She had not ques

would neither consent nor refuse. tioned the justice of Sidney's report; she was heated and provoked with the monster' who was the cause of so much difficulty. Yet to ask her for money was to ask her for her heart's blood. Your lordship's experience of negotiation here in such affairs with her Majesty,' wrote Cecil, 'can move you to bear patiently some storms in the expedition;' 'the charge was the hindrance;' and while she could not deny that it was necessary, she could not forgive the plainness with which the necessity had been forced upon her.

She quarrelled in detail with everything which Sidney did; she disapproved of the Munster council because Ireland could not pay for it; and it was useless to tell her that Ireland must be first brought into obedience. She was irritated because Sidney, unable to see with sufficient plainness the faults of Desmond and the exclusive virtues of Ormond, had refused to adjudicate without the help of English lawyers, in a quarrel which he did not understand. She disapproved of Sir Warham St Leger because his father Sir Anthony had been on bad terms with the father of Ormond; she insisted that Sidney should show favour to Ormond, in memory of his education with that holy young Solomon King Edward;" and she complained bitterly of the employment of Stukely.

It was not till April was far advanced that the

1 Cecil to Sidney, March 27: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

council forced her by repeated importunities to consent that Shan should be extirpated;' and even then she would send only half of what was wanted to pay the arrears of the troops. 'Considering the great sums of money demanded and required of her in Ireland and elsewhere, she would be most glad that for reformation of the rebel any other way might be devised,' and she affronted the Deputy by sending Sir Francis Knowles to control his expenditure. If force could not be dispensed with, Sir Francis might devise an economical campaign. The cost of levying troops in England was four times as great as it used to be;' and it would be enough, she thought, if five or six hundred men were employed for a few weeks in the summer. O'Donnell, O'Reilly, and M'Guyre might be restored to their castles, and they could then be disbanded.' Such, at least, was her own opinion; should those however who had better means of knowing the truth conclude that the war so conducted would be barren of result, she agreed with a sigh that they must have their way. She desired only that the cost might be as small as possible; the fortification of Berwick and the payment of our foreign debts falling very heavily on her.' 2

Such was ever Elizabeth's character. She had received the crown encumbered with a debt which with selfdenying thrift she was laboriously reducing, and she

1 Instructions to Sir F. Knowles. By the Queen, April 18: Irish MSS Rolls House.

2 Ibid.

had her own reasons for disliking over-frequent sessions of Parliament. At the last extremity she would yield usually to what the public service demanded, but she gave with grudging hand and irritated temper; and while she admitted the truth, she quarrelled with those who brought it home to her.

Shan meanwhile was preparing for war. He doubted his ability to overreach Elizabeth any more by words and promises, while the growth of the party of the Queen of Scots, his own connection with her, and the Catholic reaction in England and Scotland, encouraged him to drop even the faint disguise behind which he had affected to shield himself. He mounted brassartillery' in Dundrum Castle, and in Lifford at the head of Lough Foyle. The friendship with Argyle grew closer, and another wonderful marriage scheme was in progress for the alliance between the Houses of M'Callum-More and O'Neil. The Countess' was to be sent away, and Shan was to marry the widow of James M'Connell whom he had killed-who was another halfsister of Argyle, and whose daughter he had married already and divorced. This business was said to be the Earl's practice.' The Irish chiefs, it seemed, three thousand years behind the world, retained the habits and the moralities of the Greek princes in the tale of Troy, when the bride of the slaughtered husband was the willing prize of the conqueror; and when only a rare Andromache was found to envy the fate of a sister

1

1

Sidney to the English Council, April 15: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

'Who had escaped the bed of some victorious lord.' Aware that Sidney's first effort would be the restoration of O'Donnell, O'Neil commenced the campaign with a fresh invasion of Tyrconnell, where O'Donnell's brother still held out for England; he swept round by Lough Erne, swooped on the remaining cattle of M'Guyre, and struck terror and admiration into the Irishry.' Then stretching out his hands for foreign help, he wrote in the style of a king to Charles the Ninth of France.

1

'Your Majesty's father, King Henry, in May. times past required the Lords of Ireland to

join with him against the heretic Saxon, the enemies of Almighty God, the enemies of the Holy Church of Rome, your Majesty's enemies and mine." God would not permit that alliance to be completed, notwithstanding the hatred borne to England by all of Irish blood, until your Majesty had become King in France, and I was Lord of Ireland. The time is come however when we all are confederates in a common bond to drive the invader from our shores; and we now beseech your Majesty to send us six thousand well-armed men. If you will grant our request there will soon be no Englishman left alive among us, and we will be your Majesty's subjects evermore. Help us, we implore you, to expel the heretics and schismatics, and to bring back our country to the holy Roman See.'

93

1 The Bishop of Meath to Sussex, April 27, 1566: WRIGHT, vol. i.

2 Vestræ Majestatis et nostræ simul inimicos.'

3 O'Neil to Charles IX. 1566: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

The letter never reached its destination; it fell into English hands. Yet in the tickle' state of Europe and with the progress made by Mary Stuart, French interference was an alarming possibility. More anxious and more disturbed than ever, Elizabeth made Sidney her scapegoat. Lord Sussex, ill repaying Sir Henry's generous palliation of his own shortcomings, envious of the ability of Leicester's brother-in-law, and wishing to escape the charge which he had so well deserved of being the cause of Shan's greatness,' whispered in her ear that in times past Sidney had been thought to favour 'that great rebel;' that he had addressed him long before in a letter by the disputed title of 'O'Neil,' and was perhaps his secret ally.

Elizabeth did not seriously believe this preposterous story; but it suited her humour to listen to a suspicion which she could catch at as an excuse for economy. The preparations for war were suspended, and instead of receiving supplies, Sidney learnt only that the Queen had spoken unworthy words of him.

Sidney's blood was hot; he was made of bad materials for a courtier. He wrote at once to Elizabeth herself, declaring his special grief at hearing that he was fallen from her favour,' and 'that she had given credit to that improbable slander raised upon him by the Earl of Sussex.' He wrote to the council, entreating them not to allow these idle stories to relax their energies in suppressing the rebellion; but he begged them at the same time to consider his own 'unaptness to reside any longer in Ireland, or to be an actor in the war.' The words