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CHAPTER XI.

"Between the acting of a dreadful thing,
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream.
The genius and the mortal inftruments
Are then on council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, fuffers then

The nature of an infurrection.”

JULIUS CAESAR, act II., fc. I.

LSTER is enchanted. On the frontier they

ceafe to fay, "God fpeed!" You are out o'

the Pale-past her Grace's care.

You are a

fool-hardy, defperate man, paffing that bourne whence there

is fo little chance of your return.

There the fun fhines but for two or three months in the year. The grass groweth not, nor is there any spring in the ground till it is well on into June, or even into July.

The few crops be thin and scanty beyond all thought; and the cattle, poor, wafted, dwindled, and diseased, be not worth the housing or the eating. They fay in the far West part of it, that they have there an All-hallown fummer of fome three or four days: but the rest is darkness, rain, storm. There is more mountain than plain, more rock than earth— more bog than foil-more water than land; for, befide those inland feas of Neagh and Erne, there be vast lakes and loughs, estuaries and large bays of the fea, running far thorough. And there be marfhes and defarts, forests and moors, without end. Except on the Eastern coast, where are a few fickly plantations, the Province is held by rude hordes and favage tribes, wandering over a defolate wilderness. Of thefe O'Nial is the chief, because the strongest, exacting what he will from whomsoever.

"Pay me the tribute!" quoth he to O'Donel; " or, if you don't "

"I owe you no tribute !" anfwereth the other. I did "

"And if

Such was their ufe. Now quarrelling amongst themfelves, now banded against her Grace's peace.

No fooner had Effex purported to start on his

St. Leger-Clifford-Ratcliffe.

153

Northern progress, than in the rere O'Dempsey raiseth a stir in Offaley, facking Maryboro', firing it every where by lighted turfs, reached on poles to the thatch, robbing the fettlers, driving off their kine, carrying away their women, meal, and butter. And to him were joined O'More, O'Connor, and the like.

Thefe, my Lord fuddenly coming upon, brought to fubjection; yet could he not catch the O'Dempfey, who was fitting in a bog-hole; whom, otherwise, he would have hanged in terrorem doubtlesfly, as did he one titular Bishop Egan there, in full armour, found leading on the rebels in the Pope's name.

Sir Warham St. Leger, that valiant and hereditarily prudent Councillor, fighting hand to hand with one of their chiefs, Maguire to wit, both were flain, and this not long while afterwards.

Sir Conyers Clifford, being as ftout a man as one bearing fuch names should be-(and note that, if you have great names and generous remembrance of your ancestry, you shall be looked to to bear yourself seemly, as was heretofore put to you)-Sir Conyers Clifford being fuch an one, with whom was my Lord's dear and tried friend Sir Alexander,

poor Tom Ratcliffe's brother, coming from Connaught with fifteen hundred foot and fome one hundred horse, towards that key of Ulfter, Ballyshannon, halted in the Curlew mountains, in the county of Leitrim.

Look to your card of Ireland. You will fee how, at the mouth of the Erne river, coming from the lake of the same, lyeth Ballyshannon, a most easily fortified pass; which kept, not one Connaught man could force or steal himself into Ulfter, while the garrifon could be victualled by fea. To siege this hold; to keep in O’Nial; to keep out all help from that quarter, the army of the Weft was ordered. And it was purposed, by judicious marchings, to cut off Tyr Oen's retreat, after the Lord General fhould have routed him.

But it was not to be. Here was the beginning of the end. On a steep mountain track, the cold rain pouring adown; the heavy woods on either fide foughing drearily in the wind; the narrow paved causeway scarcely fuffering five men abreast, the weary troops were met by O'Rorke, and other rebel chiefs. "Twas a fhort matter, though the enemy were fewer than her Grace's bands. From behind the trees the Irish darts and arrows told upon the men, who

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vainly spent their shot. Clifford and Ratcliffe fell. Some fix fcore men, done to death, blocked up the way. The few horse, as the enemy thronged forward to complete their victory-the few horse charged murtherously; and thus the shattered force under their protection made

retreat.

The Lords, Colonels, and Knights of the army, being called to a Council of War, now peremptorily declared against the northern journey altogether. The army, they said, was fo unwilling to be carried thither, that fome fecretly ran into England, others had revolted to the enemy: a third fort partly hid themselves in the country, partly feigned fick. They fhewed how 'twas impoffible at this time of year to plant Lough Foyle (that is, the bafe of that peninfula, lying between Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly—a most convenient spot for a garrison as could be chosen: as my Lord had pointed out). And farther, that the available force reached not four thousand men. All which, under their hands they manfully attested-presently denied.

"You shall not make these reverses known in France," quoth Master Secretary: "for the worfe luck we have, the worse will they esteem us! Litteræ fcriptæ manent.”

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