Note 90 — Chapter XXVII · THE ORMONDE PEACE, 1646

All the contemporary accounts mention O’Neill’s short speech, which evidently made a great impression. None say whether it was in English or Irish. The ‘British Officer’ has been followed in the text, ‘MacArt spoke in the front of his own men these words, as I was told, or to that effect.’ The much longer speech in the Aphorismical Discovery is obviously a mere grammarian’s figment containing allusion to Gratian, Hannibal, Scipio, Plutarch, Polybius, the Maccabees, etc. The number of Monro’s army are given from his account, but the ‘British Officer’ thinks the foot were near 5000. The numbers of the Irish are from O’Neill’s journal, and O’Mellan says nearly the same.