Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/596

576 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 46. mountain, but two hundred survived of those fierce troopers who were to have cleared Ireland for ever from the presence of the Saxons. For the rest, the wolves were snarling over their bodies, and the sea-gulls wheel- ing over them with scream and cry as they floated down to their last resting-place beneath the quiet waters of Lough Foyle. Shan's ' foster-brethren/ faithful to the last, were all killed ; he himself, with half a dozen com- rades, rode for his life, pursued by the avenging furies ; his first desperate intention was to throw himself at Sidney's feet, with a slave's collar upon his neck ; but his secretary, Neil M 'Kevin, persuaded him that his cause was not yet absolutely without hope. Surlyboy was still a prisoner in the castle at Lough Neagh ; ' the Countess of Argyle ' had remained with her ravisher through his shifting fortunes, had continued to bear him children, and notwithstanding his many in- fidelities, was still attached to him. M'Kevin told him that for their sakes, or at their intercession, he might find shelter and perhaps help among the kindred of the M'Connells. 1 In the far extremity of Antrim, beside the falls of Isnaleara, where the black valley of GlenariiF opens out into Red Bay, sheltered among the hills and close upon the sea, lay the camp of Allaster M'Connell and his nephew Gillespie. Here on Saturday, the last of May, appeared Shan O'Neil, with M'Kevin and some fifty men. He had brought the Countess and his prisoner as Attainder of Shun O'Neil : Irish Statute Book, u Elizabt-tlt.