It must be admitted that Elizabeth's letter to Horsey was written at the crisis of the succession quarrel in Parliament, and that her not unprovoked ill-humour was merely venting itself upon the first object which came across her: nor had she at that time heard of Sidney's successes in Ulster, and probably she despaired of ever hearing of successes. Yet when she did hear, the tone of her letters was scarcely altered; she alluded to his services only to reiterate her complaints; and she would not have gone through the form of thanking him, had not Cecil inserted a few words of acknowledgment in the draft of her despatch.1 Sidney's patience was exhausted. Copies of the Queen's disparaging letters were circulated privately in Dublin, obtained he knew not how, but with fatal effect upon his influence. He had borne Elizabeth's caprices long enough. 'For God's sake,' he wrote angrily on the 15th of November in answer to Cecil's letter,

November.

'for God's sake get my recall; the people here know what the Queen thinks of me, and I can do no good.'"

From these unprofitable bickerings the story must return to Colonel Randolph and the garrison of Derry. For some weeks after Sidney's departure all had gone on prosperously. The country people, though well paid for everything, were slow to bring in provisions; the bread ran short; and the men had been sent out poorly pro

1 The words 'for which we are bound to thank you' are inserted in Cecil's hand.-The Queen to Sidney, November, 1566.

2 Irish MSS. Rolls House.

vided with shoes or tools or clothes. But foraging parties drove in sufficient beef to keep them in fresh meat. Randolph, who seems to have been a man of fine foresight, had sent to the English Pale for a supply of forage before the winter set in; he had written to England 'for shirts, kerseys, canvas, and leather;' he kept Cecil constantly informed of the welfare and wants of the troops;1 and for some time they were healthy and in high spirits, and either worked steadily at the fortress or were doing good service in the field.

While Sidney was in Connaught, Shan, who had followed him to Lifford, turned back upon the Pale, expecting to find it undefended. He was encountered by Sir Warham St Leger, lost two hundred men, and was at first hunted back over the Border. He again returned however with 'a main army,' burnt several villages, and in a second fight with St Leger was more successful; the English were obliged to retire' for lack of more aid;' but they held together in good order, and Shan with the Derry garrison in his rear durst not follow far from home in pursuit. Before he could revenge himself on Sidney, before he could stir against the Scots, before he could strike a blow at O'Donnell, he must pluck out the barbed dart which was fastened in his unguarded side.

Knowing that he would find it no easy task, he was hovering cautiously in the neighbourhood of Lough Foyle, when Randolph fell upon him by surprise on the 12th of November. The O'Neils fled after a short, sharp

1 Edward Randolph to Cecil, October 27: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

action. O'Dogherty with his Irish horse chased the flying crowd, killing every man he caught, and Shan recovered himself to find he had lost four hundred men of the bravest of his followers. More fatal overthrow neither he nor any other Irish chief had yet received at English hands. But the success was dearly bought; Colonel Randolph himself leading the pursuit was struck by a random shot and fell dead from his horse. The Irish had fortunately suffered too severely to profit by his loss. Shan's motley army, held together as it was by the hope of easily-bought plunder, scattered when the service became dangerous. Sidney, allowing him no rest, struck in again beyond Dundalk, burning his farms and capturing his castles.1 The Scots came in over the Bann, wasting the country all along the river side. Allaster M'Connell, like some chief of Sioux Indians, sent to the Captain of Knockfergus an account of the cattle that he had driven, and the wives and bairns' that he had slain. Like swarms of angry hornets these avenging savages drove their stings into the now maddened and desperate Shan, on every point where they could fasten; while in December the old O'Donnell came out

December. over the mountains from Donegal, and paid back O'Neil with interest for his stolen wife, his pillaged country, and his own long imprisonment and exile. The tide of fortune had turned too late for his own revenge:

1 Sidney to the Lords of the Council, December 12: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

2 Allaster M'Connell to the Captain of Knockfergus; enclosed in a letter of R. Piers to Sir H. Sidney, December 15: MS. Ibid.

worn out with his long sufferings he fell from his horse at the head of his people with the stroke of death upon him; but before he died he called his kinsmen about him and prayed them to be true to England and their Queen, and Hugh O'Donnell, who succeeded to his father's command, went straight to Derry and swore allegiance to the English Crown.

Tyrone was now smitten in all its borders. Magennis was the last powerful chief who still adhered to Shan's fortunes; the last week in the year Sidney carried fire and sword through his country and left him not a hoof remaining. It was to no purpose that Shan, bewildered by the rapidity with which disasters were piling themselves upon him, cried out now for pardon and peace, the Deputy would not answer his letter, and 'nothing was talked of but his extirpation by war only.'1

2

A singular tragedy interrupted for a time the tide of English success, although the first blows had been struck by so strong a hand that Shan could not rally from them. The death of Randolph had left the garrison at Derry as-in the words of one of them-a headless people. Food and clothing fell short, and there was no longer foresight to anticipate or authority to remedy the common wants of troops on active service. Sickness set in. By the middle of November 'the flux was reigning among them wonderfully.' Strong men soon after were struck suddenly dead by a mysterious disorder

3

1 Sidney to the English Council, January 18: Irish MSS. Rolls House. 2 Geoffrey Vaughan to Admiral Winter, December 18: MS. Ibid. 3 Wilfred to Cecil, November 15: MS. Ibid.

which no medicine would cure and no precaution would prevent. It appeared at last that either in ignorance or carelessness they had built their sleeping quarters over the burial-ground of the Abbey, and the clammy vapour had stolen into their lungs and poisoned them. As soon as their distress was known, supplies in abundance were sent from England; but the vices of modern administration had already infected the public service, and a cargo of meal destined for the garrison of Derry went astray to Florida. No subordinate officer ventured to take the vacant command. 'Many of our best men,' Captain Vaughan wrote a few days before Christmas, 'go away because there is none to stay them; many have died; God comfort us!"

Colonel St Loo came at last in the beginning 1567. February of the new year. The pestilence for a time abated, and the spirits of the men revived. St Loo, to quicken their blood, let them at once into the enemy's country; they returned after a foray of a few days driving before them seven hundred horses and a thousand cattle; and the Colonel wrote to Sidney to say that with three hundred additional men he could so hunt the rebel that ere May was past he should not show his face in Ulster.'

2

Harder pressed than ever, Shan O'Neil, about the time when the Queen of Scots was bringing her matri

1 Vaughan to Winter, December 18: Irish MSS. Rolls House. 2 St Loo in his despatch says 10,000.

at least.-St Loo to Sidney, February 8:

3 Ibid.

He must have added one cipher Irish MSS. Rolls House.