Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/631

I53-1 THE DESMOND REBELLION. 611 thereby thinking that her Majesty and I may agree, if not that I may be put safe in the hands of me follow- ers again, and I to deliver me son and me said posses- sions back to her Highness's officers. At Abbey Feale, April 28, 1583. ' GTEROT DESMOND/ No one save Desmond himself could have imagined that such conditions as these would be entertained by the Queen. There was nothing left but for Ormond to draw the sword once more, and the campaign was commenced by an execution at Cork. Fitzgerald of Imokelly, who had killed the Englishmen at Youghal, was the most dangerous of the rebels next to Desmond, His mother, Lady Fitzgerald, 'that devilish witch/ as Ormond calls her, was supposed to have been the instigator of his cruelties. She fell into Ormond's hands, and he tried and hanged her. Then without more delay he set once more about his old work. A few days after he was in motion he reported himself as having killed or executed a hundred and thirty-four insurgents, while the chiefs, to whom he had made known the terms on which they might earn their par- don, were bringing him sacks full of heads. 1 By mea- sures of this kind the county of Cork was speedily pacified. He then pushed on into Kerry to finish the work. Desmond, he said, would have long since been captured, but that the soldiers in garrison at Castle- Ormond to the English Council, May 28, 1583 : MSS. Ireland.