occupied about six weeks, the insurgents constantly hung round his army and never gave him an hour's rest, so that he had to fight every inch of his way. The O'Moores killed 500 of his men at the "Pass of the Plumes," near Maryborough, which was so called from the number of English helmet-plumes that remained strewn about after the fight. Having extricated himself from this pass, Essex pushed on for Caher in Tipperary, where he took the castle from Thomas Butler, one of O'Neill's confederates, after a siege of ten days -the only successful exploit of the whole expedition. Passing round by Limerick, Fermoy, Lismore, and Waterford, he returned to Dublin in June, "the soldiers," as the historian Moryson says, "being weary, sick, and incredibly diminished in numbers."

Matters were going on no better in the West of Ireland. In Collooney in Sligo, was a strong castle held by O'Conor of Sligo, one of the Government supporters, which was now closely besieged by O'Donnell ; whereupon Sir Conyers Clifford, by orders of Essex, marched from Galway to relieve it. Having arrived at Boyle, he started to cross the Curlieu Hills into Sligo; but he was intercepted by O'Donnell in a A.D. 1599 difficult part of the mountain road, called Ballaghboy or the Yellow Pass. After a very sharp fight the English were defeated, and fled; and Sir Conyers, endeavouring to rally his men, was killed in the pass. He was greatly regretted by the Irish, who buried him with much respect.

Essex's fine army had melted away in a few months; and at his own request he now got 2000 more from the queen; who, however, was very indignant against him, and wrote him a bitter letter commanding him to proceed at once against O'Neill. In August 1599, he set

out at last for the north, with only 2500 men: but he found the insurgent earl so strongly entrenched in his camp on a high bank over the little river Lagan, about halfway between Carrickmacross and Ardee, that he

Essex and O'Neill. From Moore's History of Ireland," iv., Title page.

did not dare to attack him.

conference, which was granted.

September, the two leaders rode down unattended, from the heights on either side of the river. O'Neill saluted

the earl with great respect; and spurring his horse into the stream, to be near enough to hold converse, he remained there up to his saddle-girths during the whole conference, while he laid down the conditions he demanded. A truce was agreed on: but nothing ever came of this conference; for, immediately afterwards, Essex suddenly sailed for England. The remainder of his short career, ending on the block, belongs to the history of England.

For some time after the departure of Essex there were negotiations for peace; but they were all rendered fruitless by the refusal of the queen and government on the one vital point of freedom of religious worship, which O'Neill always insisted on. He visited Munster in January, 1600, and encamped with his army at Inishcarra on the Lee, six miles above Cork ;; where most of the southern chiefs visited him and acknowledged him as their leader.

For the last two years victory and success had attended the Irish almost without interruption; and Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, had now attained the very summit of his power. But after this the tide began to turn; and soon came the day of defeat and disaster. In the next four chapters will be related the waning fortunes of the earl of Tyrone, and the waning fortunes of his cause.

Portion of a Bell-shrine found in the River Bann. From Miss Stokes's

"Christian Inscriptions," ii. 106.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE TURN OF THE TIDE:

BATTLE OF KINSALE.

A.D. 1600-1602.-Elizabeth.

HARLES BLOUNT Lord Mountjoy, a man of great ability, and a more formidable adversary than any yet encountered by O'Neill, was the person chosen by the queen to succeed Essex as governor. He came to Ireland in February, and as soon as O'Neill heard of his arrival he broke up his camp at Inishcarra, where he had tarried for six weeks, and returned to Ulster. Along with Mountjoy came Sir George A.D. 1600 Carew as president of Munster, a man quite as able and courageous, but crafty and avaricious. He had an intense hatred for the Irish, mainly because his brother had been killed by them in the battle of Glenmalure (p. 224).

Carew directed all his energies against the Munster rebels, capturing their castles one after another; and he caused his soldiers to destroy the crops wherever he went in order to produce a famine. The famine ultimately came, and the people-men, women, and children -perished by thousands of starvation.

While these events were taking place in the south, O'Neill and O'Donnell were kept busy in the north.

It had long been the intention of the government to plant garrisons on the shores of Lough Foyle; and we have seen how Essex had neglected the queen's command to do so. Now a powerful armament of 4000 foot and 200 horse, under the command of Sir Henry Docwra, with abundance of stores and building materials, sailed for Lough Foyle in May; at the same time, in order to divert O'Neill's attention and draw off opposition, Mountjoy marched north from Dublin as if to invade Tyrone. While O'Neill and O'Donnell were opposing Mountjoy, Docwra succeeded in building a fort at Culmore, just at the mouth of the river Foyle; and soon after, in spite of the opposition of the two chiefs, he erected two others, one at Derry, then almost uninhabited; and the other at Dunnalong five miles farther up the river, at the Tyrone side.

and

Leinster had shared in the O'Neill rebellion Owney O'Moore, the chief of Leix, had succeeded in winning back most of his principality. The country had quite recovered from the wars of the Plantations, nearly half a century before (p. 228): the land was well cultivated, and the people were prosperous and contented. Moryson, the historian, Mountjoy's secretary, tells us that the ground was well tilled, the fields fenced in an orderly manner, the towns well inhabited, the highways in good repair: "The reason whereof," he says, was that the queen's forces during these wars never till then came among them." But now all this was to be changed. To punish them for their part in the rebellion, Mountjoy set out in August 1600, from Dublin, with a large force, and a supply of sickles, scythes, and harrows to tear up the corn; and he soon destroyed the crops of the whole district; after which he returned to Dublin,

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