Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/266

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [cii. 59. A few months' experience sufficed to correct these hasty views. Tremayne learnt that the conspiracy was universal. ' West, north, and south, all tending to sub- vert the English Government/ ' The naked knaves ' proved less contemptible than he imagined, and he came to see that confiscation was as unwise as he at first con- sidered it desirable. Ormond^ evidently was not made a party while in England to the colonization scheme. On his landing, the truth became for the first time known to him, and in language scarcely ambiguous he gave Cecil to under- stand that favour to himself should not make him untrue to Ireland. If the lands of the ancient owners were to be seized for the benefit of strangers, he said plainly that he would make common cause with his country- men. 1 The apostasy of so powerful an interest was a risk too formidable to be ventured. To drive Ormond into combination with Fitzmaurice, would make either colonization or military government alike impossible, except at a cost which Elizabeth could not undertake. 1 ' This is the order now-a-days to come by the possession of my brother's lands ; and to make the better quarrel to his living my Lord Deputy proclaimed him rebel. I hope the Queen's Majesty will think of this manner of dealing with her subjects. I assure you Sir Peter's dealing for my brother's land has made all the lords and men of living, dwelling out of the English Pale, think there is a conquest meant of all their countries. I do hear that certain foolish letters, written in some fond sort by Sir Warham St ^Leger or some others, be come into the hands of divers here. By God, if it be as my men tell me, those that have hitherto always served the Queen faithfully are now 'in doubt- ful terms. I mean some of great calling.' Ormond to Cecil, July 24: MSS. Ireland.