24]

* See note X, at the end of the volume.

Ireland and Scotland were now entirely subjected, and reduced to
tranquillity. Ireton, the new deputy of Ireland, at the head of a
numerous army, thirty thousand strong, prosecuted the work of subduing
the revolted Irish; and he defeated them in many rencounters, which,
though of themselves of no great moment, proved fatal to their declining
cause. He punished without mercy all the prisoners who had any hand in
the massacres. Sir Phelim O'Neale, among the rest, was some time after
brought to the gibbet, and suffered an ignominious death, which he had
so well merited by his inhuman cruelties. Limeric, a considerable town,
still remained in the hands of the Irish; and Ireton, after a vigorous
siege, made himself master of it. He was here infected with the plague,
and shortl