552 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 62. At the end of the year 1577, the moment so long waited for appeared to have come. Drake had sailed from Plymouth. The war party on the councils of both Spain and England were clamorous for an end of un- certainty, and a powerful insurrection in Ireland might perhaps decide Philip's irresolution. Fitzmaurice ob- tained money from the Pope, and a commission as general in the Pope's name, with power to raise troops in all Catholic countries for the service of the Church. Sanders was chosen to accompany him as Legate, and applied to the King of Spain for assistance. ' The Irish people/ he said, 'were unanimously well affected to Spain. They were Catholics, they were themselves of Spanish descent, 1 and they loathed and abhorred the Saxons. In all the island there were not more than a thousand English soldiers. They were dispersed over the country in garrisons, and the Irish would long since have expelled them had they not been divided among themselves. But these divisions would instantly dis- appear if the Pope interfered, and if war was declared against England for the defence of the faith against heresy. Not one of the chiefs would oppose a Papal general, and the English, deserted by their friends, would at once be overwhelmed and destroyed. His Holiness/ as Sanders represented to Philip, ' had there- fore nominated a nobleman of the house of Desmond to this office, an accomplished soldier, whose name in Ire- land was worth an army. Men were not needed. There 1 ' Quieren mucho &. los Espanoles de los cuales se precian tener su origen y descendencia.'
