of his wound, and was buried in his own chapel at Christ's Church before the high altar. Holinshed describes him as a 'mightie man of stature, full of honours and courage, who had been Lord-deputie and Lord Justice of Ireland three and thirtie yeares. Kildare was in government milde, to his enemies sterne. He was open and playne, hardly able to move himself when he was moved; in anger not so sharp as short, being easily displeased and sooner appeased.'

Gerald Oge, that is, Gerald the younger, the ninth Earl of Kildare, entered upon his office of lord-deputy under less favourable auspices than his predecessor had done. As governor of Ireland, Gerald seemed to consider himself as representing the king's interests only in the Pale, which at that time included the counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Kildare, ruling the rest of his possessions as independently as any native chief; and these were tolerably extensive, for he and his kinsmen occupied the counties of Kildare and Carlow as far as the bridge of Leighlin, exacting coin and livery within these bounds. In fact, while he was English to the Irish, he was, to a certain degree, Irish to the English who were placed in this unfortunate dilemma: they must of necessity support the lorddeputy, from his influence over the Pale, which was their instrument for curbing the rest of Ireland, then divided amongst thirty great Anglo-Irish lords and sixty Irish chieftains. On the other hand, there was always a danger of the lord-deputy's growing over-powerful, and turning round upon his master.

It happened to Gerald Oge, as it had happened to his predecessors, to more than once incur the jealousy of the English Government, and to be deprived of his office of lord-deputy. What was yet worse, he unluckily drew upon himself the hatred of the stern and lynx-eyed Wolsey, and nearly lost his head in consequence. The stout Earl weathered the storm which had well-nigh foundered him, and even again attained his former dignity; but it was only to relapse into suspicion and disgrace. He was once more called over to England, and recommitted to the Tower. Before his departure from Ireland, he constituted his son Thomas Lord Offaly vice-deputy, and strictly enjoined him to be wise and prudent,' and submissive to the council. Nevertheless, the 'hot and active temper' of the young lord could not be restrained. The murder of Archbishop Alen, perpetrated by his followers, led to the severe sentence of excommunication pronounced against him; which being shown to the old Earl in the Tower, had such an effect on him that he died shortly after of a broken heart. His remains received sepulture within the Tower walls, in St. Peter's Chapel,-a sorry recompense for all his

services.

Some time before the ninth Earl died, a report reached Ireland that he was to be beheaded. A strange story is told by Holinshed, how this report was confirmed in secret letters written by certain servants of Sir William Skeffington. 'One of these letters fell into the hands of a priest, who threw it among other papers, meaning to read it at leisure.

That nighte, a gentleman, a retainer of Lord Thomas', lodged with the priest, and sought in the morning when he rose for some paper to darne on his strayte stockings; and as the divell would, he hit upon the letter, and bore it away in the heele of his stocke.' At night he found the paper; and seeing that it announced the Earl's death, he carried it to his son Lord Thomas, who immediately resolved to throw off his allegiance to the English Crown.

From this moment the adventures of Thomas tenth Earl of Kildare, known (from the fringes on the helmets of his retainers) as Silken Thomas, form a chapter of romance ; and, after all, his determination was not so hopeless of success as many at the time imagined it to be, so extensive was the influence of the Geraldines. In disclaiming the English rule, the young Earl proceeded with all the chivalric honour of a knight of old. He called a meeting of the council at St. Mary's Abbey; and when he had seated himself at the head of the table, a party of his followers rushed in, to the sore amazement of those who had not been previously warned of his intentions. The words in which he then addressed them were worthy of his great ancestors, and show of what metal the Geraldines were made. He then tendered his sword of state to the chancellor (Cromer). The gentle prelate, who was a well-wisher of the Geraldines, besought him with tears to abandon his purpose. He might perhaps have succeeded, but that Nolan, an Irish bard then present, burst out into a heroic strain in his native tongue, in praise of Silken Thomas,' and concluded

by warning him that he had lingered there over long. This aroused the Earl, who, addressing the chancellor somewhat abruptly, renounced all allegiance to the English monarch, saying that he chose rather to die with valiantness and liberty.'

The subsequent career of Silken Thomas' fully corresponded with the above commencement. For a length of time he resisted successfully the famous lord-deputy Skeffington, with all the support that England could afford him, or that could be derived from Irish septs. When, finally deserted by the last of his allies, Kildare was obliged to surrender, it was upon a promise sealed upon the holy sacrament, that he should receive a full pardon upon his arrival in England. But this pledge was shamefully violated by Henry VIII. For sixteen months the Earl was imprisoned in the Tower of London; and then, together with his five uncles, two of whom had always been staunch adherents of the king, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, on the 8th of February 1537, the Earl being then but twentyfour years of age.

The rebellion of 'Silken Thomas' is a most romantic and touching episode in Irish history. It is melancholy to contrast the early condition of the gay, glittering noble, the Silken Lord,' vice-deputy of Ireland, and head of one of the most illustrious families in the world, with that bitter suffering which he described in a letter to an adherent while a prisoner in the Tower. He writes: 'I never had any money syns I cam unto prison but a nobull, nor I have had

nethyr hosyn, dublet, nor shoys, nor shyrt buton. . . . I have gone barefote dyverse tymes (when ytt hath not been very warme), and so I should have done styll, and now, but that pore prysoners, of their gentylnes, hath sometyme geyven me old hosyn, and shoys, and old shyrtes. This I wryte unto you, not as complayning on my fryndes, but for to show you the trewth of my gret ned.' The generous, selfsacrificing spirit of the youth still shines throughout his sufferings; and the reader will scarcely fail to be struck with the marked resemblance between 'Silken Thomas' and another equally ill-fated Geraldine of a much later period, the amiable and high-minded Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Both were led away by the enthusiasm of their nature; both were chivalrously honourable; both displayed throughout the contest an unflinching spirit; and each in the bloom of manhood paid the penalty of his error in a violent death.

Though attainder followed, the House of Kildare was not destined to perish. Thomas's half-brother Gerald, the eleventh Earl of Kildare, then only twelve years old, became the male representative of the Geraldines. His fortunes will be found narrated in connection with the history of Sir Anthony Browne and his descendants.