PERIOD.]

which they agree, the following is the narration nearest to probability: -Hugh O'Donell, having heard that he was to be attacked by Sir Conyers, in concert with O'Conor Sligo, and presently discovering that O'Conor was in the castle of Coolmine, on the banks of the Avonmore, proceeded at once to invest that castle with his troops. Sir Conyers, either proceeding according to the orders above stated, or as the MS. historian asserts, detached to the relief of O'Conor, O'Donell, marched towards the pass of the Curlews as mentioned. leaving a sufficient force at the castle, led a considerable division to wait for the enemy at this post of advantage. Having occupied these mountain passes, O'Donell detached a party to prevent one of the Bourkes from landing, and by these operations weakened his force. He had already waited here for two months, when Clifford, having collected such additional men as he could, came up, and a battle began, in which, according to the English account, a party of the Irish were repulsed; but the English grew slack in ammunition, and the Irish, who had perhaps concentrated in the mean time from different parts of the Curlew range, finding this want of the English, and perhaps also taking them at disadvantage in the pass, they charged with renewed vigour, and succeeded in gaining a victory-having slain Clifford and several officers. From this O'Donell derived for a time additional confidence, and his reputation increased among the chiefs. O'Conor Sligo sent to treat with him; and Theobald Bourke entered also into a O'Donell pursued his treaty, and submitted to him on his own terms. advantage, and raised a contribution on the town of Galway.*

In 1600, his friend, Hugh M'Guire, lord of Fermanagh, was slain in a battle fought between Warham St Leger, and O'Neale, on which the people of Fermanagh assembled to elect a chief. One of the family, Conor Roe M'Guire, was supported by O'Neale, to whom he was half brother. The other claimant, Cuchonaght M'Guire, sought the interest of O'Donell. When O'Donell received letters from O'Neale, informing him of what was going on, and bespeaking his vote, O'Donell kept a discreet silence as to his intentions; but, with a select party of horse and foot, he took with him his brother Rory, and the rival candidate, and repaired to Dungannon, where O'Neale dwelt. When O'Donell appeared in the assembly, O'Neale made a speech, in which he expressed his own wish and appealed to O'Donell for his consent. To his great concern and perhaps surprize, O'Donell, after calmly hearing him out, declared that he could not consent to the election of Conor, on the ground of his having been the constant adherent of the English. His declaration very much chagrined O'Neale; but O'Donell's voice had now become the voice potential. The decision was for Cuchonaght. The feast which seems to have completed the election is thus described:-" After the breaking up of the council, they were entertained at a splendid feast by O'Neale, at which he placed O'Donell in the most honourable situation, and Conor Roe M'Guire next to him. O'Neale took a cup of wine and drank to O'Donell, who, taking another cup from the butler, cast a quick glance through the room, and not seeing Cuchonaght M'Guire, desired that he should be called in. This was done; and when Cuchonaght came in, Red Hugh Sir William Betham, Ware, Leland.

desired him to sit down by his brother Rory in the midst of the company. When Cuchonaght was seated, O'Donell took the cup in his hand, and drank to him by the name of M'Guire. This was followed by several others; and thus was Cuchonaght declared the M'Guire, which none opposed, seeing it was O'Donell's desire. On the next morning O'Donell bade farewell to O'Neale, and he and M'Guire and their people returned to their homes."

In reading the life of O'Donell at this period, a slight and partial view of the affairs of the country is all that can be expected. It is to be recollected, that although the historian on whose account the whole of our notice is grounded, was an eye-witness, we may yet, without questioning his veracity, assume that he saw only that aspect of the stormy events which occupied the whole of his master's life, which connected itself with the acts and influence of this chief. O'Donell so far as his historian could see, was the prime mover in a fierce struggle, of which a more detached observer might have observed that he only bore a part—a chief part, it is true. He was one amongst three or four powerful and warlike partizans, whose talent and resolution for a moment nearly poised the scale of contest against the power of Elizabeth. The follower of this chief was in some respects like the soldier who, in the tumult and confusion of a battle, sees but the movements of the division to which his regiment is attached, and conceives them to be the deciding charges of the fight, and the indications of victory or defeat. It is thus that we are struck with the extraordinary difference between the statements of this biographer and those of the general historian. While the events stated in these pages were in their course, some of the most considerable rebellions of which there is any account in Irish history, are related with minute detail by every historian; and while the earl of Tyrone in the north, and the Sugan earl in the south, are the theme of every chapter, and in fact fill volumes with their turbulent activity, O'Donell takes his place rather as a conspicuous partizan of the powerful Tyrone, than as the arbiter of elections and the marshal of the field. From this character of the curious and almost singular document which records the life of O'Donell, arises a necessity to take the statements of the writer with a caution which, without impugning his veracity, is yet doubtful of his means of observation, and makes allowance for the spirit of clanship, and of attached service, that sees partially and trusts fondly.

In the year 1599, there had been an increased activity on the part of the English government. The queen, alarmed by intelligence that the king of Spain, with whom she was at war, was preparing for the invasion of England, and that an army of 12,000 men was destined for Ireland, became seriously and justly alarmed for the safety of the latter. Under these impressions she had yielded to the specious persuasions of the earl of Essex; and, listening rather to partiality than to sound judgment, she sent him over to mismanage the affairs of a nation where prudence, caution, moderation, and sound discretion, as well as firmness and sagacity, were indispensably required. Essex was rash, luxurious, and vain, self-confident, and unreflecting; he possessed talent, but wanted the moral virtues which give a practical value to intellectual endowments. His military ardour and his fluent eloquence

were mistaken, and he was sent to a command where the mistake was likeliest to be soon detected. On his arrival in Dublin he enjoyed the gratification of military display; the "pomp and circumstance" of war filled his heart with confidence, and inflated his inconsiderate temper. He was not long allowed to indulge in the vain dream of conquest without toil and trouble. Those around him were more correctly informed of the true state of the country, and Essex was apprized that the enemies with whom he had to contend were more numerous, better trained, and far more exercised in the field than his raw levies. At the time the actual state of the Irish chiefs was this:-The earl of Tyrone, who was in reality at the head of the insurrection, occupied the north with a well-disciplined and appointed army of six thousand men, while O'Donell, with an army not inferior in arms and training, was prepared to maintain the war in Connaught. Both were aided by many chiefs, of whom some were not much less formidable than themselves; while those who opposed them, and took part with the English, were chiefs of far less power and influence, who were mostly maintained in their authority and possessions by the protection of the government. There was at the time a general impression in favour of the insurgents, their cause and prospects, which was a main source of their strength. It was known to what an extent the Irish soldiery had profited by the lessons of their enemies. There was a universal reliance on Spain, and the rebellion had assumed a serious character.

Such were the actual circumstances under which Essex entered on a misguided career of errors, of which we have already mentioned some of the chief consequences. We shall, in our notice of the earl of Tyrone, have to take a view somewhat more enlarged, of this period of our history, to which we must refer the reader. We must here endeavour, as far as is possible, to confine ourselves to the life of O'Donell.

A change of administration gave a more favourable aspect to Irish affairs in the latter end of 1599. Lord Mountjoy was sent over as deputy, and Sir George Carew as president of Munster; and early in the following year, advantages were gained by these able commanders which struck misgiving and dismay through the hearts of the national leaders. A detachment which the president sent into Carbery, under the command of captain Flower, was intercepted by an ambush, yet obtained a signal victory over M'Carthy and O'Conor Carbery, the latter of whom was slain; in consequence of which M'Carthy and others submitted. Meanwhile the lord Mountjoy garrisoned the northern towns. Among these vigorous dispositions the historian of O'Donell confines his notice to those which more peculiarly affected Tirconnell and its neighbouring districts; and his statements, though strictly correct, exhibit in a curious manner the confined and ignorant observation which we have endeavoured to describe. A body of men, stated at 6000 by this writer, was embarked in Dublin, under the command of Sir Henry Dockwra, and, on the 10th of May, arriving in Lough Foyle, landed in Inishowen, the land of O'Dogherty. Here they seized on the fort of Culmore, and fortified it, and parties were detached to Dunalong, in O'Kane's country, and to Derry, which were also seized, fortified and garrisoned.

This judicious and serviceable disposition of force is otherwise interpreted by our historian, who tells us that the English shut themselves up in their forts so as to afford O'Donell no opportunity of bringing them to action; on which he, conceding the main object for which these garrisons were placed, resolved to leave O'Dogherty to take care of himself, and marched away with the main body of his troops to punish the earls of Thomond and Clanricarde for joining the English, by the plunder of their estates. In this design, which was after all the most prudent under the actual circumstances, he was as usual eminently successful. Calling together his Connaught adherents, he swept away the cattle and property of kind from both these districts, leaving unpillaged no house but the monasteries and other places of religious establishment; and, dividing the spoil among his chiefs and allies, returned home in triumph.

every

Having rested his army for some months, O'Donell received intelligence that the English in Derry were in the custom of sending out their horses to graze daily, under the care of a very small party. He lost no time in sending a select body of horse under the cover of night to conceal themselves so as to be between the horses and the town, and another party were ordered to be in readiness to drive them off. Accordingly, when the English detachment appeared next morning on the plain, they were surprized by an unexpected party of Irish, who began unceremoniously to drive away their horses. This proceeding soon attracted notice from the walls, and a large body came out precipitately to the rescue. O'Donell himself pressed forward, and was encountered by Dockwra in person, whom he wounded. The English were compelled to retire within the walls, and lost two hundred horses. O'Donell having waited to the end of October, in the vain expectation that the English would evacuate the fortresses and towns they held, left the country and repeated his former severe inflictions on the lands of Thomond.

The next important occurrence in the history of O'Donell is, the defection of his cousin and brother-in-law, Niall O'Donell. The importance of the event is as usual magnified by the Irish historian, who considerably overrates the efforts made by the deputy to gain over Niall, by high offers of command and treasure; and misrepresents equally the sick and tired condition of the English, whom he describes as relieved by this treachery. The truth will better appear from a statement of the previous facts, which did not fall within the scope of this writer's design.

On the 23d of April, previous to the circumstance last mentioned, lord Mountjoy gave a feast in celebration of St George's day, at which were present those chiefs whom the success of his military operations had induced to make their timely submissions to a commander who, it had become quite apparent, was not to be much longer resisted without destruction. These were mostly chiefs of an inferior class, but all of whom had a little before taken an active part in resistance. Their names are MacHenry, captain of the Fewes; Macooly, chief of the Fearny; O'Hanlon, an Ulster chief; MacFeagh, chief of the O'Byrne's, and son to the war-like chief, of whom so much has been related-with Spaniagh, chief of the Kavenaghs. All these had been

The kindness with which

received to mercy on their submission. they were entertained, was an influential inducement, which led to the voluntary submission of many greater chiefs who were more immediately connected with the districts in an insurrectionary statethese were M'Carthy Reagh of Carbery, O'Sullivan Bear and O'Sullivan Bantry, with other less known chiefs, who came in to offer submission, a step which they would not have dared, if the great chiefs of Tyrone and Tirconnell were in condition to call them to a reckoning. Shortly after a pardon was granted to Phelim MacFeagh O'Toole, and a protection to Ross MacMahon till he might sue for pardon.

When the treachery of O'Donell's kinsman-for such we must account it is viewed in connexion with these and many similar facts which we might easily bring together, the defection is a sufficient evidence of a state of things, and of a general impression on the minds of the chiefs; and it becomes a high probability that, great as was the enthusiasm in favour of O'Donell, a strong tide of adverse fortune was generally perceived to be setting in against the cause for which he fought so ably, but with so little real result. The greater part of the most distinguished of his exploits, could have no immediate effect of any kind but to impoverish the lands of Thomond and Clanricarde which he plundered. The English held places of strength which he did not even attack-with small contingents of force, not designed to meet him in the field, but to secure these positions. This course, which O'Donell must have rightly understood, is evidently misconceived by the simplicity of his biographer, who treats it as the manifestation of weakness. We are the more particular in laying stress on this, because the curious MS. to which we advert, while it is invaluable for the internal view it gives of the manners and warfare of the day, is only calculated to mislead the antiquarian who might be led to treat it as history.

O'Donell's brother-in-law, according to the biographer, having long continued proof against the extravagant offers of the English-vast treasures and the sovereignty of Tyrconnell-at last gave way, and drawing after him his brothers, Yellow Hugh and Conn-Oge, declared against the chief. The English were thus relieved from the necessity of a more laborious warfare. Niall O'Donell put them in possession of Lifford, an ancient residence of O'Donell, at the time decayed. This the English fortified for themselves.

O'Donell, on receiving this disastrous intelligence, marched to Lifford, with a small army, and encamped within two miles of the fort, which they were yet completing. His presence had the disadvantageous effect of restricting their excursions, and lessening their means of subsistence. They, on their part, not having force equal to a battle, watched their opportunity and made a desperate sally, but failed to repulse the Irish, and were compelled to retire after a smart skirmish. In this encounter Manus O'Donell, Red Hugh's brother, received a mortal wound from the hand of the traitor Niall, who was himself wounded by Rory O'Donell. Manus lingered for seven days, and died on the 27th October, 1600.

Having blockaded the English for some time longer, O'Donell learned that a vessel, bearing supplies from Spain, was arrived in the