commission from the Lord Deputy, except in cases of
martial law; that he should keep his troop of horsemen
in the Queen's pay, ready for the Queen's service, and
that Tyrone should be regularly reduced to shire-ground.
For the performance of these articles, which he confirmed
on reaching Dublin, he was to place sureties in the hands
of certain merchants of that city, or gentlemen of the
Pale, enjoying the confidence of the Crown. On such hard
conditions his earldom was confirmed to him, and he was
apparently taken into all his former favour. But we may
date the conception of his latter and more national policy
from the period of this journey, and the brief imprisonment
he had undergone in London.

The "profound dissembling mind" which English historians,
his cotemporaries, attribute to O'Neil, was now brought
into daily exercise. When he discovered money to be the
master passion of the Lord Deputy, he procured his
connivance at the escape of Hugh Roe O'Donnell from Dublin
Castle. On a dark night in the depth of winter the youthful
chief, with several of his companions, succeeded in
escaping to the hills in the neighbourhood of Powerscourt;
but, exhausted and bewildered, they were again taken,
and returned to their dungeons. Two years later, the heir
of Tyrconnell was more fortunate. In Christmas week,
1592, he again escaped, through a sewer of the Castle,
with Henry and Art O'Neil, sons of John the Proud. In
the street they found O'Hagan, the confidential agent of
Tyrone, waiting to guide them to the fastness of Glenmalure.
Through the deep snows of the Dublin and Wicklow highlands