Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/550

 $30 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. of it was received. ' Yellow-haired Charley ' might tear himself for 'his pretty little ones and their dam/ but in Ireland itself the massacre was not specially distinguished in the general system of atrocity. Essex described it himself as one of the exploits with which he was most satisfied, and Elizabeth in answer to his letters bade him tell John Norris, ' the executioner of his well- designed enterprise, that she would not be unmind- ful of his services/ l But though passed over and un- heeded at the time, and lying buried for three hundred years, the bloody stain comes back to light again, not in myth and legend, but in the original account of the nobleman by whose command the deed was done ; and when the history of England's dealings with Ireland settles at last into its final shape, that hunt among the caves at Rathlin will not be forgotten. It is some satis- faction to learn that an officer and forty of the soldiers, who had been concerned in it, were cut off three months after, near Carrickfergus. Essex himself went back in the autumn to England, to gather together what re- mained of his property and arrange for the payment of his debts. A short interval of better days was now November. approaching. Sidney, who for many reasons was liked by the Irish, was prevailed on at last to accept what he called his thankless charge. Tirlogh O'Neil congratulated the Government on his appointment, ' wretched Ireland needing not the sword/ but sober, 1 The Queen to Essex, August 12 : Carew Papers.