A TRUE REPORT OF THE LATE GOOD SUCCESS IN IRELAND.  
From thence received in London, May 2. 1642.  
LONDON: Printed by Matthew Simmons. 1642.   

DUBLIN the 20th of April 1642. GOOD SIR;  
I Wrote you a Letter by Mrs James, a Gentlewoman by way of London, and enclosed the same unto my Brother, acquainting you with the going forth of our Army, and some other passages then happening, since which, here is come to pass (blessed be God) that which is worthily to be taken notice of, concerning the proceed of our Army; which as yet I must omit, giving you to understand what happened before, viZ. the 15 of April came in my Lord Moor with his Troop, consisting of 130 Horse, and brought with him Sir Theadoras' Duffs son and heir prisoner from Dundalke, and some others, they were found there at the taking thereof.  
The same day came the Rebels and played their pranks about Dublin, they burned two or three Houses about Tallow, and the same night came some of them to the end of Newstreet in the Suburbs, and doubtless intended to have burnt it, but were discovered, and put off. The sixth they came again, and burned some places about Donnibrook, within a mile of Dublin, and carried away some Cattle; the same night they came with about fifty foot and some horse, and burnt two Houses in Kilmaynham, and set fire in divers other Houses, but running away again suddenly, the fire was quenched, but the two Houses were burnt to the ground, and that is but a mile and half from St James gate in Dublin. The night following they burned Robuck, a very fair House, built by Alderman Smith of this City, two miles off: but my Lord Lambert who was left Governor of our City in St Charles Coats absence, went forth the seventh, and took (as is reported) some of them that burned Kilmaynham, and killed & hanged them, and as many more as they mere withal, not sparing young or old; He did very good service that day, as is reported, and returned again before night came. After that came Post to Town (from Dunshoghan, a Castle where we have a slender Garrison to keep the Castle four miles hence,) who reported there were 1000 Rebels there, and that night we had a very strait watch kept here, and a strong watch without the City, but thanks be to God we hear no more of such a great number about Dublin. The 14 of April came unto our Harbour two Troops of Horse, and 15th three Troops, and the 16th two Troops, in all seven Troops of Horse, which was a very great rejoicing of our hearts; For we stood in very great need of men and money, and here arrived ten thousand pounds, but God knows what need we have of it, & a great deal more; if any thing undo us, & all our proceed, it will be the want of money, and provision, for our provision which is but very little left; for the Enemy burns on the one side, and our Soldiers on the other, that it will make a great scarcity, if we have not a speedy supply out of England. I do not think that this City hath Corn and Malt for one month for all that are in it, neither do I know from whence it is possible to fetch so much more from any place of the Kingdom by Land, as the times are, and the next going forth of our Army, will be the consuming (of what is yet left) by fire; and for money, what we have lent the Soldiers to pay for their diet, and what we have lent besides to pay the Soldiers withal, which the Lords Justices had from us, we are quite out of money, but we have not to buy any thing, if it were to be had for money; for this is every honest man's resolution amongst us, rather to go half clothed, and with a hungry belly, then to have the service of God, the service of the King, and the service of the Country neglected, but we have a true Proverb, ultro posse non est esse, a man can do no more than what lies in him to do. I hope that England will not see us want, we have found great and good tokens of their affections to the cause in hand.  
And to come to the business that I chief intended to acquaint you withal, touching our Army that went forth, I will only touch upon the chief heads, according to the truest Relation: You may conceive it must be various, as it is received from many, all men not being eye-witnesses to every particular passage; but wherein I find most to agree I shall declare unto you, for all do agree in the main business I wrote you before, of our Armies going forth, and coming unto a Castle a mile from the Nase about twelve miles hence, they beset the Castle, and from it some of our men were slain, and others wounded; at length our Soldiers (as they have approved themselves ever valiant) made to the Castle gate, and came within the Castle walls, and coming toward the inner gate, were not able to get that open, but undermining the wall, they set a barrel of powder & match to it, within a short time blew up the Castle, there they got some booty. And from thence they came to the Nase, where they entered without any to oppose them: from thence went toward Artly, which is 27 miles from hence, where the Rebels the night before made an assault against the Town, and the Townsmen for the safety of themselves were forced to set many of the dwelling houses on fire, and kept themselves in the Castles, and thence put off the Enemy with their Muskets; it seems there were false Brethren amongst them, (as I think there are few Papists but are Rebels in heart) yet we have many of them in our Army, for Sir Charles Coot hanged up the Sovereign of the Town and some others, for their kind entertaining of him; there was Colonel Craford left with six hundred of his Regiment, whiles my Lord of Ormond & Sir Charles Coot went with the rest of our Army to the Fort of Lease to relieve it, and in their absence the Rebels thinking to set on Colonel Crafford, assayed to repair a Bridge some three miles from the Town, which the Townsmen had broken down, and because they could not get over, they assayed to go over by Cott (which is a kind of a Boat) but were valiantly put off by our Soldiers: from the Fort of Lease some of our Soldiers went to Mountrath, and by the way they met with several Companies of the Rebels, and were once in great danger of losing of men, but thanks be to God they lost very few, only some horses, for the Rebels have made themselves strong places thereabouts, in Bogges, where our Horse cannot come near them. From thence they returned after some few days, (the sooner because our Army wanted victuals) and came again to Artly, leaving men and ammunition at the Fort, and going from Artly they left a Garrison of 300 men there, (besides what were there before) and came homeward, and about a mile from thence as they marched, they perceived a very great Army of foot and horse of the Rebels within two miles of our Army, and as our Army and Carriage marched along, so did they the same way, and were at length nearer, so that the one Army and the other marched together about four miles, there being a little valley between them: Each striving for one passage, which had they taken it, it would have much endangered our Army, but before they or we came together, there was a desire of each side to have a Battle, in some convenient field; and within a mile and half from Mr Pearce Fits Gerralds Castle called Balleshanon, the Armies joined Battle, the Enemies had, as some affirm fiftie-two Colours, some fiftie-five Colours; it was related by one of them that were taken, that they had sixty-two hundred foot, and seven Troops of Horse, but for their Horse I believe they were not all Soldiers, but did all they could to make a show, whether they were Soldiers or such as followed the Campe. And for Commanders they had in chief my Lord Mountgarret, my Lord Dunboyne, my Lord of Icaren, Lord Roagnald, and some other Lords, and besides my Lord of Ormonds' Brother, Colonel Bourne, and many more Commanders of the County of Wicklowe, but I understand that their Army was not there which consists of 8000 more which were to come the next day, as themselves reported, but I know it not, and hardly believe that they have so many more in one Army, but our Army expected a second Battle. Their Army being drawn up into several bodies, very well ordered, and came at first valiantly on, and having the hill, the wind, & ditches to entrench themselves, they gave a very fierce onset, and Colonel Craffords Regiment gave them battle; it was not needful to command our Soldiers to go on, they were forward enough of themselves: upon the onset our Ordnance went off, but hurt not a man of them, for I believe the Gunners were much mistaken in the ground, however it struck some terror, and the fierceness of our men's coming on, and the multitude of the shot that our men made upon them, made them within half an hour to retire to the Bog, which was nigh them, where our Horse ventured as far after them as they could; there were slain of them on the Hill and in the Bog above 600 men, our Soldiers recovered all their Carriage from them loaden with provision, & some powder, there was taken from them that day some 8 bags of powder, each containing about an English peck one with another, but little else of any consequence, only 5 Colours and a great number of Pikes, and some Muskets, and Fowling pieces, but what number I cannot learn, but I understand they had above 1000 Muskets & Fowling pieces in their Army; and in viewing of the dead bodies they took three heads and brought them home, which are thought to be Colonel Cavenagh his head, he is a near kinsman to Sir Morgan Cavenagh of the County of Wicklowe, Sergeant Major Bournes head, and the head of one Butler, thought to be the son of my Lord of Icarin. This battle was fought on Friday last, being the 15th of April, about 3 of the Clock in the afternoon the battle begun, and it was two hours after until our Horsemen returned from pursuing the Rebels: On Saturday the 16 came our Army bacl to the Nase in safety, with loss of a very few men. In the great Battle we lost only 3 men, but some run away to the Rebels, of which I hear there were 8, three troopers and 5 footmen. At the Nase Sir Charles Coot yet remains with his own Regiment, and some of our English, and 3 pieces of Ordnance, and on Sunday the 21 in the afternoon came the rest of our Army home in great triumph & joy, for the good mercy of God toward them and us. We cannot hear from Monster further than our Army went we can get no intelligence, neither did we hear from our Army all the while they were out, until the Saturday they came next day, only once when our men had taken the Castle by the Nase, some of our men were coming home wounded and were met by the Rebels, and slain. But from Carrickfargus (as in the vulgar name) Knockfargus, we understand that on Sunday the 3 April my Lord Mountro with 2500 Soldiers were landed, and the eighth 1000 more Scots men before my Lords coming thither, it is uncredible how cruel the Scots were there against the Protestants, they regarded neither English nor Irish, nor the Ministers themselves, but upon my Lords coming over they are fled that did the wrong, I pray God grant us unity amongst ourselves, and then I doubt not but the enemy will soon be brought under, but not until we have men enough to lay Garrisons abroad, that we have them on every side, what excessive expense would it have, to preserve so much Corn as is sown in the Country, might it fall to our Soldier's lot to reap the same, what charges and adventure by Sea, what carriage to and fro in the Country, it will be an excessive charge to the King to carry all provision hence three or four score miles into the Country. In brief, a little expedition now will gain profit much hereafter, and save us from all fears of foreign Invasion. We hear of great matters in England, great summe● presented on the Rebel's Land, we see it only printed in a piece of payer as yet, I hope to have it in very deed. In the mean time, we want it, and we are afraid we shall more want it ere i● come, and provision of Corn much more, for wind and tide waits no man's leisure. I have seen a Declaration set forth by his Majesty touching divers great matters, at which I greatly rejoice, hoping that there will be a renewed affection between his Majesty and the people, according to the old Proverb, The falling out of Lovers, is the renewing of love, which I pray God we may truly and hearty pray for continually. Thus humbly craving leave, I rest  
Your dutiful Son till death R. C.  
FINIS.