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Show C00TE THE BUTCHER ATROCIOUS YORK OF THIS ELOOD-THIRSTY ELOOD-THIRSTY RASCAL. Whole Connties In Ireland Depopulated Depopu-lated by the Ilrntal Murderer. Shot Dead While Performing an Act of Sacrilege. , One of the principal officers of the army sent over to Ireland by Elizabeth under tlu? command of Lord Mountjoy in 1G0O, after the Earl of Essex's failure fail-ure to subdue the country, was Sir Charles Coote, says The Irish World, j For the "eminent services" rendered in ! plundering, robbing and slaughtering j the Irish Coote was appointed provost I marshal and afterward vice president 1 of Connaught. In 1(520 he became a i member of the privy council and was j knighted. He received large grants of land, principally in Connaught, out of which he had an income of 4,000 per annum. When the patriotic rising took place in 1G41, Coote hastened to display dis-play his "loyalty" by raising a considerable consid-erable body of troops and soon distinguished distin-guished himself. His first act was to go to the relief of tho castle of Wick-low, Wick-low, which was besieged by the patriots. pa-triots. Shortly after the lords justices appointed ap-pointed Coote to the command of troops in Dublin and its immediate neighborhood. neighbor-hood. He was so violent Ifr'his fury, as a rule, he-was quite beside himself with' rage, and he appeared to those about him to enjoy the use of his reason rea-son only at rare intervals. When summoned sum-moned before the council in DuLlin to receive the command of the tr'j&i's, he insisted on taking the oath in pagan fashion, putting his hand on a naked sword and musket which were placed on the table before him, and he swore that he would not desist from prosecuting prosecut-ing the war until all the Irish were cut off. In Coote's excursions in the counties of Dublin and Wicklow the aged and helpless and infirm, unable to save themselves by flight, were massacred in cold blood. When the poor people were found to have concealed themselves them-selves in the firs and brushwood, the soldiers used to form a cordon all around and then set fire to the firs, putting put-ting all to death with savage delight. The officers declared that thus to pursue pur-sue the Irish was the same sport and amusement to them as to hunt the wild beasts. The barbarous deeds of cruelty perpetrated per-petrated by the Puritan soldiery led by Coote and his associates are thus vividly described in a work entitled "The Politician's Catechism," published publish-ed in 1(8 by Father Peter Talbot, afterward aft-erward archbishop of Dublin: "Witness their inarches about Dublin, where the inhabitants were all of English extraction ex-traction and spoke no other language but the ancient Saxon. There are very few of that once populous country call-i call-i ed Fingal left alive. All perished by i fire and sword, being a most innocent people, their only crime being that they j were Catholics.. In the march of the Protestant army to the county of Wicklow Wick-low man, woman and child were killed. In another inarch into the same shire j one Master Comain, an aged gentle-i gentle-i man, who never bore arms, was roast-i roast-i ed alive by one Captain Gines (Guin-! (Guin-! ness) yea, they murdered all that came in their way from within two miles of Dublin. j "In a march into the county of Kil-dare Kil-dare on or about February, 1G42, some of the officers went into Mrs. Eustace of Cradogstan's house, a sister of Sir William Talbot, of SO years of age, who, being unable to shun them, entertained enter-tained them with meat and drink. After Aft-er dinner herself and anqther old gentlewoman gen-tlewoman and a girl of 8 years of age were murdered by the said Protestant officers. "Seven or eight hundred women and children, plowmen and laborers were burued and murdered in a day in the i king's tract, a tract within seven miles ' of Dublin, where neither murder nor pillage had been committed on theProt- ! i estauts. Whensoever the army went j ! abroad, the poor country people did be- JIURDFR OF BISHOP OF TUASI. take themselves to the furze, where the Protestant officers did besiege them aud set the furze on fire. Such as shunned and escaped that element were killed by the besieging army, and this they termed a 'hunting,' sporting themselves with the blood of innocents. These barbarous and savage cruelties were ordinary not only near Dublin, but in all other parts of the kingdom." One of the English officers, named Tichbourne. who commanded in Dun-dalk Dun-dalk in 1042. was able to boast that in his district "there was neither man nor beast to b; found in 1G miles between the towns of Drogheda and Dundalk, nor on the other side of the Dundalk, in the county of Monaghan, nearer than Carrickmacross." Another writer writ-er states that "the Puritans of the north shot down the Catholics as wild beasts and made it their special delight de-light .to imbrue their swords in the' hearts' blood of all the male children." When in April, 1G42. the Earl of Clanrickard induced the citizens of Galway to' submit and took them under un-der the king's protection, he received a reprimand from the lords justices, declaring that he should have perse-j euted them .."with fire and - sword." j Moreover, to prevent like clemency for the future, "they issued a general order or-der to the commanders of all garrisons not to presume to hold any correspondence correspond-ence or treaty with any of the Irish j papists dwelling or residing in any place near or about their garrisons, or to give protection, immunity oc dispen-l dispen-l sation from spoil, burning o? other j prosecution of war, to any of them, but to persecute all such rebels with fire and sword, according to former commands and proclamations iu that behalf." Sir Charles Coote was one of the leading champions of Puritanism in Ireland, and of him in particular and his associate officers McGeochan W HANGING BISHOP MACMAHOJf. writes: "There were no exceptions In the barbarous orders which they gave to their soldiery when letting them loose to make their bloody hunts auioug the Irish Catholics." Yet far was the parliament from reproving the conduct of this sanguinary monster, and when he was slain at Trim, in April, 1G42, we are informed by Bor-Iase Bor-Iase that "floods of English tears accompanied ac-companied him to the grave." The manner of his death ia thus described: de-scribed: At Trim there were two very beautiful statues of SS. Teter and Paul which were held in great veneration. These Coote caused to be hewn in pieces and thrown into the fire. There was also a very ancient image of Our Blessed Lady, engraved in wood, which met the fate of the other statue, stat-ue, a the instigation of Sir Charles, "thaLiie might provoke the Catholics to resent the insult so that he might burn the town." While he was seated in a chair watching the burning of the three statues it was announced that a body of Irish troops was at hand, and before he could quit the spot he was shot dead. Another instance of the cruelty of Sir Charles Coote is thus related: no received re-ceived an order from the council ia Dublin in 1G41 to proceed to County Wicklow against the O'Bvrnes. "nis i troops killed all that came in their way, both man, woman and child nay, they j would murder' women in their very j travail." One of his troopers carried on the point of his spear the head of a little babe which he cut off after killing kill-ing the poor mother, "which Coote observing ob-serving said that he was mightily pleased with many such frolics." The younger Sir Charles Coote rivaled rival-ed his father in those deeds of cruelty. He commanded the army in muster at the time of the death of Owen Roe O'Neill. The author of the Alithinolo-gia' Alithinolo-gia' attests that as soon as this Irish leader, the only check to his ravages, was removed he acted like another Attila. devastating the provinces of Ulster and Connaught and spreading desolation everywhere, "massacring the inhabitants, destroying the sacred edifices and putting to death the clergy." |