Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/566

 54 6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. his breath ran short, Walter Devereux, father of the more famous but far meaner Robert, passed away ; the Archbishop of Dublin, Edward "Waterhouse, and young Fitzwilliam, standing round his bed and watching him die. 1 It was perhaps well for him that his career was cut short. Had he lived through the events which were now fast approaching, he might have reaped bloody lau- rels : but he had too much blood upon his head already. The symptoms of an approaching explosion could no longer be mistaken. The angry spirit was as universal as it was deserved. The Deputy, straitened as he had been for money, had been driven into a severe exaction of the cess, a tax in kind on every ploughland for the support of the army ; and the gentlemen of the Pale were as discontented as the O'Neils and the Burkes. The police duty for which the army was maintained was left undone : the cattle were not safe in the fields under the walls of Dublin. Complaints being unheeded, the landowners of Meath and Kildare refused at last to allow the cess to be levied, and it was found necessary to arrest half of them, and fling them into Dublin Castle. They were all Catholics, and loathed the mockery which was offered them in lieu of their own ritual. The bishoprics had been made prizes for the scrambling of scoundrels. Ross, Carberry, and Kilfeno- ragh were occupied by laymen. 2 The Bishop of Killaloe 1 Narrative of the Death of the Earl of Essex, September 22, 1576 : MSS. Ireland. - Answer of the Commissioners, Garvey and Ackwortb, to the com- plaints of the Archbishop of Dublin, January 2, 1579 : MSS. Ibid.