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 1570.] STATE OF IRELAND. 261 calling, could change his judge's wig for a steel cap when the times required ; but he was a man whose pro- fession was properly peaceful, and he became a soldier only on compulsion. When Gilbert's troops were broken up, he took part of them into his service, and commenced his duties by going on circuit in Clare. The Earls of Thomond were the hereditary rulers of the county. They were superseded by the new Com- mission, and Fitton, to make the transition easy, sent to Lord Thomond to say that he would be his guest at the Assize. The messenger, who had been one of Gilbert's officers, was admitted into Clare Castle, and he and his companions were told that they were prisoners. They resisted; some were killed, some were thrown into dungeons, and the Earl, who a few months before had appeared himself at Sidney's levee, set upon the town where the President was lying, maimed his horses, scattered his train, and left him to find his way back to Galway as he could. The Deputy, made helpless by want of money, was obliged to swallow his pride, and applied to Ormond to help him to punish this new outrage. Ormond, though still loyal, was hampered by the division in his family, and could do nothing. A handful of soldiers were at last scraped together in .Dublin, and sent to Fitton, who then marched into Thomond and fought a battle, where, though he gained what he called a victory, he was him- self wounded, and his men were so badly cut up that he was obliged to retire. Unable to trust himself again in Galway, he shut himself up in the Castle of .Athlone,