Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/307

 1572.] STATE OF IRELAND. 287 years of work, lie had killed in fighting, or captured and hanged, some eight hundred miserable creatures of one sort or another. 1 He burnt or blew up every strong- hold, large or small, which closed its gates against him. He took Castlemayne, in Kerry, after a two months' siege, and Fitzmaurice was reduced to a wandering life among the hills. The roads became again moderately safe, and travellers could pass between Youghal, Water- ford, Limerick, and Cork with a chance of not being murdered. But a fatality hung over everything. To reach the principal rebel, Perrot challenged him, and offered to refer the Irish quarrel to a combat of cham- pions, twelve to twelve. Whether in case of defeat he was empowered to yield the country in his mistress's name, or whether Fitzmaurice' s death would be accepted as decisive by the other Irish chiefs, he did not stay to consider. Time and place were agreed upon, and the President, as a set-off against Sidney's harshness, wrote to Ormond to beg that Sir Edward Butler would make one of the English party. 2 Ormond, ' at his wits' end ' at such an extraordinary piece of folly, repaired to the scene of action ' to prevent the combat.' Fitzmaurice, suspecting treachery, did not appear, 3 and Perrot had to fall back upon the hanging and burning which formed the principal subject of all his reports. This he was able to accomplish ; but the ultimate success of such measures depended on a further condition, and in the 1 Perrot to the Council, April 9, 1573 : MS 8. Ireland. November 18, 1571 : MS S. Ireland. 3 Fitzwilliam to Elizabeth, Feb 2 Sir John Perrot to Ormond. ruary 28, 1572 : MSS. Ibid.