es of Simancas.)

No more statesmanlike appeal was ever made from Ireland; and had
the Archduke of Austria assumed the crown of Ireland in 1596, "now
or never" would indeed have become "now and forever." Had Philip II
carried out his often repeated promises of sending aid to that country
the fate of his own kingdom must have been a very different one.

"I wish it were possible for me, by word of mouth, to show the
importance of this undertaking and the great service that would be
rendered thereby to God and His Church, and _the great advantage it
would be to the service of Your Majesty and the peace of Your States
to attack the enemy here_."

So wrote in 1600 to Philip II, the Archbishop of Dublin, already
quoted, Mattheo de Oviedo.

This prelate had been specially sent to Ireland "to see and understand
the state of the country misrepresented by English emissaries at
foreign courts."

The wrath of Elizabeth against O'Neill was largely due to his keeping
in touch with the continent, whereby the lies of her agents abroad
were turned to her own ridicule. To Essex, her Viceroy, she wrote:
"Tyrone hath blazed in foreign parts the defeat of regiments, the
death of captains, and loss of men of quality in every quarter."

O'Neill not only for years beat her generals in the field, her beat
herself and her councillors at their own game. To Essex, in an ecstacy
of rage at the loss of the last great army sent, she wrote (September
17th, 1599): "To trust this traitor upon oath is to trust the devil
upon his religion. Only this we are sure (for we see it in effect),
that you have prospered so ill for us by your warfare, as we cannot
but be very jealous lest we should be as well overtaken by the
treaty."

(Essex wished to bring O'Neill in by a treaty which, while ostensibly
conceding the terms of the Irish prince was to allow the Queen time to
carry out her purpose.)

The Irish princes knew Elizabeth and her Ministers, as well as she
read Essex. "Believe no news from Ireland of any agreement in this
country," they had written to Philip II in 1597, "great offers have
been made by the Queen of England, but we will not break our word and
promise to your." In a letter written a year earlier (Oct. 18, 1596),
replying to the special envoy sent by the king, they said: "Since
the former envoys left us we have used every means in our power, as
we promised we should do, to gain time and procrastination from one
day to another. But ho