vectives by Wolsey,[1] and sent to the Tower. But he escaped by his old arts. No sooner was he committed, than Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who had accompanied him to England, hurried back across the Channel to the castle of her brother-in-law, O'Connor.[2] The robber chief instantly rose and attacked the pale. The Marchers opened their lines to give his banditti free passage into the interior;[3] and he seized and carried off prisoner the Baron of Delvin, who had been made vice-deputy on Kildare's departure. Desmond meanwhile held Ormond in check at Kilkenny, and prevented him from sending assistance to Dublin; and the Irish council were at once prostrate and helpless.
Henry VIII., on receipt of this intelligence, instead of sending Kildare to the block and equipping an army, condescended to write a letter of remonstrance to
- ↑ 'You remember how the lewd Earl your kinsman,' he said to him, 'who passeth not whom he serve, might he change his master, sent his confederates with letters of credence to Francis the French King, and to Charles the Emperor, proffering the help of Munster and Connaught towards the conquest of Ireland, if either of them would help to win it from our King. What precepts, what messages have been sent you to apprehend him? and yet not done. Why so? Forsooth I could not catch him. Yea, sir, it will be sworn and deposed to your face, that for fear of meeting him, you have winked, wilfully shunned his sight, altered your course, warned his friends, stopped both eyes and ears against his detection. Surely this juggling and false play little became an honest man called to such honour, or a nobleman put in such trust.'—Campion, p. 165.
- ↑ State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 146–7.
- ↑ Norfolk to Wolsey: Ibid. p. 135.
please you, I will submit myself to your correction and chastisement.
'Written in my town, this 28th day of April, 1529, in the presence of Gonzalvo Fernandez, Denys Mac Dc, Doctor of Arms and Medicine, Denys Fathe, Maurice Herly.'James of Desmond.'—The Pilgrim, pp. 171–5.
