him a positive answer by the 2nd day of April. On that
day they attended at Dundalk, but O'Neil did not appear.
The Commissioners delayed an entire fortnight, addressing
him in the interim an urgent remonstrance to come in and
conclude their negotiation. On the 17th of the month they
received his reasons for breaking off the treaty--the
principal of which was, that the truce had been repeatedly
broken through by the English garrisons--and so the
campaign of 1596 was to be fought with renewed animosity
on both sides.

Early in May the Lord Deputy made another descent on
Ballincor, which Feagh Mac Hugh had recovered in the
autumn to lose again in the spring. Though worn with
years and infirm of body, the Wicklow chieftain held his
devoted bands well together, and kept the garrison of
Dublin constantly on the defensive. In the new chieftain
of the O'Moores he found at this moment a young and active
coadjutor. In an affair at Stradbally Bridge, O'Moore
obtained a considerable victory, leaving among the slain
Alexander and Francis Cosby, grandsons of the commander
in the massacre at Mullaghmast.

The arrival of three Spanish frigates with arms and
ammunition in Donegal Bay was welcome news to the Northern
Catholics. They were delivered to O'Donnell, who was
incessantly in the field, while O'Neil was again undergoing
the forms of diplomacy with a new royal commission at
Dundalk. He himself disclaimed any correspondence with
the King of Spain, but did not deny that such negotiations