Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/300

 280 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 59. if for the future they might have ready money for what they provided. 1 Fitzwilliam made a schedule of the outstanding obligations, which he sent home, with a prayer, that ' God would deliver him for the future from such evil reckonings.' He was himself drifting slowly to ruin, as he boldly said that Sidney had been ruined before him. He received some salary indeed, but he received it in the debased Irish coin, while he had to pay for everything in the exaggerated prices which the universal disorder had occasioned. 2 The country was swarming with ' Spanish spies and vermin/ He caught and hanged a few of them ; but their numbers and their boldness seemed to multiply with the execu- tions. The cloud of the threatened Spanish invasion hung still unbroken, and 'he had neither money, vic- tuals, armour, weapons, or men.' If the armada came, he said he would sell his best lands in Milton to hold his ground ; but all that he could raise in that way would be but a drop of water in the sea ; and either death or captivity, or, at the best, ' beggary,' was the alternative to which he looked forward as the reward of his 'fourteen years' service.' 3 The Border tribes harried the Pale at their pleasure. Tirlogh Lenogh recovered from his wounds, and set about the old work with renewed vigour. The representative of the Ma- jesty of England, in his desperate extremity, was driven 1 Notes on the state of Ireland, by Edward Tremayne. Endorsed by BurgMey 'A. good advice,' June 2 Petition of Lady Fitzwilliam, December u, 1571 : MSS. Ireland. 3 Fitzwilliam. to Burghley, April IS-