Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/167

 1562.] SHAN a NEIL, 147 hoste ; ' M'Guyre still kept his truth to England ; ' wherefore Shan bygan to wax mad and to cawsse his men. to bran all his corn and howsses ; ' he spared neither church nor sanctuary ; three hundred women and chil- dren were piteously murdered ; and M'Guyre himself 'clean banished/ as he described it, took refuge with the remnant of his people in the islands on the lake, whither Shan was making boats to pursue him. ' Help me, your lordship/ the hunted wretch cried in his despair to Sussex ; ' I promes you, and you doo not sy the rather to Shan O'Nele is besynes, ye ar lyke to make hym the strongest man of all Eiiond, -for every man wyll take an exampull by me gratte lostys ; take hyd to yourself by thymes, for he is lyke to have all the power from this place thill he come to the wallys of Gallway to rysse against you/ l Elizabeth knew not now which way to November. turn. Force, treachery, conciliation, had been tried successively, and the Irish problem was more hope- less than ever. Sussex had protested from the first against the impolicy of recognizing Shan ; the event had proved that he was right, and the Queen now threw herself upon him and the council of Ireland for advice. In the dense darkness of the prospects of Ulster there was a solitary gleam of light. Grown insolent with prosperity, Shan had been dealing too peremptorily with 1 Shan M'Guyre to Sussex, October 2O r and November 25 ; WEIGHT, vol. i. M'Guyre adds a curious caution to Sussex to write to him in English and not in Latin, because he would not clerks noi other men should know his mind.