Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/545

 1564.] DEATH OF Cf NEIL. 525 which had been commenced with the mutinous mis- creants miscalled the English army. But the bands could not be discharged with decency till they had re- ceived their wages ; without money they could only continue to maintain themselves on the plunder of the farmers of the Pale ; and the Queen, provoked with the past expenses to which she had so reluctantly assented, knotted her purse-strings, and seemed determined that Ireland should in future bear the cost of its own misgo- vernment. The worst peculations of the principal officers were inquired into and punished : Sir Henry Ratcliff, Sussex's brother, was deprived of his command and sent to the castle ; but Arnold's vigour was limited by his powers. The paymasters continued to cheat the Government in the returns of the number of their troops ; the Government defended themselves by letting the pay run into arrear ; the soldiers revenged their ill- usage on the people ; and so it came to pass that in ^O'Neil's country alone in Ireland defended as it was from attacks from without, and enriched with the plun- der of the Pale were the peasantry prosperous, or life or property secure. Munster was distracted by the feuds between Ormond and Desmond ; while the deep bays and creeks of Cork and Kerry were the nests and hiding-places of English pirates, whose numbers had just received a distinguished addition in the person of Sir Thomas Stukeley, with a barque of four hundred tons and ' a hundred tall soldiers, besides mariners.' Stukely had been on his way to Florida with a license