a messenger to Hugh Roe, who had joined Maguire's party, requesting him
not to fight against him. He was placed in a still greater difficulty at
the siege of Enniskillen, which took place the following year; but he
compromised matters by sending his brother, Cormac O'Neill, with a
contingent, to fight on the national side. Cormac met the English
soldiers, who had been sent to throw provisions into the town, almost
five miles from their destination, and routed them with great slaughter.
The site of the engagement was called the "Ford of the Biscuits," from
the quantity of that provision which he obtained there. An Irish
garrison was left at Enniskillen, and the victorious party, after
retaliating the cruelties which had been inflicted on the natives,
marched into northern Connaught to attack Sir Richard Bingham.

On the 11th of August, in this year, 1594, Sir William Russell was
appointed Deputy in place of FitzWilliam. Tyrone appeared at the Castle
soon after, and complained of the suspicions which were entertained of
his loyalty, not, it is to be supposed, without a very clear personal
conviction that they were well founded. The Viceroy would have received
him favourably, but his old enemy, Bagnal, charged him with high
treason. O'Neill's object was to gain time. He was unwilling to revolt
openly, till he could do so with some prospect of success; and if his
discretion was somewhat in advance of the average amount of that
qualification as manifested by Irish chieftains hitherto, his valour
redeemed him from all possible imputation of having made it an excuse
for cowardice, or any conciliation with the "English enemy," which was
not warranted by motives of prudence.

Tyrone now offered to clear himself by the ordeal of single combat with
his adversary, but Bagnal declined the offer. The following year (A.D.
1595), the new Deputy took O'Byrne's Castle, at Glenmalure. One of the
Kildare Geraldines revenged the injuries done to this chieftain, by
making nocturnal attacks in the neighbourhood of Dublin; but he was soon
captured, and hanged in Dublin. These and similar outrages excited
popular feeling to an unwonted degree; but there were other wrongs
besides the robberies of chieftains' estates, and their subsequent
murder if they resisted oppression. The men whose lives the Irish nation
have always held even more sacred than those of their most ancient
chiefs, were daily slaughtered before their eyes, and the slaughter was