invasion, the O'Neills--Kings and Princes of Aileach, Kings of Ulster
and Princes of Tir-Eogain--as well as other chiefs and leaders, fought
the Pale incessantly: and now, after a lapse of nearly four hundred
years, again evinced to the world, that Ireland was still unconquered,
and regarded England as a tyrant and usurper. And yet the opposition of
those chiefs and rulers to the hirelings and paid assassins of this
infamous woman and her corrupt associates, was of a character the most
chivalrous. Unaccustomed to cowardly deeds of blood, these proud
warriors preferred to meet the enemy face to face, and decide the
issues of the hour in fair, open fight. They could not entertain the
Saxon idea of disposing of an adversary by the stealthy knife of the
professional murderer; and hence it was that their pride and chivalry
had ever been taken advantage of: the invaders being convinced that no
reprisals of a character sufficiently dastardly or atrocious to meet
their own depredations, would be indulged in by their chivalrous
opponents. In evidence of the spirit that actuated both parting
individually in this connection, we may refer to the massacre of
Mullaghmast, on the one hand, where the English, under professions of
the purest friendship, lured many of the Irish chiefs and nobles to a
conference or council, and then suddenly pouncing on them, murdered
every, single soul of them in cold blood; while, on the other hand, we
may contrast with this cowardly act--which is but one of a series of
the same sort--the noble and generous conduct of Tir-Oen, at the battle
of the Yellow Ford, in 1598, where, after defeating the Queen's troops
with terrible slaughter, taking all their artillery and baggage, as
well as twelve thousand pieces of gold, the remainder of the shattered
army was totally at his mercy, when he might have put every soul that
composed it to death. Unlike the cowardly invader, the field once won,
he sheathed his sword, and ordered the remnant of the enemy to be
spared, as they were unable to fight longer, and commanded that they