Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/165

 [562.] SHAN O' NEIL. 145 with. Spain through de Quadra ; and Sussex advised war immediate and unsparing. ' No greater danger/ he said, ' had ever been in Ireland ; ' he implored the Queen not to trifle with it, and with a modest sense of his own failures he recommended her to send a more efficient person than himself to take the command not, he protested, ' from any want of will, for he would spend his last penny and his last drop of blood for her Majesty/ but he knew himself to be unequal to the work. Post after post brought evidence of the fatal conse- quences of the quasi recognition of Shan's sovereignty. Right and left he was crushing the petty chiefs, who one and all sent to say that they must yield unless England supported them. Sussex wrote to him in useless menace destroy him at the last.' He ' held a parley ' with the Irish council on Dundalk Bridge on the iyth of Sep- tember, and bound himself ' to keep peace with the Queen' 'for six months; ' but he felt himself discharged of all obligations towards a Government which had aimed at his life by deliberate treachery. In the face of hi ambiguous dealings the garrison had been still main- tained at Armagh ; at the beginning of October the hostages for his good behaviour, which he had sent in on his return from England, escaped from Dublin Castle ; and on the loth, in a dark, moon- less night the guard at the cathedral were alarmed with mysterious lights like blown matches glimmering through the darkness. Had the troops ventured out to reconnoitre, some hundreds of ' harquebusmen ' were in VOL. VII. 10
 * that if he followed his foolish pride her Majesty would