As I had now accomplished the mission my mistress had entrusted me with, I set about preparing to return to Askeaton. But Fitzmaurice prevailed upon me to stay two or three days longer, telling me he had sent horsemen to Desmond with a letter, in which he had urged his kinsman to declare war against the Queen without delay, and saying the reply might be of such a character as to change my plans. He hoped the answer would be speedy, and in any case, he said, it was well that I should know exactly what the Earl wrote.
But several days passed, and still no word came from Desmond.
In the meantime, Sir John, a brother of the Earl, arrived at Smerwick. This man, with whom a hatred of the English was the chief passion of his life, greatly lamented the supineness of his brother, but he had no knowledge of the Earl’s movements. There was no mistaking that Sir John was sincere, and when he asked Fitzmaurice, de Vilela, and myself to accompany him on his return to his castle of Tralee, where, he said, our reception would give full proof of his devotion to the cause, I for one gladly assented.
We took with us a considerable number of men, so as to guard against a surprise, but we reached Tralee without adventure of any sort.
Before we had gained the castle itself, however, we were met by one of Sir John’s gallowglasses, who warned him that two officers of the English had arrived there that very day, and that, as one of them was well known to Sir John, they had been allowed to enter within its walls without question.
Hastily calling a halt, we consulted together what was the wisest course to pursue. Sir John was for our going on, but Fitzmaurice thought it would be more prudent for Sir John to ride forward with his own attendants, and then, when night had fallen, we might secretly enter the castle.
“Who are the Englishmen?” asked I, thinking that they might be known to me.
“One is Carter, the Marshal of Munster,” replied Sir John, “and the other is Davell, a captain in the garrison at Limerick.”
I was acquainted with neither, but I remembered that I had heard of Davell, and what it was, and I looked steadily at Sir John.