hese the Protestant fugitives found succour
and protection. Before their flight they were in such terror that,
according to the Rev. Dr. Maxwell, rector of Tynan, for three nights
no cock was heard to crow, no dog to bark. The city of London sent
four ships to Londonderry with all kinds of provisions, clothing,
and accoutrements for several companies of foot, and abundance
of ammunition. The twelve chief companies sent each two pieces of
ordnance. No doubt these liberal and seasonable supplies contributed
materially to keep the city from yielding to the insurgent forces by
which it was besieged.

Meantime the Government in Dublin lost not a moment in taking the
most effectual measures for crushing the rebellion. Lord Ormond, as
lieutenant-general, had soon at his disposal 12,000 men, with a fine
train of field artillery, provided by Strafford for his campaign in
the north of England. The king, who was in Scotland, procured the
dispatch of 1,500 men to Ulster; and authorised Lords Chichester and
Clandeboye to raise regiments among their tenants. Thus the 'Scottish
army' was increased to about 5,000 foot, with cavalry in proportion.
The Irish, on the other hand, were ill-provided with arms and
ammunition. They were not even provided with pikes, for they had not
time to make them. The military officers counted upon did not appear,
though they had promised to be on the field at fourteen days' notice.
Rory O'Moore, like 'Meagher of the sword' in 1848, had never seen
service; and Sir Phelim O'Neill, like Smith O'Brien, was only a
civilian when he assumed the high-sounding title of 'Lord General of
the Catholic army in Ulster.' He also took the title of 'the O'Neill.'
The massacre of a large number of Catholics by the Carrickfergus
garrison, driving them over the cliffs into the sea at the point of
the bayonet, madly excited the Irish thirst for blood. Mr. Darcy
Magee admits that, from this date forward till the arrival of Owen Roe
O'Neill, the war assumed a ferocity of character foreign to the nature
of O'Moore, O'Reilly, and Magennis. 'That Sir Phelim permitted, if
he did not in his gusts of stormy passion instigate, those acts of
cruelty which have stained his otherwise honourable conduct, is too
true; but he stood alone among his confederates in that crime, and
that crime stands alone in his character. Brave to rashness and
disinterested to excess, few rebel chiefs ever made a more heroic end
out of a more deplorable begi