Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/569

 1566.] DEATH OF G 1 NEIL. 549 council forced her by repeated importunities to consent that ' Shan should be extirpated ; ' and even then she would send only half of what was wanted to pay the arrears of the troops. 'Considering the great sums of money demanded and required of her in Ireland and elsewhere, she would be most glad that for reformation of the rebel any other way might be devised/ and she- affronted the Deputy by sending Sir Francis Knowles to control his expenditure. If force could not be dis- pensed with, Sir Francis might devise an economical campaign. /The cost of levying troops in England was four times as great as it used to be ; ' and it would be enough, she thought, if five or six hundred men were employed for a few weeks in the summer. O'Donnell, O'Reilly, and M'Guyre might be restored to their castles, and they could then be disbanded. 1 Such, at least, was her own opinion ; should those how- ever who had better means of knowing the truth con- clude that the war so conducted would be barren of result, she agreed with a sigh that they must have their way. She desired only that the cost might be as small as possible ; ' the fortification of Berwick and the payment of our foreign debts falling very heavily on her.' 2 Such was ever Elizabeth's character. She had receiv- ed the crown encumbered with a debt which with self- denying thrift she was laboriously reducing, and she 1 Instructions to Sir F. Knowles. By the Queen, April 18 : Irish MSS Rolls House. Ibid.