Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/272

 252 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 59. company, or maintain any outlaws or traitors ; and after my first summoning of any castle or fort, if they would not presently yield it, I would not afterwards take it of their gift, but won it perforce, how many lives soever it cost, putting man, woman, and child of them to the sword. Neither did I spare any malefactors unexecuted that came to my hands in any respect ; using all those that I had protected with all courtesy and friendship that I might, being for my part constantly of this opinion, that no conquered nation will ever yield willingly their obedience for love, but rather for fear/ 1 The English nation was shuddering over the atrocities of the Duke of Alva. The chil- dren in the nurseries were being inflamed to patriotic rage and madness by tales of Spanish tyranny. Yet Alva's bloody sword never touched the young, the de- fenceless, or those whose sex even dogs can recognize and respect. Nor was Gilbert a bad man. As times went he passed for a brave and chivalrous gentleman, not the least distinguished in that high band of adventurers who carried the English flag into the Western hemi- sphere ; a founder of colonies, an explorer of unknown seas, a man of science, and, above all, a man of special piety. In this very Irish service he displayed signal and splendid courage. He held a ford near Kilmalloch single-handed against a troop of Irish horse, to cover the passage of his people. He regarded himself as Hurafrey Gilbert to Sir H. Sidney, December, 1569: JUSS. Ireland.