Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

garrisons in Ireland to execute all who fell into
their hands. This order, which was prompted by the
fear that the Spaniards might be joined by the Irish,
and that a mutiny would ensue, was relentlessly
called out. It was calculated that in the month of
September alone, 8,000 Spaniards perished
between the Giants' Causeway and Blosket
Sound;[7] 1,100 were executed by the Government
officers, and 3,000 were murdered by the Irish. The
rest were drowned.
The islets, creeks, and shores were strewed
with wrecks and corpses, while in the offing there
tossed an ever-diminishing fleet, torn and battered,
laden with toil-worn, famished, maddened,
despairing, dying men. The tragedy witnessed of
old on the shore of the Red Sea had repeated itself,
with wider horrors, on the coast of Ireland.[8]
We turn to another part of this appalling
picture. It is more pleasant than that which we have
been contemplating. We are on the east coast of
Scotland, in the town of Anstruther, where James
Melvine, brother of the illustrious Andrew
413