by the authority of Archbishop Ussher, which, if true, shows that this reproach to Irish Protestantism—­if indeed it is a reproach—­was once nearly avoided.  The story runs that one Cole, Dean of St. Paul’s, was despatched by Mary with a special commission to “lash the heretics of Ireland.”  That Cole slept on his way at an inn in Chester, the landlady of which happened to have a brother, a Protestant then living in Dublin.  This woman, hearing him boast of his commission, watched her opportunity, and stole the commission out of his cloak-bag, substituting for it a pack of cards.  Cole unsuspiciously pursued his way, and presenting himself authoritatively before the deputy, declared his business and opened his bag.  There, in place of the commission against the heretics, lay the pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost!

The story goes on to say that the dean raged in discomfited fury, but that the deputy, though himself a Roman Catholic, took the matter easily.  “Let us have another commission,” he said, “and meanwhile we will shuffle the cards.”  The cards were effectually shuffled, for before any further steps could be taken Mary had died.

XXIV.

WARS AGAINST SHANE O’NEILL.

Upon the 17th of November, 1558, Mary died, and upon the afternoon of the same day Elizabeth was proclaimed queen.  A new reign is always accounted a new starting-point, and in this case the traditional method of dividing history is certainly no misleader.  The old queen had been narrow, dull-witted, bigoted; an unhappy woman, a miserable wife, plagued with sickness, plagued, above all, with a conscience whose mission seems to have been to distort everything that came under its cognizance.  A woman even whose good qualities—­and she had several—­only seemed to push her further and further down the path of disaster.

The new queen was twenty-six years old.  Old enough, therefore, to have realized what life meant, young enough to have almost illimitable possibilities still unrevealed to her.  No pampered royal heiress, either, for whom the world of hard facts had no reality, and the silken shams of a Court constituted the only standpoint, but one who had already with steady eyes looked danger and disaster in the face and knew them for what they were.  With a realm under her hand strong already, and destined before her death to grow stronger still; with a spirit too, strong enough and large enough for her realm; stronger perhaps in spite of her many littlenesses than that of any of the men she ruled over.

And Ireland?  How was it affected by this change of rulers?  At first fairly well.  The early months of the new reign were marked by a policy of conciliation.  Protestantism was of course, re-established, but there was no eagerness to press the Act of Conformity with any severity, and Mass was still said nearly everywhere except in the Pale.