But he continued to issue his mandates in defiance of their orders and
threats; nor was it till after the new pacification between Charles and the
confederates had been published, and the execution of the king had fixed
the public opinion on the pernicious result of his counsels,[a] that shame
and apprehension drove him from Ireland to France,[b] whence, after a few
months, he was recalled to Rome.

The negotiation between Ormond and the Catholics had continued for three
months;[c] in January the danger which threatened the royal person induced
the latter to recede from their claims, and trust to the future gratitude
and honour of their sovereign. They engaged to maintain at their own
expense an army of seventeen thousand five hundred men, to be employed
against the common enemy; and the king, on his part, consented that the
free exercise of the Catholic worship should be permitted; that twelve
commissioners of trust appointed by the assembly should aid the
lord-lieutenant in the internal administration; that the Court of Wards and
several other grievances should be abolished; that a parliament should be
called as soon as the majority of commissioners might deem it expedient,
and in that parliament the persecuting laws on the subject of religion,
with others injurious to the trade and commerce

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 17.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Jan. 30.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Feb. 23.]

of Ireland, should be repealed, and the independence of the Irish on the
English parliament should be established.[1]

The royal interest was now predominant in Ireland. The fleet under Prince