Alcazar, holding in his hand the banner of Portugal; but was, on the day of battle, murdered by the Italian soldiers whom he had involved in this unfortunate adventure.* A cloud which has never been dispersed rests upon the fate of Sebastian.

At the same time that Stukely was engaged in his negotiations with Rome, Fitz-Maurice, burning with indignation at the humiliating condition to which he had been exposed by Drury, repaired first to Spain, and afterwards to the court of France, and urged upon Henry with anxiety the invasion of Ireland. After two years of lingering expectation he was contemptuously dismissed by the king with a promise that he would intercede with the queen of England for his pardon. He left France and returned to Spain, where his communications were better received. Philip sent him to the pope. Saunders, an English ecclesiastic, distinguished for his hatred of the reformed doctrines, and Allen, an Irish Jesuit, were able to satisfy the pope of the probable success of an Irish insurrection. A banner exhibiting the arms of the holy see, was consecrated with many religious ceremonies, and delivered to Fitz-Maurice. Proclamations were issued, addressed to the people of Ireland, in which Elizabeth was described as "that evil woman who has departed from the Lord, and the Lord from her.Ӡ An expedition was resolved upon at once. About fourscore Spaniards, and some English and Irish fugitives, with Allen and Saunders, embarked with Fitz-Maurice. Saunders was appointed legate by Gregory. They landed in the beginning of July, 1579, at Smerwicke, or St Marywicke, on the western coast of Kerry, and built a fort in the west side of the bay. "The two doctors," says Hooker, "hallowed the place" after the manner of their religion, and assured the invaders that no enemy should dare to come upon them, "and yet," he adds, "they were beguiled." A ship of war, commanded by a Devonshire man, Thomas Courtenay, was at the time lying in the bay of Kinsale. Henry Davels, a name that has before occurred and must again be mentioned in this narrative, suggested to Courtenay the practicability of taking the three vessels in which the Spaniards had arrived, which were at anchor near Smerwicke. The wind was favourable. Courtenay doubled the point of land and succeeded in taking the vessels, thus cutting off from the invaders all power of retreat. Intelligence of their landing was soon communicated to John and James of Desmond, the earl's brothers, and through them to the whole country. They had looked for the return of Fitz-Maurice, and immediately repaired to him with all their tenants and retainers. The earl, on hearing that the Spaniards had landed, made immediate preparations to resist them, and wrote to the earl of Clancare to assemble such forces as he could command, and join him in attacking the enemy at Smerwicke. M'Carthy came, but seeing reason to distrust the earl's sincerity, he ceased to act with him, and dismissed his company.

Sidney had left Ireland in the May of the preceding year, and Drury, the late president of Munster, held the office of lord-justice. As Sidney entered the vessel which was to convey him to England, he was heard to recite, in a lamenting tone, the words with which the hundred and fourteenth Psalm commences:-" When Israel went out *Evans's old ballads, vol. ii. + Phelan's Remains, Vol. ii.

&c.

of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language," A wiser or a better man than Sidney never held in Ireland the perilous and thankless office of viceroy. But our immediate task is the biography of Desmond, and other opportunities will occur in the course of our work to exhibit the sound policy of the course of government which he sought to establish. "The Romish cocatrice," says Hooker, "which had long sat upon her eggs, had now hatched her chickens." By this metaphor does he describe the religious insurrections in the south of Ireland. When Drury learned that Fitz-Maurice had landed with his Spaniards, he ordered Henry Davels to summon Desmond and his brothers to prepare themselves to assist him in attacking the fort at Smerwicke. Davels, after an interview with the Desmonds, inspected the fort, and returned to the earl endeavouring to persuade him that it could be easily taken. The earl's heart, it would seem, was with the Spaniards, and on one pretence or another he declined the service. 6. My shot," said the earl, “is more meet to shoot at wild fowl, than to adventure such a piece of service. My gallowglasses are good men to encounter with gallowglasses, and not to answer old soldiers."

Davels and Carter, the provost martial, who accompanied him on this errand, took leave of the earl on their return to the lord-justice. They rested for the night near Desmond's castle of Tralee, in a victualling-house or wine tavern; the house being strong and defensible.* Their servants were dispersed wherever they could find lodgings in the adjoining town. John of Desmond had secretly followed Davels to Tralee, and bribed the person in whose house he lodged to leave the gates and doors open. Davels and Carter, suspecting nothing, retired to their beds. At midnight they were suddenly awakened from sleep by the glare of lights, and the voices of men in their chamber, with swords drawn. When Davels recognised John of Desmond, his confidence was for a moment restored-for he and John of Desmond had been for a long time to all appearance attached friends. During the earlier part of the earl's imprisonment, Davels had been associated with Sir John in the temporary government of the earl's territories. He had assisted him in the various exigencies in which his turbulent spirit for ever involved him-had with his money released him from prison more than once, and was even the means of saving his life when charged with capital crimes. The relation between them seemed to be that of father and adopted child, 'My son," said Davels, "what is the matter?" The answer of Desmond was, 66 no more of son, no more of father; make thyself ready, for die thou shalt;" and immediately he and his men struck at Davels and Carter, and murdered them. The strange motive assigned for this fiendish atrocity, by all the writers who record it, is that the Spaniards were distrustful of the sincerity of the Desmonds-and that John committed this dreadful act to prove to them that he was pledged to their cause, as far as utter hopelessness of reconciliation with the government, which such an act would render impossible, could pledge him.

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*Hooker. Other writers describe the murder as taking place in the castle of Tralee.

Fitz-Maurice, when he heard of the manner of Davels' death, was shocked. To murder a man naked in his bed, "when he might have had advantage of him, either by the highways or otherwise, to his commendation," was not consistent with Fitz-Maurice's notions of fair dealing with either friend or enemy. The earl, too, was grieved and offended, and it was thought that this act would separate him for ever from his brother; but the earl was the weakest of men, and seems to have been a mere instrument in the hands of others. At this time there was with him an Englishman, Applesby, whom the fate of Davels taught apprehension for himself. He succeeded in persuading the earl to retire to his castle of Asceaton, in the county of Limerick, there to wait the lord-justice's arrival, and to join with him in serving against the insurgents. The earl followed the advice so far as removing to Asceaton, where "he lay close and did nothing." He affected to disapprove of Fitz-Maurice's doings, but did nothing to discountenance his followers from joining his standard. The Spaniards, in spite of numbers of the country people repairing to Smerwicke, felt that they were not supported as they had been given reason to hope-and Fitz-Maurice found some difficulty in keeping them together. He determined to see what his own presence would do in rousing the disaffected in Ulster and Connaught, and with this view left the fort, telling the Spaniards that he would first go to Holy Cross, in Tipperary, to perform a vow made by him in Spain. Journeying with three or four horsemen and a dozen kernes, he passed through the county of Limerick and came into the country of Sir William de Burgo, his kinsman, and who had joined actively with him in the insurrection of a few years before. Fitz-Maurice's horses were fatigued, and could go no farther; he seized some which he saw ploughing in a field and pressed them into his service. The horses were De Burgo's, whose sons, as soon as they heard of this depredation, pursued Fitz-Maurice's party. A quarrel ensued, and the skirmish became earnest and furious. Two of the De Burgos were slain—and Fitz-Maurice, shot with a bullet through the head, shared their fate. The loyal indignation of the lord-justice was wasted on the corse of Fitz-Maurice. The dead body was exposed on a gibbet and the head set over one of the town gates of Kilmallock. The queen wrote to Sir William de Burgo, a letter of thanks and of condolence—and created him baron of Castle Connell. De Burgo was old and feeble; and the emotion of these events was more than he could bear. He fainted while reading the queen's letter, and died soon after.

On the death of Fitz-Maurice, Sir John Desmond assumed the command of the Spaniards at Smerwicke—and soon afterwards had letters from Rome, appointing him general in the place of Fitz-Maurice. Drury, on hearing of the murder of Davels, marched to the south. His whole disposable force was four hundred foot, and two hundred horse. He had with him of Englishmen, Sir Nicholas Malbie; Wingfield, master of the ordnance; Waterhouse, Fitton, and Masterson. Some of the Irish lords, who brought forces of their own, accompanied him. They were the earl of Kildare; Sir Lucas Dillon, chief baron; lord Mountgarret, the baron of Upper Ossory, and the baron of Dunboyne. They brought about two hundred horsemen, besides footmen and kernes. They

marched by as rapid journies as they could till they came to Kilmallock, where they encamped. Drury wrote to the earl of Desmond and the chief persons in the neighbourhood, calling upon them to assist him.

The earl came to Drury's camp, with a formidable company of both horse and foot. Suspicions, however, of his loyalty arose of such a kind, that Drury committed him to the custody of the knight marshal. He made new protestations and promises, and was released from custody.

The earl was scarcely at freedom, when news was brought to Drury that John of Desmond was encamped with a great company of rebels, upon the borders of Slievelogher. For nine weeks he left the royal army no rest either night or day, and on one occasion succeeded in cutting off two parties of one hundred men each, under the command of Captains Herbert and Price; Price and Herbert were both slain. Additional forces arrived from England, and Sir John Perrot, the late president, landed at Cork, with six ships of war to guard the coast, and deprive the rebels of all foreign assistance. The earl of Desmond no sooner obtained his liberty, than he separated from Drury, sending occasional letters, but avoiding to give any assistance. The countess of Desmond waited upon Drury, pleading in behalf of her husband, and she placed in his hands her only son, as a hostage for the earl's fidelity. This campaign was too much for Drury's health; he placed the command of the army in the hands of Sir Nicholas Malbie, and went by easy stages to Waterford; Drury felt that he was dying; his last act was an effort to serve the queen by encouraging as far he could the officers sent with Perrot to active exertion. At Kilmallock he had bestowed the honour of knighthood on Bourchier, Stanley, Carew, Moore, and he now almost at the moment of death gave the same honour to Pelham, Gorges, Thomas Perrot, son and heir of Sir John Perrot, and to Patrick Welsh, mayor of Waterford.

Malbie's first act, after Drury's retirement to Waterford, was to send for the earl of Desmond, who received his letters, and on one frivolous pretence or another, refused to leave his castle of Asceaton, whither he had again retreated. Malbie, on finding all applications to the earl were worse than fruitless, abandoned him to his inevitable fate. Malbie had great experience in military affairs, "having served under sundry kings and in strange nations." A student—a traveller, and an observer-how contrasted with the feeble and irresolute Desmond, who thought that his shallow artifices were deceiving him! His forces consisted of one hundred and fifty horse and nine hundred foot. He sent Bourchier, Dowdal, and Sentleger, to Kilmallock, with three hundred foot and fifty horse, to garrison that well fortified and well situated town, the importance of possessing which was felt alike by both parties; with the rest of his company he marched to the city of Limerick, to recruit his harassed soldiers. He again sent to Desmond, but with the same unsatisfactory result. The same shallow duplicity still marked all the earl's answers.

Malbie was encamped in the fields near Limerick, when intelligence was brought him that the rebel camp was at Connillo, some eight or nine miles off; he marched towards them, and "being come to an abbey called Manisternenagh, seven miles from Limerick, there ap

peared a great company in a plain field, both of horsemen and footmen, in estimation two thousand or thereabouts, marching in battle array, and had cast out their wings of shot, and placed every thing very well and orderly." Malbie soon made his disposition to give them battle. John of Desmond, who was at the head of the insurgent's army, wished to avoid an engagement, but the ecclesiastic Allen, encouraged him with assurances of miraculous aid and certain victory. Sir John displayed the papal banner, placed his men, horse and foot, to the best advantage. In disposing his men, and making arrangements for the battle, he was assisted by the experience of the Spanish officers, who had by this time abandoned their fort at Smerwicke, and were employed in fortifying Desmond's castles, and disciplining his army for the field.

"The governor," we borrow Hooker's language, "setteth onwards and giveth the onset upon them with his shot, who valiantly resisted the first and second volées, and answered the fight very well, even the couching of the pikes, that the matter stood very doubtful. But the Englishmen so fiercely and desperately set upon them with the third volée, that they were discomfited, and had the overthrow given them, and fled. John of Desmond put spurs to his horse, showing a fair pair of heels, which was better to him than two pair of hands.” hundred of his men were slain, and among them Allen.

Two

The earl of Desmond, and the baron of Lixnaw, viewed the engagement from a wooded eminence, which, in memory of the day, with reference to the original meaning of the word Tory, is called Tory Hill. The patience of the English government with individuals seems as remarkable as their determination to rule the nation according to their own notions of policy. For certainly the engagements made by the Irish nobles, whether of English or native descent, were seldom entered into with good faith. Lixnaw's son had an office in the court of Elizabeth, and was now in Ireland on a visit to his father. His assistance was given to the rebels. We preserve the language of provocation into which one of the historians of the period is excited. "He was no sooner come home, than away with his English attire, and on with his brogs, his shirt, and other Irish rags, being become as very a traitor as the veriest knave of them all, and so for the most part they are all, as daily experience teacheth, dissemble they never so much to the contrary. For like as Jupiter's cat, let her be transformed to never so fair a lady, and let her be never so well attired, and accompanied with the best ladies, let her be never so well esteemed and honoured, yet if the mouse come once in her sight, she will be a cat and show her kind."

The earl, when the victory was decided, wrote letters of congratulation to Malbie, which were coldly answered; a personal interview was requested, which Desmond still evaded. In a few days he learned that papers had been found on Allen's person which left no doubt of the earl's participation in the treason of his brothers. Detection rendered him desperate. He attacked the English camp at Rathkeale, in person, on two successive nights, and lost several of his people. Even after this, Malbie wrote to him, conjuring him to return to his allegiance. He replied, "that he owed no allegiance to the queen, and would no longer yield her obedience," and proceeded to fortify his castles of