ceeded with. Among other
enormities, Kildare had burnt the cathedral at Cashel, and the
archbishop was present as witness and prosecutor. The earl confessed his
offence: "but by Jasus," he added, "I would not have done it if I had
not been told that my lord archbishop was inside."[299] The insolent
wit, and the danger of punishing so popular a nobleman, passed the reply
as sufficient. The council laughed. "All Ireland cannot govern this
earl," said one. "Then let this earl govern all Ireland," was the prompt
answer of Henry VII.[300] He was sent over a convicted traitor,--he
returned a knight of the Garter, lord deputy, and the representative of
the crown. Rebellion was a successful policy, and a lesson which
corresponded so closely to the Irish temper was not forgotten.

[Sidenote: Rebellion prospers with the Geraldines]

"What, thou fool," said Sir Gerald Shaneson to a younger son of this
nobleman, thirty years later, when he found him slow to join the
rebellion against Henry VIII. "What, thou fool, thou shalt be the more
esteemed for it. For what hadst thou, if thy father had not done so?
What was he until he crowned a king here, took Garth, the king's
captain, prisoner, hanged his son, resisted Poynings and all deputies;
killed them of Dublin upon Oxmantown Green; would suffer no man to rule
here for the king but himself! Then the king regarded him, and made him
deputy, and married thy mother to him;[301] or else thou shouldst never
have had a foot of land, where now thou mayest dispend four hundred
marks by the year."[302]

These scornful words express too truly the position of the Earl of
Kildare, which, however, he found it convenient to disguise under a
decent exterior. The borders of the pale were partially extended; the
O'Tooles were driven further into the Wicklow mountains, and an outlying
castle was built to overawe them at Powerscourt. Some shadow of a
revenue was occasionally raised; and by this show of service, and
because change would involve the crown in expense, he was allowed to go
his own way. He held his ground till the close of his life, and dying,
he left behind him a son trained on his father's model, and who followed
with the utmost faithfulness in his father's steps.

[Sidenote: Gerald, ninth earl, becomes deputy, 1513.]

[Sidenote: Is deposed in 1520, and the Earl of Surrey takes his place.]

Gerald, son of Gerald, ninth earl, became deputy, almost it seemed by
right of inheritance, in