of his boot, and he went into a shoemaker's shop and he gave him half a
sovereign for nothing but to put the tip on the boot, for he saw he was
poor and had a big family. And more than that, when he was going away he
took out three sovereigns and gave them to the blacksmith, and he looked
at one of the little chaps, and he said 'That one will be in command of
the whole of England.' 'Oh, that cannot be,' said the blacksmith, 'where
I am poor and have not the means to do anything for him.' 'It will be as
I tell you,' said he, 'and write me out now a docket,' he said, 'that
if ever that youngster will come to command Ireland, he will give me a
free leg.' So the docket was made out, and he brought it away with him.
And sure enough, the shoemaker's son listed, and was put at the head of
soldiers, and got the command of England, and came with his soldiers to
put down Ireland. And Howley saw them coming and he tied his
handkerchief to the top of his stick, and when Cromwell saw that, he
halted the army, 'For there is some poor man in distress,' he said. Then
Howley showed him the docket his father had written. 'I will do some
good thing for you on account of that,' said Cromwell; 'and go now to
the top of that high cliff,' he said, 'and I'll give as much land as you
can see from it.' And so he did give it to him. It was no wonder Howley
to have known the shoemaker's son would be in command and all would
happen him, because of his mother that got knowledge in the years she
was in the forth. That is the trace of Cromwell. I heard it at a wake,
and I would believe it, and if I had time to put my mind to it, and if I
was not on the road from Loughrea to Ballyvaughan, I could give you the
foundations of it better."


CROMWELL'S LAW

"I'll tell you about Cromwell and the White Friars. There was a White