'Twenty castles had been taken as they went along and left in hands that could be trusted.

In all that long and painful journey Sidney was able to say that there had not died of sickness but three persons; men and horses were brought back in full health and strength, while her majesty's honour was re-established among the Irishry, and grown to no small veneration--"an expedition comparable only to Alexander's journey into Bactria," wrote an admirer of Sidney to Cecil--revealing what to Irish eyes appeared the magnitude of the difficulty, and forming a measure of the effect which it produced.

The English deputy had bearded Shane in his stronghold, burned his houses, pillaged his people, and had fastened a body of police in the midst of them, to keep them waking in the winter nights.

He had penetrated the hitherto impregnable fortresses of mountain and morass; the Irish who had been faithful to England were again in safe possession of their lands and homes.

The weakest, maddest, and wildest Celts were made aware that, when the English were once roused to effort, they could crush them as the lion crushes the jackal.'[1] [Footnote 1: Vol.viii.