II

RALEIGH IN IRELAND

29

It would appear that Raleigh's service in Ireland began under Lord Justice Pelham. What are known as the Raleigh reckonings, a statement of accounts for the little force which he commanded, date from July 13th, 1580. His appointment to command a "foot-band" of one hundred men, to which he added later a small complement of horse, may have been procured through the interest with the Queen of his relative Mrs. Katherine Ashley, or through Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his halfbrother, who had served in Ireland and stood in favour at Court. His emoluments were not magnificent; four shillings a day for himself, two for his lieutenant, and eightpence a day for each soldier appear from the reckonings to have been the scale of payment allowed. Soon after his arrival he sat on a joint commission with Sir Warham St. Leger ("Sir Warram" of the Raleigh letters, now Provost Marshal of Munster,) for the trial of the rebel James Desmond, brother of the Earl, who had fallen into the hands of the Sheriff of Cork. The Sheriff's own conduct had not been above suspicion, and in his anxiety to propitiate the authorities he betrayed Sir James, who was executed forthwith. Pelham was relieved in August, 1580, by Lord Grey de Wilton, who brought over six or seven hundred fresh troops. His first operations were unsuccessful, and young Sir Peter Carew, a relative of Raleigh, with some three hundred men, lost his life in an ambush. In spite of this reverse Lord Grey determined to take the risk of attacking the foreign invaders at Smerwick with all his available forces. He was accompanied by Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, who were here first thrown together. Sir William Wynter had received orders to return with

the fleet, and after many delays from contrary winds he arrived early in November. Lord Grey had reached Dingle a fortnight earlier. Upon the arrival of the fleet trenches were dug, siege operations were set in train, and the fortress was heavily bombarded. According to Hooker, who gives a full account of the siege in his continuation of Hollinshed, two offers made to the garrison to yield to mercy were refused, and the assault continued. The officer in command of the foreign troops, a certain Don Sebastian, accompanied by an Italian soldier of fortune, then held a parley with the Lord-Deputy under a flag of truce, offering to surrender on terms. They confessed that they held no commission, but the Italian stated that they were sent by the Pope for the defence of the Catholic faith. Lord Grey, as it appears from his official despatch, which is confirmed in the account given by Spenser of this affair, refused any terms but unconditional surrender, and declined to entertain even a surcease of arms." He at length, however, consented to leave the garrison in the fort through the night until the following morning, when Don Sebastian undertook to yield it up, handing over hostages in the meantime. When morning broke the Lord - Deputy presented his companies in battle order before the fort, and the garrison with trailing banners made sign of submission. "Then," he wrote in his report to the Queen, "I put in certain bands, who straight fell to execution-there were six hundred slain." The officers only, to the number of twenty, were reserved for ransom. Hooker states that Captains Raleigh and Macworth entered the castle and made a great slaughter. The Lord - Deputy does not mention Raleigh's name.

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THE MASSACRE OF SMERWICK

31

Vice Admiral Bingham attributes the massacre to a number of marines and soldiers who "fell to revelling and spoiling, and withal to killing." The evidence, however, of Lord Grey's despatch, corroborated by the testimony of Spenser, is conclusive that the massacre of the prisoners was deliberate. There does not appear to have been any hesitation on his part as to the course to be pursued, nor does he make any attempt to conceal the facts. The garrison, uncommissioned soldiers from Spain and ruffians discharged from the papal prisons, were deliberately invading a foreign country in league with rebels in open insurrection. To such, according to the standards of the day, no mercy was due. Moreover a stern lesson was needed, for these foreign troops were only the advanced guard of a more formidable invasion. They were consequently regarded and treated as bandits. Raleigh himself, if the additional information given by Hooker be accepted as true (and it must be remembered that he puts it down to his credit), played only a subordinate part, and obeyed the orders which he received. It is nevertheless matter for regret that his name has been associated with a deed of blood which has remained a sinister memory in the traditions of the Irish people. English writers, from Bacon downwards, have generally represented the Queen as having shown displeasure at the strenuous action of the LordDeputy. But a letter which she addressed to him in acknowledgment of his despatch, reporting the capture of Smerwick, makes it apparent that it was the undertaking given to spare the lives of the officers, and not the massacre of the rank and file, which incurred her criticism. "In this late enterprise," she wrote, "performed

by you so greatly to our liking, we could have wished that the principal persons of the said invaders to whom. you have promised grace, which we will see performed, had been reserved for us, to have extended towards them either justice or mercy, as to us should have been found best, for that it seemeth to us most agreeable to reason that a principal should receive punishment before an accessory."

Raleigh and his company took up winter quarters at Cork, and while there he received a commission from the Lord-Deputy to take order with the notorious rebel David, Lord Barry, whose dangerous influence as a leader of revolt he had himself brought to Lord Grey's knowledge. The expedition was rendered abortive by the determined action of Barry himself, who burned his house to the ground and laid the country round it waste; but on his return journey to Cork an adventure befel the young captain which tried his mettle and enabled him to give proof of conspicuous gallantry. Between Youghal and Cork was a ford in the Balinacurra. Here there lay in ambush, waiting for his passage, a certain Fitz-Edmunds, a rebel of Barry's faction, known as the Seneshal of Imokelly, with numerous horsemen and footmen. His little escort of six men were lagging behind, and Raleigh reached the river's edge accompanied only by an Irish guide, when suddenly the whole company of Fitz-Edmunds sprang from their hiding and held the ford. He cut his way through and had crossed in safety to the other side, when he became aware that one of his followers was unhorsed in the middle of the stream and crying to him for help. Dashing back into the river he brought the man safe to land, and then with his pistol cocked stood

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PERSONAL GALLANTRY

33

firm on the opposite bank, waiting for the rest of his party to come up. The Seneshal, seeing other troopers advancing in his rear, made off in haste, although his force numbered nearly twenty to one. This exploit led to a curious sequel not long afterwards. At a parley held with the rebels Fitz-Edmunds proclaimed his own martial achievements in such a braggart manner, notwithstanding that Raleigh had openly taxed him with cowardice, that Ormonde, the Governor of Munster, challenged him, together with Sir John Desmond and any other four he chose to name, to meet himself, Captain Raleigh, and four others at the selfsame spot. There his lordship undertook that he and his companions would cross the river in the others' despite and determine the point of honour in battle, two to two, four to four, or six to six. It was a chivalrous proposal and one after Raleigh's own heart; but no answer was returned to the challenge, which was a second time repeated in vain.

This was not by any means his only passage-of-arms with Barry's men, or with the Seneshal, whom he cleverly out-manoeuvred in his adventurous expedition to Bally to seize the person of Lord Roche and bring him before Ormonde at Cork. The conduct of Lord Roche had afforded considerable suspicion of disloyalty, and some information as to his possible arrest had evidently got abroad, for the Barrys and the Seneshal were out, waiting once more in ambuscade to intercept any force on the road to Bally. Raleigh, by an unexpected night-march, reached Lord Roche's seat at daybreak with his company of foot and a few horsemen ; there, however, he found five hundred of the townsmen

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