trated, it cannot surprise us, that Ireland was a constant theatre of rapine, conflagration, and devastation.

Sometimes the parents of the ill-fated victims, thus hunted down, were seized, and thrown into dungeons, as accomplices of the crimes, real or pretended, of their children. The case of Sir Walter De La Hide and his lady is a striking one. They were, on account of the rebellion of their son, imprisoned and cruelly treated. The lady was basely tampered with, and threatened with the rack,* in order to induce her to accuse her hus

* "Sir Walter De La Hide, knight, and his wife, the lady Gennet Eustace, were apprehended, and brought as prisoners, by master Brabson, vice-treasurer, from their town of Moiclare, to the castle of Dublin, because their son and heir, James De La Hide, was the only brewer of all this rebellion; who, as the governor suspected, was set on by his mother. The knight and his wife, lying in duress for the space of twelve months, were at several times examined, and notwithstanding all presumptions and surmises that could be gathered, they were in the end found guiltless of their son his folly. But the lady

85 Cox, 393.

band! and finally, worn down with savage treatment, she died in prison, of a broken heart. But the rage and malice of her persecutor followed her even after death. He, for a time, denied her corpse interment, declaring, that the carcase of the mother of such a traitor ought rather to be thrown out on a dung-hill, for ravens and dogs, than to have Christian burial.

NOTE V. ON CHAPTER II.

EP. 36. Remorseless cruelty.] The barbarity with which the English deputies pursued the natives, the depredations they perpetrated, and the havoc they made of the human species, will stand a fair comparison with the desolation per

was had in examination apart, and enticed by means to charge her husband with her son his rebellion, who, being not won thereto, with all the means that could be wrought, was menaced to be put to death, or TO BE BACK'T, and so with extremity to be compelled, whereas with gentleness she could not be allured to acknowledge these apparent treasons, that neither her husband nor she could, without great show of impudence, deny.

"The gentlewoman, with these continual storms heart-broken, deceased in the castle: from thence her body was removed unto the gray friars, with the deputy his commandment, that it should not be interred, until his pleasure were further known; adding withal, that the carcase of one who was the mother of so arrant an arch-traitor, ought rather to be cast out on a dunghill, to be carrion for ravens and dogs to gnaw upon, than to be laid · in any Christian grave. The corpse lying four or five days in this plight, at the request of the lady Gennet Golding, wife to Sir John White, the governor licensed that it should be buried."86

petrated by any of the destroyers of mankind, in any age or nation. The conflagration of all the towns and villages, as far as their power extended, the waste of every thing that could minister to the sustenance of human life,* and the indis

* "The next daie following being the twelfe of March, the lord justice and the earle divided their armie into two several companies by two ensigns and three together, the lord justice taking the one side, and the other taking the other side of Slewlougher, and so they searched the woods, burned the towne, and killed that daie about foure hundred men, and returned the same night with all the cattell which they found that day.

"And the said lords, being not satisfied with this daie's service, they did likewise the next daie divide themselves, spoiled and consumed the whole countrie until it was night.'

"They passed over the same into Conilo, where the lord justice and the earl of Ormond divided their companies, and as they marched, they burned and destroyed the country; and they both that night encamped within one mile at Kilcolman."88

"Great were the services which these garrisons performed; for Sir Richard Pierce and captain George Flower, with their troopes, left neither corn nor horne, nor house unburnt, between Kinsale and Ross. Captain Roger Harvie, who had with him his brother, captain Gawen Harvie, captain Francis Slingsbie, captain William Stafford, with their companies of the Lord Barry and the treasurer, with the President's horse, did the like between Ross and Bantry."89

"Immediately, and within an hour after this proclamation, the countess of Desmond came to the camp; but the camp was before dislodged from the town, and all his country forthwith consumed with fire, and nothing was spared that fire and sword could consume."90

87 Hollinshed, VI. 430.

89 Pacata Hibernia, 645,

88 Ibid.

90 Hollinshed, VI, 424.

criminate slaughter of man, woman, and child,* are recorded by themselves, if not as acts of heroism and glory, at least as mere matters of

course.

"Some were slain of the lord governor's men, though not so many, amongst whom captain Zouches trumpeter was one; which so grieved the lord general, that he commanded all the houses, towns, and villages, in that country, and about Lefinnen, which in any way did belong to the earl of Desmond, or of any of his friends and followers, to be burned and spoiled."91

"Hereupon Sir Charles, with the English regiments, overran all Beare and Bantry, destroying all that they could find meet for the relief of men, so as that country was wholly wasted."

1192

*"And as they went, they drove the whole country before them unto the ventrie, and by that means they preyed and took all the cattle in the country, to the number of eight thousand kine, besides horses, garrons, sheep, and goats, and all such people as they met, they did without mercy put to the sword; by these means, the whole country having no cattle nor kine left, they were driven to such extremities, that for want of victuals they were either to die and perish for famine, or to die under the sword."93

"The soldiers, likewise, in the camp, were so hot upon the spur, and so eager upon the vile rebels, that that day they spared neither man, woman, nor child, but all was committed to the sword." 9994

"The next morning being the fourth of January, 1602, Sir Charles coming to seek the enemy in their camp, he entered into their quarter without resistance, where he found nothing but hurt and sick men, whose pains and lives by the soldiers were both determined.

1995

91 Hollinshed, VI. 425. 93 Hollinshed, 427.

95 Pacata Hibernia, 659.

92 Pacata Hibernia, 659.

94 Idem, 430.

And, from the scenes recorded by Hooker, Spencer, and Cox, it may be said, without exaggeration, that Ireland, for a long period, was literally a great human slaughter-house, where the natives were hunted down and butchered like so many wild beasts, and where many of the rulers appeared under as hideous an aspect as was ever displayed in any country, or at any period. Should this declaration appear to the reader too highly coloured, he has only to read the annexed proofs, to remove all his doubts.

The wanton and wicked destruction of the fruits of the earth, expressly ordered and carried into effect to produce famine, was as fatal to the Irish, as the havoc made of the human species in the field of battle, or on the defenceless of both sexes and every age, throughout their caverns and hiding-places, where they were remorselessly pursued. It fulfilled the intentions of the victors, and created a most deplorable famine, whereby scenes of misery were produced, of which the examples are rare.* The natives were driven,

"Captain Francis Slingsby, with five hundred foot, burned, preyed, and destroyed Owny O'Mulrian's country, and did the like to East Clanwilliam, Arloghwood's, and Muskeykwick, and KILLED EVERY SOUL HE FOUND THERE.'

9196

* "They performed that service effectually, and brought the rebels to so low a condition, that they saw three children eating the entrails of their dead mother, upon whose flesh they had fed twenty days, and roasted it by a slow fire; and it was a 96.Cox, 434.