[283] Fenton to Cecil, June 11; Ormonde to Cecil, June 18. O’Sullivan Bere (tom. iii. lib. iv. cap. iii.) owns to 120 killed in the attempted escalade. The eating of grass by the garrison recalls the defence of Casilinum against Hannibal (Livy, xxiii. 19).
[284] Loftus, Gardiner, Wallop, St. Leger, and Fenton to the Privy Council, Aug. 16; Lords Justices Loftus and Gardiner to the Privy Council (‘in private’), Aug. 17; Ormonde to the Queen, Aug. 18; State of the Queen’s army, March 31, 1598, printed in the National MSS. of Ireland from a paper at Kilkenny.
[285] Lieut. William Taaffe to H. Shee, Aug. 16. He calls the powder-barrels ‘firkins.’ Captain Montague’s Report, Aug. 16; Declaration of the two Captains Kingsmill, Aug. 23, and that of Captain Billings who commanded the rearguard. All the above, with many other papers, are printed either in Irish Arch. Journal, N.S. vol. i. pp. 256-282, or in National MSS. of Ireland, part iv. 1. See also Camden and the Four Masters. There is a minute and nearly contemporary account in O’Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. iv. cap. 5, but he was not present. It is O’Sullivan who mentions the junipers, which do not now grow wild about Armagh. I have carefully inspected the ground, having besides the advantage of consulting two pamphlets kindly sent to me by Mr. E. Rogers of the Armagh Library, whose great local knowledge has been brought to bear on the subject.
[286] O’Sullivan; Montague to Ormonde, Aug. 16. The English accounts specify twelve colours as lost; O’Sullivan says thirty-four.
[287] Ormonde to Cecil, Sept. 15. In writing to the same, on Aug. 24, Ormonde admits the reduced list of twenty-four officers killed and one taken prisoner, 855 men killed and 363 wounded. To these must be added the missing, and there were certainly several hundred deserters. Other English estimates of loss are considerably higher. Camden says 1,500 men were killed.
[288] Four Masters, 1598. Sir C. Clifford to the Lords Justices, Sept. 7; to Cecil, Oct. 30; Lady Clifford’s declaration, Oct. 31.
[289] Lords Justices and Council to the Privy Council, Nov. 23 and 27, 1598. Sir R. Bingham to the Lords Justices (from Naas) Nov. 27. There is a MS. dialogue among the Irish S.P. for 1598, which purports to be the ocular testimony of the writer, Thomas Wilson, and which is dedicated to Essex. The interlocutors are Peregryn and Silvyn—the names of Spenser’s two sons—and the dialogue, which unfolds the state of things in King’s County from harvest 1597 to All Saints’ Day 1598, is very much in the style of that between Irenæus and Eudoxus. Is Thomas Wilson a stalking-horse for Edmund Spenser?
[290] Four Masters, 1598; O’Sullivan, tom. iii. lib. v. cap. 2; Discourse by William Weever (prisoner with the Munster rebels) Sept. 29 to Oct. 10. Fenton to Cecil, April 20, for the Tower story.
[291] Ormonde to James Fitzthomas, Oct. 8, 1598; James ‘Desmonde’ to Ormonde, Oct. 12.
[292] Ormonde to the Queen, Oct. 12, 1598; Chief Justice Saxey’s account, October.