^572.] STATE OF IRELAND. 295 The Irish had been made suspicious by their ex- perience in the South. As the rumours of this new project reached them, the angry hum was heard again from all corners of the island. They felt instinctively that in this way and this way only they could be eventually conquered ; and the effect in Ulster was so violent that Captain Piers, who was in command at Knockfergus, thought it necessary to send Cecil a warning.
- Your Lordship knows/ he said, ' that the nature of
the Irish is such that they would rafcher have their country lie altogether waste than that any man but themselves should inhabit it. I have devised the best to quench the imminent fire, and by feigning a letter to be sent from the Deputy with contrary news, have stayed the same. But it will be more perfectly known shortly to the Irishry, and they will all revolt.' l 1 The like matter/ wrote Fitzwilliam, through whom Piers sent his letter, ' did no good in the South. God grant this drive us not to greater expense : the Irish in a knot will rebel/ 2 The Deputy particularly dreaded the effect upon the Butlers, whose jealousies and alarms would be revived. If Ormond became disloyal, he said that he w r ould leave Ireland with the next wind. 3 The remonstrances were not attended to. Young Smith came over in the summer and established him- self near Knockfergus. He patched up a friendship with the remnant }f the Scots, saw nothing of enemies, 1 Captain Piers to Cecil, Jaiiuary 3, 1572 ; MSS. Ireland. z Fitzwilliam to Cecil, March 14: MSS. Ibid 3 Ibid.
