llious man." He obtained his
soubriquet from the circumstance of constantly appearing in armour. It
would appear from this account that Sidney's statement of the Lady Grana
being "more than master's-mate with him," must be taken with some
limitations, unless, indeed, he who ruled his foes abroad, failed to
rule his wife at home, which is quite possible. The subjoined
illustration represents the remains of one of her castles. It is
situated near the lake of Borrishoole, in the county Mayo. The ruins are
very striking, and evince its having once been an erection of
considerable strength.

[Illustration: CARRIG-A-HOOLY--GRACE O'MALLEY'S CASTLE.]

Sir William Drury was made Lord President of Munster, 1576, in place of
Sir John Perrot. Sir Nicholas Malby was installed in the same office in
Connaught; but the barbarities enacted by his predecessor, Fitton, made
the very name of president so odious, that Sidney gave the new Governor
the title of Colonel of Connaught. The Earl of Desmond and Drury were
soon at variance. Sidney says, in his _Memoir_, that the Earl "was still
repyning at the government of Drury." After causing great apprehension
to the governors, the Lord Deputy sent the whole party to Kilkenny, and
found the "Earl hot, wilful, and stubborn; but not long after, as you
know, he and his two brothers, Sir John and Sir James, fell into actual
rebellion, in which the good knight, Sir William Drury, the Lord
Justice, died, and he, as a malicious and unnatural rebel, still
persisteth and liveth."

In 1577 serious complications were threatened, in consequence of the
pecuniary difficulties of the crown. An occasional subsidy had been
granted hitherto for the support of the Government and the army; an
attempt was now made to convert this subsidy into a tax. On previous
occasions there had been some show of justice, however little reality,
by permitting the Parliament to pass the grant; a scheme was now
proposed to empower the Lord Deputy to levy assessments by royal
authority, without any reference to Parliament. For the first time the
Pale opposed the Government, and resisted the innovation. But their
opposition was speedily and effectually silenced. The deputies whom they
sent to London to remonstrate were committed to the Tower, and orders
were despatched to Ireland that all who had signed the remonstrance
should be consigned to Dublin Castle.

It is said that Elizabeth was not without some misgivings as to the
inj