[Sidenote: Terms of agreement with Lorraine.]
There was an Irish agent at Paris named Tyrrell, who intrigued with Madame de Chevreuse and the Duchess of Orleans, but even before the battle of Worcester Ormonde saw that the Duke would do nothing serious. 'He must,' he wrote, 'sit down with the loss of 20,000_l._, and they (the Irish) with the state of perfect slavery, the frequent lot of such as affect immoderate power upon weak foundations. The remaining consolation is that, if the King recover England, Ireland will soon follow, without which, if he had it again so peopled as it was, it would be lost.' The agreement was signed on July 2, but was not transmitted to Clanricarde until September, after the news of Worcester had reached Brussels. Taaffe, who had hitherto been so sanguine, now thought that the Duke of Lorraine would be unable to do anything; and, indeed, he had probably no further object but to gain credit at Rome by a show of strong clerical leanings. 'His proposals,' Taaffe wrote, 'discovered more of self-interest than affection to his Majesty.' As far as the agreement could do it, he was constituted the 'true royal protector of Ireland, and this to pass to his heirs and successors.' The army and militia present and future were placed absolutely in his hands, with power in his absence to appoint a substitute 'professing Catholic religion, excluding all other whosoever.' All heretics were to be expelled from Ireland. When these points had been granted, certain provisoes making a show of preserving the royal authority were hardly worth the paper on which they were written. Ormonde, who might easily have been communicated with, never heard of the agreement until a copy was sent back by Clanricarde from Ireland. At the time of its despatch Limerick was closely besieged, and within a few days of surrender, but the corporation of Galway received a direct letter from the Duke of Lorraine, in which he held out hope of further supplies, and claimed their help in carrying out the agreement made with Plunket and Browne. Some powder was sent towards the end of 1651, but it was the 'basest ever seen, not worth 2_s._ a barrel,' yet the Irish were afraid to complain for fear of offending the Duke. In 1652 a very small further supply was sent to Innisbofin. They sent a favourable answer by special messenger, addressing the Duke as royal protector of Ireland, and when the Lord Deputy remonstrated they practically refused to make any excuse. He reported fully to the Queen and to Ormonde, and he could do no more. The latter at least fully understood the matter. The object of the Irish clergy, he said, was to call in a Roman Catholic protector, 'from which office to absolute sovereignty the way is straight and easy,' and they were so intent upon this that they allowed the country to fall into the power of the English rebels.[203]