nel and the Irish. Nor was Sir George Carew idle in the
province of Munster. He seized the titular earl of Desmond, and sent him
over, with Florence Macarty, another chieftain, prisoner to England.
He arrested many suspected persons, and took hostages from others. And
having got a reenforcement of two thousand men from England, he threw
himself into Corke, which he supplied with arms and provisions; and he
put every thing in a condition for resisting the Spanish invasion, which
was daily expected. The deputy, informed of the danger to which the
southern provinces were exposed, left the prosecution of the war against
Tyrone, who was reduced to great extremities; and he marched with his
army into Munster.

At last the Spaniards, under Don John d'Aquila, arrived at Kinsale; and
Sir Richard Piercy, who commanded in the town with a small garrison of
a hundred and fifty men, found himself obliged to abandon it on their
appearance. These invaders amounted to four thousand men, and the Irish
discovered a strong propensity to join them, in order to free
themselves from the English government, with which they were extremely
discontented. One chief ground of their complaint, was the introduction
of trials by jury;[*] an institution abhorred by that people, though
nothing contributes more to the support of that equity and liberty for
which the English laws are so justly celebrated.

* Camden, p 644.

The Irish, also, bore a great favor to the Spaniards, having entertained
the opinion that they themselves were descended from that nation;
and their attachment to the Catholic religion proved a new cause of
affection to the invaders. D'Aquila assumed the title of general "in
the holy war for the preservation of the faith" in Ireland; and he
endeavored to persuade the people that Elizabeth was, by several bulls
of the pope, deprived of her crown; that her subjects were absolved from
their oaths of allegiance; and that the Spaniards were come to deliver
the Irish from the dominion of the devil.[*] Mountjoy found it necessary
to act with vigor, in order to prevent a total insurrection of the
Irish; and having collected his forces, he formed the siege of Kinsale
by land, while Sir Richard Levison, with a small squadron, blockaded
it by sea. He had no sooner begun his operations than he heard of the
arrival of another body of two thousand Spaniards under the command of
Alphonso Ocampo, who had taken possession of Baltimore and Bereha