Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/148

 128 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 42. in his official report to the Queen the Earl of Sussex made light of his loss, and pretended that after a slight repulse he had won a brilliant victory. The object of the false despatch however was less to deceive Elizabeth than to blind the English world. To Cecil the Deputy was more open, and though professing still that he had escaped defeat, admitted the magnitude of the disaster. ' By the cowardice of some/ Sussex said, ' all was like to have been lost, and by the worthiness of two men all was restored and the contrary part overthrown. It was by cowardice the dreadfullest beginning that ever was seen in Ireland ; and by the valiantness of a few (thanks be given to Grod !) brought to a good end. Ah ! Mr Secretary, what unfortunate star hung over me that day to draw me, that never could be persuaded to be absent from the army at any time, to be then absent for a little disease of another man ? The rereward was the best and picked soldiers in all this land. If I or any stout man had been that day with them, we had made an end of Shan, which is now further off than ever it was. Never before durst Scot or Irishman look on Englishmen in plain or wood since I was here ; and now Shan, in a plain three miles away from any wood, and where I would have asked of God to have had him, hath with a hundred and twenty horse and a few Scots and galloglasse, scarce half in numbers, charged our whole army, and by the cowardice of one wretch whom I hold dear to me as my own brother, was like in one hour to have left not one man of that army alive, and after to have taken me and the rest at Armagh. The fame of