his descent from Robert Fitzstephen, the barony of Idrone,
in Carlow, and one half the kingdom of Desmond. Sir Henry
Sidney had admitted these pretensions, partly as a menace
against the Kavanaghs and Geraldines, and Sir Peter
established himself at Leighlin, where he kept great
house, with one hundred servants, over one hundred kerne,
forty horse, a stall in his stable, a seat at his board
for all comers. He took an active part in all military
operations, and fell fighting gallantly on a memorable
day to be hereafter mentioned.

After the attainder of John the Proud in 1569, Sir Thomas
Smith, Secretary to the Queen, obtained a grant of the
district of the Ards of Down, for his illegitimate son,
who accordingly entered on the task of its plantation.
But the O'Neils of Clandeboy, the owners of the soil,
attacked the young Undertaker, who met a grave where he
had come to found a lordship. A higher name was equally
unfortunate in the same field of adventure. Walter
Devereux, Earl of Essex (father of the Essex still more
unfortunate), obtained in 1573 a grant of one moiety of
Farney and Clandeboy, and having mortgaged his English
estates to the Queen for 10,000 pounds, associated with
himself many other adventurers. On the 16th of August,
he set sail from Liverpool, accompanied by the Lords
Dacre and Rich, Sir Henry Knollys, the three sons of Lord
Norris, and a multitude of the common people. But as he
had left one powerful enemy at court in Leicester--so he
found a second at Dublin, in the acting deputy, Fitzwilliam.
Though gratified with the title of President of Ulster