Perrott’s personal behaviour.
The hardships of such warfare must have been very great, Ormonde recommending Captain Warde and his men to special consideration for doing such winter service as was never done by soldiers; service from which they returned bare-footed and bare-bodied. Their sad plight grieved him to the heart, but he could do nothing for them. The Lord President did not spare himself. On one occasion his foot hurt him as he was struggling through a bog in pursuit of the rebels. ‘My Lord,’ said an officer, ‘you have lost your shoe.’ ‘It matters not,’ said Perrott, ‘as long as the legs last we shall find shoes’; and he called for another pair, and trudged on again. Another day some gallowglasses roasted a hog whole with the hair on, ‘and in great kindness did reach a piece of it to one of the Lord President’s servants, being a gentleman of good sort, and a justice of the peace in his county.’ Perrott made a jocular remark about the quality of the meat. ‘An’ it please you, sir,’ said the other, ‘it is good meat here among these men, but if it were at home I would scarce give it to my dogs.’[193]
Fitzmaurice still holds out.
Want of provisions was the great difficulty: all peaceable men having been robbed of their cows and horses. The MacSheehy and MacSwiney kerne swarmed everywhere, and just as Fitzmaurice appeared to be at his last gasp, he managed suddenly to collect a strong force of these idlemen, obliging the Geraldines to provide for their maintenance. Many of the native lords sympathised with him, being afraid of losing their captainries, and they gave him information. Perrott was never strong enough to divide his own force, and his light-heeled adversary roamed at will from Aherlow to Castlemaine, and from Glenflesk to Baltimore. No one was safe for a moment. Thus Miler Magrath, the Queen’s Archbishop of Cashel, having ventured to arrest two friars for preaching against the Queen’s policy, Fitzmaurice ordered their release. The poor friars, he said, preached the Word of God to people blinded with ignorance for years for want of good pastors, and the light of salvation, by reason of long obscurity, was much needed in Ireland. If they were not released all houses and buildings belonging to the Archbishop should be burned to ashes. The letter which contained this wise and sober advice, as the Geraldine leader called it, finished with an invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and there could be no doubt about the danger of the Church as established by law. Edward Butler rescued the friars to show his power, and perhaps to establish communications with the Archbishop, and then offered to pursue Fitzmaurice with all his might upon condition of pardon. Magrath and the Dublin officials advised that, though Butler deserved ten deaths, it would nevertheless be better to accept his offer.[194]
Perrott fails to take Castlemaine. An English captain surprised.
To the possession of Castlemaine Perrott attached great importance, and extensive preparations were made for besieging it. The cannon were delayed by storms on their passage from Limerick. The castle, which stood on arches in the water, proved stronger than was supposed, and all the powder was expended without making a breach; there were at the time only three cwt. in Dublin. In want of almost every requisite for successful war, Perrott withdrew his famished army after a siege of five weeks. On returning to Cork he found that Fitzmaurice had not been idle in his absence. Captain John Morgan, who was to have co-operated with the President by sea, seeing the rebels driving cattle along the shores of Cork harbour, landed and rescued them, and followed the foragers till they reached their supports. Seeing the English sailors, whose behaviour, as Ormonde said, was more like that of ignorant beasts than of trained soldiers, at a safe distance from their boats, Fitzmaurice attacked them vigorously, drove them into a ruined church, and overwhelmed them with showers of stones. Thirty-three were thus ignobly slain; only two prisoners were taken, and these were sent back. In consequence of this disaster, the ships which should have supplied the besiegers of Castlemaine lay idly at anchor.[195]
FOOTNOTES:
[178] Rokeby to Cecil, Jan. 4, 1570; Fitton to Lord Deputy, Feb. 22; N. White to Cecil, Feb. 9; Clancare to Gilbert, Feb. 22. The assizes at Ennis were about Feb. 1. Norfolk had been in the Tower since October. The Bull of Pius V. excommunicating Elizabeth was dated Feb. 25, though not posted in London till May. An Irishman, one Cornelius, is said to have helped Felton.
[179] Sidney to the Privy Council, May 4, 1570, with the enclosures; to Carew, May 28; articles with the Earl of Thomond, April 23, 1570, in Carew.
[180] Ormonde to Sidney, June 4; Thomond to the Queen, July 23; Sir H. Norris to Cecil, July 22 and 23; to the Queen, Aug. 9 and 11; the Queen to Norris, July 30; submission of Thomond, December 21, 1570; Morrin’s Patent Rolls, September 25, 14 Eliz.; Informations, &c., Nov. 7. Chief Justice Rokeby went over from Connaught to detail Thomond’s misdeeds, which indeed could not be denied; but he seems to have been thought too foolish to do much harm. Sidney calls him ‘ox’ and ‘lubber.’ Brief Relation in Carew, 1583.