Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/131

 '559-] SHAN &NEIL. in beginning desired to spare and strengthen Elizabeth, sent them a cold answer, and against Philip's will the great Norman families were unwilling to stir. The true- bred Celts however, whose sole political creed was hatred of the English, were less willing to remain quiet. To the Celt it was of small moment whether the English sovereign was Protestant or Catholic. The presence of an English deputy in Dublin was the symbol of his servitude and the constant occasion for his rebellion. Had there been no cause of quarrel the mere pleasure of fighting would have insured periodical disturbances ; and in Ulster there were special causes at work to produce a convulsion of peculiar severity. Identical in race and scarcely differing in language, the Irish of the north and the Scots of the Western Isles had for two centuries kept up a close and increas- ing intercourse. Some thousand Scottish families had recently emigrated from Bute, Arran, and Argyleshire, to find settlements on the thinly peopled coasts of An- trim and Down. The Irish chiefs had sought their friendship, intermarried with them, or made war on them, as the humour of the moment prompted ; but their numbers had steadily increased whether welcome or unwelcome, and at Elizabeth's accession they had be- come objects of alarm both to the native Irish, whom they threatened to supplant, and to the English, whom they refused to obey. Lord Sussex, who was Mary's last deputy, had made expeditions against them both in the Isles and in Ulster ; but even though assisted by the powers of O'Neil had