himself to the interests of the country, with imposing earnestness; and made a signal effort towards diverting its energies to the aid of the royal cause. In granting the Catholics a formal indemnity for the late insurrection, he very properly secured them a toleration of their religion, in return for which, they undertook to arm 10,000 men in the service of Charles. But the obligations of this contract were speedily thwarted by the imprudence of some of the Catholics, who, instigated by Rinucini, the Pope's legate, and O'Neale, not only refused to ratify their engagements, but conspired to embarrass the Lord Lieutenant, and entirely overthrow the ascendency of England. Their measures were designed with energy, and enforced with precise resolution; and ere long they reduced Ormond to the alternative of delivering up the garrisons in his power, either into their hands, or those of the parliamentary forces. In this dilemma he followed the instructions of Prince Charles, and of the two enemies, preferred submission to the latter.

This misfortune was endured in 1648; after which, repairing to England, he obtained a melancholy interview with the King, already a prisoner at Hampton Court, and was warmly commended-for his exertions. Deprived of any opportunity to render himself useful, he took up an obscure residence in London, until an order of banishment drove him in common with all the other royalists from the country. He next proceeded to France, where he was not long suffered to remain inactive; for receiving the strongest invitations to resume his lieutenancy, he appointed a meeting with the Earl of Inchiquin in Munster, and landed at Cork, after an absence of less than twelve month's. His reception proivng highly flattering, he was enabled to adopt measures so energetic, that he soon restored the royal authority in those very towns which he had so lately ceded to the Parliament. He assembled an army of 16,000 men, advanced against Dundalk, which was garrisoned by General Monk, reduced the town, and followed on the advantage to Newry, with promptitude. So prosperous was his condition at this juncture, that the young King entertained a design of putting himself at the head of the Irish, but the happiness was of short duration. After a fresh defeat of the insurgents, under O'Neale, and the parliamentarians under Coote, he crossed the Liffey, and took up a position at Rath

mines, near Dublin, resolved to put an end to the conflict by one bold enterprise.

The metropolis of Ireland was at this moment held by Jones, and by no means ably provided with a means of defence. Ormond began the siege with considerable vigour; he repaired old, and threw up new entrenchments; annoyed the enemy by constant skirmishes, and personally witnessed the fulfilment of every order. Some days were passed in these active preparations, when worn -out with fatigue, he lay down for the first time, since the commencement of the siege, to enjoy a night's repose. Before taking this indulgence, he issued a command, requiring the men to remain under arms; but no sooner had he disappeared from among them, than the order was neglected, and the troops, following the example of their leader, betook themselves to sleep. Meantime, Jones, who had on that very day received succours from England, sallied from his posts, and attacked his enemy with desperation. Roused from his pallet by the discharge of musquetry, Ormond flew to the seene, and beheld his soldiers, surprised in disorder, and, after a resistance as brief as it was vain, was hurried with them into flight. A severe slaughter was made, and 2000 prisoners, with all the arms, baggage, and ammunition, fell into the hands of the victorious republicans.

This defeat was fatal, and the royal cause was enervated throughout the island. Cromwell reached Dublin immediately after, and by a series of movements, pursued with his character-. istic fury, overran all opposition, from the one party, as well as the other. As a first blow he stormed Drogheda, and gave the inhabitants up to the horrors of military execution. Wherever he marched, the land flowed with blood, and every energy was paralised by cruelty. Nay, so utter was the panic, that not content with seeing Ormond deserted by every soldier, the few straggling authorities, who still favoured his interests, or ventured to express a counsel for his conduct, insisted upon his abandoning the country as the only means of saving the people from extermination. France, therefore, again became his land of refuge, and in 1650 he joined the little court of his exiled monarch. Extreme poverty must now have been entailed upon him, had not his Marchioness ventured back to Ireland, and, by great exertions, and after long delays, succeeded in saving a moiety of her

own estates from forfeiture. Thus, while his sons were sent to Holland, and his lady was obliged to remain in Ireland, Ormond continued abroad, and even there rendered many important services to the cause of fallen monarchy.

The first of the commissions entrusted to him in his banishment, was to withdraw the young Duke of Gloucester from the power of the Queen Mother, who was reported to have made use of some severities in order to induce that prince to become a convert to the Catholic faith. In this delicate task he succeeded, and was next employed to detach the Irish brigades in the service of Spain to the French crown. Having completed this object also, with promptitude, he was appointed to command these brigades, and in this capacity obtained the surrender of St. Ghilians, a fortified town near Brussels. In 1658 a more dan gerous mission was confided to his prudence; for arriving secretly in England, with the view of acquiring certain intelligence of the strength of the royal party, he was put at the head of the conspiracy for Cromwell's deposition, which was mainly supported by Lord Fairfax, and Sir William Waller. How perfectly this plot was discovered to the Protector, is a matter of historical notoriety: Ormond was most hazardously persecuted by the government spies, and had good reason to congratulate himself upon the fortune of his escape to the continent. Ample notice might be now taken of the repeated negotiations which he conducted at the courts of France, Spain, and Holland, for the restoration of royalty; but as those undertakings were unsuccessful, so are their details uninteresting. The current of events brought that great end quietly to its issue by other labours than his; he was a passenger in the same ship that conveyed Charles back to his kingdom, and not only obtained an immediate restoration of his great property in the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary, but was recompensed for his late sufferings, by an extensive grant of new estates.

The coronation was that solemnity by which Charles became formally invested with the rights and dignities of his ancestors, and he very appropriately made it the occasion of ratifying the distinctions of the faithful retinue who had shared his adversity. Amongst this number, Ormond was honoured with an Irish Dukedom, and nominated to officiate for the day with the rank

of Lord High Steward of England. In 1662, he was once more elevated to the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, and upon his arrival at the seat of government, found that country, which seems incurably fated for distractions and sufferings, still agitated in open warfare. This state of things, with some time and labour, he managed to compose, and then directed his attention to improvements, for the benefits of which, if ever the memory of a man deserved to be invoked with blessings, his must rise sacred; for, after encouraging the people to various laudable occupations in commerce and agiculture, he introduced, for the first time, to their notice, the growth of flax, and manufacture of linen; and in order to secure a fair trial, and a proper cultivation of the art, procured at his own expense the most skilful men from the Low Countries, and dispersed them over the country, to communicate their knowledge, and set a profitable example of industry, throughout the whole island. The eminent results of this policy it is unnecessary to enlarge upon, as it is at this day a national truth, that the manufacture of linen is the standard trade of Ireland, and that the districts in which it is most cultivated, are the wealthiest and most peaceable in the country.

From these honourable avocations Ormond was only diverted by the vicissitudes inseparable from a political life. His intimacy with the Earl of Clarendon involved him in much of the unfounded odium which overpowered that great man; and when the Chancellor was banished, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was called over to London to render an account of government. A rigorous inquiry into his conduct was immediately instituted, but not a pivot was detected on which envy could turn itself. The machinations of his opponents, however, were laid with an intricacy, from which it was impossible to escape'; and in 1669, he was ungratefully deprived of all his offices. Honours, however, were not to be withheld from a man of such independent merits, by the factitious disgrace attending upon the loss of place; and in the course of the following year, he was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Scarce had this last preferment been well attained, when a more malignant plot had nearly cut short his distinctions; for the same Colonel Blood, who is notorious in the history of England, for his daring effort to steal the crown from the Tower, made a desperate attempt on his Grace's life. This

villain had formerly been imprisoned by the Duke in Ireland, upon the detection of a reckless conspiracy, by which he intended to seize on the castle of Dublin; but escaping from gaol, before a trial could take place, he repaired to London, and moved about with impudent confidence, secure in the profligate patronage of the Duke of Buckingham. Hardened in crime, and thirsting for revenge, he now conceived the project of making away with the Duke of Ormond to Tyburn, and there hanging him from the common gallows. Accordingly, by taking his post with some mounted ruffians in St. James Square, one night in the month of December, 1670, he awaited the Duke's return home from a public entertainment, which had been given in the city, to the Prince of Orange. As soon as the carriage drew up before his residence, Ormond was seized, pinioned, and lashed behind a horseman, who immediately rode off with him at a rapid pace. The party had reached Oxford-street, when the Duke, after repeated struggles, succeeded in throwing both himself and the rider to the ground: assistance, fortunately, reached him before he could be replaced, and he gained his home uninjured. The King at first expressed a passionate resentment against the perpetrators of so violent an act, but being afterwards supplicated by Buckingham to favour Blood, he sent the Earl of Arlington to Ormond, with a request that the insult might be pardoned. Ormond's reply was courtier-like, and sensible; -"If the King,' said he, "can forgive Blood for an attempt to steal his crown, I may easily forgive him for an attempt on my life: I shall observe his Majesty's pleasure, without enquiring into his reasons.

Seven years now passed away, and Ormond was never employed, and seldom consulted; though his high character and unimpeachable conduct retained him not unfrequently about the per ́son of his indifferent sovereign. At length the grievances of the Irish broke out with such violence, that in 1677, the Court was compelled to resort to him as the only man in the nation who was at all likely to tranquillize the country. He was accordingly honoured with an unexpected visit from the King, and by him pressed to assume, for the fourth time, the high rank of Lord Lieutenant. Unmindful of personal feelings, when a public duty supervened, and conscious of the impolitical nature of the measures lately resorted to in Ireland, he undertook the responsibility, and