foreign invasion and left her at liberty to
turn her whole attention to the pacification of Ireland. The state of
that island was in every respect deplorable:--the whole province of
Ulster in open rebellion under Tyrone;--the rest of the country only
waiting for the succours from the pope and the king of Spain, which the
credulous natives were still taught to expect, to join openly in the
revolt; and in the meantime reduced to such a state of despair by
innumerable oppressions and by the rumor of further severities meditated
by the queen of England, that it seemed prepared to oppose the most
obstinate resistance to every measure of government. In what manner and
by whom, this wretched province should be brought back to its
allegiance, had been the subject of frequent and earnest debates in the
privy-council; in which Essex had vehemently reprobated the conduct of
former governors in wasting time on inferior objects, instead of first
undertaking the reduction of Tyrone, and appears to have spared no pains
to impress the queen with an opinion of the superior justness of his own
views of the subject. Elizabeth believed, and with reason, that she
discovered in lord Montjoy talents not unequal to the arduous office of
lord deputy at so critical a juncture; but when the greater part of her
council appeared to concur in the choice, Essex insinuated a variety of
objections;--that the experience of Montjoy in military matters was
small;--that neither in the Low Countries nor in Bretagne, where he had
served, had he attained to any principal or independent command;--that
his retainers were few or none; his purse inadequately furnished for the
first expenses of so high an appointment; and that he was too much
addicted to a sedentary and studious life. By this artful enumeration of
the deficiencies of Montjoy, he was clearly understood to intimate his
own superior fitness for the office. The queen, notwithstanding certain
suspicions which had been infused into her of danger in committing to
Essex the command of an army, and notwithstanding the unwillingness
which she still felt to deprive herself of his presence, appears to have
adopted with eagerness this suggestion of her favorite;--for she held in
high estimation both his talents and his good fortune. Montjoy promptly
retired from a competition in which he must be unsuccessful; the
adherents of the earl, except a few of the more sagacious, eagerly
forwarded his appointment with i