son of Hugh, and his own son, James, were committed to
close custody in the Castle. His son-in-law, Sir Walter
Fitzgerald, had been driven by ill-usage, and his friendship
for Lord Baltinglass, to the shelter of Glenmalure, and
this was, of course, made a ground of charge against its
chief. During the last months of 1594, Mynce, Sheriff of
Carlow, informed the Lord Deputy of warlike preparations
in the Glen, and that Brian Oge O'Rourke had actually
passed to and fro through Dublin city and county, as
confidential agent between Feagh Mac Hugh and Tyrone. In
January following, under cover of a hunting party among
the hills, the Deputy, by a night march on Glenmalure,
succeeded in surprising O'Byrne's house at Ballincor,
and had almost taken the aged chieftain prisoner. In the
flight, Rose O'Toole, his wife, was wounded in the breast,
and a priest detected hiding in a thicket was shot dead.
Feagh retired to Dromceat, or the Cat's-back Mountain
--one of the best positions in the Glen--while a strong
force was quartered in his former mansion to observe his
movements. In April, his son-in-law, Fitzgerald, was
taken prisoner, near Baltinglass, in a retreat where he
was laid up severely wounded; in May, a party under the
Deputy's command scoured the mountains and seized the
Lady Rose, who was attainted of treason, and, like
Fitzgerald, barbarously given up to the halter and the
quartering knife. Two foster-brothers of the chief were,
at the same time and in the same manner, put to death,
and a large reward was offered for his own apprehension,
alive or dead.