His ablest officers confirmed his testimony, [631] One of them, indeed, was so unjust as to represent the people of Ireland not merely as ignorant and idle, which they were, but as hopelessly stupid and unfeeling, which they assuredly were not.

The English policy, he said, had so completely brutalised them, that they could hardly be called human beings.

They were insensible to praise and blame, to promises and threats.

And yet it was pity of them; for they were physically the finest race of men in the world, [632] By this time Schomberg had opened the campaign auspiciously.

He had with little difficulty taken Charlemont, the last important fastness which the Irish occupied in Ulster.