532 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. March. loyal if their religion was not interfered with. M'Carties, O'Sullivans, O'Carrolls, M'Teigues, Roches, came to the Viceroy's levees, ' detesting their barbarous lives/ ' willing to hold their lands from her Highness, and promising rent and service/ The past was wiped out. Confiscation on one side, and rebellion on the other, were to be forgotten and heard of no more. A clean page was turned. The Irish were ready to be quiet if they might manage Ireland their own way ; and England was eager to receive them on their own terms, Strange figures appeared to pay their homage. Among them Granny O'Malley, a famous virago of Con- naught, came round from Achill with her three pirate galleys, and two hundred men, to Cork harbour. This woman was wife of ' the Mac William/ chief of the second branch of the Burkes. Sidney says expressively, ' she had brought her husband with her ; ' ' by sea and land being more than Mrs Mate with him/ 1 She and her galleys were to be at Sidney's disposition if he pleased to use them, and a close acquaintance sprung up as was natural between herself and young Philip. 2 Then too at Cork, writes Sidney, ' there came to me 1 Sidney to "Walsinghnm, March I, 1583 : Carew Papers. 2 Sir Win. Druvy mentions this singular woman two years later. ' Granny O'Malley/ he says, ' a woman that hath impudently passed the parts of womanhood, and been a great spoiler and Qhief commander and director of thieves and murderers, at sea, to spoil this province, having been apprehended by the Earl of Desmond this last year, his lordship hath now sent her to me to Lime- rick, where she remains in sure keep- ing.' Drury to the Council, March 24, 1578 : MSJS.. Ireland..
