'The Lord of Hosts,' wrote Monroe, 'has rubbed shame on our faces till once we are humbled.' O'Neill emblazoned the cross and keys on his banner with the Red Hand of Ulster, and openly resumed the title originally chosen by his adherents at Clones, 'the Catholic Army.' The stage of Irish politics now presented the most extraordinary complications political and military.

The confederation was occupied with endless debates and dissensions.

Commanders changed positions so rapidly, the several causes for which men had been fighting became so confused in the unaccountable scene-shifting, giving glimpses now of the king, now of the commonwealth, and now of the pope, that no one knew what to do, or what was to be the end.

The nuncio went home in disgust that his blessings and his curses, which he dispensed with equal liberality, had so little effect.
At length appeared an actor who gave a terrible unity to the drama of Irish politics.

Cromwell left London in July 1649, 'in a coach drawn by six gallant Flanders mares,' and made a grand progress to Bristol.
He landed at Ring's End, near Dublin, on August 14.