The President of Munster was the English Governor of all this part of Ireland, and I could not but think this was a strange piece of news. That he and the Earl of Desmond should be together, evidently on terms of friendship, boded no good to Grace O’Malley, or to myself, or to our cause.
“O,” said Fitzgerald testily, “the explanation is simple. The country is excited over the prospect of the coming of ships from Spain, and the President rode over from Limerick to Askeaton to see Desmond—ostensibly on a visit merely of courtesy, but in reality to spy out what was going on here. I would not have suffered him to enter the castle had I been Desmond, but Desmond thought otherwise, saying the time was not yet ripe.”
This was plausible, but did not account, I thought, for the moody looks of Fitzgerald. There was something behind all this, but I did not press him further, save to inquire—
“What is to prevent the President from seizing Desmond, and thrusting him into prison at Limerick?”
“He has a strong guard,” said he, “and the President has very few soldiers in Limerick. Besides, he feels confident that Desmond will be true to the English.”
“Has Desmond given him any pledge of good faith?”
“No. He places his trust in Desmond too fully for that.”
When I thought over what I had been told, it seemed probable enough that the Earl concealed his real intentions under the mask of a pretended loyalty to the Queen, and would do so perhaps until the time, as he said, was ripe. Yet the uneasiness I always felt with respect to him increased in spite of this supposition.
Then it occurred to me that perchance Fitzgerald, now that he had had time to become better acquainted with his cousin, was not more satisfied with him than I, and that this was the reason for his change of aspect.
However, when I met the Earl next morning, my suspicions and fears melted away before the cordiality with which he received me. And when I told him that my mistress was in the vicinity, he declared that there was nothing he desired more in all the world than to see her.