and he was compelled to draw off, and see his prey escape him.1 By desperate efforts he pacified the immediate clamour. Again he surprised Fitzmaurice at Ardagh, and killed thirty wretches who were sleeping in their cabins. He apologised for the smallness of 'the number,' but 'considering their cowardliness, and the careful watch they kept, it was thought as much,' he said, 'to kill thirty in Munster as a thousand in other places.' A month later, the Butlers destroyed a hundred more, sent their heads to rot on the gates of Limerick, and so made a final end of the Scotch invasion.3 12 This success was the last, and the results of Perrot's exertions were soon summed up. He himself had shot and cut in pieces eight hundred Irish, and had drowned some hundreds of Scots. The Butlers during the same time accounted for four hundred. Forty or fifty petty chiefs had been hanged, and as many castles blown up. The supplies were finally stopped, and the troops had now to be disbanded. An intimation was sent to Fitzmaurice that he had now seen that the English could chastise him if they pleased. They hoped he would profit by the lesson; and if he would promise to be a loyal subject for the future, he might now be pardoned. Fitzmaurice was satisfied with conditions which were a confession of a want of power to punish him further, and the President had the satisfaction of seeing the Earl of Desmond's brother on his knees in the mud at his feet. Sir John's temperament was sanguine, and his mode of argument was peculiar. Fitzmaurice was profuse in his declarations that he would never offend 1 Perrot to Fitzwilliam, Sept. 12, Sept. 16, 1572.-Perrot to Cecil, Nov. 2.-MSS. Ireland. 2 Perrot to Cecil, Nov. 2.-MSS. Ireland. 3 Fitzwilliam to Elizabeth, Dec. 1. CHAP XXIV 1572 CHAP XXIV 1572 again; and the President reported that, although he would much have preferred having the rebel's head,' yet as that could not be, he thought verily he would prove a second St. Paul for the service which he was like to do.' So ended the first Presidency of Munster. It would not support its cost, and, unless some plan could be found to govern Ireland which would pay its expenses, Elizabeth seemed contented that Ireland should not be governed. Fitzwilliam declared that he could not remain in office on those terms. Sidney was entreated to return, but Sidney roughly refused. Lord Grey de Wilton was applied to next, but Lord Grey declined also; and when pressed further, 'fell sick from grief of mind' at the fate with which he was threatened. The Viceroyalty of Ireland had become in the eyes of English noblemen a synonym for lost credit, ruined fortune, vexation, disappointment, distraction, madness. No one could be found to undertake it, and Fitzwilliam, therefore, was compelled to stay and drift before the wind, trusting to chance, to the non-arrival of the Spaniards, and to the Earl of Ormond, whose solitary loyalty the new Archbishop of Cashel had done his best to shake by stirring the embers of the Butlers' quarrel. Happily he had not succeeded, and all that Cecil could now do was to furnish Fitzwilliam with advice which it was impossible for him to follow-to recommend him to enforce the Act of Uniformity, which had been one of the causes of the mischief; to curtail the expenses, already pared so low that barely a thousand soldiers now remained in the four provinces; and 'to devise means'-the old story -to increase the revenue.'" 1 Report of the President of Munster, Dec. 8. 2 Memorial for the better govern ment of Ireland, 1572.—MSS. Ireland. But Elizabeth's ministers were not utterly unreasonable. Having failed to crush the Irish, they saw that they must endeavour to conciliate them. The Presidency system was abandoned, and the Irish chiefs resumed their authority. To make the change of policy complete, the Earl of Desmond, who had been sent to London to be arraigned for treason, and whose lands were to have been quartered among the spoilers, was permitted to return to Ireland. Had the confiscations been proceeded with, he would probably have been put out of the way. It was now thought imprudent to detain him longer. He had never from the first been imprisoned except for a few days. He had lived at large on his parole, and the Queen had allowed him six and twenty shillings a-week for his maintenance; but it was too little for his necessities. House-rent had risen heavily in London, for he had to pay twenty shillings a-week for his lodgings,' and he had been in great want and misery.' He told Leicester that often he had not a meal's meat nor a garment to shrowd him in;'2 and long before his confinement was ended, he was ready to promise, if the Queen would let him go, 'to assist in setting forward the Book of Common Prayer,' 'to restore quiet in Munster,' 'to submit his private quarrels to her Majesty's judges,' and, 'if she would give him shot and guns,' to bring all Ireland to obedience.' 3 Elizabeth preferred to wait till she had seen the result of Perrot's experiment. The shot and guns she justly thought might be used for other purposes: and thus three years passed over Desmond's head, while 1 Desmond to the Council, Sept. 12, 1572. 2 Desmond to Leicester, Feb. 7, J571. 3 Desmond to the Council, Dec. 1571. CHAP XXIV 1572 CHAP XXIV 1572 London had been seething with the great Catholic conspiracy, into some secrets of which he had been himself admitted. At length, weary of restraint, and Lady Desmond promising to present him with an heir, he began a second time to meditate flight. His child, if born in England, might be detained as a hostage, and he applied to Martin Frobisher, whose fame upon the seas was emulating the rising distinction of Drake, to assist him. Frobisher was one of the many Englishmen who had held out hopes to the Spaniards that they were ready to sell their services. It was thus, perhaps, that Desmond heard of and was led to trust him. But Frobisher's treachery was like that of Hawkins; he had affected to listen to Don Guerau only to betray him; in the same spirit he accepted the advances of Desmond, and when his preparations for escape were completed he gave notice to the Council.1 Happily for the Earl, it was at a time when the collapse of English power in Ireland was compelling Elizabeth to retrace her steps. The failure of Perrot was but one symptom of the universal break down. The weakness of the Government was one predominant cause, the meddling with the national religion was another, the atrocious local cruelty of the English garrisons was a third; but two additional influences had combined to stimulate a great explosion of passion. The intended Munster settlement had come to nothing, and the best advice from Ireland was strongly against fresh experiments in that direction; but, bent as the Queen was upon saving money, the scheme was intensely seductive. Ambitious enterprising subjects were still 1 Declaration of Martin Frobisher, Dec. 4, 1572.-MSS. Ireland. ready to tell her that, for a grant which would cost her nothing but her signature, they were willing at their own risk to invade, conquer, occupy, and pay her tribute. The theory was excellent. A mere handful of English at Knockfergus had held at bay the whole power of the O'Neils, and what had failed in one part of the country might easily prosper in another. Sir Thomas Smith, who had succeeded Cecil as Elizabeth's principal Secretary, had a son who desired to make his fortune. The strip of coast between Knockfergus and the Giant's Causeway had been taken by the Scots from the Irish. Shan O'Neil's Countess had gone back to Argyleshire after his death, carrying half her people with her. There were now but a few companies of roving freebooters left upon the soil, which they did not attempt to improve; and Sir T. Smith undertook that his son would take their place and hold the country if the Queen would make him a present of it. The Irish had been made suspicious by their experience in the South. As the rumours of this new project reached them, the angry hum was heard again from all corners of the island. They felt instinctively that in this way and this way only they could be eventually conquered; and the effect in Ulster was so violent that Captain Piers, who was in command at Knockfergus, thought it necessary to send Cecil a warning. • Your Lordship knows,' he said, ' that the nature of the Irish is such that they would rather have their country lie altogether waste than that any man but themselves should inhabit it. I have devised the best to quench the imminent fire, and by feigning a letter to be sent from the Deputy with contrary news, have CHAP XXIV 1572 |