Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/130

 I io REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 42. with child she will say that it is the great Lord adjoin- ing, whereof the Lords are glad and do appoint them, to he nursed. ' There is another two sorts that goeth about with the Bachele of Jesus, 1 as they call it. These run from country to country ; and if they come to any house where a woman is with child they will put the same about her, and whether she will or no causeth her to give them money, and they will undertake that she shall have good delivery of her child, to the great disruption of the people concerning their souls' health. ' Others go about with St Patrick's crosier, and play the like part or worse ; and no doubt so long as these be used the word of God can never be known among them, nor the Prince be feared, nor the country prosper.' So stands the picture of Ireland, vivid because simple, described by some half- Anglicised, half-Protestantized Celt who wrote what he had seen around him, careless of political philosophy or of fine phrases with which to embellish his diction. The work of civilization had again to begin from the foundation. Occupied with Scotland and France and holding her own throne by so precarious a tenure, Elizabeth, for the first eighteen months of her reign, hud little leisure to attend to it ; and the Irish leaders, taking advantage of the opportun- ity, offered themselves and their services to Philip's am- bassador in England. The King of Spain, who at the 1 The Baculum Jesus, said to have been brought over by St Patrick. 2 Report ou the State of Ireland, 1559: Irish MSS. Rolls House.