Here died M'Guyre at the monastery of Omagh within sight of the home to which he was returning by the pleasant shores of Lough Erne. Here too the Earl of Kildare nearly escaped being taken prisoner: he was surprised with a small party in a wood, attacked with 'harquebusses and Scottish arrows,' and hardly cut his way through.

October.

Detained longer than he intended by foul weather, Sidney broke up from Omagh on the 2nd of October, crossed 'the dangerous and swift river there,' 'and rested that night on a neck of land near a broken castle of Tirlogh Lenogh, called the Salmon Castle.' On the 3rd he was over the Derry, and by the evening he had reached Lifford, where he expected to find Randolph and the English army.

At Lifford however no English were to be discovered, but only news of them.

Randolph, to whose discretion the ultimate choice of his quarters had been committed, had been struck as he came up Lough Foyle with the situation of Derry. Nothing then stood on the site of the present city save a decrepit and deserted monastery of Augustine monks, which was said to have been built in the time of St Columba; but the eye of the English commander saw in the form of the ground, in the magnificent lake, and the splendid tide river, a site for the foundation of a powerful colony suited alike for a military station and a commercial and agricultural town. There therefore Colonel Randolph had landed his men, and there Sidney joined him, and after a careful survey entirely

approved his judgment. The monastery with a few sheds attached to it provided shelter. The English troops had not been idle, and had already entrenched themselves 'in a very warlike manner.' O'Donnell, O'Dogherty, and the other friends of England agreed all of them that it was the very best spot in the northern counties to build a city.'

At all events for present purposes the northern force was to remain there during the winter. Sidney stayed a few days at Derry, and then leaving Randolph with 650 men, 350 pioneers, and provisions for two months, continued his own march. His object was to replace O'Donnell in possession of his own country and castles, restore O'Dogherty and the other chiefs and commit. them to the protection of Randolph, while he himself would sweep through the whole northern province, encourage the loyal clans to return to their allegiance, and show the people generally that there was no part of Ireland to which the arm of the Deputy could not reach to reward the faithful and punish the rebellious.

Donegal was his next point after leaving Lough Foyle-once a thriving town inhabited by English colonists at the time of Sidney's arrival a pile of ruins, in the midst of which, like a wild beast's den strewed round with mangled bones, rose the largest and strongest castle which he had seen in Ireland.' It was held by one of O'Donnell's kinsmen, to whom Shanto attach him to his cause-had given his sister for a wife. At the appearance of the old chief with the English army it was immediately surrendered. O'Don

nell was at last rewarded for his fidelity and sufferings, and the whole tribe with eager protestations of allegiance gave sureties for their future loyalty.

Leaving O'Donnell in possession, and scarcely pausing to rest his troops, Sidney again went forward. On the 19th he was at Ballyshannon; on the 22nd at Sligo; on the 24th he passed over the bogs and mountains of Mayo into Roscommon; and then, 'leaving behind them as fruitful a country as was in England or Ireland all utterly waste,' the army turned their faces homewards, waded the Shannon at Athlone for lack of a bridge on the 26th, and so back to the Pale. Twenty castles had been taken as they went along, and left in hands that could be trusted. In all that long and painful journey,' Sidney was able to say that 'there had not died of sickness but three persons;' men and horses were brought back in full health and strength, while 'her Majesty's honour was re-established among the Irishry and grown to no small veneration' 1 -an expedition 'comparable only to Alexander's journey into Bactria,' wrote an admirer of Sidney to Cecil-revealing what to Irish eyes appeared the magnitude of the difficulty, and forming a measure of the effect which it produced. The English Deputy had bearded Shan in his stronghold, burnt his houses, pillaged his people, and had fastened a body of police in the midst of them to keep them waking in the winter nights. He had penetrated the hitherto impregnable fortresses of moun

1 Sir H. Sidney and the Earl of Kildare to Elizabeth, November 12: Irish MSS. Rolls House.

tain and morass. The Irish, who had been faithful to England, were again in safe possession of their lands and homes. The weakest, maddest, and wildest Celts were made aware that when the English were once roused to effort, they could crush them as the lion crushes the jackal.

Meantime Lord Ormond had carried his complaints to London, and the letter which Sidney found waiting his return was not what a successful commander might have expected from his sovereign. Before he started he had repeated his refusal to determine a cause which he did not understand without the help of lawyers. There was no one in Ireland of whom he thought more highly than of Lord Ormond; there was none that he would more gladly help; but disputed and complicated titles to estates were questions which he was unable to enter into. He could do nothing till the cause had been properly heard; and in the existing humour of the country it would have been mere madness to have led Desmond to doubt the equity of the English Government. But Sidney's modest and firm defence found no favour with Elizabeth. While he was absent in the North, she wrote to Sir Edward Horsey desiring him to tell the Deputy that she was ill satisfied with his proceedings; he had allowed himself to be guided by Irish advisers; he had been partial to Desmond; 'he that had least deserved favour had been most borne withal.' While, in fact, he had done more for Ireland in the eight months of his government than any English ruler since Sir Edward Bellingham, the Queen insisted that he had attended to none of her wishes and

had occupied himself wholly with matters of no import

ance.

Most likely she did not believe what she said; but Sidney was costing her money and she relieved herself by finding fault.

'My good Lord,' Cecil was obliged to write to him. to prevent an explosion, 'next to my most hearty commendations I do with all my heart condole and take part of sorrow to see your burden of government so great, and your comfort from hence so uncertain. I feel by myself-being also here wrapped in miseries, and tossed, with my small vessel of wit and means, in a sea swelling with storms of envy, malice, disdain, and suspicion-what discomfort they commonly have that mean to deserve best of their country. And though I confess myself unable to give you advice, and being almost desperate myself of well-doing, yet for the present I think it best for you to run still an even course in government, with indifferency in case of justice to all persons, and in case of favour, to let them which do well find their comfort by you; and in other causes in your choice to prefer them whom you find the Prince most disposed to have favoured. My Lord of Ormond doth take this commodity by being here to declare his own griefs; I see the Queen's Majesty so much misliking of the Earl of Desmond as surely I think it needful for you to be very circumspect in ordering of the complaints exhibited against him.'1

1 Cecil to Sidney, October 20: Irish MSS. Rolls House.