der the sway of
native chieftains, or even to preserve in safety and civility such
districts as were already reclaimed and brought within the English pale.
But the queen's parsimony, or, more truly, the narrowness of her income,
caused her perpetually to repine at the great expenses to which she was
put for this service, and frequently to run the risk of losing all that
had been slowly gained, by a sudden withdrawment, or long delay, of the
necessary supplies. Her suspicious temper caused her likewise to lend
ready ear to the complaints, whether founded or not, brought by the
disaffected Irish against her officers. Sir Henry Sidney himself, the
deputy whom she most favored and trusted, and continued longer in office
than any other, supported as he was at court by the potent influence of
Leicester and the steady friendship of Burleigh, had many causes offered
him of vexation and discontent; and those who held inferior commands,
and were less ably protected from the attacks of their enemies,
experienced almost insupportable anxieties from counteractions,
difficulties and hardships of every kind. Of these the unfortunate earl
of Essex had his full share.

The hopes of improving his fortune, with which he had entered upon the
service, were so far from being realized that he found himself sinking
continually deeper in debt. His efforts against the rebels were by no
means uniformly successful. His court enemies contrived to divert most
of the succours designed him by his sovereign, and the perplexities of
his situation went on accumulating instead of diminishing. The bodily
fatigue which he endured in the prosecution of his designs, joined to
the anguish of a wounded spirit, undermined at length the powers of his
constitution, and after repeated attacks he was carried off by a
dysentery in September 1576.

Essex was liberal, affable, brave and eloquent, and generally beloved
both in England and Ireland. The symptoms of his disease, though such as
exposure alone to the pestilential damps of the climate might well have
produced, were also susceptible of being ascribed to poison; and one of
his attendants, a divine who likewise professed medicine, seeing him in
great pain, suddenly exclaimed, "By the mass, my lord, you are
poisoned!" The report spread like wild-fire. To common minds it is a
relief under irremediable misfortune to find an object for blame; and
accordingly, though no direct evidence of the fact was produced, it w