Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/180

 160 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 42. broken chief came to sue for maintenance at the Court to which his fidelity had ruined him ; and Cusak con- soled Cecil with saying that ' he was but a poor creature without activity or manhood/ and that ' O'Neil, con- tinuing in his truth, was more worthy to be embraced than three O'Donnells/ 1 Here then for the present the story will leave Shan, safely planted on the first step of his ambition, in all but the title sole monarch of the north. He built himself a fort on an island in Lough Neagh, which he called ' Foogh-ni- Grail 'or ' Hate of Englishmen ; ' and grew rich on the spoils of his enemies, ' the only strong man in Ireland.' He administered justice after a paternal fashion, permitting no robbers but himself ; when wrong was done he compelled restitution, ' or at his own cost redeemed the harm to the loser's contentation.' 2 Two hundred pipes of wine were stored in his cellars ; six hundred men-at-arms fed at his table ' as it were his janissaries ; ' and daily he feasted the beggars at his gate, ' saying it was meet to serve Christ first/ Half wolf, half fox, he lay couched in his ' Castle of Male- partus/ with his emissaries at Rome, at Paris, and at Edinburgh. In the morning he was the subtle and dexterous pretender to the Irish throne ; in the after- noon, ' when the wine was in him/ he was a dissolute savage revelling in sensuality, with his unhappy coun- tess uncoupled from her horse-boy to wait upon his pleasure. 1 Cusak to Cecil, 1564 : Irish MSS. 2 CAMPION.