38 THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



guns, I think they would in that feat, with small 

 instructions, do your Highness great service ; for as 

 for gunners, there be no better in no land than they 

 be, for the number they have, which be more than I 

 would wish they had, unless it were to serve your 

 Majesty." 



According to Holingshed, in his Chronicle, p. 103, 

 a thousand of these Irish troops rendered great ser- 

 vice at the siege of Boulogne ; being light of foot, 

 they would range twenty or thirty miles into the 

 country, spoiling and burning wherever they went. 

 They never gave quarter, and so never got it. The 

 French, astonished at their daring, sent to Henry 

 VIII. to inquire whether he had brought with him 

 men or devils. 



8. In 1566, John Good, an Englishman, writes: 

 " The Irish are in body strong, very active, of high, 

 daring spirit, of energetic and martial temper, pro- 

 digal of life and capable of enduring labour, hunger, 

 and cold." 



9. About the year 1570, Nowel, Dean of Lichfield, 

 wrote : " The Irish are good and hardy men of war, 

 who will adventure themselves greatly on their 

 enemies seeing time to do it, good watchers by 

 night, and as good soldiers by night as others by 

 day ; their sons learn to be men of war from the age 



