Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/540

 520 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. this promised to be a good subject, and the O'Neils being thus submissive, Essex turned next to the Earl of Desmond. He had probably known him in England, and he wrote to him as a friend, inviting and even en- treating him to accept the hand which was now held out to him. The Queen, he said, so far from desiring to injure the Irish nobility, wished only to strengthen them ; and if he would but assure her of his general loyalty, she would not interfere with his rights of sovereignty. Desmond's attitude had been so menacing that the English council had half resolved to send Sir William Drury with a second army into Munster. Edward Waterhouse, a correspondent of Walsingham, then and always insisted that the smooth policy would fail with the Geraldine chief, that nothing but force would hold either him or indeed any other Irish leader in permanent subjection. Even the bishoprics "Water- house wished to see bestowed, for the present, on soldiers of experience. There was no work for bishops, as ministers of religion, and ' no room for justice till the sword had made a way for it.' 1 The liberal offers of Essex however found Desmond naturally willing to listen. He proposed an interview, to which Essex ac- ceded, and Essex, accompanied by the Earl of Kildare, behaviour for the future. He re- nounced all his rights. He professed himself desirous only to live at her Majesty's hands, and petitioned only in conclusion that he might be the farmer of his own estates. Sir B. MacPhelim to the Queen, May 8, 1574 : MSS. Ireland. It is notice- able that Sir Brian, the head of the second branch of the O'Neils, from whom the present family descends, signed with a cross, being unable to write his name. 1 Edward Waterhouse to Wal- singham, June 14 : MSS. Ireland.