Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/334

314 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 59. mind to sustain the force of the enemy. And this, no question, doth grow of the fat delicate soil and long peace had in England, and therefore nothing more necessary for a prince that mindeth to keep his countries and dominions than some exercise of war. This people begin to know their own force and strength, and have learnt the use and sorts of weapons, their places of strength and advantage, and therefore high time to expulse them for fear of utter ruin to the whole. My Lord, it is not a subject's purse and countenance must do this. It must be her Majesty's only. It were the greatest pity in the world that so noble and worthy a man as this Earl should consume himself in this enter- prise. I know and perceive he shooteth not at the gain and revenue of the matter, but rather the honour and credit of the cause. If her Majesty did know his noble and honourable intent, having a body and mind invincible to endure all miseries and extremities, so well as we do know him, she would not suffer him to quail for half the kingdom of Ireland.' l So the year 1573 ended, in the universal destruction of the English power in Ireland. The Queen, unable to make up her mind to the expense of fresh exertions, acquiesced in what she could not prevent. As she had no longer any prospect of capturing Desmond she con- sented to pardon him ; and she read the Irish one more page of the lesson most fatal in the end to their own welfare that England might be defied with impunity. 1 Sir Thomas Wilford to Burghley, December i, 1573: MSS. Ire- land,