Historical account of the Macdonnells of Antrim

SECOND EARL AND FIRST MARQUIS OF ANTRIM. 263
All this spoliation and oppression had now overtaken the earl of Antrim, for his entire estates,
and everything of value in and around all his places of residence, were in the hands of his greedy and
remorseless foes. Whilstthe latter, however, were higgling about themeans of forwarding their prisoner
to the king, lord Antrim was adroitly set free from their clutches. (See p. 76, supra!) Although, how-
ever, he then escaped from almost certain destruction, he soon afterwards encountered the same, or
even greater peril. Early in 1643, trie king's armies in Ireland under the command of Ormonde
were reduced to great distress, and a cessation of arms with the Confederate Irish became a matter
of absolute necessity. This necessity was most urgently pressed in a letter from the lords-justices
addressed to the king, on the nth of May, 1643. To promote such object, lord Antrim was
specially commissioned by Charles I. to return to Ireland, with letters and instructions on the subject.
That such was his only object in returning to Ulster, so soon after his escape, is evident from the
statements of himself, and Archibald Stewart, when both were under examination before Monro
and a council of war, at Carrickfergus, on the 12th of June, 1643. Cm l° r d Antrim were found
letters and papers from the Scottish noblemen, Aboyne and Nithsdale, (21) urging him to send
troops to Scotland. These letters, when returned by Monro to the covenanting authorities, were
considered sufficient evidence against their authors, who were forthwith outlawed, and their pro-
perty forfeited by the Scottish parliament. Monro, also, wrote on this occasion to the members of
" the Irish Committee of the Parliament of England," boastfully referring to his second capture of
Antrim. This committee published Monro's letter with a high-sounding and deceptive title-page,
which announces " his taking of the Earl of Antrim, about whom was found divers papers, which
discovered a dangerous Plot against the Protestants in all his Majesty's dominions : their plot being
set down, by consent of the Queen's Ma'' e , for the ruin of religion and overthrow of his Majesty's
three kingdoms." The plot which was to work all this mischief was the Cessation (see p. 79,
supra) — an excellent arrangement, which had been strenuously recommended by the lords-justices
and by the Irish privy council. The first sentence in Monro's letter to this committee is the fol-
lowing : — " Expect nothing from your Honours' real and faithful servant in this adverse time, but
what brings comfort." Referring to lord Antrim, the writer goes on with his comforting news as
follows : — " It was my good fortune in time of treaty there, to trust a bark come from the Isle of
Man with that treacherous Papist, the Earl of Antrim ; whose brother Alexander was sent before to
the Queen's Majesty from York, to make way for the Earl in negotiating betwixt her Majesties
army in the North of England, and the Papists on the borders and the North parts thereof, and
with the rebels in Ireland." The letter concludes thus : — " The Earl of Antrim shall, God willing,
be kept close in the castle of Carrickfergus till I be acquainted from your Honours concerning him ;
and the traitor that conveyed him last away is to be executed, since we can extort no discovery
from him that is contained in the papers sent to Scotland." (See Reid's History of the Presbyterian
Church, vol. i., pp. 409, 410.) Monro's intelligence was also published in Scotland under the title
(21) Aboyne and Nithsdale. — Viscount Aboyne, second of Nithsdale. The jealousies that . existed among the
son of the marquis of Huntly, distinguished himself as a royalist nobles, especially between the earls of Crawford
royalist, although never cordially co-operating with Mont- and Nithsdale, seriously compromised the cause which
rose. He died in exile soon after the execution of they were anxious to sustain.
Charles I. Robert, eighth lord Maxwell, was first earl