To the possession of Castlemaine Perrott attached great importance, and extensive preparations were made for besieging it. The cannon were delayed by storms on their passage from Limerick. The castle, which stood on arches in the water, proved stronger than was supposed, and all the powder was expended without making a breach; there were at the time only three cwt. in Dublin. In want of almost every requisite for successful war, Perrott withdrew his famished army after a siege of five weeks. On returning to Cork he found that Fitzmaurice had not been idle in his absence. Captain John Morgan, who was to have co-operated with the President by sea, seeing the rebels driving cattle along the shores of Cork harbour, landed and rescued them, and followed the foragers till they reached their supports. Seeing the English sailors, whose behaviour, as Ormonde said, was more like that of ignorant beasts than of trained soldiers, at a safe distance from their boats, Fitzmaurice attacked them vigorously, drove them into a ruined church, and overwhelmed them with showers of stones. Thirty-three were thus ignobly slain; only two prisoners were taken, and these were sent back. In consequence of this disaster, the ships which should have supplied the besiegers of Castlemaine lay idly at anchor.[195] FOOTNOTES: [178] Rokeby to Cecil, Jan. 4, 1570; Fitton to Lord Deputy, Feb. 22; N. White to Cecil, Feb. 9; Clancare to Gilbert, Feb. 22. The assizes at Ennis were about Feb. 1. Norfolk had been in the Tower since October. The Bull of Pius V. excommunicating Elizabeth was dated Feb. 25, though not posted in London till May. An Irishman, one Cornelius, is said to have helped Felton. [179] Sidney to the Privy Council, May 4, 1570, with the enclosures; to Carew, May 28; articles with the Earl of Thomond, April 23, 1570, in _Carew_. [180] Ormonde to Sidney, June 4; Thomond to the Queen, July 23; Sir H. Norris to Cecil, July 22 and 23; to the Queen, Aug. 9 and 11; the Queen to Norris, July 30; submission of Thomond, December 21, 1570; Morrin's _Patent Rolls_, September 25, 14 Eliz.; Informations, &c., Nov. 7. Chief Justice Rokeby went over from Connaught to detail Thomond's misdeeds, which indeed could not be denied; but he seems to have been thought too foolish to do much harm. Sidney calls him 'ox' and 'lubber.' Brief Relation in _Carew_, 1583. [181] Ormonde to Sidney, April 27; Sidney to Carew, May 28; to the Privy Council, May 4; the Queen to Sidney, May 17. [182] The session began May 26. Ormonde to Heneage, July 4, 1570; to Cecil, July 24, 1569, and Dec. 7, 1570; to Burghley, June 28, 1572; Sidney to Privy Council, June 24, 1570; Weston to Cecil, June 28. There is a valuable memoir of Sir Edmund Butler by the Rev. James Hughes in the _Irish Archæol. Journal_, 4th Series, vol. i. Morrin's _Patent Rolls_, ii. 640. [183] Sidney to Cecil, Oct. 17, in the _Sidney Papers_. _Irish Statute Book_, Note of Bills, May 1570.