by Sir Francis Edmonds, two thousand Lorrainers, to have been commanded by Colonel Browne, and two thousand of such French, English, Scots, and Irish, as could be drawn out of Flanders and Holland.  And the six thousand were to have been, by the prince of Orange’s assistance, in the associated counties; and the governor of Lyne, cousin german to Major Bacon, major of my own regiment, was to have delivered the town unto them.

“The maintenance of this army of foreigners was to have come from the pope, and such Catholick princes as he, should have drawn into it, having engaged to afford and procure thirty thousand pounds a month; out of which the foreign army was first to be provided for, and the remainder to be divided among the other armies.  And for this purpose had I power to treat with the pope and Catholick princes with particular advantages promised to Catholicks for the quiet enjoying their religion, without the penalties which the statutes in force had power to inflict upon them.  And my instructions for this purpose, and my powers to treat and conclude thereupon, were signed by the king under his pocket signet, with blanks for me to put in the names of pope or princes, to the end the king might have a starting-hole to deny the having given me such commissions, if excepted against by his own subjects; leaving me as it were at stake, who for his majesty’s sake was willing to undergo it, trusting to his word alone.”—­Clarendon Papers, ii. 201, 202.

But his departure was delayed by Ormond’s objections to the conditions of peace; and the king, to relieve himself from the difficulty, proposed to Herbert to proceed to Ireland, and grant privately to the Catholics those concessions which the lord-lieutenant hesitated to make, on condition of receiving in return an army of ten thousand men for the royal service.  In consequence, on the 27th of December, Charles announced to Ormond that Herbert was going to Ireland under an engagement to further the peace.—­Carte, ii.  App. p. 5.

1645, January 2nd.  Glamorgan (he was now honoured with the title of earl of Glamorgan) received these instructions.  “First you may ingage y’r estate, interest and creditt that we will most really and punctually performe any our promises to the Irish, and as it is necessary to conclude a peace suddainely, soe whatsoever shall be consented unto by our lieutenant the marquis of Ormond.  We will dye a thousand deaths rather than disannull or break it; and if vpon necessity any thing to be condescended unto, and yet the lord marquis not willing to be seene therein, as not fitt for us at the present publickely to owne, doe you endeavour to supply the same.”—­Century of Inventions by Mr. Partington, original letters and official papers, xxxv.  Then follows a promise to perform any promise made by him to Ormond or others, &c.

January 6.  He received a commission to levy any number of men in Ireland and other parts beyond the sea, with power to appoint officers, receive the king’s rents, &c.—­Birch, p. 18, from the Nuncio’s Memoirs, fol. 713.