Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/593

 1567.] DEATH OF a NEIL. 573 monial difficulties to their last settlement, made one more effort to gain allies in France. This time he wrote, not to the King, but to the Cardinals of Lorraine and Guise, imploring them, in the name of their great bro- ther the Duke, who had raised the cross out of the dust where the unbelieving Huguenots were trampling it, to bring the fleur-de-lys to the rescue of Ireland from the grasp of the ungodly English. * Help us ! ' he cried, blending Irish like flattery with entreaty. * When I was in England I saw your noble brother the Marquis d'Elbreuf transfix two stags with a single arrow. If the Most Christian King will not help us, move the Pope to help us. I alone in this land sustain his cause/ 1 As the ship laboured in the gale the unprofitable cargo was thrown overboard. Terence Daniel, relieved of his crozier, went back to his place among the troopers ; Creagh was accepted in his place, and taken into confid- ence and into Shan's household ; all was done to de- serve favour in earth and heaven, but all was useless. The Pope sat silent, or muttering his anathemas with bated breath ; the Guises had too much work on hand at home to heed the Irish wolf, whom the English having in vain attempted to trap or poison, were driving to bay with more lawful weapons. Success or failure however was alike to the doomed garrison of Derry. The black death came back among them after a brief respite, and to the reeking vapour of the charnel-house it was indif- 1 Shan O'Neil to the Cardinals of Lorraine and Guise, 1567 : MS. Ibid