Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/161

 1562.] SHAN G 1 NEIL. 141 She durst not imprison him; she could no longer detain him except by open force : she preferred to bribe him into allegiance by granting him all that he desired. The earldom a barren title for which he cared little was left in suspense. On the 2oth of April an inden- ture was signed by Elizabeth and himself, in which Shan bound himself to do military service and to take the oath of allegiance in the presence of the Deputy ; while in return he was allowed to remain Captain of Tyrone with feudal jurisdiction over the northern coun- ties. The Pale was to be no shelter to any person whom he might demand as a malefactor. If any Irish lord or chief did him wrong, and the Deputy failed within twenty days to exact reparation, Shan might raise an army and levy war on his private account. One feeble effort only was made to save O'Donnell, whose crime against O'Neil had been his devotion to England. O'Neil consented to submit O'Donnell's cause to the arbitration of the Irish earls. 1 A rebel subject treating as an equal with his sove- reign for the terms on which he would remain in his allegiance was an inglorious spectacle ; and the admis- ( sion of Shan's pretensions to sovereignty was one more evidence to the small Ulster chiefs that no service was worse requited in Ireland than fidelity to the English Crown. The M'Guyres, the O'Reillies, the O'Donnells all the clans who had stood by Sussex in the pre- 1 Indenture between the Queen of England and Shan O'Neil, April 30, 1562 : Irish MSS.