Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/316

296 REIGN OF E LIZ ABE TH. [CH. 59. and flattered himself, as so many others had done, that there was no danger in Ireland which a sensible man like himself need fear. He wrote home the most bril- liant accounts. He told Burghle}^ that the Deputy was a frightened fool, and begged that neither he nor the Queen would attend to the ' croakings ' of a dotard. He was soon to find to his cost that the folly was not Fitzwilliam's but his own. The political passions were set on fire by attempts upon the land. The religious fanaticism was simultane- ously kindled by the news of the massacre of St Bartho- lomew. After being hunted down like vermin, or made sport of for the English officers who went among them ' to have some killing/ it was but natural that the people should hear with pleasure of the same game being played on the other side. A great Catholic council was held in Gal way, and another in Donegal. The friars came out of their hiding-places, reoccupied the abbeys, or ranged about the country in tens and twenties, openly preaching a crusade. There were Protestants in Gal way, and it is credit- able to the native Irish that they did not revenge their own treatment upon them. There were threats of ' the Spanish Inquisition ; ' ' extreme defiance against all professors of God's religion, as would pity Christian hearts to hear ; ' fresh and passionate resolutions ' to subvert the English Government and set up their own wickedness ; ' * but no one was murdered for his religion, 1 Fitz william to Elizabeth,, December 7, 1572.