he had laid them to rest, when he had caused the remains of those he had loved so dearly to be sent back to their native country. He did not speak, for he saw that I understood it. We went up to the tombs; one clad in ducal robes, with his feet resting on his good dog, his grave, manly features carved with exquisite care, and the hands joined upon the breast. The tomb itself displayed no carving beyond the quatrefoiled panels, and at one end the family arms; but a brass fillet ran round the upper surface, engraved with these words in old English characters :-"If they had been mindful of the country whence they came out, they had, doubtless, time to return; but now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city." (Heb. xi. 15-16.)

I passed to the other tomb, and thought I recognised in the sweet, matronly features of her whose effigy reposed there, a likeness to my friend; then I read the inscription which bade me pray for the soul of John William, Marquis of Carstairs, and his wife, Eleanor; and kneeling together, Leven and I softly recited a De Profundis. As we rose from our knees, I observed a brass plate let into the floor in front of the two monuments. "My own restingplace," said Leven, as I pointed to it. "Some day, perhaps not very far off, I shall be lying here at their feet."

We left the church, but his last words struck to my heart, and I looked at him earnestly. "All right, old fellow," he said, "don't spin cobwebs out of what I said just now. I meant nothing in particular."

"I sometimes fancy it is not all right," I replied. "You wear yourself out with many cares, and too little recreation."

"Well, this is recreation, anyhow," he said; "just look at the light behind those granite peaks! Let's go down to the river, it's just the

hour for the otters."

STANZAS WRITTEN IN THE VISITORS' BOOK AT

GLENGARIFF.

O the sweetest of dreams there's a waking,

T°

To the brightest of days there's an end,

And a sorrowful moment for taking

Last looks at the face of a friend.
What pain like the ending of pleasure?
What shock like a dream dispelled?
How we mourn the intangible treasure
We could not have held!

And now, since my holiday's over,
And duty recalls me to live

Where thistles grow thick in life's clover,
Will she sternly refuse to forgive
This weakness of impotent wailing
For a past so entrancingly bright,
For sunshine and flowers unfailing,
For a dream of delight?

The dim and delicious recesses,
Where bays of a chrysolite sea
Sleep shaded in tangle and tresses
Of briar and blossoming tree;
The glades where the woodbine and roses
Shine warm in the emerald gloom,
And each flicker of sunlight discloses
Fresh beauty and bloom;

The garlanded islands all lying
Embayed in an ocean of light,
The rampart of mountains, defying

All winds that can wither and smite;
The paths that are all paths of pleasure
By mountain, and forest, and stream,
The sense of a glorified leisure,

A realised dream.

Oh, who would not suffer in leaving
An Eden of joys like these,

And turn with reluctance and grieving

From all this enchantment and ease?-
From the rose-covered porch of "The Eccles,"
Where comfort and happiness dwell,
And where peace has no flaws and no speckles,
Save fear of farewell!

Oh, long may this fairest of regions
Its sacred seclusion retain,

Not trampled by hurrying legions,

Not haunted by steamer and train :

That, when wearied with strife and confusion,

We may come to this land of the blest,

And find without dream or delusion

A Valley of Rest.

Eccles' Hotel, June, 1876.

M. La T.

THE SUGAN EARL OF DESMOND.

PART II.

IN the April number of this journal we gave in detail the history of the last Desmond rebellion up to the beginning of the year 1599. The English power, not merely in the North, where O'Neill ruled paramount, but throughout the whole of Ireland, was then in a most critical position. The great Munster Plantation was swept away. "The work of years," said Bacon, "was thus made the spoil of days.” Our own annalists state that all Munster had become "a trembling sod." A mighty effort was needed to be made, in the face of such dangers. The English Privy Council was in sore alarm. Elizabeth proposed to commit the government of Ireland to Lord Mountjoy. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the royal favourite, warmly opposed such a course; he argued that a man of varied experience was required for the conduct of the war; that the retired and studious life which Mountjoy had hitherto led, was hardly a fit preparation for such service; a brave and skilful general would be needed, one who would possess the confidence of the Crown, who would be superior to the petty factions that had hitherto ruled supreme in Ireland. The Queen Îent a ready ear to the arguments put forward by her favourite. She asked him to accept the office. On all sides he was urged to obey the royal wishes. His friends thought his previous achievements in Spain proved beyond a doubt that he possessed considerable talents. for war and were a sure warrant of his future success. His enemies hoped that his inordinate vanity would soon bring about his ruin. His patent was made out with the title of Lord Lieutenant; it granted to him more extensive powers than almost any other governor of Ireland ever had; he could make military laws and put them into execution; pardon all crimes, even treason itself against the royal person; appoint to all offices, and confer dignities at will. He was allowed to conduct the war almost entirely at his own discretion.*

Towards the end of March, he set out from London, "accompanied by a gallant train of the flower of the nobility, and followed by the people with joyful acclamations. But it was remarked, as a thing of evil omen, that it happened to thunder in the clear day, and that a violent storm of rain followed soon after; in sailing over, too, he was tossed to and fro with a contrary wind." On the 15th of April, he landed in Dublin with 17,000 foot and 1,300 horse. "The beholders said so great an army had never till that time come to Ireland, since the Earl Strongbow and Robert FitzStephen came in former times with Dermot MacMorrough." One of his first acts was to issue a proclamation in the Queen's name, in which he "excluded the ancient Irish, her Majesty's inveterate enemies, from all hopes of pardon. The modern Irish, who had been forced by the tyranny of the British governors to have recourse to arms, would receive forgiveness, provided they surrendered their arms without delay." He was politic enough to * Rymer, xvi. 66. "Four Masters," vi, 2111.

grant a certain degree of toleration to the Catholics. Mass could at times be celebrated in private houses, and sacraments administered. Some priests were released from prison. The honour of knighthood was conferred on a few Catholics who were known to be well affected towards the Crown. He sent a messenger to the Earl of Desmond, to treat with him about the terms on which he would lay down his arms and return to his allegiance. To these overtures Desmond replied, that he was determined to follow out the wishes of O'Neil in every thing.

Essex was soon made aware of the difficulties he had to contend with. The rebels exceeded in number his forces; they were better trained to the use of arms, and more inured to the hardships of irregular warfare. O'Neill, at the head of 6,000 men, threatened the Queen's forces in the north; O'Donnell was about to attack the English governor in Connaught; the Munster men had bound themselves by a solemn oath to be faithful to the cause of Desmond. Not one of the insurgents showed any purpose of submitting or suing for pardon; even some who had hitherto followed the royal cause, gave manifest signs of disaffection, and were known to hold secret correspondence with the rebels.

In the English Council, Essex had been wont to say that the Irish wars had been protracted by the frequent parleys of the deputies with the rebels. On one point only had express instructions been given to him he was told "to pass by all other rebels whatever, and to bend his whole force against O'Neill, the arch-rebel." But some of the Irish privy councillors, interested in the newly-planted lands of Munster, urged him to lead his army towards that province; they assured him that "there was not of the plunderers of the Queen in Ireland a tribe more easily invaded than the Geraldines, as they were then circumstanced."* Essex used to say that the Earl of Ormond had been struck blind because he had advised the advance into Munster. In deference to their opinion, he divided his army into three bodies; 3,000 foot and 500 horse were sent, under Sir Henry Harrington, into Wicklow, to keep the O'Mores, the O'Byrnes, and the other Leinster tribes in check, and "to punish Feagh M'Hugh's sons." To Sir Conyers Clifford, Governor of Connaught, he sent a like body of men.

"After resting certain days in Dublin, for establishing the state of the kingdom," he set out for the South with 7,000 foot and 900 horse, the remainder of his army. He marched through the champaign fields between the villages of Kilrush and Castlemartin, in which place he appointed to meet him 27 ensigns of foot and 300 horse. On his way through Leinster he was attacked by Owney O'Moore, at the head of the men of Leix. Falling on his forces in their passage through a narrow defile, they slew large numbers and bore away as trophies the plumes of the lordly gallants. The place was long after called Barnagletta,

"Four Masters," vi. 2111.

† Moryson, i. 166.

Dymock, "Relation," &c., published by the Irish Archæol. Soc. in 1843.

i. e., the Pass of the Plumes.* In spite of this disaster, he continued his march southwards. On his way he laid siege to Cahir Castle; only a few men garrisoned it, wholly unprovided with artillery. The Earl of Desmond and Redmond Burke hastened to its relief. After a successful skirmish, they succeeded in throwing into it a body of fifty men, under the command of James Butler, the brother of Lord Cahir. The besiegers brought heavy guns from Waterford, and soon forced the garrison to surrender.t "He took," says Camden, "Cahir Castle, environed with the river Suir; he spread a great terror of himself far and near, driving away great numbers of cattle and dispersing the rebels round about into the woods and thickets." To his royal mistress he could not give any account of brilliant exploits; but he soon saw that the rebels whom he dispersed were no contemptible enemies. "The people in general," he wrote to the Queen, "were able-bodied by nature, and have gotten by custom ready use of arms; and by their late successes, boldness to fight your Majesty's troops. They have better bodies and more perfect use of their arms than these men which your Majesty sends over. Your Majesty's commanders, being advised and excused, know all advantages, and by the strength of their order will, in great fights, beat the rebels; for they neither march, nor lodge, nor fight in order; but only by the benefit of footmanship can come on and go off at their pleasure."

During the siege of Cahir, Sir Thomas Norris, then president of the two provinces of Munster, i. e. Desmond and Thomond, came from Cork to Kilmallock to wait on Essex before he should reach Limerick. "He was in the habit of scouring the hills in the neighbourhood every day, to see whether he could kill or capture any of the Queen's enemies. On a certain day that he went to the eastern extremity of the county, he happened to fall in with Thomas Burke, brother of the Lord of Castleconnell. Thomas, alone of all his people, was on horseback; he had nearly 100 Irish soldiers with him. When the President saw him, he made a determined attack on him. About 200 of his people were cut off on that occasion; and more would have been slain, but that Norris in the fray received a violent and venomous thrust of a pike where the jawbone joins to the upper part of the neck. He was taken to Kilmallock, where he lay ill for six weeks. He died in the month of July.§

* Multos plumeos apices capit O'Mora, unde hodie locus dicitur Transitus Plumarum. O'Sullevan, t. 3, 1. 5, c. 9. The name is now obsolete. No evidence has yet been discovered to prove the exact situation of the place. See note by O'Donovan in "Four Masters," vi. 2112.

There is a "view" of Cahir Castle, as it then was, in "Pac. Hib.," p. 76. Soon after it was surprised by James Butler. The way in which it was captured is given at length in Dineley's "Journal." See Kilk. Archæol. Journal for 1868, p. 89.

"Four Masters," vi. 2,115. According to O'Sullevan this skirmish took place at Kilteely, a village about two miles south of Pallas Green, in the Co. Limerick. § Sir Thomas Norris, Lord President of Munster, having been slain in the service of Queen Elizabeth against the rebels in the said province, King James on that account, and because the lands of his daughter and heiress were waste during that time, remitted to her all the arrears of the Crown, viz., in Limerick County for the Friary of the Holy Trinity at Adare, called the Friary for the Redemption of Captives; and the Friary of St. Augustine at Adare, and the Abbey at Manister Nenagh.-Kilkenny Arch. Soc., ii., 270.