Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/136

 f 16 REIGN' OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 42. nection with the reforming party in Scotland had not touched the dependencies of his clan. The hearts of ninety-nine out of every hundred persons on the north of Tweed were fixed on securing the English crown either for Arran or for Mary Stuart ; and James M'Connell was heard in private to say that the Queen of Scots was right- ful Queen of England. 1 Shan O'Neil therefore adroitly availed himself of the occasion to detach from the O'Doii- nells their formidable northern allies. The ' misused * wife being disposed of by some process of murder or otherwise, he induced M'Connell to give him his daugh- ter. He married or proposed to marry her for ties of this kind sat with astonishing lightness on him and the Callogh was outmanoeuvred. Again an interval, and there was another and a bolder change. Either the new lady did not please Shan or his ambition soared to a higher flight. Supposing that the Scots in Ireland would not dare to resent what the jEarl of Argyle should approve, and that the clan would welcome his support to Mary Stuart's claims, he had scarcely rid himself of his first wife and married a second than he wrote to the Earl proposing that his sister the Countess should be transferred from O'Donnell to him- self. The M'Connells could be got rid of, and the Scotch colony might pass under the protection of the 1 ' At my kinsman being with him in Kintyre, James M'Connell ministered to him very evil talk against the Queen's Majesty, saying the Queen of England was a bastard, and the Queen of Scotland rightful heir to the crown of England. It was not once nor twice, but divers times ; not only by him but by his wife also.' John Piers to Sir Wil- liam Fitz william. Irish MSS. Rolls