[43] _Confederation and War_, ii. 364-384; _Bellings_, i. 156, 163; Declaration of Clanricarde, Inchiquin, and fifteen others that the cessation was necessary, printed by Cox, ii. 133.
[44] Lords Justices and Council to the King, May 11, 1643, and to the two Houses, October 28; the Speakers of both Houses to the Lords Justices and Council, July 4--all in Clarendon's _Hist. of the Rebellion_, book vii. 334, 366. Ormonde was appointed Lord Lieutenant November 13, and sworn in January 21 following. As to Leicester, see the preface to Blencowe's _Sydney Papers_ and his letter of complaint to the Queen in Collins's _Sydney Papers_, ii. 673.
[Sidenote: The cessation condemned by Parliament.]
[Sidenote: Changed relations of parties.]
[Sidenote: The rout at Nantwich, Jan. 1643-4.]
After the cessation had been concluded, but before its actual terms were known in London, the two Houses published a declaration against it, as destructive of the Protestant interest, and for the benefit of the 'furious, bloodthirsty Papists.' Protestant opinion even in Ireland was certainly against the cessation, and yet it was evidently a military necessity. If the troops left Dublin the Irish would be able to take it, and in the meantime, being unpaid, they robbed and plundered almost as if they had been in an enemy's city. The general result was that Ormonde and the thoroughgoing Royalists were henceforth engaged, not in endeavouring to suppress a rebellion, but in trying to make terms with misguided belligerents. Those Protestants who thought more of religion and less of loyalty gravitated towards the Parliament. Ormonde lost no time in obeying the King's order about sending troops to England. Before the end of October one regiment from Munster had landed at Minehead, and another at Bristol, under Vavasour and Paulet. They were, says Clarendon, very good and excellently officered, but not many in number, and they went to swell Hopton's ill-fated army. The common men sympathised largely with the Parliament, though discipline and the hope of reward kept them together. About the middle of November 2500 men from Leinster landed at Mostyn, in Flintshire. About the same number came partly to Beaumaris and partly to the Dee early in the next year, but before that the first detachment had suffered a great disaster. Nantwich was garrisoned for the Parliament, and Sir William Brereton faced Lord Byron in the field. Hawarden, Beeston, and Northwich quickly fell into the hands of the Royalists, and about the beginning of January Byron summoned Nantwich, which was soon hard pressed. Fairfax spent his Christmas in Lincolnshire, and after the capture of Gainsborough a message from Stamford informed him that Brereton was hard pressed in Cheshire. At Manchester, which he did not reach till January 12, he collected every available man, and on the 21st marched towards Nantwich with 2500 foot and 28 troops of horse. Byron's force was about the same or perhaps a little stronger. Fairfax gained a complete victory, a large part of the contingent from Ireland being captured in Acton church. Seventy officers and about 1600 men were taken prisoners, including Monck, who was present as a volunteer, Colonel Warren, who commanded his late regiment, being also taken. 'Warren's regiment,' says Sir Robert Byron, 'though they had their beloved Colonel Monck in the head of them, was no sooner charged than they broke, and being rallied again, the next charge ran quite away.' Their hearts were not in the work, and some 800 men chiefly from this regiment afterwards took service under the Parliament. They were Englishmen and Protestants, but this was not generally believed, and nothing made the King's cause so hopeless as the imputation of having brought an army of Irish Papists into England. Lord Byron wished that reinforcements should be 'rather Irish than English' because they would have no seditious sympathies and he did not see why the King should not employ them, 'or the Turks if they would serve him.'[45]