Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/615

 1581.] THE DESMOND REBELLION. 595 in sacks to Dublin. 1 Baltinglass himself escaped abroad and joined the English exiles. Four more distinguished Burkes were accounted for in Connaught by Malby's officers, with three hundred kerne and their families, men, women, and children. O'Rourke of Roscommon, who had married Clanrickard's daughter Lady Mary, was out with his brothers-in-law Ulick and Shan. His house was burnt, and his son, ' a child being but five or six years old/ was ' slain/ so it was hoped, ' with the rest/ 'for his coat was brought away among the spoils.' On the whole, Malby reported in April, 1581, that since the preceding November, subsequent therefore to his campaign of the winter of 1579-80, he had killed seven hundred of Clanrickard's people, of whom two hundred were of the Earl's ' kinsmen and best men of war.' 2 Lord Grey, if Elizabeth had allowed him, would have now made a Mahometan conquest of the whole island, and offered the Irish the alternative of 'the Gospel ' or the sword. ' Your Highness/ he wrote to her, 'gave me a warn- ing at my leave-taking for 3 being strict in dealing with religion. I have observed it, how obediently soever yet most unwillingly I confess, and I doubt as harmfully to your and God's service : a canker never receiving cure without corrosive medicine.' 4 Elizabeth would not 1 Briskett to Walsingham, April 21 : MSS. Ireland. * Malby tc Walsingham, April 1 1, 1581 : MSS Ibid. 3 1. e. against. Grey to the Queen, December 22, 1580: MSS. Ireland.