James II
before they had inflicted on their enemies.24 The new judges, however, were honourably conspicuous in discouraging these prosecutions, and a proclamation of the Lord Lieutenant and Council soon quieted apprehensions which had at first seemed by no means groundless.25
The conduct of the army afforded still graver cause for dissatisfaction. Even had the attitude of the colonists been more conciliatory it would have been difficult to prevent troops levied under such circumstances from exhibiting some signs of lawless and insolent triumph. The insults which they received from the Protestant party and the outrageous brutality of the disbanded Cromwellians made it impossible to restrain them26; and the murder of a Catholic gentleman named Keating by Captain Ashton, one of the officers who had been cashiered, soon roused the passions of both parties to madness. Ashton was brought to trial before the court of King's Bench in Dublin. "Great care was taken to have a good jury, and very worthy men of both religions were indifferently returned upon the panel." The prisoner "excepted against as many as the law allowed him, which were all Roman Catholics; but the rest, who were very honest men, regarded nothing but the evidence and their oath, and, being satisfied with the proofs they
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