some of it," he at once marched into the territory of
O'Ruarc and O'Doherty; O'Ruarc fled to Scotland, was
given up by order of James VI., and subsequently executed
at London; O'Doherty and Sir John O'Gallagher, "two of
the most loyal subjects in Ulster," were seized and
confined in the Castle. An outrage of a still more
monstrous kind was perpetrated soon after on the newly
elected chieftain of Oriel, Hugh McMahon. Though he had
engaged Fitzwilliam by a bribe of 600 cows to recognize
his succession, he was seized by order of the Deputy,
tried by a jury of common soldiers, on a trumped up charge
of "treason," and executed at his own door. Sir Harry
Bagnal who, as Marshal of Ireland, had his head-quarters
at Newry, next to Fitzwilliam himself, profited most by
the consequent partition and settlement of McMahon's vast
estates. Emboldened by the impunity which attended such
high-handed proceedings, and instigated by the Marshal,
Fitzwilliam began to practise, against the ablest as well
as the most powerful of all the Northern chiefs, who had
hitherto been known only as a courtier and soldier of
the Queen. This was Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, another
of Sir Henry Sidney's "strong men," with the additional
advantage of being familiar from his youth with the
character of the men he was now to encounter.

O'Neil, in the full prime of life, really desired to live
in peace with Elizabeth, provided he might be allowed to
govern Ulster with all the authority attached to his
name. Bred up in England, he well knew the immense
resources of that kingdom, and the indomitable character