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CHAPTER XXXII.
ADMINISTRATION OF FITZWILLIAM, 1574 AND 1575, AND REAPPOINTMENT OF SIDNEY

Unjustifiable seizure of Sir Brian MacPhelim, who is executed

If violence were vigour and a readiness to act on rumour decision, then the next exploit of Essex would entitle him to a high place among the leaders of men. There is no difficulty in believing that Sir Brian MacPhelim had been plotting with Tirlogh Luineach and other enemies of English rule, and it is quite possible that he or his followers had committed some barbarous outrages. He had all along been hostile to the Earl’s enterprise, and it is not surprising that he should have sought to frustrate it. But he came to meet Essex at Belfast in friendly guise, and he brought his wife and other relations with him. It is plain from this that he intended no immediate treachery, but Essex, who was getting soured, could only see evidence of dissimulation. He proposed to arrest his visitors, and his officers made no opposition. The O’Neills defended their chief, and much blood was shed. ‘I have,’ Essex wrote to the Privy Council, ‘apprehended Sir Brian, his half-brother Rory Oge MacQuillin, Brian’s wife, and certain of the principal persons, and put others to the sword, to the number of 200 in all places, whereof 40 of his best horsemen.’ Sir Brian, his wife, and other prisoners were sent to Dublin, and Essex announced that they would be tried according to law. It is only certain that they were executed. There was, be it observed, no state of war between O’Neill and the Earl. The chieftain was not a proclaimed traitor, and there was no warrant against him. And even if it be granted that he was technically guilty of treason, could his wife be considered equally guilty? The Earl’s own account does not justify him, while the Irish annalists charge him with the blackest treachery. ‘Peace, sociality, and friendship,’ say the ‘Four Masters,’ ‘were established between Brian, the son of Phelim Bacagh O’Neill, and the Earl of Essex; and a feast was afterwards prepared by Brian, to which the Earl and the chiefs of his people were invited; and they passed three nights and days together pleasantly and cheerfully. At the expiration of this time, as they were agreeably drinking and making merry, Brian, his brother, and his wife, were seized upon by the Earl, and all his people put unsparingly to the sword – men, women, youths, and maidens – in Brian’s own presence. Brian was afterwards sent to Dublin, together with his wife and brother, where they were cut in quarters. Such was the end of their feast. This unexpected massacre, this wicked and treacherous murder of the lord of the race of Hugh Boy O’Neill, the head and the senior of the race of Owen, son of Nial of the Nine Hostages, and of all the Gaels, a few only excepted, was a sufficient cause of hatred and disgust of the English to the Irish.’ Some praised the Earl’s conduct, and there seems to have been no official blame, but Ormonde hinted his dislike of what had been done. Essex meant well, he said, God send it so: ‘I am loth to speak of the North, which has cost her Majesty much, but I pray God a worse come not in Sir Brian’s place.’ The Earl himself boasted ‘that this little execution hath broken the faction and made them all afeard;’ and that two of Sir Brian’s kinsmen were competitors for his inheritance, and had applied to Captain Norris, each offering to live in peace. The knight-errant who had started with visions of creating an Eden in Ulster, now thought it a triumph to make men of two minds in an house.²⁹⁴

Vacillation of the Queen

Essex believed that 2,000 soldiers would suffice for Ireland, 1,300 of them being stationed in Ulster while permanent fortified posts were being built and garrisoned, and that when the building was done 500 men would easily hold the province. To this arrangement the Queen, with much hesitation, agreed. Garrisons cost money, as she knew by the experience of Maryborough and Philipstown, and like them they might after all be but very moderately successful.

Essex and Fitzwilliam

As soon as Fitzwilliam knew that he was expected to represent the Crown and to furnish all garrisons in the three southern provinces with 700 men, he at once declined the task. The force actually in Ireland was about 3,000, and in case of the proposed scheme not taking effect, it was to be reduced by one half. All was made dependent on perfect accord between the Deputy and the Governor of Ulster; and in fact they had never been on really cordial terms. Nor did Elizabeth herself speak with any confidence, and it is plain that personal regard and admiration for Essex were struggling in her mind with the desire to throw away no more money upon Ulster. It was in Elizabeth’s nature to vacillate, and the tendency may have been increased by Burghley’s illness. To keep Essex in Ireland, and at the same time to secure his failure there, may have been Leicester’s policy. That some sinister influence was at work may be inferred from the Earl’s complaint to Burghley that many letters sent to him were intercepted, and that he could trust no messenger but his own servants. Fitzwilliam’s refusal to incur the responsibility of government without proper forces was reasonable enough, but his manner of proceeding shows how deep his feeling against Essex really was. He summarily discharged all men above 2,000; and the Earl, as he himself expressed it, ‘having no longer soldiers to govern,’ resigned the government of Ulster. ‘Being now,’ he said, ‘altogether private, I do desire your Majesty’s good license so to live in a corner of Ulster, which I hire for my money; where though I may seem to pass my time somewhat obscurely, a life, my case considered, fittest for me, yet shall not be without some stay in these parts, and comfort to such as hoped to be rid from the tyranny of the rebels.’ In the meantime his men were unpaid and unfed; for the Vice-Treasurer had orders from the Deputy to give them nothing without the Queen’s special directions, and the victualler feared that he might not have sufficient warrant. Essex, who complained bitterly that he had not even ten days’ notice, appealed to the Council, and both Fitton and Loftus sided with him; for the prospect of having 1,500 disbanded soldiers let loose upon the Pale was not a pleasant one. ‘To you,’ Essex told Burghley, ‘I am content to be beholden, yet to be generally bound to all men as I have been in this action, is to my nature such a misery as I confess all the wretchedness that I have found in Ireland hath not been comparable to this. And now, since my good deserts here, if they were any, be extinguished with dishonour, I pray you let my small sins be also forgotten. I suffer pain enough. Increase not my misery with your ill opinion.’

Troops hastily disbanded

Fitzwilliam, as on some other occasions, showed a lamentable want of dignity, and, if we are to believe the Governor of Ulster, he dismissed the troops with indecent haste and with no more responsible advice than that of his wife. ‘My lady, as I am most credibly informed, kept her Majesty’s letters three days and coted every line of it, and in the end gave her final judgment that I and all my soldiers should be cassed; and it was no sooner done but here was such a general joy conceived by some about him, as though some great victory had been obtained, and indeed it agreed well with his former report, for not six weeks since he said there were two Deputies in Ireland, and named me for one, and added that either he would have all, or I should have all.’ Tirlogh Luineach, or perhaps his astute wife, knew how to profit by these dissensions, for no sooner was it known that Essex had resigned his province, than he thanked Fitzwilliam for not invading his country unjustly, as the Earl had done. He professed great readiness to treat with the Lord Deputy. His loyalty to the Queen only had prevented him from accusing Essex several times: his only desire was peace, and he had no wish to injure any person in the English districts.²⁹⁵

The Queen encourages Essex

Elizabeth had not bargained for being so promptly taken at her word. ‘We did never,’ she said, ‘think that upon such a sudden either you our Deputy would have refused to take that your charge with those numbers, or you the Earl have given over your government of Ulster.’ To the one she was willing to allow 700 men in addition to garrisons, hinting at the same time that she had evidently been paying for imaginary soldiers. To the other she said that the enterprise was not abandoned, and Maltby was authorised to use encouraging language. Munitions were sent, and even some money, and Sir Peter Carew was ordered to Ulster as a valuable lieutenant, and probably also a pleasant companion for the Earl. All this was open and official, but to the Earl she wrote a private letter, which, to one of his romantic temper, was probably more consoling than a Lord-Lieutenant’s commission with unlimited warrant to raise and pay troops. She could not but feel that he had failed, but her heart was touched, and she addressed him thus: —

‘For your more satisfaction we have thought good to signify unto you, that by all your actions, your wise behaviour and constancy in them, your pains and travels sustained by yourself bodily, the great charge that you have been at in your private expenses, and consuming of your revenues and patrimony in our service, and for the attaining of honour by virtue and travail, we have great cause to think you a rare treasure of our realm and a principal ornament of our nobility; we wish daily unto God we had many such; and are sorry that in anything you should be discouraged… What success soever your enterprise shall have we must needs have a great good opinion of you as a thankful prince ought to have; whereof you may be bold to assure yourself, and all such your friends as would be glad thereof, which be, you may be bold, for your rare virtues and noble courage, a great number.’²⁹⁶

He sets out towards Tyrone

In his delight at this letter, and notwithstanding the doubtful tenour of Maltby’s instructions, Essex sought a reconciliation with Fitzwilliam. Both professed to bear no personal resentment, and to have quarrelled only on public grounds, but others could see that their animosity was of long standing and proportionately difficult to appease. The Earl was sanguine that now at last he was on the high road to success. ‘I would not,’ he confessed, ‘blame the Queen if she were weary of Ireland … it is certain her Highness has spent 600,000l. in her time here and the realm never the better; but, trust me, sir, reformation was never thoroughly intended until now, as I think.’ Full of hope he set forward towards the Blackwater, having already employed 600 labourers to cut passes through the woods bordering on Tyrone, where the people, since his devastating raid in the previous autumn, had been living altogether on flesh. ‘They have been occupied with raids and incursions this sowing time, and their next harvest shall be by all likelihood twice as urgent, and therefore it is certain that they must either starve or obey very shortly.’²⁹⁷

The Queen again changes her mind

When Essex started once more for the North, Maltby was able to say that he and the Deputy were very good friends, and that the country generally was pretty quiet, ‘but for the ordinary uncertainty of the Irish, quod natura dedit.’ The Scots had gone home, and Tirlogh Luineach, who saw that mischief was intended, sent his wife to Newry to sue for peace. She held out for the old rights of O’Neill, but offered to pay a ‘tribute,’ in consideration of his superiority over Maguire and MacMahon being acknowledged by the Crown. Ten days were given to Tirlogh to consider the matter further, and Essex withdrew to Drogheda, where he received a letter from the Queen which put an end to all his hopes. She allowed that he might well be surprised at this ‘sudden change, but that she had no meaning that he should proceed in the service, otherwise than we thought it necessary for a time, in respect of the danger he had laid before her of a general revolt.’ The political horizon was troubled, and on full consideration she had made up her mind that the Ulster project could not be made to pay, and must be abandoned. ‘Direct the course of proceeding,’ she said, ‘in such sort as the enterprise may yet be so given over as our honour may best be salved’ and the quiet of Ireland provided for. How all this might best be done was referred to the discretion of Essex, who was to consult the Lord Deputy and Council. Tirlogh Luineach was to be made, if possible, to relinquish his claim to the Urraghs, to content himself with the modern county of Tyrone, and to join in expelling the Scots. A fort at the Blackwater would be most desirable, if it could be built cheaply with the help of those who would be protected by it from O’Neill’s tyranny.²⁹⁸

The Essex scheme is abandoned. Fort at Blackwater

Essex bowed loyally to her Majesty’s will, spoke much of her good-nature and little of his own disappointment, and only begged that she would have some regard for his ruined fortunes. But he gently reproached the Privy Council with unkindness for not warning him before he spent his substance and his health ‘in an action which, as it now appears, was never intended to be performed.’ With a heavy heart he set out for the Blackwater, and began building a fort there. Tirlogh Luineach, who had 1,900 of his own followers and 1,400 Scots with him, sent to say that he was ready to make peace and to abjure Sorley Boy and his Scots, if the building operations were suspended. Essex consenting to a parley, Tirlogh supposed that he had gained his point, and insisted on Sorley being a party. ‘This storm is over,’ he said to his Scotch ally, ‘and the Earl shall neither build nor make war.’ Finding that the work went on, he proposed to attack before the defences should be tenable, but Sorley refused, saying that good watch was kept at night, and that he would only fight if Tyrone were invaded. The O’Neills had no mind to do all themselves, and Tirlogh, supported neither by clansmen nor auxiliaries, said that he would trust the English. Essex crossed the river, cut off 1,200 kine, and drove O’Neill into the bogs, following him so close that he had to leave his horse and his mantle behind. A bridge with stone piers and timber superstructure was finished, earthen bridge-heads were thrown up, and an entrenched enclosure constructed to hold 200 men and tenable by fifty; the Baron of Dungannon agreeing to find victuals for the latter number. Essex had perhaps no great skill as an engineer; for Sidney visited the fort four months later and found it ‘imperfect, not worth the charge of the keeping if there be peaceable proceeding; the bridge and gate to guard it not half reared.’²⁹⁹

Advice of Waterhouse. Profit versus honour

Tirlogh having sued for peace, Essex was now in a position to make it on such tolerable terms as might ‘salve the Queen’s honour,’ his principle being to acknowledge none of the O’Neill claims, but to wink at their practical assertion. Tirlogh agreed to confine himself in general to Tyrone, to give up his claim to superiority over his neighbours, to keep the peace towards O’Donnell and other subjects of the Queen, and to furnish his contingent to all hostings. On the other hand, he was excused from coming to any governor against his will, was to have a share in the customs of Lough Foyle, and might have 300 Scots in pay, provided they belonged to the Campbell and not to the MacDonnell connection. His claim to tribute from O’Dogherty would be acknowledged whenever he could prove his title. These terms were considered reasonable by so good a judge as Maltby, but Fitzwilliam had lately taken the precaution to inform the Queen that Tirlogh Luineach might easily be dealt with without any of the fuss which Essex thought proper to make about the matter. The Deputy had seen so much of Ireland, that he had ceased to have any very high standard. Waterhouse, the devoted partisan of Essex, also thought it possible to save the point of honour, and to avoid war by a composition with the Irish; but he did not deceive himself about the real nature of a peace so made. ‘All this,’ he said, ‘will be but patches, and (according to your country proverb) "make much work for the tinker." If this plot which here hath good allowance and there is thought probable take not place, nor some better form of reformation devised, then it were good to persuade that all soldiers were cassed, and leave here in Dublin some bad justice for a shadow of her Majesty’s possession: and let all go as it will to the devil, and never let it suck up the riches of England to be vainly spent to no purpose. So would it come to pass that within two or three years there would be twenty kings, and every one consume other in continual murders, which tragedy were far better than the remedies that have been practised here these one hundred years past. You may take this for a Christmas game, but if profit be preferred before honour, then there may be somewhat said in this behalf.’³⁰⁰

No open rebellion

While the English Government played fast and loose with the Ulster expedition, it was possible to report that no open rebellion existed in any part of Ireland, and that the doubtful were, as a rule, bound on pledges. But burning and spoiling in a small way went on merrily. The high universally oppressed the low, and ‘some were hanged or killed here and there every day.’ Still, as a rule, it was not necessary to keep watch, and cattle, at least in the Pale, could generally be left out at night. Rumours reached Ireland that Sidney had been finding fault, but Fitzwilliam asserted that Ireland was in a better state than when the late Lord Deputy left it.³⁰¹

Want of money. Jobbery among lawyers

Want of money was the main reason that the Government was weak; and corruption, while it enriched individuals, woefully impoverished the State. Registers and records were tampered with – a very old complaint in Ireland – merchants defrauded the revenue, and Custom-house officers winked at their roguery. Victuallers not being sure of payment had little credit, failed to perform their contracts, and were tempted into doubtful courses. The courts of law were distrusted, at least by English residents; one of whom gives the following account of the Irish Bench and Bar: —

‘Mr. Lucas Dillon and one or two more excepted, the rest of the champering lawyers whereof there be no small number, are little better to be accounted than junior barristers in the Court of Chancery; who, having read a little of Littleton’s "Natura Brevium," within a few years think themselves sufficient to plead at any Bar, and must as the room falleth void be her Majesty’s servants, attorney or else solicitor, and so they babble and brag out matters, right or wrong, at their pleasure without controlment, especially if the cause toucheth one of their cousins.’³⁰²

Kildare is vehemently suspected and arrested

Desmond was quiet for the time, but the head of the other great Geraldine family was now suspected in his turn. In 1574 Kildare had been in great apparent favour with the Lord Deputy. He had offered Desmond 500l. in ready money to assume a submissive attitude, and it was thought that the best way to secure the Pale was to place him in command on the south and west borders, on condition that he should discharge his own followers and trust entirely to 100 horse and 300 foot in the Queen’s pay. Fitzwilliam, who admitted that he only accepted the Earl’s service for want of a better, had soon reason to believe that he had treasonable or at least dangerous intentions. John Alen, an hereditary enemy, was the first accuser, and when it became known that complaints would be listened to, there was no want of secret information. Some of the accusations were probably true, others almost certainly false. It is very likely that Kildare gave secret intelligence to Rory Oge O’More, but incredible that he should have plotted with him the abduction of Lady Fitzwilliam and her family from Kilmainham. He evidently had frequent communications with the O’Tooles and O’Byrnes, and it was sworn that one of his messengers offered to lead a party to burn Athy, where the Government had large stores. The witness objecting that the Earl would be a loser by this, the other answered, ‘It is the Earl’s own devise.’ Much evidence, reaching back to 1572, was offered as to Kildare’s plots to obtain the government as his ancestors had it, and of outrages committed at his instance; but no one dared speak openly. Sir Peter Carew’s opinion, ‘that Earls were dangerous men to be dealt with,’ was probably generally accepted in Ireland. Suspicions were soon aroused, and the Queen very properly censured Fitzwilliam for trusting such matters to a secretary. His own or the Archbishop’s hand might have sufficed. To encourage witnesses it was resolved to arrest Kildare, but the intention became known beforehand, and all important documents were made away with. After much hesitation the duty was assigned to Essex, who had no difficulty in making the arrest, but had his doubts about its policy. ‘You must,’ he said, ‘take heed that you transfer not the greatness of some to make it trouble in some other, so were the second error worse than the first.’ Short as was his confinement in Dublin Castle, Kildare managed to have interviews there with Edmund Boy, who was one of his chief accusers, and so worked upon his feelings that he made his escape. Richard Fitzgerald, another important witness, was hanged by Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne. On arriving in London a few days later, Kildare was placed in seclusion under the charge of Lord Keeper Bacon; ‘his cause,’ said Ormonde, ‘will make the Earl of Desmond a melancholy man.’ The Irish Government believed that there would be no evidence until Kildare was fairly in the Tower.³⁰³

Uncertainties. Sidney daily expected

Fitzwilliam’s constant prayers for a recall had not been unheard, but it was difficult to find a successor for him, since it had been resolved that Essex should not be Lord Deputy. Sidney had been expected as early as July 1574, but he was in no hurry to start. Waterhouse had gone from Ulster to England towards the end of 1573, and had laid before the Privy Council the requests of Essex, especially as to the necessity of erecting fortifications and providing properly for provisioning the troops. ‘A lack of good foresight’ in high quarters was the fault which Waterhouse saw most clearly, and he complained that it was hard to get attention for the most necessary business. Statesmen pleaded that they were too busy with Desmond to mind anything else, ‘wherein they travel so far southward that they have lost sight of the North Pole.’ Various schemes were discussed. Some were for leaving Fitzwilliam at his post and giving him for a time the assistance of a military officer of high rank, who might pacify the country and then leave it to the Deputy. Others were for at least three Presidents independent of the chief Governor; ‘to breed a certain virtuous envy in these monarchs, who should do her Majesty best service.’ Others, again, were for trusting Irish lords, such as Ormonde and Kildare, leaving only matters of law and justice to the Lord Deputy. The prevailing opinion was that there should be Presidents, and that they should be appointed simultaneously with the new Deputy. Waterhouse’s advice being asked, he said that if Essex were rejected there were but two persons available, Leicester and Sidney. The former could scarcely be spared, and he therefore advised the choice of the latter, whose secretary he had been. Sidney was reluctant and Elizabeth undecided, and more than a year and a half slipped by without the change being actually made. ‘For God’s sake despatch him,’ said Fitzwilliam; ‘this uncertainty is a hell of unquietness to me, and so increases mine infirmities of shoulder, arm, side, and stomach, that I look shortly to become serviceable for nothing else but the worms of this land.’ He could not hope to be in England before October; too late for Bath, and leaving him no resource but physicians in whom he did not believe.³⁰⁴

The revenue. A pestilence,

The Government of Ireland from April 1, 1573, to September 30, 1575, cost the Queen more than 130,000l. in ready money sent from England, besides the Irish revenue and debts incurred but not discharged. It was a principal part of Sidney’s instructions to devise some means of checking this outflow. The Ulster account being almost closed, it was supposed that he would be able to manage with 5,000l. a quarter regularly paid, and that by improving the Irish revenue even that sum might in good time be reduced. Sidney was not likely to indulge in such golden dreams, and he undertook the government of Ireland for the third time with little expectation either of honour or profit. Leaving the Queen at Dudley Castle, he landed at Skerries after nearly losing two vessels in a storm. The summer had been very hot, and no rain fell from May 1 to August 1. ‘A loathsome disease and dreadful malady,’ say the ‘Four Masters,’ ‘arose from this heat – namely, the plague, which raged violently among the English and Irish in Dublin, Naas, Ardee, Mullingar, and Athboy. Between those places many a castle was left without a guard, many a flock without a shepherd, and many a noble corpse without burial.’

and panic

The whole Pale being infected, it was difficult to find a safe resting-place. The well-to-do citizens of Dublin fled to Drogheda, where they were grudgingly admitted, and whither they probably brought the pestilence; for deaths occurred in the town soon after the arrival of Essex and of the old and new Deputies, who all reached it on the same day. Immobility was the fault for which Fitzwilliam had been most blamed, and his successor, by starting immediately for Carrickfergus, no doubt meant to show that he was as capable as ever of those rapid movements which had bewildered and charmed the Irish mind. A blow had just been struck in Ulster, which for the time made resistance little to be feared. The terror of Sidney’s name might do the rest.³⁰⁵

General results of Essex’s grant

After his treaty with Tirlogh Luineach Essex had pressed on in pursuit of the Scots from the Antrim side, the people of the country generally showing themselves friendly. Sorley Boy appeared in force at the Bann, on the banks of which river an encounter took place. The Scots were worsted and driven into Tyrone. Clandeboye was for the moment cleared of the intruders, and Essex, as far as in him lay, handed it over to Brian ‘Ertagh’ O’Neill, who said that his people were few, his cattle less, and that in striving to defend his country from the Earl ‘his husbandmen were starved, dead, or run out of the country,’ which he left to the disposal of the man who had reduced it to this condition. Such, so far as the scheme of a settlement went, was the total result of the grant to Essex, who was, however, so deficient in humour as to boast ‘that no man in Clandeboye claimeth property in anything, whereby your Majesty may see what this people are when they are roughly handled.’³⁰⁶

Expedition to Rathlin. Massacre

His provisions failing, the Earl was obliged to quit the field, leaving 300 foot and 850 horse at Carrickfergus under the charge of John Norris, who had secret orders to undertake a combined naval and military expedition against Rathlin. With the soldiers under Norris and three frigates under ‘Francis Drake, Captain of the "Falcon,"’ it is not surprising that the affair was completely successful. All the boats at Carrickfergus were taken up, and in spite of the winds the whole force reached the island together, and landed, notwithstanding a vigorous resistance. The Scots retired into their castle, which Norris proceeded to batter with two heavy guns brought from the ship. A breach was soon made, but the first assault was repulsed, owing to the strength of the inner defences, which were probably erected by an Italian officer who was at this time in Sorley Boy’s service. The same night, however, the garrison, seeing that they could not hold out, offered to surrender for ‘their lives and their goods, and to be put into Scotland, which request Captain Norris refused, offering them as slenderly as they did largely require: viz., to the aforesaid constable his life and his wife’s and his child’s… The soldiers, being moved and much stirred with the loss of their fellows that were slain, and desirous of revenge, made request, or rather pressed, to have the killing of them, which they did all, saving the persons to whom life was promised… There were slain that came out of the castle of all sorts 200… They be occupied still in killing, and have slain that they have found hidden in caves and in the cliffs of the sea to the number of 300 or 400 more.’ Eleven Scottish galleys were burned. Three hundred kine, 3,000 sheep, 100 brood mares, and enough bere to feed 300 men for a year, were found in the island. A spy, moreover, informed Essex that ‘Sorley put most of his plate, most of his children, and the children of most part of his gentlemen, with their wives, into the Rathlin with all his pledges, which be all taken and executed, as the spy saith, and in all to the number of 600. Sorley then also stood upon the mainland of the Glynnes and saw the taking of the island, and was like to run mad for sorrow (as the spy saith), turning and tormenting himself, and saying that he then lost all that ever he had.’ Essex had nothing but praise for all concerned, which indeed they deserved, if barbarity is to incur no blame; but no one seems to have wasted a thought on such considerations, and Queen Elizabeth vouchsafed her unqualified thanks.³⁰⁷

A useless fortified post in Rathlin

The Scots supreme on the Antrim coast

Essex wished to found a permanent fortified post in Rathlin. Norris remained behind to reap the harvest and to hold the island until Sidney’s pleasure should be known. In the meantime, Sorley Boy, though he had lost his children, had not lost heart. He chose his time and swept away all the cattle from Carrickfergus. The garrison pursued him, got into difficult ground, and were disgracefully beaten, owing to one of those panics to which regular troops were always subject in their encounters with Highlanders. Some attributed all to the prevailing dissipation, and yet Carrickfergus was hardly a Capua. About forty Scots put the English to flight and killed sixty of them, including Captain Baker and his lieutenant. When Sidney came to Carrickfergus a month later he found it ‘much decayed and impoverished, no plough going at all, where before were many; … cattle few or none left; churches and houses, save castles, burned; the inhabitants fled, not above six householders of any countenance left remaining; so that their miserable state and servile fear were to be pitied.’ Of so little use had the Rathlin massacre been that the Lord Deputy found the Scots ‘very haughty and proud by reason of their late victories had against our men, finding the baseness of their courage.’ The coast from Larne to the Bann was full of corn and cattle, and in the undisputed possession of Sorley, who was willing enough to come to terms, but very suspicious and afraid of the opinion of his own followers. Sidney abandoned Rathlin at once, saying that it was easy at any time to take, but very expensive and useless to keep. There was a scarcity of water about the fort, and the ‘Race of Rathlin’ is one of the stormiest pieces of sea on our coast. ‘The soldiers brought thence being forty in number, they confessed that in this small time of their continuance there, they were driven to kill their horses and eat them, and to feed on them and young colts’ flesh one month before they came away.’ Such was the real value of a position where, in the opinion of Essex, 100 men ‘would do her Majesty more service, both against the Scots and Irish, than 300 can do in any place within the north parts.’ Sidney thought that the Glynnes might be handed over to Sorley Boy, no better claimant appearing, but that the Route ought to be given back to the MacQuillins, having been lost only because their late chief was a ‘dissolute and loose fellow, feeble both of wit and force.’ Lady Agnes O’Neill, a true Campbell, met Sidney and asked for a grant of the Glynnes for her son by James MacDonnell, offering to defend it against Sorley Boy, and to pay a higher rent to the Crown; but this did not recommend itself to the Lord Deputy, wise as he thought the lady, and much as he admired her manners and address.³⁰⁸