The official account of the battle of Kinsale was sent over by Henry Danvers, and the Queen gave most gracious thanks to Mountjoy, as well as to Thomond and Clanricarde. But Carew contrived that the first news should be brought to London by his friend Boyle, whose activity and good fortune were shown in a remarkable way. ‘I left my Lord President,’ he said, ‘at Shandon Castle, near Cork, on Monday morning about two of the clock, and the next day delivered my packet, and supped with Sir Robert Cecil, being then principal Secretary, at his house in the Strand; who, after supper, held me in discourse till two of the clock in the morning, and by seven that morning called upon me to attend him to the court, where he presented me to her Majesty in her bedchamber; who remembered me, calling me by name, and giving me her hand to kiss, telling me that she was glad that I was the happy man to bring the first news of the glorious victory. And after her Majesty had interrogated with me upon sundry questions very punctually, and that therein I gave her full satisfaction in every particular, she gave me again her hand to kiss, and commanded my despatch for Ireland, and so dismissed me with grace and favour.’ Boyle does not say by what route he made the journey from Cork to London in such a wonderfully short time; but the place of landing was probably Bristol. With a south-west wind and a flood tide in the Avon the feat is possible; but it is probably without a parallel. And great must have been the endurance of the man who, after galloping from Bristol to London, sat up talking till two in the morning, and was on his feet again at seven. The picture is a curious one, and it is interesting to note how this brilliant and successful man, writing more than thirty years afterwards and in the fulness of wealth and honours, is careful to record that he twice kissed Queen Elizabeth’s hand.[396]
Great cost of the war.
The Queen was at first inclined to think the Spaniards had too easy terms, but declared herself satisfied when she had heard the whole story. The expense of the war and the waste of English blood was terrible, and she would not deprive even Tyrone of hope. He found means to make overtures very soon after the siege of Kinsale, and Cecil told Mountjoy privately that he did not think her inexorable, though the fear of being cajoled did not, as she wrote, ‘permit her to hold any other way with the arch-traitor than the plain way of perdition.’ But the capitulation had been granted ‘to save the blood of her subjects, dearer to her than revenge or glory,’ and the same consideration prevented her from driving Tyrone to desperation. In the meantime the army was to be reduced, and the rebellion extinguished in detail. Carew accompanied Mountjoy to Waterford and Kilkenny, whence he returned into Munster. The Lord Deputy went on to Dublin, where he lay inactive for some weeks, completely disabled by the hardships of the late siege.[397]
FOOTNOTES:
[379] Carew to the Privy Council, Aug. 6, 1601; Cecil to Carew, Sept. 5—both in Carew. ‘For Desmond (James Fitzthomas),’ says Cecil, ‘I find him more discreet than I have heard of him, and for Florence the same which I ever expected, which is a malicious, vain fool.’—Pacata Hibernia, lib. ii. cap. 6.
[380] Journal in Carew, No. 198; Pacata Hibernia, cap. 10; Carew to the Privy Council, Sept. 14.
[381] Pacata Hibernia, caps. 9, 10, and 11. The Spanish ships are described as fifty, forty-five, and thirty-five. The latter number probably came to Kinsale with Don Juan. Storms and accidents account for the rest. Small vessels had been purposely chosen, with a view to the Irish harbours.
[382] Pacata Hibernia, caps. 10 and 11; Warrants in Carew, Sept. 28.
[383] Pacata Hibernia, cap. 13; Fynes Moryson, part ii. book ii. chap. ii.; Journal in Carew (No. 199) Oct. 29 to Nov. 1.
[384] Journal in Carew, Nos. 199 and 200; Four Masters, 1601; Docwra’s Narration, p. 257. Castle Park fell on Nov. 20.