[116] I have used the very scarce Dublin reprint of the _Disputatio Apologetica_: the original is, of course, still scarcer. Nearly all that is known of Mahony is in Walsh's _Remonstrance_, part ii. sec. 22. The Portuguese decrees are in _Contemporary Hist._ i. 739; Rinuccini's _Embassy_, p. 321.
[117] Rinuccini's report on O'Neill's proceedings, 1647, in _Embassy_, p. 281. For the great and increasing hatred excited by the Ulster troops, _ib._, 290, 309, 324, 347, 353-4, 357, 359; O'Neill's Journal, 1647, in _Contemporary Hist._, iii. 206; Sir H. Tichborne's _Letter_ to his wife; Sir Maurice Eustace to Ormonde in _Confederation and War_, vi. 207.
[118] Letters in _Rushworth_, vii. 916, 947; Inchiquin's letter to Taaffe is in Meehan's _Confederation of Kilkenny_; Carte's _Ormonde_, ii. 9; Smith's _Cork_; Rinuccini's official account of battle in _Embassy_, p. 335, and further particulars at p. 519; _Bellings_, vii. 34, 350; Inchiquin to Lenthall, November 18, 1647, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, November 30. _A Perfect Narrative_ of the battle of Knocknanuss, by an officer present, 1647; _A Mighty Victory_ in Ireland, November 29, 1647, being a letter from William More written in the field on November 13.
[119] Rinuccini's _Embassy_, p. 343; _Confederation and War_, vi. 208, 232.
[120] The Queen to the King, December 1/11; 1647, in Bruce's _Charles I. in 1646_; Rinuccini's _Embassy_, pp. 330, 332, 340, 343; _Bellings_, vii. 36. Instructions for the agents to Rome, France, and Spain in _Confederation and War_, vi. 223-227. Speech of the agent in Holland, _ib._ 232.
[121] Letter in _Rushworth_, vii. 947; _ib._ 1006, 1029, 1041; Rinuccini's _Embassy_, pp. 367, 370; _Thurloe_, i. 93; _Bellings_, vii. 36-39.
[122] Carte's _Ormonde_, ii. 15. Ormonde's report on Ireland to the King is _ib._ iii. appendix No. 565; _Rushworth_, vii. 795. The Paris negotiations in _Confederation and War_, vi. 228-232. _Bellings_, vii. 37.
[Sidenote: Inchiquin and the Parliament.]
[Sidenote: and voted a traitor, April 14, 1648.]
Inchiquin's espousal of the Parliamentary cause had been generally attributed to his disgust at the King's foolish appointment of Portland to be President of Munster over his head. But the motives of men are, for the most part, mixed, and he may have thought, as was indeed the fact, that he was taking the best course to protect the Protestants of southern Ireland. Ormonde could do little for them, and the masters of the sea could do much. But Parliament was torn by factions, and help was sent to Ireland grudgingly. Having gained two great victories and successfully maintained the three seaports, Inchiquin thought he deserved better treatment. Besides all this, he disliked the Independents and dreaded their growing power. In November 1642 he assured Ormonde that he was no Roundhead; and in August 1645, after Naseby and after his expulsion of the Roman Catholics from Cork and Youghal, he told his brother-in-law, Michael Boyle, that he would waive all dependence on Parliament if he could see safety for the Protestants by any other means. Even before the battle of Knocknanuss he was distrusted in Parliamentary circles, and after it he began to draw towards Ormonde. The Confederacy was evidently on the decline, and there was some chance of a general combination against Owen Roe O'Neill. Purely selfish considerations would probably have confirmed him in his allegiance to the Parliament; for since Cornet Joyce's raid it was easy to see that the 'Roundheads' were going to win. On March 30, after the letter from Inchiquin's officers had been considered, three members of the House of Commons were appointed to go as commissioners to the Munster army. A fortnight later Major Elsing, one of the officers who refused to follow their general, reported his defection to the House, who thereupon recalled their commissioners, cancelled all Inchiquin's powers, and voted him a rebel and traitor. Before declaring himself openly he had taken the precaution of bespeaking a welcome in France in case the worst came to the worst. Broghill, his rival in Munster, was also intriguing with Ormonde and the Queen; but in his case it came to nothing. His cousin, Sir W. Fenton, and other officers who refused to declare for the King, had been imprisoned by Inchiquin, and this may have tended to prevent Broghill from joining him.[123]