Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/575

 i5i79-j THE DESMOND REBELLION 555 sail in May, 1579, for Kerry. The party con- 1579. sisted of Fitzmaurice, the general of the army which was to be raised as soon as they landed ; his wife, Lady Fitzmaurice ; Sanders, who had joined him as Legate ; two Irish bishops ; a few friars ; a handful of English refugees ; and some five-and-twenty Italians and Spaniards. That was all. Their strength lay in Fitzmaurice' s name, which was itself a firebrand, in their being representatives of the Pope, and in the precious banner blessed by his Holiness' s hands, on which was emblazoned a Christ upon the cross. Off the Land's End they fell in with a Bristol trader, took it, and threw crew and captain into the water. 1 From another barque they carried off some English sailors as prisoners. On the i6th of July they were seen from Berehaven. On the iyth all Ireland was shaken as with an earthquake at the news that Fitzmaurice and a Legate from the Pope had actually arrived. The landing was at Dingle, a harbour at the south-western angle of Kerry, and was per- formed with a solemnity befitting the greatness of the occasion. Two friars stepped first on shore, a bishop followed, mitre on head and crosier in hand; then Sanders, with the consecrated banner, and after him Fitzmaurice. The first business was to build a fort to deposit their stores. Dingle harbour being inconvenient and difficult in case of extremity to escape from, they crossed the peninsula to Smerwick, a bay four miles to 1 Don Bernardino a Cayas, 20 de Junio, 1579 : MSS. Simancas.