THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AND STRENGTH. 53 



states: "There lives not a people more hardy, 

 active, and painful ; neither is there any 



will endure the miseries of war, as famine, watching, 

 heat, cold, wet, travel, and the like, so naturally and 

 with such facility and courage that they do. The 

 Prince of Orange's Excellency uses often publiquely 

 to deliver that the Irish are soldiers the first day of 

 their birth. The famous Henry IV., late King of 

 France, said there would prove no nation so resolute 

 martial men as they, would they be ruly and not too 

 headstrong. And General Sir John Norris was wont 

 to ascribe this particular to that nation above 

 others, that he never beheld so few of any country 

 as of Irish that were idiots and cowards, which is 

 very notable." 



35. In 1621, Father Henry Fitzsimon, S.J., a 

 native of Dublin, published in Germany his Diary 

 of the Bohemian Campaign of 1620. In it he thus 

 testifies to the esteem in which the Irish soldiers 

 were held by De Bucquoi, the Imperial General, who 

 had known them in Flanders : " On the 9th of 

 November marauding parties were surprised on both 

 sides. Among the enemies were many English. In 

 the English contingent sent to the help of Frederick, 

 son-in-law of James the First, were Irish Catholics 

 real soldiers. The Irish are everywhere considered 

 to be as faithful as they are invincible. They came 



