Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 3 (of 3)Bagwell, Richard
History
Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 3 (of 3)
Bagwell, Richard
Ireland -- History -- 16th century
[Sidenote: The foreigners cannot maintain themselves.]
The only serious casualty happened next morning. Good John Cheke, as
Grey calls him, was a son of the great scholar, and inherited most
scholarlike poverty, although he was Burghley's nephew. Tired of living
as a dependant on his uncle's favour, and much more in awe of him than
of Spanish bullets, he begged a horse from the great Lord Treasurer
and resolved to seek his fortune in Ireland. Incautiously raising his
head above the trench, he received a fatal wound, and Grey descants
at great length upon his edifying end. 'He made,' wrote the Puritan
warrior to the Queen, 'so divine a confession of his faith, as all
divines in either of your Majesty's realms could not have passed, if
matched, it; so wrought in him God's spirit, plainly declaring him a
child of His elected.' Grey observed that the fatal volley came from
under a wooden penthouse, and pointed out the spot to Winter, who
himself laid the guns. The second shot dislodged the musketeers, and at
the fourth a flag of truce was shown on the ramparts. The Pope's banner
had first been struck and replaced by a black and a white banner. This
was to warn Desmond, who had promised to be on the neighbouring hills
with 4,000 men. The furling of the black flag was a first signal of
distress; but no help came, and a parley was asked for. Sir James
Fitzgerald of Decies had been given by Desmond to the Italians with
instructions to exact 1,000_l._ ransom; he was now brought out and
liberated. The camp-master, Alexander Bartoni, a Florentine, then
came into the trenches, and said that certain Spaniards and Italians
had been lured to Ireland by false representations, that they had no
quarrel with Queen Elizabeth, and that they were quite ready to depart
as they had come. A Spanish captain followed, but he made no pretence
of being sent by his king, or of having communicated with any higher
authority than Recalde, the governor of Bilboa. The Florentine said
they were all sent by the Pope for the defence of the Catholica fede,
and Grey, in true Puritan style, replied that his Holiness was 'a
detestable shaveling, the right Antichrist and general ambitious tyrant
over all right principalities, and patron of the diabolica fede.' All
conditions were refused, and in the evening the commandant, Sebastian
de San Josefo, a Bolognese, came himself into the trenches and begged
for a truce till morning.
[Sidenote: The surrender.]
[Sidenote: The massacre.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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