he thorns and bushes, where a fox before had
harboured; which fox he killed, being a thing then
thought to prognosticate that he should expel the
crafty deceit of the French King.--See Ellis,
Original Letters.]

* * * * *

It is confessedly beyond the province of these Memoirs even to glance
at the affairs of Ireland, except so far as a reference to them may
bear upon the character and conduct of Henry of Monmouth. Not only,
however, does the presence of a body of native Irish, headed by (p. 231)
one of the regular clergy of Ireland, aiding Henry at the siege of
Rouen, seem to draw our thoughts thitherward; but some documents also,
relative to our sister-land, of that date, may be thought to require a
few words in this place. During the reign of Richard II. the warlike
movements of the native Irish, who had never been conquered or
civilized, compelled that monarch to proceed to Ireland in person, and
to take the field against those wild rebels. They had formerly been
kept in comparative awe by a strong hand; but the continental wars of
Edward III. had much slackened the wonted vigilance and activity of
his government at home in checking their outbreakings against the
English settlers. They had, consequently, grown bold, and threatened
to extirpate the English altogether. Vigorous measures became
necessary, and the King twice headed an army himself to restore peace.
On his first visit he was summoned home by the prelates, to put down
the spreading sect of the Lollards; in his second, his delay, after
the landing of Bolinbroke at Ravenspurg, cost him his crown. In this
latter expedition Henry of Monmouth (as we have seen) accompanied him,
and had personal experience of the uncivilized state of the country,
and the savage character of the warfare carried on by the inhabitants.
It is curious to remark, that on several occasions Richard II.
employed the Irish prelates as his ambassadors to Rome, "for the safe
estate and prosperity of the most holy English church." The fact, (p. 232)
however, is too evident, that all Irish dignities were bestowed
on Englishmen; and except by some assumed privilege of the Pope, or by
other proceedings equally unacceptable to the English settlers, no
native Irishman was ever in those times advanced to any high station
in the church, or even promoted to an ordinary benefice. Indeed the