Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/580

5oo REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. house. of Spaniards from Smerwick was secretly in the house. ' Let this/ said the murderer, plunging in among them covered with DavelPs blood, ' let this be a pledge of my faithfulness towards you and this cause. 7 1 At dawn the Desmond battle cry was raised. Three thousand of the clan sprung to arms. Before the week was out all Kerry and Limerick were up, and the woods between Mallow and the Shannon were swarming with howling kerne. ' The rebellion/ wrote Waterhouse, ' is the most perilous that hath ever begun in Ireland. The Lord Justice 2 is resolute, and so are all the English ; but nothing is to be looked for but a general revolt.' 3 Elizabeth had persisted in her disbelief of danger. She had jested at the remonstrances of Mendoza. She had regarded her desertion of the Low Countries as securing her from Spanish interference in Ireland, and now it seemed as if Walsingham had been right after all, as if she had sacrificed her friends and had not dis- armed her enemies. She complained to Mendoza that Spaniards had landed in Ireland. Mendoza answered coldly, that they had not been sent by the King When the King declared war against her, they would come in something more than boat-loads. The reply was not reassuring. The report that Sanders had landed threw, as he expected, the English Catholics into a ferment. An insurrection was looked for at home. A courier rani to Burghley, September 16, 1579 : MS 8. Ireland. 1 Camden. 2 Sir Wm Drury, so appointed on Sidney's departure. 3 Waterhouse to Walsingham August 3 : MSS. Ireland,