Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/296

 276 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 59. me to death by the Inquisition, he caused me to come forth in the presence of the knight and certain captains of his, with all his gentlemen and yeomen, and stripped me unto my shirt, and banished me the town of Madrid, giving me but four hours' respite to depart upon pain of the gallows/ King, having had enough of Spain, made his way to Pampeluna, and back through the Pyrenees into France. When beyond the frontiers, he Wrote once more to Cecil to impress upon him the real danger from Stukely's machinations. The Spaniards certainly intended, he said, to make a descent either on Ireland or on Eng- land ; and ' he would only pray that the plagues might not light on his own noble country which he had seen in France the fruits of the earth devoured by soldiers, and the widows, wives, and virgins denied with stran- gers/ ' The Duke's Grace Stukely had received the Sacrament, and promised to render unto the King of Spain not only entrance within his duchy, but also pos- session of the whole realm of Ireland. The soldiers were amassing from all parts of Spain Spaniards, Burgun- dians, Italians, the most part Bezonians, beggarly, ill- armed rascals, but their captains old beaten men of war. The King was sparing no cost on the enterprise, and no honours to Stukely, hoping by such means to enlarge his empire.' 1 For two years the farce continued. The Irish were discontented at the turn which Spanish policy had taken. 1 Oliver King to Burghley, "February 18, 1572: MSS. Spain.