216 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. not, at first, in the secret pretended to blame thel-v. insurection, and to detest the barbarity, withjetr- wh.'ch it was accompanied By their protesta-tions and declarations, they engaged the justicesto supply them with arms, which they promisedto employ in defence of the government 40 . Butin a little time, the interests of religion werefound more prevalent over them, than regard andduty to their mother - country. They chose lordGormanstone their leader; and, joining the oldIrish, rivalled them in every act of violence to-wards the Englilh protestants. Besides manysmaller bodies, dispersed over the kingdom, theprincipal army of the rebels amounted to twentythousand men, and threatened Dublin with animmediate siege 4 ‘.

Both the English and Irish rebels conspired inone imposture, with which they seduced manyof their deluded countrymen: They pretendedauthority from the king and queen, but chieflyfrom the latter, for their insurrection ; and theyaffirmed, that the cause of their taking arms wasto vindicate royal prerogative, now invaded bythe puritanical parliament 4 \ Sir Phelim O’Neale,having found a royal patent in lord Caufield’shouse, whom he had murdered, tore off theseal, and affixed it to a commission, which hehad forged for himself 45 .

S * Tepiple, p. ;Rufhworth, vol. v. p. 403,

Temple, p. do. Borlase , Hist. p. 28-

41 Whitlocke, p. 49.

" Rusliworth, vol. v. p. 400, 401,

15 Idem, ibid. p. 403.