[Sidenote: Ulster and Leinster irreconcilable.]
'Besides the hatred of the generals,' Digby wrote from the midst of Rinuccini's partisans, 'their men have a greater animosity one against another, than those at Dublin have against either.' But for this the capital might probably have been taken, for the defences were very weak, ammunition was scarce, and famine was always in sight. The fortifications were, however, repaired as well as possible, the ladies, with the Marchioness of Ormonde at their head, setting an example to the citizens by carrying baskets of earth. Ormonde had destroyed the bridges over the Liffey, and the mills, so that the Irish had great difficulties about food. Negotiations were opened by the Lord Lieutenant with the Ulster Scots, but they ended in nothing, for the survivors of Benburb were too few and too much discouraged to play an active part. Colonel George Monro, whose Royalist proclivities were doubtless known to Ormonde, apologised for his enforced inactivity. The Lord Lieutenant suggested that 500 Scots should come to Dublin, but the officers did not see their way to go so far south, though they were willing to act as a garrison for Drogheda. The Lord Lieutenant was not likely to accept such an offer, for Drogheda was in no danger. Negotiations had also been opened with the Parliament, whose fleet lay out in the bay. Sir Francis Willoughby, Sir Gerald Lowther, Chief Baron, and Sir Paul Davis, clerk of the Council, sailed on Michaelmas Day, and reached London a fortnight later. They were heard by a committee of the Commons, and five commissioners, of whom Sir John Clotworthy was one, reached Dublin on November 12 with power to treat for its surrender. The negotiations lasted for ten days, failing at last mainly because Ormonde would not deliver up the sword of state without actual orders from the King, and thus dissolve the remnant of the Irish Parliament on which the Protestants relied. The other points upon which the Lord Lieutenant insisted and the commissioners failed to satisfy him, were that they could give him no assurance for their estates 'to the Papists who adhered to his Majesty's Government since October 22, 1641'; that the Covenant should not be pressed, nor the Book of Common Prayer suppressed; and that official vested interests should be preserved. Ormonde was perhaps less anxious to come to terms because the mere appearance of the commissioners had averted the danger of a siege, and because he had been allowed to procure powder from the Parliamentary ships. The supplies intended for Dublin were carried by Clotworthy and his colleagues to Ulster.[101]