Sanders and his Legatine Commission were
fresh in immediate memory. The defeat of the Armada in the Channel could
only have been vaguely heard of. All that English officers could have
accurately known must have been that an enormous expedition had been
sent to England by Philip to restore the Pope; and Spaniards, they
found, were landing in thousands in the midst of them with arms and
money; distressed for the moment, but sure, if allowed time to get their
strength again, to set Connaught in a blaze. They had no fortresses to
hold so many prisoners, no means of feeding them, no men to spare to
escort them to Dublin. They were responsible to the Queen's Government
for the safety of the country. The Spaniards had not come on any errand
of mercy to her or hers. The stern order went out to kill them all
wherever they might be found, and two thousand or more were shot,
hanged, or put to the sword. Dreadful! Yes, but war itself is dreadful
and has its own necessities.
The sixty ships which had followed the _San Martin_ succeeded at last in
getting round Cape Clear, but in a condition scarcely less miserable
than that of their companions who had perished in Ireland. Half their
companies died--died of untended wounds, hunger, thirst, and famine
fever.
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