out the
sentence. The executioner fled, and could not be found when he learned
on whom he was to do his office. At last an English culprit, under
sentence of death, undertook the bloody work, on a promise that his own
life should be granted as his reward.

Communications with Rome were still as frequent and as intimate as they
had ever been since Ireland received the faith at the hands of the great
Apostle. To be children of Patrick and children of Rome were convertible
terms; and the Holy See watched still more tenderly over this portion of
the Church while it was suffering and persecuted. Paul V. wrote a
special letter to the Irish Catholics, dated from "St. Mark's, 22nd of
September, 1606," in which he mourns over their afflictions, commends
their marvellous constancy, which he says can only be compared to that
of the early Christians, and exhorts them specially to avoid the sin of
attending Protestant places of worship--a compliance to which they were
strongly tempted, when even one such act might procure exemption, for a
time at least, from severe persecution or death.

On another occasion the same Pontiff writes thus: "You glory in that
faith by which your fathers procured for their country the distinguished
appellation of the Island of Saints. Nor have the sufferings which you
have endured been allowed to remain unpublished; your fidelity and
Christian fortitude have become the subject of universal admiration; and
the praise of your name has long since been loudly celebrated in every
portion of the Christian world."[464]

O'Neill and O'Donnell may be justly considered the last of the
independent native chieftains. When the latter died in exile, and the
former accepted the coronet of an English earl, the glories of the olden
days of princes, who held almost regal power, had passed away for ever.
The proud title of "the O'Neill" became extinct; his country was made
shire ground; he accepted patents, and held his broad acres "in fee;"
sheriffs were admitted; judges made circuits; king's commissioners took
careful note of place, person, and property; and such a system of
espionage was established, that Davies boasts, "it was not only known
how people lived and what they do, but it is foreseen what they purpose
and intend to do;" which latter species of clairvoyance seems to have
been largely practised by those who were waiting until all suspicions
were lulled to rest, that they might seize on the property, and impr