[Sidenote: Ormonde encamps at Rathmines.]
[Sidenote: Inchiquin is detached to Munster.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Rathmines, August 2.]
[Sidenote: Total defeat of the Royalists.]
After Drogheda and Dundalk were taken Ormonde crossed the Liffey and established his camp at Rathmines, leaving Lord Dillon at Finglas with a small force. On the same day Jones received a reinforcement of 1500 foot and 600 horse under Reynolds and Venables, and the chance of taking Dublin was proportionately diminished, for the garrison had become more numerous than the besieging army. 'We had it,' says Ormonde, 'from many good hands out of England and from Dublin, that Cromwell was at the seaside ready to embark for this kingdom, and that his design was for Munster.' Lest Cork, Kinsale, and Youghal should fall while Dublin was still untaken it was decided by a council of war to send Inchiquin to Munster with three regiments of horse. This proved fatal, but it was supposed that Cromwell meant to land the greater part of his army in the south, and his intention was made known by some who came in the ships which brought fresh troops to Jones. Ormonde realised that if he did not take Dublin before Cromwell came he was not likely to take it after. He diverted the conduit which brought the Dodder water from near Templeoge to Dublin, and thus stopped the mills, though there was still enough to drink from other sources. Wheat was selling in Dublin at 5_l._ 10_s._ a quarter and rye at 4_l._ 10_s._, yet the garrison would hardly starve while they had command of the river, but it was different with the horses who depended upon the grazing of the meadows between Trinity College and the mouth of the Dodder. Having first reduced Rathfarnham, which annoyed his rear, Ormonde decided to fortify Baggotrath Castle, which stood near the point where Waterloo Road now joins Upper Baggot Street, and thus deprive Jones's cavalry of their supply of fodder. Soon after dark on the night of August 1 he sent Purcell with 1500 men to occupy the place, which had already been examined carefully, and he expected to find tenable entrenchments there in the morning. The distance was scarcely a mile, and Purcell had been at Baggotrath during the day; but he wandered about all night, and when the morning broke nothing had been done. This was attributed to the treachery of a guide, and Peter Walsh says Edmund O'Reilly, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, had been engaged in conducting an intrigue between Owen O'Neill and Jones, and that he was guilty of betraying the camp at Rathmines. Ormonde sat up during the night to write despatches, but rode to Baggotrath with the first light. He found very little progress made with the entrenchments, while the garrison of Dublin were evidently on the alert and busily moving about under shelter of their works. Jones had 4000 foot and 1200 horse under arms, having at first no intention but to prevent the Royalists from establishing themselves on the shore, but the first encounter gradually developed into a general engagement, when the superior quality of the Parliamentarian troops soon became manifest. Expecting no attack, Ormonde had lain down to rest about nine o'clock, and some of his officers left their posts, so that the troops were partly surprised. He himself was roused by the firing about ten, and most of his men made but slight resistance, 'many of them running away towards the hills of Wicklow, where some of them were bred, and whither they knew the way but too well.' The fighting continued for about two hours and ended in a complete rout, the cavalry dispersing after the death of their commander, Sir William Vaughan. Jones's loss in killed was not above twenty, and he reported that he had taken 2517 prisoners and that 4000 Royalists were killed; but the latter figure is doubtless much exaggerated. A vast quantity of arms and stores of all kinds fell into the victor's hands. Ormonde escaped with very few followers, having totally failed to rally his broken regiments, but that portion of his army which had remained on the north bank of the Liffey escaped to Drogheda and Trim. Many of Inchiquin's old soldiers afterwards took service with Jones, and not a few of Ormonde's did the same, declaring with loud shouts that they would return to their own countrymen. Jones secured all the guns, and Ormonde lost his papers, besides 'velvets, silk, scarlets, wines, grocery, and some convenient quantity of money.' He went to Kilkenny, and a week after started for Drogheda with 300 horse. Jones, who had moved northwards to attack that town, thereupon withdrew into Dublin and awaited Cromwell's arrival.