ustomed to sell at
a high price the services of his army to the neighbouring powers. The duke
received him graciously, made him a present of five thousand pounds, and
promised an additional aid of men and money, but on condition that he
should be declared protector royal of Ireland, with all the rights
belonging to that office--rights as undefined as the office itself was
hitherto unknown. Taafe hesitated, but was

[Footnote 1: Castlehaven's Memoirs, 116, 119, 120.]

[Footnote 2: Compare the papers in the second part of Clanricard's Memoirs,
17, 18, 27 (folio, London, 1757), with Carte's Ormond, ii. 143.]

encouraged to proceed by the queen mother, the duke of York, and De Vic,
the king's resident at Brussels. They argued[a] that, without aid to the
Irish, the king must succumb in Scotland; that the duke of Lorrain was the
only prince in Europe that could afford them succour; and that whatever
might be his secret projects, they could never be so prejudicial to the
royal interests as the subjugation of Ireland by the parliament.[1] Taafe,
however, took a middle way, and persuaded[b] the duke to send De Henin as
his envoy to the supreme council, with powers to conclude the treaty in
Ireland.

The assembly had just been dismissed[c] when this envoy arrived. By the
people, the clergy, and the nobility, he was received as an angel sent from
heaven. The supply of arms and ammunition which he brought, joined to his
promise of more efficient succour in a short time, roused them from their
despondency, and encouraged them to indulge the hope of making a stand
against the pressure of the enemy. Clanricard, left without instructions,
knew not how to act. He dared not refuse the aid so highly prized by the

[Footnote 1: Clanricard, 4, 5, 17, 27. Ormond was also of the same opinion.
He writes to Taafe that "nothing was done that were to be wished 'undone'";
that the supreme council were the best judges of their own condition; that
they had received permission from the king, for their own preservation,
"even to receive conditions from the enemy, which must be much more
contrary to his interests, than to receive helps from any other to resist
them, almost upon any terms."--Clanric. 33, 34. There is in the collection
of letters by Carte, one from Ormond to Clanricard written after the battle
of Worcester, in which that nobleman says that it will be without
scruple his advice, that "fitting ministers be sent to the pope, and apt
ind