sponsibility before other governments for the severity
which their agents on the spot judged necessary. Knowing that he did not
please, he had begun to solicit his recall before he had been a year in
Ireland; and at length he was recalled, not to receive thanks, but to
meet a strict, if not hostile, inquiry into his administration. Besides
what had been on the surface of his proceedings to dissatisfy the
Queen, there had been, as in the case of every Deputy, a continued
underground stream of backbiting and insinuation going home against him.
Spenser did not forget this, when in the _Faery Queen_ he shadowed forth
Lord Grey's career in the adventures of Arthegal, the great Knight of
Justice, met on his return home from his triumphs by the hags, Envy and
Detraction, and the braying of the hundred tongues of the Blatant Beast.
Irish lords and partisans, calling themselves loyal, when they could not
get what they wanted, or when he threatened them for their insincerity
or insolence, at once wrote to England. His English colleagues, civil
and military, were his natural rivals or enemies, ever on the watch to
spy out and report, if necessary, to misrepresent, what was questionable
or unfortunate in his proceedings. Permanent officials like Archbishop
Adam Loftus the Chancellor, or Treasurer Wallop, or Secretary Fenton,
knew more than he did; they corresponded directly with the ministers;
they knew that they were expected to keep a strict watch on his
expenditure; and they had no scruple to send home complaints against him
behind his back, as they did against one another. A secretary in Dublin
like Geoffrey Fenton is described as a moth in the garment of every
Deputy. Grey himself complains of the underhand work; he cannot prevent
"backbiters' report:" he has found of late "very suspicious dealing
amongst all his best esteemed associates;" he "dislikes not to be
informed of the charges against him." In fact, they were accusing him of
one of the gravest sins of which a Deputy could be guilty; they were
writing home that he was lavishing the forfeited estates among his
favourites, under pretence of rewarding service, to the great loss and
permanent damage of her Majesty's revenue; and they were forwarding
plans for commissions to distribute these estates, of which the Deputy
should not be a member.

He had the common fate of those who accepted great responsibilities
under the Queen. He was expected to do very hard tasks with insu