pread around him, was
often unguarded enough to give vent in gross and furious invective
against the person of majesty itself, to the profound vexation which he,
in common with all preceding and following governors of Ireland under
Elizabeth, was destined to endure from the penury of her supplies and
the magnitude of her requisitions. His words were all carried to the
queen, mingled with such artful insinuations as served to impart to
these unmeaning ebullitions of a hasty temper the air of deliberate
contempt and meditated disloyalty towards his sovereign.

Just before the sailing of the armada, Perrot was recalled, partly
indeed at his own request. A rigid or rather a malicious inquiry was
then instituted into all the details of his actions, words and behaviour
in Ireland, and he was committed to the friendly custody of lord
Burleigh. Afterwards, the lords Hunsdon and Buckhurst, with two or three
other councillors, were ordered to search and seize his papers in the
house of the lord treasurer without the participation of this great
minister, who was at once offended and alarmed at the step. Perrot was
carried to the Tower, and at length, in April 1592, put upon his trial
for high treason. The principal heads of accusation were;--his
contemptuous words of the queen;--his secret encouragement of O'Rourk's
rebellion and the Spanish invasion, and his favoring of traitors. Of all
these charges except the first he seems to have proved his innocence,
and on this he excused himself by the heat of his temper and the absence
of all ill intention from his mind. He was however found guilty by a
jury much more studious of the reputation of loyalty than careful of the
rights of Englishmen.

On leaving the bar, he is reported to have exclaimed, "God's death! will
the queen suffer her brother to be offered up as a sacrifice to the envy
of my frisking adversaries!"

The queen felt the force of this appeal to the ties of blood. It was
long before she could be brought to confirm his sentence, and she would
never sign a warrant for its execution. Burleigh shed tears on hearing
the verdict, saying with a sigh, that hatred was always the more
inveterate the less it was deserved.

Elizabeth, when her first emotions of anger had passed away, was now
frequently heard to praise that rescript of the emperor Theodosius in
which it is thus written:--

"Should any one have spoken evil of the emperor, if through levity, it
should be despised;