Charles II
Church. Ormond himself could have borne witness to the steady loyalty with which he had supported the royal cause alike against the party of the Nuncio and against the party of the Protector. He had formed part of the royalist garrison which had defended Drogheda against Cromwell; he had escaped almost alone from the hideous butchery which followed the storm, and the scene which he had then witnessed goes far to account for those of his later actions which it is most difficult to defend. Having fled to the continent, he attached himself to the fortunes of the Duke of York, and gained over that prince an influence which was persistently exerted on behalf of his unfortunate countrymen. He now laboured to procure the revision of the obnoxious statutes; and this conduct was the more honourable to him because, having himself acquired a considerable property under the recent settlement, he had much to lose and little to gain by an agrarian revolution.83
The events which brought about the impeachment of Lord Clarendon and the formation of the "Cabal" ministry belong not to Irish but to English history. But the strong ties of political sympathy and personal friendship which united Ormond to the fallen Chancellor, and the growing influence of the Duke of York and of
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