Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/94

74 Hungary with Sir Thomas Seymour when the Turks were at Pesth. He had been on a diplomatic mission at Brussels. He was in Wallop's army at Landrecy, and afterwards with the Earl of Surrey at Boulogne. His most distinguished achievement hitherto had been when, as Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight, he repulsed the attacks of the French in 1545.

When he arrived at Dublin the English Pale was fringed with a line of fire. The Irish harbours swarmed with pirates. Catholic refugees, disfrocked monks, thieves, outlaws, vagabonds, had poured across the Channel, and, under the decent cloak of sufferers for religion, were dispersed among the castles of the Irish. French and Scottish agents had followed, with plans for a French invasion, for the restoration of Gerald Fitzgerald, for the fortification of the Skerries, and the maintenance there in permanence of a French fleet.