Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/613

 lS8i.] THE DESMOND REBELLION. 593 were killed, or captured and executed. The history of their deeds and their fate need not be related in detail. A few scenes will represent the rest. The English commanders were now only anxious to restore order. The plans of appropriation and confiscation were post- poned till happier times. Those who were now in office, Grey, Malby, and Bingham, who after his service at Smerwick continued to be employed in Ireland, had no desire to enrich themselves on the spoils of the chiefs. They had come to serve their country and to do their duty as soldiers, to the ruin rather than the ad- vancement of their private fortunes. They were hon- ourable, highminded men, full of natural tenderness and gentleness to every one with whom they understood themselves to be placed in human relations. The Irish unfortunately they looked upon as savages, who had refused peace and protection when it was offered to them, and were now therefore to be rooted out and de- stroyed. They regarded the Irish nation as divided into two classes, the Kernes, or armed followers of the chiefs, and the Churles, who were the tillers of the ground. The kernes were marked for death wherever they were found. The churles they wished to befriend, but the churles who accepted their friendship were killed by the kernes as traitors to their country ; and therefore it seemed as if on one side or the other the same fate impended over all. At times misgivings rose that there had been enough of slaughter. In a discourse on the reformation of Ireland in 1583, it was suggested that VOL. X. 38