Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/627

 1583 ] THE DESMOND REBELLION. 607 3 to him, and he was directed to make an end of the re- mains of the insurrection at once, in the coming sum- mer. Elizabeth trusted him others it appeared did not trust him. While Ormond therefore held public au- thority, those who believed that his Irish sympathies would overcome his duty to his sovereign, were allowed to pursue independent of him their separate schemes for a pacification. The question was, whether it was better to destroy Desmond or preserve him. There was a sus- picion that if the Geraldines were entirely uprooted, the Butlers, having no rival to hold the balance against them, would become sovereigns of Munster ; and the Queen permitted Sir Warham St Leger to open a private communication with the Earl and persuade him to sur- render. No absolute promise was to be made to him, not even that his life should be spared, but hopes might be held out obscurely of far more than life. ' After so long and bloody a rebellion, her Majesty thought it would not be honourable to continue him in his earldom, and restore him to his former estate. But if his life might be saved, and liberty either in England or Ire- land to live as a private person until she should think meet to give him some better state, her honour might then be preserved/ 1 Elizabeth was not revengeful, and her troubles at home at this time made her unusually anxious that the Irish wars should be ended. It is singular that on this one occasion she resisted Burghley's advice to give Burghley to Loftus and Fenton, December 9, 1582 : MSS. Ireland.