Images de page
PDF
ePub

their faith and doctrine erroneous and hereticall, their Church in respect of both Apostaticall.'

On pages 330-332 he sets out the judgment of the Irish Protestant Bishops in 1626, 'concerning the toleration of popery,' and on pages 333-336 a further judgment of the same Protestant Archbishops and Bishops as concerning tolleration of Religion,' in which they refuse to give any sort of toleration to the Catholic faith. On page 311 Dr. Bernard remarks:

The first Lord's Day I had the opportunity of preaching to you after that late storme, with which this towne by an extraordinary successe given was immediately taken, September 11, 1649, when not only your goods (according to the custome of warre) were made a spoyl of, but your lives were in the like danger and mine in an equall hazard, but by a special providence of God was preserved. . . . I thought fit to begin with that text . . . (2 Cor. i. 8, 9, 10) . . . The place we were then compelled to meet in was a private chappel, both the churches of the town being demolished, the one by a necessity, being just against the battery, the other, the greater (with which I had relation) casually, at least without any such intention that night blowen up with gunpowder, I say, we then being constrained to contract ourselves into so narrow a roome, it was so overburdened (January 27) that not long after I had begun, the main beame of the floore broke asunder in the midst and some hundreds of you instantly sunke downe together, with a gallery founded on the same, then filled with divers of you, which fell upon you too, whereby. I despaired of your lives. And I beleeve, according to the former text, you had again the sentence of death' in yourselves. Notwithstanding, such was the Lord's wonderful preservation of you in His service that, though there were old men and women with childe involved, yet none had any hurt or a lin be broken or any such bruise, but that within a few days all were seen abroad againe.

[ocr errors]

On page 320 Dr. Bernard proceeds to give some account of his own adventures during the assault, and states that :

Though in the heat of prosecution immediatley after the storme through a window of my house two were shot on the side of me, and a bullet shot through the doore touched my hand, yet I had no hurt. And when by violence they had broken in while we were all at prayers, commending our souls to God and imploring His preservation of us, God was so pleased to assuage that present fury of the soldiers that none with me, to the number of about twenty of you, received any further mischiefe. And immediately after, one, unthought of by me, whom I had not seene in eighteene yeares before, who was a Colonell in the Army, came and protected us fully. And I tooke him rather as sent of God, in regard others whom I depended on wholly neglected me. And so much for satisfaction to that censure.

The meaning of the word " censure' does not appear, but is probably explained in the Restoration Narrative.

Wood says that after the Restoration of 1660 Dr. Bernard refused to return to Ireland and to resume possession of his deanery there, and perhaps a bishopric, being possessed with just doubts concerning the settlement of Ireland.' The Earl of Bridgewater (John Egerton, the second Earl) presented Dr. Bernard to the Rectory of Whitchurch, Shropshire, and at Whitchurch Dr. Bernard died, on October 15, and was buried on November 7, 1661.

[ocr errors]

The continual use of italics in the following narrative will be noticed. This is a trick common in the tracts of the Restoration period, and was very much relied upon by Sir Roger L'Estrange, in order to emphasize the points of an argument. First in importance in the narrative itself is the explicit statement that Sir Arthur Aston (who, as Wood tells us, had his brains beaten out with his wooden leg) and 300 men in the Mill Mount surrendered upon promise of quarter,' and yet were killed. Many years ago Dr. Lingard, in his note on the Massacres of Drogheda and Wexford, appended to the eighth volume of his History of England, expressed the suspicion that the Mill Mount had been surrendered upon a promise to spare the lives of the garrison, and that this promise had afterwards been broken. Lingard was the first historian to discover and point out the following passage in the Perfect Diurnall of October 1-8, 1649. He would have been delighted had he known of the corroboration given to his view by Dr. Bernard. The passage in the Perfect Diurnall, cited by Lingard, ran :—

Lieutenant-Col. Axtell, of Col. Huson's (sic) regiment with some 12 of his men went up to the top of the Mount and demanded of the Governour the surrender of it, who was very stubborn, speaking very bigge words, but at length was persuaded to go into the Windmill on the top of the Mount and as many more of the chiefest of them as it could contain, where they were disarmed and afterwards all slain.

I can add to this another account slightly later in date, but never before cited, fixing the responsibility for the offer of quarter upon Cromwell himself, and proving that it was not due to Axtell's personal initiative.

Seven months after Cromwell's death, when Richard Cromwell still styled himself 'Protector,' the first life of Oliver Cromwell was published by S. Carrington. Who the writer was, and even his Christian name, I have not been able to discover, but, according to the old collector, George Thomason's, manuscript note, his book appeared in' April,' 1659, and this is confirmed by the dedication in

it to His Serene Highness, Richard, Lord Protector.' The title-page runs as follows:-'The History of the Life and Death of his most serene highness Oliver, late Lord Protector. Wherein, from the Cradle to the Tomb, are impartially transmitted to posterity, the most weighty transactions, Forreign or Domestique, that have happened in his time, either in Matters of Law, Proceedings in Parliaments, or other affairs in Church or State. By S. Carrington. "Pax quæritur bello." London. Printed for Nath. Brook, at the sign of the Angel in Cornhill. 1659.'

This book contains 272 pages, and on pages 16-18 gives a detailed account of the Storm of Drogheda. I refrain from setting it all out, as it adds nothing new to other accounts, and will instead cite the passages referring to the offer of quarter.

After saying that Cromwell, whose prudence as we have already observed, seconded his valour,' put himself at the head of his men to storm the walls, Carrington goes on to say that Cromwell entered the place

pell mell with his soldiers. At which time the ardour and heat of the victory did appear to correspond with his prudence. For, although his generosity did oblige him to give quarter to those who had so well defended themselves, notwithstanding, deeming it fitting to make that place an example of terror unto the rest of the towns which were garrisoned and which might cost him too dear should they stand out as sturdily and obstinately as these did, he caused all those to be put to the sword who were found to be in arms, and thus he sacrificed 3,000 Irish unto the ghosts of 10,000 English whom they had massacred some years before.

If this was an example of virtue, a reconsideration of the moral code would be necessary. I return to Dr. Bernard's narrative.

After narrating the attempts to kill himself, and how Ewer saved his life, we have a striking picture of Hewson, the anabaptist cobbler (who had but one eye and an' odd' face), appearing upon the scene. Hewson was the sole witness to the assertion that a number of men burnt in the steeple, cursed their souls as they were burning; which, from Hewson's point of view, was just what a 'Papist' might be expected to do. Dr. Bernard now tells us that Hewson was also the man who burnt them alive, and, in addition, that the day before he did this Hewson attempted to blow them up with gunpowder. Both Hewson and Cromwell, in their letters, omit all mention of the attempt

to blow up the steeple, and speak of burning it on the first day. What credit can now be given to the tale that the men cursed their souls as they were dying?

The late John D'Alton, in his History of Drogheda, gives the following account of this steeple:

In 1548 the steeple of this Church (St. Peter's), then represented as one of the highest in the world, was prostrated by a violent tempest. It was replaced by another, of wood, which remained until consumed in Cromwell's visitation of 1649.

Finally, after a description of the terrible scene when the steeple fell down, Dr. Bernard tells us that on the day after that, on the third day, the massacre was still going on, even in coole blood,' and that the churchyard and streets were filled with dead bodies to the number of 3,500.

In all this Dr. Bernard is intent only on describing his own sufferings, and has no word of pity for the Catholics whom he hated. These vivid sidelights only appear by accident.

All this renders his narrative as important as it is interesting, and affords ample corroboration of both Lord Ormonde's letters and the letter written to Sir Ralph Verney by James Buck.

A Brief Relation of that Bloody Storm at Drogheda, and the Doctor's sufferings by Oliver Cromwell in it, and after it, with his Preservation.

The 3rd of September, 1649, was the first day Oliver Cromwell came before it, in making any attempt to that end; he had a 11 thousand Horse and Foot, compleatly provided, the Town had 3,500. Two days he battered, upon the second day about five of the clock in the afternoon, he assaulted it, but received a repulse; yet returning again took it ; the word was given throughout his Army no quarter; the Mill Mount where the governour Sir Arthur Aston was with about 300 men, was yielded upon promise of quarter, but as soon as it was possessed by them, all were put to the sword, when the town was fully taken, the Doctor's house was one of the first the Soldiers fell upon, but by the strength of it could not enter; The Mayor of the Town and diverse others of the Principall men that were Protestants, to the number of about 30 came into it for refuge.

There came 5 or 6 who were sent from a principall officer (the Doctor's former acquaintance) under a pretence of a guard for his house, but had a Command from him, as soon as they were entred to kill him (which an earwitnesse hath since assured him of). The Doctor denying to open the door to them, one of them discharged a musket bullet at him; it passed through the door, and only fired the skin of one of his fingers, leaving a spot upon it, which burned 4 or 5 days after, and did him no more hurt.

Then a Cornet of a troop of horse came to his reliefe, and pretending he had an order from the Generall to take care of that house, the souldiers

withdrew; and so at a Back-door he brought in his Quarter-Master, whom he left to secure him. About a quarter of an hour after, another Troop of horse came to the window and demanded the opening of the door. The Quarter-Master and himself with an old servant left with him (for he had sent his Wife and Children out of Town) stood close together, and told them it was the minister's house, and all therein were Protestants, as soon as they heard the D. named, and his voice, one of them discharged his Pistoll at him, wherein being a brace of bullets, with the one the Quarter-Master was shot quite through the Body and dyed in the place, and the other shot his servant through the throat, but recovered; the Dr. was onely untouched. After this he made a stand at another place, and seeing the Souldiers breaking in at a low window, he went up to his study, where his said friends were making great Lamentation, expecting present death, they all kneeled down and commended their soules to God. No sooner had the Dr. begun, but in comes the souldiers, and interrupts them, threatning them with Bullets, but it pleased God they were so mollified that they onely took all they had about them, and fell upon the spoyle of the house. In the midst of these confusions comes one Colonel Ewres (whom the Dr. had not seen in 16 years before, and knew not of his being there) and took up his house for his quarters, turned the souldiers out, and made the doores fast for himself.

[ocr errors]

Not long after came Colonel Hewson, and told the Dr. he had orders to blow up the Steeple (which stood between the quier and the body of the church) where about threescore men were run up for refuge, but the three Barrels of Powder which he caused to be put under it for that end, blew up only the body of the Church, and the next night Hewson caused the seates of the Church to be broken up, and made a great pile of them under the steeple, which firing, it took the lofts wherein five great Bells hung, and from thence it flamed up to the top, and so at once, Men and Bells, and Roof came all down together, the most hideous sight and terrible cry, that ever he was witnesse of at once.

The next day the Colonel that had saved the Drs. life comes to him, and tells him he was very sharply checked for it, by the Generall and many of his officers, and that he must yet expect to dye, that no Protection could be had for him; which was confirmed unto him by others also, whereupon divers that came to see him took their leaves as never to see him again, and the number of dead bodies (with which the Church-yard and Streets were filled already) daily encreasing even in coole blood to the number of 3,500 gave him little hope of the contrary that which at present reprieved him was Col. Ewres sending two of his officers which were wounded to be there.

Then was the Proclaiming of his Majesty, inciting and encouraging of the Army, and what else might favour ill with the Souldiers, mustered up against him.

The next day Oliver Cromwell, with many of his officers, came to the Doctor's house, began with aspersing his Ordination as Popish, then the late Arch Bishop of Armagh, from whom he had received it, then his Majesties Title, and the Doctors Praying for him came into discourse; the disputes of which with divers other subjects, which lasted about three quarters of an hower, would be impertinent to be related here, but when he found the Dr. to be of that judgment he had heard, he left him without any assurance of life, onely gave order to the Governour to have

« PrécédentContinuer »