England could not play into their hands more effectively than by leaving them to destroy at their leisure the few chiefs who had dared to be loyal.

Kildare returned to Dublin with full powers to act as he should think best; while Sussex, leaving a garrison as before in Armagh Cathedral, returned with the dispirited remnant of his army into the Pale. Fitzwilliam was despatched to London to explain the disaster to the Queen; and the Irish council sent a petition by his hands, that the troops who had been so long quartered in the four shires should be recalled or disbanded. Useless in the field and tyrannical to the farmer, they were a burden on the English exchequer and answered no purpose but to make the English name detested.

The petition corresponded but too well with Elizabeth's private inclination, but Fitzwilliam while he presented it did not approve of its recommendations; he implored her—and he was supported in his entreaties by Cecil— to postpone, at least for a short time, a measure which would be equivalent to an abandonment of Ireland. The Queen yielded, and in allowing the army to remain permitted it to be reinforced from the trained soldiers of Berwick. Fitzwilliam carried back with him three thousand pounds to pay the arrears of wages; Cecil pressed hard for three thousand besides; but Elizabeth would risk no more till she saw some fruit arise from her expenditure.'

To Shan O'Neil she sent a pardon with a safe-conduct for his journey to England if Kildare could prevail on him to come to her; and 'accepting the defeat as

the chance of war which she must bear,' she expressed to Sussex her general surprise at his remissness, with her regret that an English officer should have disgraced himself by cowardice. She desired that Wingfield might be immediately sent over and that the other offenders should be apprehended and imprisoned.1

Meantime Sussex, having failed in the field, had attempted to settle his difficulties by other methods. A demand from Shan had followed him into the Pale that the Armagh garrison should be withdrawn. The bearers of the message were Cantwell, O'Neil's seneschal, and a certain Neil Grey, one of his followers, who affected to dislike rebellion and gave the Deputy an opportunity of working on him. Lord Sussex, it appeared, regarded Shan as a kind of vermin whom having failed to capture in fair chase he might destroy by the first expedient which came to his hand.

The following letter betrays no misgivings either on the propriety of the proceeding which it describes, or on the manner in which the intimation of it would be received by the Queen.

THE EARL OF SUSSEX TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.

August 24, 1561.

'May it please your Highness,

'After conference had with Shan O'Neil's seneschal I entered talk with Neil Grey; and perceiving by him

1 Memoranda of Letters from Ireland, August 20 (Cecil's hand).—Cecil to Sussex, August 21; Elizabeth to Sussex, August 20: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

that he had little hope of Shan's conformity in anything, and that he therefore desired that he might be received to serve your Highness, for that he would no longer abide with him, and that if I would promise to receive him to your service he would do anything that I would command him, I sware him upon the Bible to keep secret that I should say unto him, and assured him if it were ever known during the time I had the government there, that besides the breach of his oath it should cost him his life. I used long circumstance in persuading him to serve you to benefit his country, and to procure assurance of living to him and his for ever by doing of that which he might easily do. He promised to do what I would. In fine I brake with him to kill Shan; and bound myself by my oath to see him have a hundred marks of land by the year to him and to his heirs for his reward. He seemed desirous to serve your Highness and to have the land, but fearful to do it doubting his own escape after with safety, which he confessed and promised to do by any means he might escaping with his life. What he will do I know not, but I assure your Highness he may do it without danger if he will. And if he will not do that he may in your service, then will be done to him what others may. God send your Highness a good end.

'Your Highness's

'Most humble and faithful Subject and Servant,

'From Ardbrachan.'

1 Irish MSS. Rolls House.

'T. SUSSEX.1

English honour like English coin lost something of its purity in the sister island. Nothing came of this undesirable proposal. Neil Grey however kept his secret, and though he would not risk his life by attempting the murder, sought no favour with Shan by betraying Sussex..

Elizabeth's answer-if she sent any answer-is not discoverable. It is most sadly certain however that Sussex was continued in office; and inasmuch as it will be seen that he repeated the experiment a few months later, his letter could not have been received with any marked condemnation.

Shortly after, Fitzwilliam returned from England with the Berwick troops, and before the season closed and before Kildare commenced his negotiations the Deputy was permitted to make another effort to repair the credit of English arms.

Despatching provisions by sea to Lough Foyle, he succeeded this time in marching through Tyrone and in destroying on his way four thousand cattle which he was unable to carry away; and had the vessels arrived in time he might have remained in Ulster long enough to do serious mischief there. But the wind and weather were unfavourable. He had left Shan's cows to rot where he had killed them; and thus being without food, and sententiously and characteristically concluding that 'man by his policy might propose but God at his will did dispose,'1 Lord Sussex fell back by the upper waters of Lough Erne sweeping the country before him.

1 Sussex to Elizabeth, September 21: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

O'Neil in the interval had been burning villages in Meath; but the Deputy had penetrated his stronghold, had defied him on his own ground, and he had not ventured to meet the English in the field. The defeat of July was partially retrieved and Sussex was in a better position to make terms. Kildare, in the middle of October, had a conference with Shan at Dundalk, and Shan consented to repair to Elizabeth's presence. In the conditions however which he was allowed to name he implied that he was rather conferring a favour than receiving one, and that he was going to England as a victorious enemy permitting himself to be conciliated. He demanded a safe-conduct so clearly worded that whatever was the result of his visit he should be free to return; he required a complete amnesty for his past misdeeds, and he stipulated that Elizabeth should pay all expenses for himself and his retinue; the Earls of Ormond, Desmond, and Kildare must receive him in state at Dundalk and escort him to Dublin; Kildare must accompany him to England; and most important of all, Armagh Cathedral must be evacuated.

On these terms he was ready to go to London; he did not anticipate treachery; and either he hoped to persuade Elizabeth to recognize him, and thus prove to the Irish that rebellion was the surest road to prosperity and power, or at worst by venturing into England and returning unscathed he would show them that the Government might be defied with more than impunity.

Had Neil Grey revealed to him those dark overtures of Sussex the Irish chief would have relied less boldly on