ganising an army. The Catholics of the whole kingdom had joined a
confederation, which held its meetings at Kilkenny. A general assembly
was convened for October 23, 1642. The peerage was represented by
fourteen lords and eleven bishops. Generals were appointed for each
of the other provinces, Preston for Leinster, Barry for Munster, and
Burke for Connaught. With the Anglo-Irish portion of the confederacy
the war was Catholic, and the object religious liberty. With them
there was no antipathy or animosity to the English. There was the
Pope's Nuncio and his party, thinking most of papal interests, and
there was the national party, who had been, or were likely to be,
made landless. The king, then at Oxford, was importuned by the
confederation on the one side and the Puritans on the other; one
petitioning for freedom of worship, the other for the suppression of
popery. Pending these appeals there was a long cessation between the
Irish belligerents.

Ormond had amused the confederates with negotiations for a permanent
peace and settlement, from spring till midsummer, when Charles,
dissatisfied with these endless delays, dispatched to Ireland a more
hopeful ambassador. This was Herbert, Earl of Glamorgan, one of the
few Catholics remaining among the English nobility, son and heir to
the Marquis of Worcester, and son-in-law to Henry O'Brien, Earl of
Thomond. Of a family devoutly attached to the royal cause, to which
it is said they had contributed not less than 200,000 l., Glamorgan's
religion, his rank, his Irish connections, the intimate confidence of
the king which he was known to possess, all marked out his embassy as
one of the utmost importance.

The earl arrived in Dublin about August 1, and, after an interview
with Ormond, proceeded to Kilkenny. On the 28th of that month,
preliminary articles were agreed to and signed by the earl on behalf
of the king, and by Lords Montgarrett and Muskerry on behalf of the
confederates. It was necessary, it seems, to get the concurrence of
the Viceroy to these terms, and accordingly the negotiators on both
sides repaired to Dublin. Here Ormond contrived to detain them ten
long weeks in discussions on the articles relating to religion; it
was the 12th of November when they returned to Kilkenny, with a much
modified treaty. On the next day, the 13th, the new Papal Nuncio,
a prelate who, by his rank, his eloquence, and his imprudence, was
destined to exercise a powerful influence on th