Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/569

 'S77-] THE DESMOND REBELLION. 549 Sidney, who saw the storm coming, made haste out of the country before it broke : perhaps unable to en- counter the expense which the acceptance of all office under Elizabeth entailed, and which a war would make trebly burdensome to him. 1 The sword of justice was left to the President of Munster, who had been so suc- cessful in inspiring hatred ; and while the country was outwardly quiet, communications had been passing close and thick with the Courts of France and Spain. Long before, a Spanish force would have been landed in Munster but for Philip's reluctance to quarrel with Elizabeth, and his just distrust of the Irish temperament. While Eng- lish volunteers were in the pay of the Netherlands, no fair complaint could have been raised if a few hundred or thousand Castilians had come to the help of their fellow Catholics in Ireland. Philip however had formed no good opinion of Irish constancy, and his distrust was painfully justified. Tirlogh O'Neil and Hugh 0'Donnell wrote to him for help in 1575-6, after Essex's murderous campaign. Their first messenger was taken by the English and hanged. The second, a friar, made his way to Madrid and presented his suppli- cation. 2 O'Neil however had been under the influence of his wife, the famous Scotch Countess who had under- gone so many fortunes, and who- hated England and all belonging to it for the sake of Mary Stuart. Philip's 1 ' Three times her Majesty has sent me as her deputy to Ireland. I returned from each of them three thousand pounds worse than I went.' Sidney to Walsingham, March i, 1583 : Carew Papers. 2 La suma de la commision y cartas que Fray Donate Irlandes trax6 de los senores de Irlanda, 1576 : MSS. Simancas.