Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/564

 544 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.46. A better messenger, supposing him honest, could not have been chosen. Shan was at his ease with a person whose life was as lawless as his own. He had ceased to care for concealment, and spoke out freely. At first ' he was very flexible but very timorous to come to the Deputy, apprehending traitorous practices/ One after- noon ' when the wine was in him/ he put his meaning in plainer language. Stukely had perhaps hinted that there would be no earldom for him unless his doings were more satisfactory. The Irish heart and the Irish tongue ran over. ' 1 care not/ he said, ' to be made an earl unless I may be better and higher than an earl, for I am in blood and power better than the best of them ; and I will give place to none but my cousin of Kildare, for that he is of my house. You have made a wis<e earl of M'Carty More. I keep as good a man as he. For the Queen I confess she is my Sovereign, but I never made peace with her but by her own seeking. Whom am I to trust ? When I caine to the Earl of Sussex on safe- conduct he offered me the courtesy of a handlock. When I was with the Queen, she said to me herself that I had, it was true, safe-conduct to come and go, but it was not said when I might go ; and they kept me there till I had agreed to things so far against my honour and profit, that I would never perform them while I live. That made me make war, and if it were to do again I would do it. My ancestors were kings of UL ter ; and Ulster is mine, and shall be mine. O'Donnell shall never come into his country, nor