Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/102

82 Thus, after he had been in Ireland a year and a half, Walter Cowley, the Clerk of the Crown, was able to congratulate Bellingham on having doubled 'the King's possessions, power, obedience, and subjects in the realm, in respect as it was at his arrival.' 'The King having a force in each quarter of the country, will they or nill they,' Cowley said, 'the people must obey;' and if only 'they could now be also put from idleness,' 'if they could be compelled to inhabit and fall to husbandry, to put away their assemblies in harness, and take delight in wealth and quiet, Ireland in a little time would be as obedient and quiet as Wales.'

Unhappily for Ireland, perhaps fortunately for his own reputation, Sir Edward Bellingham, in the height of his success, was called away, it would seem by illness. In the summer of 1549 his name disappears from among the State Papers. In the autumn he was dead. The effect was immediate. The chiefs felt the rein drop loose upon their necks; French agents were again busy; and in the interregnum which followed, the Irish Council found themselves less able to do without their master than their master had been able