214  RISE    AND    FALL

though  unsuccessful,  could  not  even  by  its  failure  aggra-
vate their  miseries.  That  death  would  be  the  worst  they
could  experience  by  battle,  and  that  death  was  preferable
to  the  slow  tortures  they  were  enduring,  the  famine  under
which  they  languished,  and  the  desolation  of  their  families."

He  impressed  upon  their  heated  minds,  that  "  their
lands  were  overrun  by  foreign  soldiers  ;  their  homes  plun-
dered or  enjoyed  by  the  butchering  bands  of  an  English
female  ;  that  their  race  of  princes  had  become  a  family
of  slaves,  and  their  clergy  had  been  executed  as  the  guil-
tiest felons  :"  and  he  invoked  them,  "ija  the  name  of  their
country,  by  the  memory  of  their  ancestors,  and  the  holi-
ness of  their  religion,  to  rise  as  one  man,  and  liberate  all
from  their  tyrants."  Nor  can  an  impartial  reader  of  Irish
and  English  history  deny  that  there  was  great  crimes  in
Elizabeth's  government,  and  much  justice  in  Tyrone's
representations.
The  event  was  a  general  insurrection  of  the  aboriginal
natives,  aided  by  a  great  number  of  the  English  settlers,
who  had  become  connected  by  affinity  with  the  Irish
chieftains.  But  in  all  such  contests,  a  multitude  of  naked
insurgents,  w^ithout  arms,  without  officers,  without  any
discipline  or  much  subordination,  without  any  of  the  ne-
cessary requisites,  except  courage  and  numbers,  which
could  resist  a  trained  and  accoutred  army,  must  naturally
be  defeated,  and,  if  defeated,  hav^e  seldom  reason  to  ex-
pect mercy  from  the  conquerors  ;  such  was  the  fate  of
Tyrone  and  his  followers.
