career.

These foregoing requests or conditions were surely very moderate under the circumstances ; and, one would suppose, they might have been easily granted by a Queen to her outraged subjects, if for no other motive than to have a few years' peace before the actual close of her own earthly But not so; she considered she had done enough, in the meantime, by the withdrawal of Fitzwilliam, although her conscience told her that much more should be done. Writing to Russell, Fitzwilliam's successor, in May, 1596, she gives words to her perplexity and repentance, thus :"Considering the monstrous accusations brought against our ministers that have lived amongst these people, we cannot turn our faces against their complaints. We have determined on a course of pacification, and shall hold it a weakness in you, if you require to be daily directed in all particulars, especially as your advices are bare and barren." But, for all that, the Queen would and must carry out two measures which did more to rouse up disloyalty and rebellion than all other causes together. She insisted on continuing to demoralise and oppress the people by placing garrisons in great numbers amongst them; and also to prohibit them from the free exercise of their religious worship, according to the rites and ceremonies required by their own Church. So, not being prepared to atone properly for the oppressions perpetrated in her name, the 'good Queen Bess' permitted this unhappy country to drift into another bloody war of seven years' duration, during which her poor Irish subjects fought gallantly for their liberty of conscience.' In the progress of this struggle, the natives of Ulster gained several victories over Elizabeth's best generals and choicest troops, defeating Sir John Norris at Clontibret, Bagenall at the great battle of the Blackwater, and Clifford in the passes of the Curlew mountains, not to mention other smaller successes. But the English succeeded, principally by playing off one of a family or sept against another, and holding out bright prospects to their Irish adherents, which were soon to be clouded. The war was drawing to a close just as the Queen's life was closing also, and when she understood that the exigencies of the time would compel her to accept Tyrone's submission, the unpalatable news, it was said, operated as much, even as the death of Essex, to bring upon her that utter dejection of which she died, or which immediately preceded her death. Sir Robert Naunton, who knew her well, referring to her last days, says :—" And this also I present as a knowne observation, that she was, though very capable of counsell, absolute enough in her owne resolution, which was ever apparent even to the last; and in that of her still aversion to grant Tyrone the least drop of her mercy, though earnestly and frequently advised thereto, yea, wrought onely by her owne counsell of State, with very many reasons, and, as the state of her kingdom then stood, I may speak it with assurance, necessitated arguments. The Irish action we may call a mallady, a consumption of her times, for it accompanied her to the end; and it was of so profuse and vast

the new seneschal there [Henshawe], it may please your Majesty to let him be removed, and in his place (for that it is next to the Earl of Tyrone's county, and the chief place of the earl's abode) that Sir George Bouchier may be sent thither as seneschal, because of the companies of horse and foot which are under his charge, and for that he is a gentleman of good worth, who will with some good show live in the place, which will be a good comfort to the earl to have such a neighbour; and to assist

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expence that it drew neare unto a distemperature of State, and of passion in herselfe; for towards her last, she grew somewhat hard to please with her armies, being accustomed to prosperity, and the Irish prosecution not answering her expectation, and her wonted success; for it was a good while an unthrifty and inauspicious war, which did much disturb and mislead her judgment; and the more, for that it was a precedent taken out of her owne patterne. For, as the Queene, by way of division, had, at her coming to the crowne, supported the revolted states of Holland, so did the King of Spaine turne the tricke upon herselfe towards her going out [dying], by cherishing the Irish rebellion." (See Lord Somer's Tracts, vol. i, p. 254.) After the long struggle, however, which cost the Queen so dearly, and desolated so much of this country, especially its northern province, Tyrone and the other Ulster leaders were restored to their estates, at least ostensibly, and almost on the same terms they had held them previously to the war.

But it was too late. All the English servitors in Ireland, civilians and soldiers, had laboured and fought throughout the seven years' war against O'Neill under the impression that his lands were to be at last divided amongst them. Words could hardly, therefore, express their dismay and disgust when it was known that O'Neill had been received by the new king, James I., at Hampton Court, and that re-grants were about to be made to the Ulster leaders of nearly all their patrimonial estates. The sentiments, indeed, of the whole servitor class in reference to this affair may be imagined from the words of Sir John Harrington, whose prospects had evidently suffered a serious -although as it happened-only a temporary eclipse. "I have lived," says he, "to see that damnable rebel Tyrone brought to England, honoured, and well liked. Oh, what is there that does not prove inconstancy in worldly matters! How I did labour after that knave's destruction ! I adventured perils by sea and land, was near starving, eat horse flesh in Munster, and all to quell that man, who now smileth in peace at those who did hazard their lives to destroy him; and now doth Tyrone dare us old commanders with his presence and protection." It was felt deeply throughout the ranks of these disappointed gentlemen that, whilst the captains, who had rooted out the great Desmond family in Munster, were then quietly enjoying their victims' lands, the equally if not more valiant captains who had defeated the O'Neills, should be excluded, if only for a time, from the glens, and straths, and green fields of Ulster.

But there was consolation in store, not only for the servitors in Ireland, but for many English and Scottish speculators who had been wistfully indulging plantation designs on this province. For, very soon after the formal pardon of O'Neill, O'Donnell, and other Ulster lords, Sir Arthur Chichester was appointed deputy of Ireland, and this appointment at once rendered their restoration a merely nominal affair. Chichester, who was himself a servitor, first in a military and afterwards in a civil capacity, sympathised very sincerely in servitors' hopes and disappointments. He was known to be an able and unscrupulous advocate for the rooting out of the native population of Ulster by the introduction of English and Scottish settlers. His appointment, therefore, at that crisis, was hailed by the servitors and speculators generally as an act of rare political sagacity. His ability and zeal were admitted on all hands, by enemies as well as friends. He was surrounded, it is true, by a very able band of assistants, whose Ulster-loving instincts must

H

have been born with them; but to himself more than to any, or to all of them together, must be ascribed that vigorous plantation movement throughout this province, of which we shall have to speak in detail. "If my poor endeavours," says he, when writing to the king, "may give any help and furtherance to so glorious and worthy a design, besides my duty and obedience to your Majesty, my heart is so well affected unto it, that I had rather labour with my hands in the plantation of Ulster, than dance or play in that of Virginia." This announcement of his loyalty and patriotism was made in the autumn of 1610, and just after he had received royal grants of very extensive lands-hundreds of thousands of acres-that had belonged to O'Neills and O'Doghertys. He was perfectly sincere, therefore, in his preference of Ulster to Virginia, or indeed to any other region in the world besides.

No sooner had Chichester mounted the vice-regal chair than his revolutionary policy in Ulster began to produce its natural fruits. He was not long in teaching the natives that although they had laid down their arms and were formally taken under the protection of law, there still existed a grand controversy between them and their subjugators, which would be fought to the bitter end, if not on the tented field, at least in the courts of law. The Ulster leaders had been restored, no doubt, to their estates, but their patents had hardly been made out and presented to them when 'discoverers' were able to find fatal flaws therein, and State lawyers were employed to strip them of all but the merest shreds of their ancestral properties. Immense sweeps of their estates also were claimed by the protestant bishops as termon and herenagh lands, from which the Ulster lords paid the preceding bishops small chiefries, but which lands the protestant bishops claimed in demesne, and had their claim eventually allowed. In addition to these dire discouragements, all their (the Irish leaders') movements were watched, and any unguarded words, spoken at times of provocation, were reported in glowing colours to the authorities in Dublin. In the short interval between the restoration of the northern earls and their flight, Chichester himself publicly insulted the youthful Earl of Tyrconnell on at least two occasions, and even permitted Davys, the attorney-general, to insult the old Earl of Tyrone before the council-table. The indignities and litigations to which these northern earls were exposed must have rendered them more or less discontented; and if they were not the conspirators they are said to have been, it was not, truly, from lack of sufficient provocation on the part of their enemies. It was reported in Ulster, however, on what appeared to be the best authority, that the government intended to seize the Earl of Tyrconnell in Dublin, when passing to see his wife at Maynooth; and to seize the Earl of Tyrone in London, which he was about to visit, for the purpose of having a dispute with O'Cahan settled in presence of the King; but before these contemplated seizures could be made, the two earls, with several of their connexions and friends, had sailed away from Lough Swilly, on the 3rd of September, 1607, never to return.

These unhappy fugitives were not charged with conspiracy until after their flight, and even then only on the evidence of two men, St. Lawrence and Nugent (Lords Howth and Delvin), whom the authorities in London and Dublin did not believe, and whose corrupt motives in telling their several stories were sufficiently apparent. It is remarkable, indeed, that although Tyrone might reasonably be supposed to take the central place in any such conspiracy, had it really existed, there was

no charge of previous combination made against him either before or after the "flight." They fled simply from fear of arrest, and because their seizure might have been followed either by execution or a life-long imprisonment in the Tower of London. Because they had escaped without the deputy's knowledge or permission, and had taken refuge among friends on the continent supposed to be hostile, as a matter of course, to the policy of England, they were denounced as traitors, and their lands confiscated. But although Davys was able to indict them at Lifford amd Strabane, so as to obtain a decree of outlawry, not a particle of the evidence by which that indictment was sustained can be found among the State papers. A copy of the indictment itself now re-appears, but only because it had been secretly, and against rule, sent by Davys for Salisbury's private perusal! By their outlawry all their estates escheated to the crown, and were soon made available for plantation purposes. These estates comprised all the temporal lands in the county of Tyrone, including the barony of Loughinshollin; all in the county of Armagh, excepting the barony of Orior; all in the county of Donegal, excepting the barony of Inishowen; and more than the half of the county Fermanagh, for Cuconnaght Maguire who owned this territory had gone into voluntary exile with the earls. Certain other great fragments of Ulster were soon to be added to the field for plantation.

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CHAPTER II.-THE ORDERS AND CONDITIONS OF PLANTATION.

I.

HE broad lands, thus quietly abandoned to the planters by the flight of the northern earls, were soon to receive vast additions, as mentioned at the close of the preceding chapter. These additions included Cavan, the 'country' of the O'Reillys; Fermanagh, the 'country' of the Maguires; Coleraine, the 'country' of the O'Cahans; the barony of Inishowen, which had belonged to Sir Cahir O'Dogherty; the estates of Sir Niall Garve O'Donnell, stretching from Lifford westward along the two banks of the Finn, and including the beautiful Lough Esk; the territory of Clogher, which belonged to Sir Cormac O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone's brother; and last though not least in fertility or picturesque beauty, the 'country' of Orior, reaching from Armagh to the vicinity of Dundalk, and owned by the gallant old Sir Oghie O'Hanlon.

How had all these magnificent sweeps of Ulster territory become available for plantation. purposes, so soon after the departure of the fugitives from Lough Swilly? The answer is not difficult, nor need it be lengthened. 1. Sir John O'Reilly had been induced to surrender his 'country,' and to take out a grant of it from the crown in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who created him a knight. The lands of Cavan, by the Celtic law, strictly belonged to the whole clan, of whom Sir John O'Reilly had only been the elected trustee ; but the grant, on feudal terms from the crown, constituted him the owner in demesne,-the interest being thus drawn to and centred in himself; so that, according to English law, should he become a traitor, the clansmen had no longer any right in the lands, and were to be regarded from that moment as simply intruders thereon. Sir John, as a matter of course, joined the Earl of Tyrone and other Ulster lords in 1595, but died soon afterwards. He was succeeded by his brother, and, on the death of the latter, an uncle became the representative of the clan. Both these leaders were slain in the progress of the war. Sir John O'Reilly, however, left a son named Mulmorie, who took his stand on the side of the government, and was slain at the battle of the Yellow Ford, leaving a son also named Mulmorie, who was a mere youth, at the time of the plantation. But Sir John himself, and his brother and uncle who succeeded, all died during the war, and accordingly the lands vested in the crown without even the necessity of investigation-the fact of their having died whilst in rebellion being enough to justify the confiscation of their estates without further delay. The youthful Mulmorie O'Reilly, whose father had died fighting on the side of the English at the Blackwater, and whose mother was a niece of the Duke of Ormonde, presented a very considerable difficulty for a time to Chichester's arrangements; but the scruples thus occasioned soon gave way under the plantation pressure, and young O'Reilly was obliged to accept a 'proportion' of his own lands, like any other English or Scottish undertaker.

2. Sir Hugh Maguire, the chief lord of Fermanagh, was a son-in-law of the Earl of Tyrone, and joined the latter in 1595. He was slain during the progress of the war, and his whole estates were