Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/599

 IS So.] THE DESMOND REBELLION. 579 The messenger who carried one of these letters to the Mayor of Waterford was immediately hanged for his pains, but from all parts of the Pale highhorn young men hastened to Baltinglass's side. The Wick- low hills offered a shelter and a rendezvous to the dis- affected, and Sir John of Desmond, changing his mind about surrendering, and taking Sanders with him, shifted his quarters out of Munster, and stole up across the country to his new allies. At this moment Lord Grey de Wilton arrived in Dublin to relieve Pelham and Wallop of their com- mand. He came, as all other deputies came, bitterly against his will, and his unwillingness had been hardly overcome at last by the urgent entreaties of Burghley. In many respects he was well fitted for the post. He was a soldier and a Puritan. He conceived that the misery of Ireland had been caused mainly by an un- stable and uncertain policy towards it, and believing the Catholic religion to be false, he regarded the con- version of the country to a purer faith as a necessary preliminary of its improvement. He came however with his hands tied. The Queen strictly prohibited him from meddling with religion in any way, and she sent him to his post already desponding of good results. He landed at Dublin, on the I2th of August, bringing six or seven hundred soldiers with him, and being told that no time was to be lost in dealing with Baltinglass, and being dependent in his inexperience of the country on the opinions of others, he marched at once into the mountains.