15 74-1 THE DESMOND REBELLION', 519 the two fortresses, Castlemaine and Castlemartyr, which, the Greraldines had. surprised at the outbreak of the last rebellion ; but Fitzwilliam was direoted to tell Desmond, and tell Clanrickard also, that ' if they would acknow* ledge their obedience as in former times/ they might have their own way in other matters. Terms short of unreserved submission might be offered also to the O'Neils. ' It was thought a hard matter to subvert the customs of the people which they had enjoyed to be ruled by captains of their own nation.' The Irish might have peace, and be governed still after their own man- ner ; and the Queen agreed to permit Tirlogh Lenogh to retain his signories, his body-guard, his captaincies, and feudal supremacies, but she required him also to sue for pardon, to surrender his lands to the Crown, and to receive them back again under an English tenure. 1 Essex, who had been in the deeps of despondency, brightened with the prospect of work. The men who came to him from England were not undisciplined emi- grants, like those which had accompanied him in the preceding autumn, but ' soldiers trained in the wars of the Low Countries.' Instantly on their ar- rival, he marched from Belfast into Clande- boy, flung himself on his old enemy, Sir Brian Mac- Phelim, and in a week brought Sir Brian on his knees, a penitent suppliant for mercy. 2 Tirlogh Lenogh upon 1 A memorial of Irish causes, April 20, 1574. Burghley's hand: MSS. Ireland. 2 Sir Brian wrote on the 8th May to the Queen, ' That he had gone wickedly astray, and wandered in the wilderness like a blind beast.' He threw himself at her Majesty's feet, imploring her clemency, and making lavish promises of good
