that he was in bad
health--an adequate apology for his own inaction, but none for his
appointment on a service so dangerous. Yet perhaps his failure is
explained by the scene of it. Elsewhere, Sir William Skeffington may
have been a gallant soldier and a reasonable man; but the fatal
atmosphere of Ireland seems at all times to have had a power of
prostrating English intellect. The Protector Cromwell alone was cased in
armour which could defy its enchantments. An active officer might have
kept the field without difficulty. The Master of the Rolls, to prove
that the country, even in mid-winter, was practicable without danger,
rode to Waterford in November with only three hundred horse, through the
heart of the disturbed districts, and returned unmolested.[360] The Earl
of Ossory, with Sir John St. Loo, made an appointment to meet
Skeffington at Kilcaa,[361] where, if he brought cannon, they might
recover the castles of the government which were held by the Geraldines.
He promised to go, and he might have done so without danger or
difficulty; but he neither went nor sent; only a rumour came that the
deputy was ill;[362] and in these delays and with this ostentation of
imbecility, the winter passed away, as if to convince every wavering
Irishman that, strong as the English might be in their own land, the
sword dropped from their nerveless hands when their feet were on Irish
soil. Nor was this the only or the worst consequence. The army, lying
idle in Dublin, grew disorganized; many of the soldiers deserted; and an
impression spread abroad that Henry, after all, intended to return to
the old policy, to pardon Fitzgerald, and to restore him to power.[363]

[Sidenote: February 16.]

The clear pen of the indefatigable Allen lays the state of affairs
before us with the most painful distinctness. "My lord deputy," he wrote
to Cromwell on the 16th of February, "now by the space of twelve or
thirteen weeks hath continued in sickness, never once going out of his
house; he as yet is not recovered. In the meantime the rebel hath burnt
much of the country, trusting, if he may be suffered, to waste and
desolate the Inglishry, [and thus] to enforce this army to depart. Sirs,
as I heretofore advertised you, this rebel had been banished out of all
these parts or now, if all men had done their duties. But, to be plain
with you, except there be a marshal appointed, which must do strait
correction, and the army prohibited from resorting to