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CHAP XXIV

1569 October

for their detention; a few hours later one of them escaped; the other, notwithstanding the safe conduct, was arrested and thrown into the castle.

Amidst the conflicting evidence it is impossible to measure accurately the extent of their real offence. The intention to confiscate three-fourths of Munster and divide it among a number of gentlemen, of whom Carew was the leader, is proved by the English State Papers; and, if Sir Edward Butler murdered Carew's intruding colonists, he could at least plead provocation. Sir Henry Sidney was a high-natured, noble kind of man, fierce and overbearing, yet incapable of deliberate unfairness. A correspondent of Cecil's, who was present when the Butlers appeared before him, remarked 'the singular gravity, the stoutness and wisdom, with which he spoke.' On the other hand, Ormond maintained that Sidney 'sought the overthrow of his family,' that he was himself endangered as well as his brother; and, 'that their cause could have no fair hearing, for that the Lord Deputy himself was their accuser.'1

Mr. George Wise, the correspondent alluded to, was doubtless right in concluding that 'the real cause of the mischief was the Devil, who would not have Ireland reformed.' But the land question, and Sidney's known. views upon it, with the vindictive and ferocious attitude assumed by the English soldiers towards the people, was of considerable moment in furthering the Devil's purposes. For it seems certain that the patience of Sidney and the patience of England generally was worn out; that the Irish were no longer looked upon as subjects of the Crown, to be reclaimed with severity or tenderness, but as having themselves lost their

1 Ormond to Cecil, Oct. 27.-MSS. Ireland.

George Wise to Cecil, Oct. 29. -MSS. Ireland.

rights as citizens by their turbulence, and as deserving only to be hunted down and destroyed.

Sir Peter Carew has been seen murdering women and children, and babies that had scarcely left the breast; but Sir Peter Carew was not called on to answer for his conduct, and remained in favour with the Deputy. Gilbert, who was left in command at Kilmalloch, was illustrating yet more signally the same tendency. Gilbert's instructions were to tread out the sparks of the fire which Sidney had beaten down. His jurisdiction extended over the west of Cork, Kerry, and Limerick. At the end of two months he sent in a report of his proceedings, which were regarded as eminently successful. He supposed himself to have established profound peace. on his knees before him. Kilkenny, and 'Kerry was so quiet that he had but to send his horse-boy for any man and he would come.'

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My manner of dealing,' he wrote, was to show them all that they had more need of her Majesty than she of their service; neither yet that we were afraid of any number of them, our quarrel being so good. I slew all those from time to time that did belong to, feed, accompany, or maintain any outlaws or traitors; and after my first summoning of any castle or fort, if they would not presently yield it, I would not afterwards take it of their gift, but won it perforce, how many lives so ever it cost, putting man, woman, and child of them to the sword. Neither did I spare any malefactors unexecuted that came to my hands in any respect; using all those that I had protected with all courtesy and friendship that I might, being for my part constantly of this opinion that no conquered nation

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CHAP XXIV

1569 December

will ever yield willingly their obedience for love, but rather for fear.'1

The English nation was shuddering over the atrocities of the Duke of Alva. The children in the nurseries were being inflamed to patriotic rage and madness by tales of Spanish tyranny. Yet Alva's bloody sword never touched the young, the defenceless, or those whose sex even dogs can recognise and respect. Nor was Gilbert a bad man. As times went he passed for a brave and chivalrous gentleman, not the least distinguished in that high band of adventurers who carried the English flag into the Western hemisphere; a founder of colonies, an explorer of unknown seas, a man of science, and, above all, a man of special piety. In this very Irish service he displayed signal and splendid courage. He held a ford near Kilmalloch single-handed against a troop of Irish horse, to cover the passage of his people. He regarded himself as dealing rather with savage beasts than with human beings, and when he tracked them to their dens he strangled the cubs and rooted out the entire broods.

And not he only, but Elizabeth's representative, the statesman, the gentleman, the accomplished Sidney, he, too, for these doings could find but words of praise, nay, could scarce find words sufficient to express his admiration of them. For the Colonel,' he wrote to Cecil, 'I cannot say enough.' 'The highways are now made free where no man might travel unspoiled. The gates of cities and towns are now left open, where before they were continually shut or guarded with armed men. There was none that was a rebel of any force but hath submitted himself, entered into bond

1 Humfrey Gilbert to Sir II. Sidney, Dec. 1569.-MSS. Ireland.

and delivered hostages, the arch-rebel, James Fitzmaurice, only except, who is become a bush-beggar, not having twenty knaves to follow him. And yet this is not the most nor the best that he hath done; for the estimation that he hath won to the name of Englishman there, before almost not known, exceedeth all the rest; for he in battle brake so many of them, wherein he showed how far our soldiers in valour surpassed those rebels, and he in his own person any man he had. The name of an Englishman is more terrible now to them than the sight of a hundred was before. For all this, I had nothing to present him with but the honour of knighthood, which I gave him: for the rest, I recommend him to your friendly report.'

1

Sir Henry Sidney was premature in concluding that the troubles of the country were at an end. The Gilbert method of treatment has this disadvantage, that it must be carried out to the last extremity, or it ought not to be tried at all. The dead do not come back; and if the mothers and the babies are slaughtered with the men, the race gives no further trouble; but the work must be done thoroughly; partial and fitful cruelty lays up only a long debt of deserved and everdeepening hate.

In justice to the English soldiers, however, it must be said that it was no fault of theirs if any Irish child of that generation was allowed to live to manhood. One more group of examples shall be mentioned to show what their conduct was. The facts themselves happened two years after Gilbert's doings at Kilmalloch. But it is desirable to bring the subject before the reader with all its distinctive features;

1 Sidney to Cecil, Jan. 4, 1570.-MSS. Ireland.

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the language in which the story about to be related is told, implies even more than it says, and by its commonplace, business-like, and altogether natural tone, indicates rather a deliberate and habitual principle of action than an exceptional outburst of violence.

To the west of the Wicklow mountains, on the frontier of the Pale, a few soldiers were stationed to protect the farmers of Dublin and Kildare. The officer in command, or sergeant-major as he was then called, was a certain Mr. Agard, and he had four other officers under him, Captain Hungerford, Captain George, Lieutenant Parker, and Captain Wingfield. Agard's services were in high esteem with the Government. When it was proposed to appoint a President for Ulster, Sir Humfrey Gilbert was thought of for the post, as being likely to govern the North as Agard governed the O'Birnes and the O'Tooles. In May 1572, a report was sent in by this gentleman of one week's duty, which was endorsed briefly at the castle 'A note of the Sergeant-major his Services since the 16th of May.' At the time to which the report refers there was no open rebellion. The Wicklow marauders had been simply stealing cattle in the Pale, and it was thought desirable to read them a lesson. In the eyes of the Government they were robbers; in their own eyes they were patriots; just as Drake and Hawkins were called by the Spaniards 'pirates,' while to the English they were the champions of Israel sent forth to spoil the Philistines. The principal offenders. were the families of MacHughs, the Eustaces, the Roes, and the Garralds, who inhabited the slopes of Lugnaquilla, and the glens between Lugnaquilla and Croghan Moira, the highest of the Wicklow hills.

1 MSS. Ireland, May 1572.

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