Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/333

I573-] STATE OF IRELAND. 313 Butlers, and had the rest been allowed to deal as they pleased with the Irish savages, might have effected considerable things. Encumbered with no high-minded sentiments, and bent only upon cultivating the soil and growing rich by the possession of it, they would have solved the Irish problem by destroying the Celts, as their descendants in every colony which they have formed have destroyed the native races who have re- fused to be subjugated. But Essex was a dreamer and an enthusiast. He was like the great Manchegan whose adventures were growing at that same moment in the brain of Cervantes. If not in genius, yet in beauty of disposition, in disin- terested nobleness, and in the worldly ill-success which follows men of such natures and temperament as its shadow, he might have been compared to Cervantes himself. Sir Thomas Wilford, who remained with him when others went, softened the account of the disaster by pointing out its causes, and could not restrain himself from expressing his admiration of the fortitude with which the Earl bore up against his failure. ' The Irish nation/ he said, ' is more enraged with the fury of desperation than ever I have known them heretofore. They suppose these wars are taken in hand by her Majesty's subjects and not by herself. They say they are no rebels, and do but defend their lands and goods. Our own people through long peace in England have lost the minds of soldiers, and are be- come weak in body to endure travail and miserable in