176 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. to the Blackwater, whence Ormond' s men, who were barefoot from their long marches, were carried on to Cork to refresh themselves. On them the burden of destruction had chiefly fallen. Ormond, in a report of his services, stated that in this one year 1580, before and after, but chiefly during, this expedition, he had put to the sword forty-six captains and leaders, with eight hundred notorious traitors and malefactors, and above four thousand other people. 1 Pelham turned back to Ashketyn to glean a second harvest of the Geraldines, and he too, on the 3Oth of July, reported.
- great execution/ Penitent rebels began privately to
apply for pardon. In all cases the price exacted for forgiveness was the head of some friend or leader, 2 and it was a price which was often paid. Sanders, accused of having betrayed them by false promises, was nearly murdered by the despairing wretches, who were now starving in the wood, and Desmond's personal interfer- ence barely sufficed to save him. The Earl's own per- son was sacred ; no one ventured, as yet, to conspire against the chief of the Geraldines, but no such devo- tion protected his brothers. Sir James, the younger of the two, was surprised, wounded, and taken by Sir Cormac MacTeigue, the sheriff of Cork. Sir Cormac, whose conduct had been suspicious,, made his peace by surrendering his prisoner to Ormond, by whom he was 1 Services of the Earl of Ormond, A 1580 : Carew Papers. 2 ' I do not receive any but such as come in with bloody hands as executioners of some better person than themselves.' Pelham to the Council, July 30, 1580: Carew Papers.
