Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/264

 244 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 59. the beginning of the general extermination which was contemplated in the scheme of settlement ; and it will be seen that the gentlemen interested in the intended partition imitated Carew's example wherever thoy had an opportunity, with the deliberate and expressed ap- proval of Sir Henry Sidney. Sir Edward Butler, being without hope of justice from the Deputy, challenged Carew ' to mortal combat.' ' As to the Queen/ he said, ' he loved her so, that he would be a slave in her kitchen if she commanded him ; ' but he would not sit still while those who depended on him for protection were murdered under his own roof, and while he himself ' was proclaimed a traitor/ as 'an excuse to take his lands from him.' He would make war to the death 'against those that banished Ireland and meant a conquest. 3 He was ready to fight these would-be colonists one after another, man to man, in Sir Henry Sidney's presence, and before the whole English army. 1 The news of Carew's atrocities were spread fast over Ireland, and every chief prepared to take the field. Tirlogh Lenogh forgot his short-lived loyalty, and un- furled the banner of the 'Neils. Clanrickard and Thomond combined in the west, and Kildare was waiting only to see how the scale would turn. If a Spanish fleet appeared in the Irish seas before the fire had burned upon all the women and children that were in the house, and among them was an honest gentleman's son in the house not three years old that was also murdered.' Ormond to Cecil, July 24, 1569: MSS. Ire- land. 1 Sir Edward Butler to the Earl of Ormond, August 24 : MSS. Ire- land.