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 dry, ere the execution of Charles I., on the 30th of January, washed out its enactments in royal blood; and civil war, with more than ordinary complications, was added to the many miseries of our unfortunate country.

Rinuccini embarked in the San Pietro once more, and returned to Italy, February 23, 1649.  Had his counsels been followed, the result might have justified him, even in his severest measures; as it is we read only failure in his career; but it should be remembered, that there are circumstances under which failure is more noble than success.

[Illustration:  THOMAS FLEMYNG’S TOMB, COLLEGIATE CHURCH, YOUGHAL.]

[Illustration:  ST. LAWRENCE GATE, DROGHEDA.]

FOOTNOTES: 

[474] Them.—­Castlehaven’s Memoirs, p, 28.

[475] Frolics.—­Carte’s Ormonde, vol. i. p. 245, folio edition.

[476] Guard.—­Castlehaven’s Memoirs, p. 30.  Coote’s cruelties are admitted on all sides to have been most fearful.  Leland speaks of “his ruthless and indiscriminate carnage.”—­History of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 146.  Warner says “he was a stranger to mercy.”—­History of the Irish Rebellion, p. 135.  “And yet this was the man,” says Lord Castlehaven, “whom the Lords Justices picked out to entrust with a commission of martial-law, which he performed with delight, and with a wanton kind of cruelty.”

[477] Granted.—­This most important and interesting document may be seen in O’Sullivan’s Hist.  Cath. p. 121.  It is headed:  “Gregory XIII., to the Archbishops, Bishops, and other prelates, as also to the Catholic Princes, Earls, Barons, Clergy, Nobles, and People of Ireland, health and apostolic benediction.”  It is dated:  “Given at Rome, the 13th day of May, 1580, the eighth of our pontificate.”

[478] Cause.—­See illustration at head of this chapter.

[479] Rinuccini,—­A work was published in Florence, 1844, entitled Nunziatura in Irlanda, di M. Gio.  Battista Rinuccini, &c.  This work, which only forms a portion of the Rinuccini MS., throws much valuable light upon the history of the period.  It is supposed to have been written by the Dean of Fermo, who attended the Nuncio during his official visit to Ireland.  This volume also contains, in the original Italian, the report presented by Rinuccini to the Pope on his return from Ireland.  Burke has given some extracts from the MS. in his Hibernia Dominicana, and Carte mentions it also; but otherwise these very important documents appear to have been quite overlooked.