274 OF A WAR WITH SPAIN. 



good valour. The town was strong of itself; neither 

 wanted there any industry to fortify it on all parts, 

 and make it tenable, according to the skill and 

 discipline of Spanish fortification. At that time the 

 rebels were proud, being encouraged upon former 

 successes ; for though the then deputy, the lord 

 Mountj oy, and sir George Carew, president of 

 Munster, had performed divers good services to their 

 prejudice; yet the defeat they had given the Eng 

 lish at Blackwater, not long before, and their treaty, 

 too much to their honour, with the earl of Essex, 

 was yet fresh in their memory. The deputy lost no 

 time, but made haste to have recovered the town 

 before new succours came, and sat down before it in 

 October, and laid siege to it by the space of three 

 winter months or more : during which time sallies 

 were made by the Spaniard, but they were beaten in 

 with loss. In January came fresh succours from 

 Spain, to the number of two thousand more, under 

 the conduct of Alonzo d Ocampo. Upon the comforts 

 of these succours, Tyrone and Odonnell drew up their 

 forces together, to the number of seven thousand, 

 besides the Spanish regiments, and took the field, 

 resolved to rescue the town, and to give the English 

 battle. So here was the case : an army of English, 

 of some six thousand, wasted and tired with a long 

 winter s siege, engaged in the midst, between an 

 army of a greater number than themselves, fresh 

 and in vigour, on the one side ; and a town strong 

 in fortification, and strong in men, on the other. 

 But what was the event ? This in few words : that 



