the tithes and offerings, and gather what fruit else they may of their livings.... It is a great wonder to see the zeal between the Popish priests and the ministers of the Gospel; for they spare not to come out of Spain, from Rome, and from Rheims, by long toil and dangerous travelling thither, where they know peril of death awaiteth them, and no reward or riches are to be found, only to draw people to the Church of Rome." Such were the immediate fruits of the Reformation as admitted and described by Protestant contemporaries. One of the first proprietary acts of Sir Edward Moore, on his acquiring Mellifont, seems to have been to cut down and sell some of the magnificent timber planted by the monks. The old wooden house, so long an object of curiosity in Drogheda, and which was taken down in 1824, was chiefly composed of oak obtained from Mellifont Park. It was situated at the angle formed by the junction of Laurence Street and Shop Street, and was erected by Nicholas Bathe, as an inscription in raised characters, each six inches in length, testified. This inscription was on the Laurence Street side. "Made. Bi. Nicholas. Bathe. in. the. ieare. of. our. Lord. God. 1570. Bi. Hiu. Mor. Carpenter." In 1592, Red Hugh O'Donnell, fleeing from Dublin Castle, where he had been detained a close prisoner, was received and kindly treated by Sir Edward Moore, at Mellifont. His reception is thus related in the Life of Red Hugh, edited with notes by the late Father Denis Murphy, S.J.:--"After crossing the Boyne near Drogheda, Red Hugh and his companion mounted their horses, and proceeded about two miles from the river, where they saw a dense bushy grove in front of them on the road they came, and a large rampart all around it, as if it was a kitchen-garden. There was a fine mansion (called the great monastery), belonging to an illustrious youth of the English, by the side of the wood. He was much attached to O'Neil.... He (O'Donnell) went into the house and was entertained; for he was well known there especially more than in other places." In 1599, according to the family pedigree, Sir Garret Moore and Sir Francis Stafford were the only English house-keepers in the County Louth; all the lands being wasted by the Ulster rebels. The next important event at Mellifont was the great O'Neil's surrender there to the Deputy, Lord Mountjoy, on the 24th March, 1602. The Lord Deputy sent Sir Garret Moore, as an old acquaintance of O'Neil's, with Sir Wm. Godolphin to parley with him, and O'Neil returned with them to Mellifont, where (on his knees, it is said by English writers,) he made his submission to the Deputy. Here, again, we have further proof of what has been stated before, that it was Irishmen who retained this country for the English Crown; for when Sir George Carew sat down before Kinsale, where O'Neil was defeated, his army consisted of three thousand men, of whom two thousand were Irish.[8]