to Cromwell, through the intervention of
Lord Broghill, son of the Earl of Cork, who became one of the leading
Parliamentary officers. On the 24th of November, Cromwell attempted to
take Waterford; but finding the place too strong for him, he marched on
to Dungarvan. Here the garrison surrendered at discretion, and his
troops proceeded to Cork through Youghal.

The Irish had now begun to distrust Ormonde thoroughly; even the
citizens of Waterford refused to admit his soldiers into their town.
Indeed, the distrust was so general, that he had considerable difficulty
in providing winter quarters for his troops, and he wrote to ask
permission from the exiled King to leave the country. The month of
January, 1650, was spent by Cromwell in continuing his victorious march.
He set out from Youghal on the 29th, and approached as near Limerick as
he dared, taking such castles as lay in his way, and accepting the keys
of Cashel and other towns, where the authorities surrendered
immediately. On the 22nd of March he arrived before Kilkenny, to meet a
resistance as hopeless as it was heroic. A fearful pestilence had
reduced the garrison from 1,200 men to about 400, yet they absolutely
refused to obey the summons to surrender, but, after a brave resistance,
they were obliged to yield; and Cromwell hastened on to Clonmel, where
he had to encounter the most formidable resistance he experienced in his
Irish campaigns. The garrison was commanded by Hugh Dubh O'Neill. The
Bishop of Ross attempted to raise the siege, but was taken and hanged by
Broghill, because he would not desire the defenders of Carrigadrohid to
surrender. The first attack on Clonmel took place on the 9th of May, and
O'Neill determined to resist with the energy of despair, and the full
knowledge of the demon vengeance with which the Puritans repaid such
deeds of valour. When the place was no longer tenable, he withdrew his
troops under cover of darkness; and the English General found next
morning that he had been outwitted, and that nothing remained for his
vengeance but the unfortunate townspeople.

Pressing demands were now made by the Parliament for his return to
England, where the royalists had also to be crushed and subdued; and
after committing the command of his army to Ireton, he sailed from
Youghal, on the 20th of May, leaving, as a legacy to Ireland, a name
which was only repeated to be cursed, and an increase of miseries which
already had seemed incapable of m