divided between these two parties,--O'Neill belonging to the old Irish
interest, and Preston to the new. He also mentions the manner in which
this difference of feeling extended to the lower classes, and
particularly to those who served in the army.[482]

I have given this lengthened extract from Rinuccini's report, because,
with all the advantages of looking back upon the times and events, it
would be impossible to explain more clearly the position of the
different parties. It remains only to show how these unfortunate
differences led to the ruin of the common cause.

The Confederates now began to be distinguished into two parties, as
Nuncionists and Ormondists. Two sets of negotiations were carried on,
openly with Ormonde, and secretly with Glamorgan. The Nuncio, from the
first, apprehended the treachery of Charles, and events proved the
correctness of his forebodings. Glamorgan produced his credentials,
dated April 30th, 1645, in which the King promised to ratify whatever
terms he might make; and he further promised, that the Irish soldiers,
whose assistance he demanded, should be brought back to their own
shores, if these arrangements were not complied with by his master.
Meanwhile a copy of this secret treaty was discovered on the Archbishop
of Tuam, who had been killed at Sligo. It was used as an accusation
against the King. Glamorgan was arrested in Dublin, and the whole scheme
was defeated.

The General Assembly met in Kilkenny, in January, 1646, and demanded the
release of Glamorgan. He was bailed out; but the King disowned the
commission, as Rinuccini had expected, and proved himself thereby
equally a traitor to his Catholic and Protestant subjects. Ormonde took
care to foment the division between the Confederate party, and succeeded
so well that a middle party was formed, who signed a treaty consisting
of thirty articles. This document only provided for the religious part
of the question, that Roman Catholics should not be bound to take the
oath of supremacy. An Act of oblivion was passed, and the Catholics were
to continue to hold their possessions until a settlement could be made
by Act of Parliament. Even in a political point of view, this treaty was
a failure; and one should have thought that Irish chieftains and
Anglo-Irish nobles had known enough of Acts of Parliament to have
prevented them from confiding their hopes to such an uncertain future.

The division of the command in the Confederate army h