fortune; and among the names of the officers who accompanied Grey are found those of Burghley's kinsman, young Mr. Cheke, of Edmund Spenser, and of Walter Ralegh.

Such is Mr. Froude's only mention of him. This omission is not less remarkable from the fact that in important events described by Mr. Froude Ralegh took a busy part; and for a score of years he was an influential adviser of Elizabeth, sometimes the most influential, in an Irish policy that, as Edmund Burke says, was never deviated from for a single hour during her reign.

6

Spenser was Assistant-Secretary to the Lord Deputy, and was then twenty-eight years of age. Ralegh was also in his twenty-eighth year when he sailed from the Isle of Wight for Ireland. He landed in Cove harbour with what he calls a footeband of one hundrethe men.' In his letter to Lord Burghley written from Cork on the 22nd of February 1580 he claims certain arrears, from which it seems that he was paid at the rate of four shillings a day for himself, two shillings a day for his lieutenant, fourteenpence a day for four other officers, and eightpence a day for every common soldier. To this company he was able to add a small number of horsemen with good furniture,' that is, suitable armour and trappings. They were mostly Devonshire men, and, like their captain, full of courage and energy. Even when, two years later, by the Queen's special order, he got the command of Captain Appesley's band also, the number of troops with which he operated was very small. The amount of destruction and conquest accomplished by those highly paid and well equipped men seems out of all proportion to their insignificant numbers. For some years the Irish fell before them as German tribes had fallen before the soldiers of Italy.

6

Captain Ralegh's Reckonings' in Ireland begin, according to the records in the Rolls Office, with the date July 13, 1580, a couple of months before Lord Grey's second government in Ireland, but some earlier record of his pay may have been lost. Whether or not he preceded the Lord Deputy to Ireland, he certainly accompanied him to the bay on the shores of the Atlantic where Admiral Winter and ViceAdmiral Bingham blockaded Desmond's six or seven hundred foreign allies. Hemmed in on all sides, the garrison of Smerwick Castle surrendered on the 10th of November 1580. Here is Mr. Froude's description of the way in which some of those young Englishmen of spirit began to win glory :—

Don Bastian with the officers came out with ensigns trailing, and gave themselves up as prisoners. The men piled their arms outside the walls, and waited defenceless to learn the pleasure of their conquerors. They were strangers, and by this time alone. The officers were reserved for their ransom. Common prisoners were inconvenient and expensive, and it was thought desirable to read a severe lesson to Catholic sympathisers in Ireland. 'The Lord of hosts,' wrote Grey, had delivered the enemy to us, none of ours being hurt, Mr. Cheke alone excepted. Then put I in certain bands, who fell straight to execution.' A certain number of

the original party had fallen sick, and had been sent back to Spain. With the exception of these and of the officers, the entire party was slaughtered. A few women, some of them pregnant, were hanged. A servant of Saunders, an Irish gentleman, and a priest were hanged also. The bodies, six hundred in all, were stripped and laid out upon the sands, 'as gallant goodly personages,' said Grey, 'as ever were beheld.'

Mr. Froude, after referring to Camden's statement that Lord Grey had shed tears and Queen Elizabeth had wished the cruelty undone, surmises that they might possibly have felt some pity for the subjects of the King of Spain which was refused to the wives and babies of the Irish chiefs.' But he gives good reasons for doubting Lord Grey's tears or the sincerity of the Queen's pity.

Whoever was to blame for the occurrence, the English admiral had no complicity in it. Dr. Taylor in his History of Ireland says: To the relentless soldiery innocence furnished no protection; helpless infancy and tottering age found no mercy. Admiral Winter, however, with the humanity natural to a British sailor, was shocked by the horrid massacre, and granted protection to a few that escaped to his fleet.' But who was to blame? Lord Grey does not say what orders he gave to the bands he sent in, nor who commanded them. He does not mention Ralegh's name in his despatch of November 14 to the Privy Council. The question as to who was the actual executioner seems, however, to be set at rest by a passage in the contemporary narrative in Hooker's Supplement to the Chronicles of Holinshed, in which we are told that the people in the fort held out a white flag uttering the cry Misericordia, misericordia;' they then, at the Lord Deputy's request, disarmed themselves, all their armour and arms being laid in one place. Hooker then adds: In the fort Sir James Fitzgerald, Knight, and Lord of the Decies, was a prisoner by the order of the Earl of Desmond; and one Plunket, an Irishman, and one Englishman which came and accompanied the traitors out of Spaine. The knight was set at liberty, but the other two were executed. When the captain had yielded himself and the fort appointed to be surrendered, Captain Ralegh, together with Captain Macworth, who had the ward of that day, entered into the castle, and made a great slaughter, many or most part of them being put to the sword.' The exact number thus dealt with by Ralegh and Macworth, though not given in Hooker's Supplement, appears in Holinshed under the date An. Reg. 23 (1580). The fort was yeelded, all the Irish men and women hanged; and more than foure hundred Spaniards, Italians, and Biscaies put to the sword; the coronell, capteins, secretarie and others, to the number of twentie, saved for ransome.'

The chronicler Hooker, who was an Exeter man and a personal friend of Ralegh's,}mentions in a]preceding page how the Spaniards had brought armour and munitions of war for five thousand men, 'because they knew that the Irishemen were of bodies sufficient, but

that they lacked furniture (armour and proper weapons) and training; and in these two things they minded to furnish them.'

Some of Ralegh's exploits were such as would entitle him now-adays to the Victoria Cross. In his letter from Cork to Sir Francis Walsingham, of February 23, 1581, after he had been about a year in Ireland, he refers to an escape he had from the Seneschal of Imokilly when returning by a circuitous route from Dublin to Cork. His own account of the skirmish, which seems to have taken place at the Ballinacurra river, is very modest :

In my return from Develin I made a hard escape from the Seneshall in Barre's countre (wher he is always fostered) with xiiii horsmen and threescore footmen.

I was three horsmen, and soun set on horsbacke two Irishe footmen. I coveted to recover a litle old castle, in that resun I left three men and three horses. The manner of myne own behaviour I leve to the report of others, but the escape was strange to all men. The castle was a longe mile off from the place wher he first sett on us. Ther is great need of a supply in Murster, for the bandes are all miche decayed.

From that letter Walsingham would learn nothing of the fact that Ralegh most gallantly risked his own life to save one of his followers. Hooker's description of the affair is more minute :

The capteine (Ralegh) making his returne from Dubline, and the same well knowne unto the seneschall of Imokellie, through whose countrie he was to passe, laie in ambush for him to haue intrapped him betweene Youghall and Corke, lieng at a foord, which the said capteine must passe our with six horssemen, and certain kerne. The capteine little mistrusting anie such matter, had in his companie onelie two horssemen and foure shot on horsebacke, which was too small a force in so doubtfull and dangerous times: neuerthelesse he had a very good guide, which was the servant of John Fitzedmunds of Clone, a good subject, and this guide knew euerie corner and starting hole in those places.

ouer.

The capteine being come towards the foord, the seneschal had spied him alone, his companie being scattered behind, and verie fiercelie pursued him, and crossed him as he was to ride ouer water, but yet he recovered the foord and was passed The Irishman who was his guide, when he saw the capteine thus alone, and so narrowlie distressed, he shifted for himselfe and fled into a broken castell fast by, there to saue himselfe. The capteine being thus ouer the water, Henrie Moile, riding alone about a bowes shoot before the rest of his companie, when he was in the midle of the foord his horsse foundred and cast him downe; and being afraid that the seneschalls men would have folowed him and have killed him, cried out to the capteine to come and to save his life; who not respecting the danger he himselfe was in, came unto him, and recovered both him and his horsse. And then Moile wishing with all hast to leape up, did it with such hast and vehemencie that he quite over lept the horsse and fell into a mire fast by, and so his horsse ran awaie and was taken by the enemie. The capteine neverthelesse staid still, and did abide for the coming of the residue of his companie, of the foure shot which as yet were not come foorth, and for his man Jenkin who had about two hundred pounds in monie about him, and sat upon his horsse in the meane while, having his staffe in one hand, and his pistoll charged in the other hand.'

The chronicler adds that the Seneschal, though he was twenty to one in strength, would not face Ralegh's little band again when he saw the captain ready to receive the onset. A leader who risked his

life for his soldiers was likely to be well served by them, and when in another skirmish with the Irish his horse was mortally wounded by a dart, Ralegh was saved by two of his band fighting for him against long odds. Hooker gives a vivid account of this ::

When the summer was spent, Captaine Ralegh returned with all his band unto Corke, being in number eight horssemen and four score footmen. And as he passed through the countrie, it was advertised to him that David Barrie, an archtraitor, was at Clone with a great troope of sundrie hundreds of men. Whereupon he thought good to passe that waie through the towne of Clone, minding to trie the valor of David Barrie, if by anie meanes he might meet with him. And euen at the verie towns end he found Barrie and all his companie, and with a lustie courage gave the onset upon him. But Barrie refused it, and fled. And then this capteine passing from thense, in his jorneie he espied in a plaine niere adjoining to a woods sides a companie of footmen by themselves, upon whome with six horssemen he gave the charge; but these being cut off from the wood whereunto they were flieng, and having not succor now to helpe and relieve themselves, they turned backe and conjoining themselves together to withstand this force and onset made upon them, in which they behaved themselves verie valiantlie, and of the horsses they killed five, of which Capteine Raleigh his horsse was one, and he himselfe in great danger, and like to have beene slaine, if his trustie servant Nicholas Wright a Yorkshire man borne had not bin. For he perceiving that his maisters horsse was galled and stricken with a dart, and plunged so much, that to his seeming he was past service, the said Nicholas willed and called to an Irishman there, whose name was Patrike Fagaw, that he should looke to his capteine, and either to rescue him, or to give charge upon the enemie. Whereupon the said Fagaw rescued his capteine, and the said Nicholas Wright forthwith gave the onset upon six of the enemies and slue one of them. And therewith came one James Fitzrichard an Irish gentlemen with his kerne to the rescue of the capteine, but his kerne was slaine and himselfe in danger. For Wright not looking on them followed the enemie verie egerlie and recompensed the losse of one with the slaughter of others. Which Capteine Raleigh perceiving cried out to his man saieng, 'Wright, if thou be a man, charge above hand and save the gentleman.' Who at his maisters commandment pressed into the middle of the enemies, and slue one of them and so saved the gentleman: and in which skirmish his horsse leg was cut under him. Diverse footmen were slaine of the enemies, and two were taken prisoners, whome they carried with them to Corke.

His arrest of Lord and Lady Roche about this time has been described as a gallant exploit ; but though it involved some danger it was not done without an act of treachery on Ralegh's part, and an abuse of hospitality.

The longer he served, however, the more he complained of the hardships he and his soldiers endured. In a letter dated in 1581, From Corke, the fyrst of May,' he thus writes to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Grey de Wilton:

The bandes of Sir Georg Bowser, Edward Barkley, Captayne Dowdall, and of my self have bine ever since the seconde weeke of Lent remayning in Corke; and both the great wood of Conoloathe, Harlo, Clenlis, and all the countie of Lymbricke, and the counties betweene the Dingle and Kilkeny, left without any companies ether to defend itself or anoy the enemy. Since which tyme wee have made two jurneys: the one towards Kilkeny to give convoye to my Lorde, and attend his returne, and the other into Conoloathe, by which jurnes (the one being in horible

wether, and the other utterly botles, being don without draught or espiall, and beside inforst to walke such unreasonable marches as, wher wee dispatched a churell of the traitors, wee lamed, lost, or left behynde unserviceable, a soldier or two of our owne) the poore bands have curste the change they made in levying to follow your Honor, as they have tould the Lord Generall many tymes. And this fyrst of May wee ar going another posting convoy towards Kilkeny. But to culler the matter, wee shall march some two dayes out of our way to seeke wee know not whome. The store of Cork, except it be a smale quantitie of wheat and butter, is all spent within the walles, and now it wilbe aleged that wee cannot serve for want of vittles, or else because the bandes are not supplied; although wee were nevere less than fore hundred stronge, and yet both of Sir George Bowcer's and Captain Barkle's companies left at Kilmalloch and Asketon. Wee have spent these two monethes of the spring in parles with Barrey Rowe, the Countess of Desmond, and Finnin Macartey; and wee think it willbe two moneth more er he (Ormond) be resolved whether thes oughte to be followed or no, and yet theris no day passeth without some trayterous villanies by the Barres committed.

A question of some historic interest is solved by a study of Ralegh's Irish campaigns, and indeed by his own admission. How can we account for the success of such small bodies of soldiers as Elizabeth's captains commanded in the Desmond wars? The bands of Piers, Appesley, and Ralegh seemed for some years to be invincible. Not counting the women and children who were deliberately and systematically butchered,' they routed over and over again five times their number of Irish gallowglasses; indeed, if Hooker is to be believed, sometimes ten times their number. And yet in the lifetime of Ralegh this was all changed. He lived to hear of Hugh O'Neill, who, to use Mr. Froude's words, destroyed an English army at the ford of the Blackwater-the northern Blackwater. Something of course was due to the courage and skill of men like Ralegh, and the fatal rivalry of the Geraldines and Butlers. But such causes could not account for the early and easy victories over numerous Irish, compared with the fact that under Hugh O'Neill, Owen Roe, and the still later Sarsfield, the Irish troops were a match for an equal number of the enemy, and sometimes defeated the English troops even with a force numerically inferior to them. Ralegh himself explained it. In his Discourse touching a War with Spain, one of his miscellaneous works not printed till after his death, he says:

I myself remember that, within these thirty years, two of her Majesty's ships would have commanded 100 sail of the Spaniards. I remember also, when I was a captain in Ireland, 100 foot and 100 horse would have beaten all the forces of the strongest province. But of late I have known an Easterling fight hand to hand with one of her Majesty's ships, and the Irish in this last war have been victorious with an equal or even with an inferior force. And what is the reason? The Netherlands in those days had wooden guns and the Irish had darts: but the one is now furnished with as great a number of English ordnance as ourselves, and the other with as good pikes and muskets as England hath.2

Thus Voltaire's libel, which had its origin in the contrast between

1 Lecky, Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 105.

2 Ralegh's Miscellaneous Works, vol. viii. pp. 304-5.