Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/592

 572 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. ' is not more loathsome of the snaffle than the chieftains are grieved with the yoke of justice.' 1 At length the Queen was coaxed into good June. humour again. Eemittances came, and as it was known that ships and men were actually waiting at Coruria to come over when the coast should be clear, Pel- ham determined on another raid into the south-west. Small detachments of men were sent by different routes to distract attention, with orders to meet at Buttevant. 2 Desmond, his wife, and Doctor Sanders, were at the Castle of the Island, 3 in Kerry, and Pelham hoped to sur- prise them by a rapid march over the mountains. He had almost succeeded, but the watch was too good, and the summer nights were short. His companies were seen steal- ing through the defiles at the foot of Knockaduane, and a breathless herdsman secured the Earl an hour's notice to escape. Sanders and the Countess fled on ponies ; the Earl, unable to sit a horse, was carried by galloglass ; and Pelham when he arrived found his prey had escaped him. The habits of an Irish Earl in the sixteenth century were much like those of the modern Irish peasant. The same roof sheltered man and beast, and ' the Island/ a ' huge monstrous castle full of many rooms/ was at the same time ' very filthy, and full of cow dung/ It was given over to plunder. The soldiers took possession of ' the Earl's provision of aqua vitse.' Some ' women's hand- 1 Meagh to Walsingham, June I lock road. The name indicates that i : MSS. Ireland. it was an ancient Norman outpost, '- A town on the great wood, ten miles from Mallow, on the Kilmal- Boutez en avant. 3 Now Castle Island.