able, and the bridge broken down, the
Irish forced thither at different times, a great number of unarmed,
defenceless protestants, and with pikes and swords violently thrust
above one thousand into the river, where they miserably perished.

Nor did the cathedral of Armagh escape the fury of these barbarians, it
being maliciously set on fire by their leaders, and burnt to the ground.
And to extirpate, if possible, the very race of those unhappy
protestants, who lived in or near Armagh, the Irish first burnt all
their houses, and then gathered together many hundreds of those innocent
people, young and old, on pretence of allowing them a guard and safe
conduct to Colerain; when they treacherously fell on them by the way,
and inhumanly murdered them.

The like horrid barbarities with those we have particularized, were
practised on the wretched protestants in almost all parts of the
kingdom; and, when an estimate was afterward made of the number who were
sacrificed to gratify the diabolical souls of the papists, it amounted
to one hundred and fifty thousand. But it now remains that we proceed to
the particulars that followed.

These desperate wretches, flushed and grown insolent with success,
(though by methods attended with such excessive barbarities as perhaps
not to be equalled) soon got possession of the castle of Newry, where
the king's stores and ammunition were lodged; and, with as little
difficulty, made themselves masters of Dundalk. They afterward took the
town of Ardee, where they murdered all the protestants, and then
proceeded to Drogheda. The garrison of Drogheda was in no condition to
sustain a siege, notwithstanding which, as often as the Irish renewed
their attacks they were vigorously repulsed by a very unequal number of
the king's forces, and a few faithful protestant citizens under sir
Henry Tichborne, the governor, assisted by the lord viscount Moore. The
siege of Drogheda began on the 30th of November, 1641, and held till the
4th of March, 1642, when sir Phelim O'Neal, and the Irish miscreants
under him were forced to retire.

In the mean time ten thousand troops were sent from Scotland to the
remaining protestants in Ireland, which being properly divided in the
most capital parts of the kingdom, happily eclipsed the power of the
Irish savages; and the protestants for a time lived in tranquility.

In the reign of king James II. they were again interrupted, for in a
parliament held at Dublin in the