intended against our sovereign lord the king, nor hurt of any
of his subjects, either English or Scotch; but only for the defence
and libertie of ourselves and the Irish natives of this kingdom. And
we further declare that whatsoever hurt hitherto hath been done to
any person shall be presently repaired; and we will that every person
forthwith, after proclamation hereof, make their speedy repaire unto
their own houses, under paine of death, that no further hurt be done
unto any one under the like paine, and that this be proclaimed in all
places.

'PHELIM O'NEILL.

'At Dungannon, the 23rd October, 1641.'

It is easy for an insurgent chief to give such orders to a tumultuous
mass of excited, vindictive, and drunken men, but not so easy to
enforce them. The common notion among Protestants, however, that a
midnight massacre of all the Protestant settlers was intended, or
attempted, is certainly unfounded. Though horrible outrages were
committed on both sides, the number of them has been greatly
exaggerated. Mr. Prendergast quotes some contemporary authorities,
which seem to be decisive on this point. In the same year was
published by 'G.S., minister of God's word in Ireland,' 'A Brief
Declaration of the Barbarous and Inhuman Dealings of the Northern
Irish Rebels ...; written to excite the English Nation to relieve
our poor Wives and Children that have escaped the Rebels' savage
Cruelties.'

This author says, it was the intention of the Irish to massacre all
the English. On Saturday they were to disarm them; on Sunday to seize
all their cattle and goods; on Monday, at the watchword 'Skeane,' they
were to cut all the English throats. The former they executed; the
third only (that is the massacre) they failed in.

That the massacre rested hitherto in intention only is further evident
from the proclamation of the lords justices of February 8, 1642;
for, while offering large sums for the heads of the chief northern
gentlemen in arms (Sir Phelim O'Neill's name heading the list with
a thousand pounds), the lords justices state that the massacre had
failed. Many thousands had been robbed and spoiled, dispossessed of
house and lands, many murdered on the spot; but the chief part of
their plots (so the proclamation states), and amongst them a universal
massacre, had been disappointed.

But, says Mr. Prendergast, after Lord Ormond and Sir Simon Harcourt,
with the English forces, in the month of April, 1642, had burned the