1579-1 THE DESMOND REBELLION. 563 He told the Geraldines it had been so ordered that * the noble princes of France and Spain ' might see that the cause did not hang upon one man's life; that others would spring into the place of the lost leader better able to advance the cause than he was. 1 He promised legions of Spaniards, who were already, he protested, on their way. He called on Ulick Burke to restore the honour of his house, to repair to him with the galloglass of Clanrickard, and to come at once if he would have God reward him. 'When our aid is come/ he said,
- which daily we look for, when the Scotch and English
nobility are in arms, and when strangers invade Eng- land itself, it shall be small thanks to be of our com- pany.' 2 Fortune seemed to encourage his hopes. Sir Wil- liam Drury, though so ill that he could scarcely sit upon his horse, took the field in October, to follow October. up Malby 's success. He too attempted to penetrate into the great wood, 3 but with less skill 01 less fortune than Malby, he entangled himself among bogs and rocks. The Irish set upon him at an advan- tage, killing several officers and three hundred men. He was himself driven into Kilinallock, from which he returned to Cork to die. Ireland was thus left without a governor, but Malby, 1 Drury to Walsingham, Sep- tember 14 : MSS. Ireland. 2 Dr Sanders to Ulick Burke, September 24. 3 The wood so often spoken of covered the whole country between Mallow and Limerick ; Kilmallock lay in the middle of it. It extended east to the foot of the Galtee moun- tains, and west to the long chain which divides the county of Lime- rick from Kerrv.
