on the banks of the Saimer* to greet this "son of prophecy."

It was not long before the young Hugh Roe gave a specimen of the stuff that was in him. Two English officers had seized the monastery of Donegal, whence they overawed the country round. Though still suffering from the effects of that dreadful night in the Wicklow mountains, Hugh Roe was up betimes the next morning after his arrival, and, mustering a force from the clansmen that had come to welcome him home, marched at their head to Donegal. The enemy fied at his approach, and he returned to Ballyshannon, having re-established the friars in their monastery. Now at length, he was fain to submit his frost-bitten feet to the treatment of the physicians, who found it necessary to amputate both his great toes. Early in April old Sir Hugh resigned, whereupon the young Hugh Roe was elected to the chieftaincy amid universal acclamations. The young prince delayed not a moment to proclaim eternal hostility to the English. The first object of his attack was Sir Tirlough O'Neil, a chieftain who maintained the English interest in Tyrone, whom he speedily subdued, (1593,) and forced to resign all claim to the title of chief of the O'Neil, and to dismiss his

*The old name for the river Erne.

English guard, so that now once more the O'Neil and O'Donnell were supreme in Ulster. Then he took the side of MacGuire of Fermanagh, against the English, and the arm of Tyrconnell enabled that chief to achieve a glorious triumph over the united forces of the Pale and some Irish allies.

He opened the next campaign (1594) with the invasion of Connaught, where the English authority had long been paramount, and whence Governor Bingham, a man whose barbarities were so flagrant as to procure his recall by Elizabeth, had lately issued to plunder the coasts of Tyrconnell. At the head of his little army, probably not numbering more than one English regiment of the present day, but all fired with the spirit of their young captain, and excited by the fresh air and exercise, descended through the passes of Northern Connaught, and in two months destroyed every English settlement all the way to Annally. Next year (1595) we again find him exercising royal powers in Connaught, adjudicating on the disputed titles of chieftains, restoring to their property the people that had been dispossessed by Bingham, destroying castles where the English might again get a footing. Towards the close of this year, a Connaught chieftain, O'Connor of Sligo, returned after a long stay in England, and * Co. Longford.

joined with zealous loyalty in all the measures of Sir Conyers Clifford, the successor of Bingham. Clifford's character was exactly the opposite of Bingham's. Brave, generous, and humane, he soon grew into popularity. The English interest rose once more. O'Donnell was indignant. In cold December he crossed the river Sligo, and drove off every head of cattle belonging to those who had joined O'Connor; and in the following month he returned with a larger force, and swept all Connaught, as far as the walls of Galway, and then returned northward, to reverse all that had been done by Clifford and O'Connor.

Meanwhile, the English were not idle. Late in July, Sir Conyers Clifford, having mustered all the royalist forces of Connaught at Boyle, marched to Sligo, thence to the Erne, which he crossed at a ford near Belleek, and laid siege to the castle of Ballyshannon. He had cannon sent round to him by sea from Galway. The castle, defended by a garrison of only eighty soldiers, bravely repulsed every assault till O'Donnell arrived, when the game was reversed, and the besiegers were themselves besieged. At the early dawn of the 15th of August, the English silently crossed a ford of the Erne, a little above the cataract of Asharoe, and retreated at full speed to Sligo, leaving three pieces of ordnance and all the

C

military stores to Hugh Roe, (1597,) who, from this time, seems to have made Ballymote his headquarters, whence he was able to stretch his arm over Connaught and Tyrconnell, as need might be. His residence at Ballymote was a castle which had been in the hands of the royalists, and therefore fell to O'Donnell by the right of war; but it is worth noting, as an illustration of the character of this Bayard of Tyrconnell, that he paid MacDonagh, the original owner of the place, the full value of the property-viz., £400 sterling and 300 cows.

In 1598, O'Neil needed the arm of Tyrconnell. Hugh Roe came gladly at his call, and what with the prestige of his name, and the soul-stirring effusions of his poet Fearfesa O'Clery, and the resolution of his men, he contributed in great measure to Hugh O'Neil's important victory over the English at Beal-an-atha-buy, or the mouth of the Yellow Ford, two miles from Armagh. "It was a glorious victory for the rebels," says the contemporary English historian Camden, "and of special advantage for hereby they got arms and provisions, and Tyrone's name was cried up all over Ireland as the author of their liberty." At the close of this year we find O'Donnell once more scouring the territory of Clanrickarde, the zealous ally of the English, and in the spring following, (1599,) he visited the

distant Thomond, also in close alliance with the English.

Essex landed this year in Ireland with 20,000 foot and 2,000 horse-an immense army compared with that of the Ulster confederates. O'Connor of Sligo declared for him, at which O'Donnell was very wroth. He hastened to call the Connaught chieftain to account. O'Connor fled before him from post to post, till he was at last cooped up in his castle at Colooney. Essex ordered Clifford to hasten to his relief. Accordingly, Clifford set out with a wellappointed force from Athlone. Hugh Roe hearing of his approach, drew off as many men as could be spared from the siege, and went to meet him. They encountered each other in the gap of Ballaghboy, in the Curliew mountains. The odds against O'Donnell were heavy in the important matter of numbers and equipments, but he had the selection of the ground. The English advanced at a measured and steady pace. The men of Tyrconnell charged them with such impetuosity, that they recoiled at the first shock. The battle was soon over. O'Donnell pressed hotly and fiercely; the English column broke and fled. Amongst the slain the body of Sir Conyers Clifford was recognised, and treated with great honour by the chivalrous Hugh. After this victory O'Connor surrendered, and the generous