Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/308

 288 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 59. attempt to extract a revenue out of the unhappy coun- try, to make it pay for its desolation, he utterly failed. He could plunge through bogs and rivers, force his way among glens and gorges, and send the Irish flying like wild birds among their crags ; but he could squeeze no money out of them ; and when his year's pay was out, he was left like Fitton and Fitzwilliam. His men grew mutinous, and he could not reconcile his soldier habits to a looseness of discipline. Complaints against his severity were showered across the Channel by his officers, to which Elizabeth gave ready hearing ; Fitz- william, who sympathized in his sufferings, told Burgh- ley that ' Per rot was but receiving the usual reward of Ireland to those who sought its reformation ; ' and Perrot himself, in fierce contempt, declared 'that he had done his duty as well as his means would allow him, and if he was to be found fault with for every trifle, he would rather remain in the Tower seven years than continue in his Presidency/ One active episode broke the monotony of wretched- ness. Fitzmaurice, in May, 1572, went up into Ulster, collected fifteen hundred Scots, and came down upon the Shannon. His first step was to burn Athlone. The scanty guard which was left in the castle watched the work from the battlements, and dared not venture out to interfere with it. Fitzwilliam expected that he would turn upon the Pale. He called out all the English force which remained to him. It consisted of five hundred ragged ruffians, all told. He sent an express to Eliza- beth for assistance ; he said that unless he was relieved,