From Drogheda the conqueror led his men, flushed with slaughter, to the
seige of Wexford. The mayor and governor offered to capitulate; but whilst
their commissioners were treating with Cromwell, an officer perfidiously
opened the castle to the enemy; the adjacent wall was immediately
scaled;[a] and, after a stubborn but unavailing resistance in the
market-place, Wexford was abandoned to the mercy of the assailants. The
tragedy, so recently acted at Drogheda, was renewed. No distinction was
made between the defenceless inhabitant and the armed soldier; nor could
the shrieks and prayers of three hundred females, who had gathered
round the great cross, preserve them from the swords of these ruthless
barbarians. By Cromwell himself, the number of the slain is reduced to two,
by some writers it has been swelled to five, thousand.[1]

Ormond, unable to interrupt the bloody career of his adversary, waited with
impatience for the determination of O'Neil. Hitherto that chieftain had
faithfully performed his engagements with the parliamentary commanders.
He had thrown impediments in the way of the royalists; he had compelled
Montgomery to raise the siege of Londonderry, and had rescued Coote and his
small army, the last hope of the parliament in Ulster, from the fate which
seemed to await them. At first the leaders in London had hesitated, now
after the victory of Rathmines they publicly refused, to ratify the
treaties made with him by their officers.[2] Stung

[Footnote 1: See note (D).]

[Footnote 2: Council Book, Aug. 6, No. 67, 68, 69, 70. Journals, Aug. 10,
24. Walker, ii. 245-248. King's Pamphlets, No. 435, xi.; 437, xxxiii. The
reader must not confound this Owen Roe O'Neil with another of the same
name, one of the regicides, who claimed a debt of five thousand and
sixty-five pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence of the parliament,