cowardness before the Earl of Ormond, that he being twenty of his side to him alone, durst not to encounter with him; whereunto he gave no answer. But one of his men standing by said, that his master was that day a coward, but he would never be so forgetful again if the like service were to be done; and in many great terms exalted his master, the seneschall, for his valiantness and service. The Earl of Ormond hearing those great speeches, took the matter in hand, and offered unto the seneschall, that if he and Sir John of Desmond, there present, and three or four others, the best they could chuse, would appoint to meet him, Captain Ralegh, and such four others as they would bring with them, they would come to the same place, and pass over the great river unto them, and would there two for two, four for four, or six for six, fight and try the matter between them. But no answer was then given; whereupon the white knight was afterward sent unto him with this challenge, but the rebels refused it 64. " Upon the Earl of Ormond leaving Ireland in the spring of 1581, Sir William Morgan, Captain Ralegh, and Captain Piers, received a commission to succeed him for the present in his government in Munster. Here they spent the summer of that year, chiefly at Lismore and the adjacent country, in continual services against the enemy, as occasion required. In the autumn Ralegh, with his band: of fourscore foot and eight horse, set out on his return to Cork, and received information on the road, that Barry was at Clove with a considerable force. Taking that direction, he found him and his company, charged him with great bravery, and put him to flight. Then, pursuing his journey, he overtook a company of foot, which he charged with six of his horse, cut off the wood to which they were flying; and, leaving them without a hope of relief, compelled them to turn in despair and repel his attack, which they did with the most desperate bravery. Five of the horses were killed, among which was Ralegh's; and he had certainly lost his own life in this 04 Holinshed, Ireland, p. 173. 1 1581. skirmish, skirmish, but for the gallant assistance he received from his trusty servant Nicholas Wright, a Yorkshireman, and James Fitz-Richard and Patrick Fagaw, Irishmen. Several of the enemy were slain, and two of them taken prisoners to Cork ". "At his lying in Cork," adds Hooker, "there were sundry pieces of service done by him, all which do very well deserve to be for ever registered; and among all others this one point of his service deserveth both commendation and perpetual remembrance." He then relates to us his seizure of Lord Roch, whose loyalty was become questionable, and Ralegh was appointed to bring him and his lady to Cork. Barry and the seneschall having knowledge of this arrangement, assembled a force seven or eight hundred strong to way-lay him. In the meantime Ralegh, having reflected on the danger of the enterprise, on a sudden ordered his men, about ninety horse and foot, to be ready on pain of death between ten and eleven o'clock that night, at which hour he set off for Roch's seat, Bally in Harsh, about twenty miles distant from Cork, and reached the castle-gate early the next morning. The towns-people were alarmed, and collected a party five hundred strong; upon which Ralegh disposed his forces in the town, and selecting six of his company, among whom were Arthur Barlow and Nicholas Wright, he proceeded quietly to the castle, and ordered another small party to follow. On the appearance of Roch's attendants he desired to speak with his lordship, and complied with apparent readiness with their request, that he should enter with only two or three of his followers. With some difficulty, however, they all passed the gate, and Ralegh instructed them to admit their followers by degrees, while he held Roch in conversation. Thus the whole party at last gained an entrance into the court-yard, each with a musket loaden with two balls; and Roch, dissembling his uneasiness, invited Ralegh and his company to partake of his table. After dinner the latter ingenuously declared the object of his visit, and produced his commission; whereupon Roch, after some excuses, made a virtue of necessity, 65 Holinshed, Ireland, p. 173. pro professing he could clear himself of whatever was alledged against him". Ralegh also obtained his lordship's consent, that the towns-people, who had so faithfully risen in his defence at home, should escort and defend him on his journey, which he had determined should be made that night. It proved dark and tempestuous, and the way they went was so full of hills, dales, rocks, and precipices, that the soldiers suffered greatly. Yet the ambuscades of the enemy were evaded, and early the next morning Ralegh presented his prisoners to the general, "with no little admiration," says Hooker," that he had escaped so dangerous a journey, being verily supposed of all men that he could never have escaped":" with the A letter of his, which has not yet been printed, but of which a Dissatisfied copy is preserved in the Harleian Collection 6, informs us, however, service. that this service was irksome and dissatisfactory to Ralegh. It is addressed to the celebrated Earl of Leicester, probably through the hands of Sir Warham Saintleger, and proves, what Ralegh's former biographers appear to have been unacquainted with, that he had early in life some interest with that powerful favourite of Queen Elizabeth: "I MAY not forget continually to put Your Honour in mind of my affection unto Your Lordship, having to the world both professed and protested the same. Your Honour having no use of such your followers, hath utterly forgotten me; notwithstanding, if Your Lordship shall please to think me yours as I am, I will be found as ready, and dare do much in your service, as any man you may command; and do neither so much despair of myself, but that I may be some way able to perform as much. I have spent some time here under the Deputy in such poor place and charge, as were it not for that I knew him to be as if yours, I would disdain it as much as HOLINSHED. 66 He made good his words, for he was lost their lives in Queen Elizabeth's service. honourably acquitted, proved a faithful subject ever afterward, and three of his sons 67 Holinshed, Ireland, p. 174. Letter to f to keep sheep. I will not trouble Your Honour with the business of. Your Honour's faithful and obedient, "I am bold, being bound by very conscience, to commend unto Your Honour's consideration the pitiful estate of John Fitz-Edmonds of Cloyne, a gentleman, and the only man untouched and proved true to the queen both in this and the last rebellion. Sir Warram can deliver his service, what he is, and what he deserveth, "To the Right Hon. and my very good Lord the Earl of Leicester, of Her Majesty's In August, 1581, Lord Grey appointed Captain John Zouch to the government of Munster, and Ralegh made several excursions in company with him to compose the country, their head-quarters being still at Cork. When Zouch and Captain Dowdal made the secret expedition, in which Sir John of Desmond lost his life, the garrison at Cork was left in Ralegh's charge. Barry, however, soon afterward submitted; the Earl of Desmond, deprived of all re maining maining hope, was quiet, and Munster left in peace; the southern troops were suddenly reduced to an inconsiderable number, and Ralegh appears no more in the wars of Ireland "9. 69 Holinshed, Ireland, p. 175 and 176, and Leland. In the Report which he afterward wrote of Sir Richard Grenvill's engagement at the Azores, Ralegh makes the following remarks on the Desmonds: The earl being one of the greatest subjects in that kingdom of Ireland, having almost whole countries in his possession, so many goodly manors, castles, and lordships, the count palatine of Kerry, 500 gentlemen of his own name and family to follow him, beside others, (all which he possessed in peace for three or 400 years) was in less than three years after his adhering to the Spaniards and rebellion, beaten from all his holds, not so many as ten gentlemen of his name left living, himself taken, and beheaded by a soldier of his own nation, and his land given by a parliament to Her Majesty, and possessed by the English.—Sir John of Desmond taken by Master John Zouch, and his body hanged over the gates of his native city to be devoured by ravens; the third brother, Sir James, hanged, drawn, and quartered in the same place. Sce Hackluyt's Voyages, Vol. II. Part II. p. 174, folio, 1599. CHAP. |