lay no claim; or even allow them to droop gracefully from your helmet, like the "well-done-goodand-faithful" praise of a Christian soldier, which you profess to be. No, Sir George; you were not maddened, or distracted by these daily reports of "burnings" and "taking of preys," like that truehearted knight, and noble lord, the Earl of Essex ; nor had you a spark of the noble daring of Sir John or Sir Thomas Norreys. Your motto was, Serpens nisi serpentem comederit non sit draco." Your patience, Sir George, was that of a great serpent, boa, or "draco,” which can lie in its den, for months, without food, and then glide noiselessly out, seize upon, and swallow down some noble prey,— having previously covered it with the slime of its lips. 66 You may truly say "ardua virtutis est via,” for you found it so: the path of virtue was, indeed, too straight and difficult for you to walk in open war, which you repudiate, would have been honourable compared with the "wit and cunning" of which you boast. From But you chose the latter. Why? cowardice? No, I call you not coward. Let Sir George, as well as the personage already referred to, get his due: you were not wanting in personal courage; though I believe—as I have already stated-you were more distinguished for caution than courage. But, from what resulted your repugnance to war? Was it from a distaste to the shedding of human blood? Oh! no, it was not this this could never be received as a plea, from the knight who hired an assassin to shed the noblest blood in Ireland. Heard ye ever of a man named John Nugent, Sir George? Ah! his is a name, or perhaps I should rather say,—yours is a name, to make the ghosts of all noble knights start, and tremble in their shrouds : "Ghost:-Hear me !" "Hamlet :-I will." : No, you shan't; you shall hear, Sir George. "Though dead, he yet speaketh." He lives in his Pacata Hibernia; an immortal monument of his own infamy. Shall I call him up ? "Do." Perhaps we had better give him time to prepare for his defence, while we look after John Nugent; and that black scoundrel, the White Knight. NOTES. NOTE A. Page 34. * "THE sayd Jurors being duly sworne, doo finde and presente that Mannors, Castell, Towne, and Lands of Mallow, in the Countie of Corke, containing acres of land, have been granted in fee farme, from the late Queene's Majestie unto Sir Thomas Norreys, Knight; after whose death the same descended unto the Ladie Elizabeth Norries, the daughter and heyre of the said Thomas, and nowe wyefe unto Sir John Jepeson, Knight, who is now seized thereof in right of his said wyefe, as aforesaid."-From the 66 of copy an Inquisition or Search, in the Rolls Office of His Majesty's High Court of Chancery in Ireland." Dated the "7th day of August, 1611." NOTE B. Page 34. The Four Masters, who state that Sir Thomas Norreys died in Kilmallock, give the following account of the matter:"Thomas [Burke] alone, of all his people, was on horseback; he had nearly one hundred Irish soldiers along with him. When the President saw him, he made a determined and dexterous attack upon him, and about twenty of Thomas's people were cut off on the occasion; and more would have been slain, were it not that the President was so soon mortally wounded, for he received a violent and venomous thrust of a * There is a blank here, in the original paper, from which I copied. pike where the jaw-bone joins the upper part of the neck. When his people saw him thus wounded, they collected around him, and carried him back to Kilmallock, where he remained on his sick bed, under the care of physicians, when he died, in the month of July precisely." O'Sullivan Beare says he died in Mallow; and Dr. O'Donovan says, "O'Sullivan is probably right, for he appears to have been better acquainted with the affairs of Munster at this period than the Four Masters."-See Annals of Ireland, A.D. 1599: Hodges and Smith, Dublin. NOTE C. Page 35. The poet Spenser writes in the following strain of Sir John Norreys:— "Most noble Lord, the honor of his age, O'Donovan, the learned commentator of the Annals of Ireland, calls "Sir John Norris [Norreys] a most distinguished general, who settled the crown of Portugal on the Royal House of Braganza." NOTE D. Page 41. Hugh O'Neill is described by Irish historians as about the middle stature, well made, and of great personal activity and strength. He was a "warlike, valorous, predatory, enterprising lord, endowed with wisdom, subtlety, and profundity of intellect." He was styled a man "of brilliant speech and rapid sword." For an example of his ability in speech making, I beg to refer the curious reader to the following example, from Cucogry O'Clery:-"Brave comrades, be not dismayed or frightened at the English; at the foreign appearance of their array, at the strangeness of their armour or arms, at the sound of their trumpets, tabours, and warlike instruments, or of their numbers, for it is absolutely certain they shall be defeated in the battle of this day. Of this, we are indeed convinced, that ye are on the side of truth, and they are on the lie; fettering you in prisons, and beheading you, in order to rob you of your patrimonies. We have a high expectation that this very day will distinguish between truth; as Morann, the son of Maen, said in the celebrated proverb, 'There has not been found, there never will be found, a more veritable judge than a battle-field.' Moreover, it is easier for you to defend your inheritance against a race of strangers, than to win another's, after being expulsed from your own." NOTE, E. Page 79. BATTLE OF THE PLUMES. "The English writers make no mention of this attack by O'More; but O'Sullivan Beare says that five hundred of Essex's army were killed by O'More, in a defile called Bearna na gCleti, i. e., the Gap of the Feathers. This name is now obsolete, nor has any evidence been yet discovered to prove the exact situation of the place."-See Annals of Ireland : Hodges and Smith, Dublin. END OF VOL. I. Printed by J. M. O'TOOLE, 13, Hawkins'-street, Dublin. |