Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/594

574 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. hanged a priest, whom from his Spanish dress they had conceived at first to be the Legate. ' Otherwise/ he says, ' we took small prey, and killed less people, though we searched many places in our travel.' 1 Dingle itself, so lately the scene of the landing, was an absolute desert; not a creature, human or other, was found in it. The officers crossed the peninsula to survey the deserted fort at Smerwick, which the Spaniards who had been killed at Carrigafoyle had begun to build, and which was so soon to be the scene of a world-famous tragedy. They were struck with the singular want of judgment which had been shown in the selection of the spot ' a very small neck of land joined to the shore by a bank of sand/ The bank had been cut through, but the trench was necessarily filled in by the sand in a few tides. The place had no feature of natural strength about it, and there was 110 fresh water within a mile. 2 They looked at it however merely with curiosity, as a thing of the past. The flames at Yalentia, shooting over the bay, told that Ormond's work was finished, and they and he retraced their steps to Castlemaine. Ormoiid, more fortunate than Pelham, had to report a satisfactory tale of slaughter. He brought back with him Lord Clancarty, the two O'Sullivans of Berehaven, and other chiefs who had been hiding among the mountains. If rebellion was a crime, they were more guilty than their followers who had been killed. But they had promised 1 Teuton's Narrative, 1580 : MSS. Ireland. 2 So Fenton reported, but there is now a considerable stream of water within a quarter of a mile.