men no sooner appeared,
but the Enemy quitted the Walls of the Town; which our men perceiving,
ran violently upon the Town with their ladders, and stormed it. And when
they were come into the market-place, the Enemy making a stiff
resistance, our forces brake them; and then put all to the sword that
came in their way. Two boatfuls of the Enemy attempting to escape, being
overprest with numbers, sank; whereby were drowned near three hundred of
them. I believe, in all, there was lost of the Enemy not many less than
Two-thousand; and I believe not Twenty of yours from first to last of
the Siege. And indeed it hath, not without cause, been deeply set upon
our hearts, That, we intending better to this place than so great a
ruin, hoping the Town might be of more use to you and your Army, yet
God would not have it so; but by an unexpected providence, in His
righteous justice, brought a just judgment upon them; causing them to
become a prey to the Soldier--who in their piracies had made preys of so
many families, and now with their bloods to answer the cruelties which
they have exercised upon the lives of divers poor Protestants!

"This Town is now so in your power, that of the former inhabitants, I
believe scarce one in twenty can challenge any property in their houses.
Most of them are run away, and many of them killed in this service. And
it were to be wished that an honest people would come and plant here."

The blow that had desolated Drogheda and Wexford did not need to be
repeated. Ross was taken; the Munster garrisons--Cork, Kinsale, and
others--joined the Commonwealth. And within three months of Cromwell's
march from Dublin, the whole of the towns on the eastern and southern
sides of Ireland, except Waterford and some others, were reduced to the
Parliament. Waterford resisted them; a wet winter set in; and with the
wet, dysentery and fever. Cromwell fell ill; many officers sickened;
General Jones died. "What England lost hereby is above me to speak,"
wrote the general. "I am sure I lost a noble friend and companion in
labors. You see how God mingles out the cup to us. Indeed we are at this
time a crazy company: yet we live in His sight; and shall work the time
that is appointed us, and shall rest after that in peace."

After a short rest, on January 29th Cromwell was again in the field. He
passed into the heart of the island--into Kilkenny and Tipperary;
Clogheen, Castletown, Fethard, Callan, Cashel, Cahir, Kilkenny,