FOOTNOTES: 

[426] Willing.—­Sidney’s Despatches, British Museum, MSS.  Cat.  Titus B. x.

[427] Irreligion.—­Mant, vol. i. p.287.

[428] Scattered.—­Cox, vol. i. p.319.

[429] Civility.—­Sidney’s Letters and Memorials, vol i. p.112.  Sidney’s memoir has been published in extenso in the Ulster Arch.  Journal, with most interesting notes by Mr. Hore of Wexford.

[430] Reformation.—­Past and Present Policy of England towards Ireland, p. 27.  London, 1845.

[431] Depend.—­Shirley, p. 219.  An admirable History of the Diocese of Meath, in two volumes, has been published lately by the Rev. A. Cogan, Catholic Priest of Navan.  It is very much to be wished that this rev. author would extend his charitable labours to other dioceses throughout Ireland.

[432] Majority.—­Leland, vol. ii. p.241.

[433] Pike.—­This was probably the Morris pike or Moorish pike, much used in the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth.  The common pike was used very generally by foot soldiers until the reign of George II.  The halberd was introduced during the reign of Henry VIII.  It was peculiar to the royal guard, and is still carried by them.  In Shirley’s comedy, A Bird in a Cage (1633), one of the characters is asked, “You are one of the guard?” and replies, “A Poor halberd man, sir.”  The caliver was quite recently introduced.  It was a light kind of musket, fired without a rest.  It derived its name from the calibre or width of its bore.

[434] Staffe.—­This was probably a cane staff.  We read in Piers Plowman’s Vision of “hermits on a heap with hookyd staves.”

[435] Dagges.—­“Pistols.”—­“My dagge was levelled at his heart.”

[436] Livery—­It was usual for all retainers of a noble house to wear a uniform-coloured cloth in dress.  Thus, in the old play of Sir Thomas More, we find: 

“That no man whatsoever Do walk without the livery of his lord, Either in cloak or any other garment.”

[437] Irish.—­Four Masters, vol. v. pp. 1678-9.  Camden mentions the capture of O’Neill, and says Essex slew 200 of his men; but he does not mention the treachery with which this massacre was accomplished.

[438] Pestilence.—­Memoir or Narrative addressed to Sir Francis Walsingham, 1583.  Ware says he wrote “Miscellanies of the Affairs of Ireland,” but the MS. has not yet been discovered.  The Four Masters notice the pestilence, which made fearful ravages.

[439] John.—­He was called Shane Seamar Oge, or John of the Shamrocks, from having threatened to live on shamrocks sooner than submit to the English.  John was the younger of the two De Burgos or Burkes.

[440] Vileness.—­Reign of Elizabeth, vol. i, p. 458.