From that moment he became his implacable enemy, made use of his position to ply the queen and Council with accusations against his brother-in-law, and when Tyrone replied to those charges the answers were intercepted.  It took some time to undermine Elizabeth’s confidence in the earl, having previously had many proofs of his loyalty.  It took some time, too, to induce Tyrone himself to go in the direction in which every event seemed now to be pushing him.  Once, however, his mind was made up and his retreat cut off, he set to work at his preparations upon a scale which soon showed the Government that they had this time no fiery half-savage Shane, no incapable vacillating Desmond to deal with.

An alliance with the O’Donnells and the other chiefs of the north was his first step.  He was by no means to be contented however with a merely provincial rising.  He despatched messages to Connaught, and enlisted the Burkes in the affair; also the O’Connor of Sligo, the McDermot and other western chiefs.  In Wicklow the O’Byrnes, always ready for a fray, agreed to join the revolt, with all that was left of the tribes of Leix and Offaly.  These, with the Kavanaghs and others, united to form a solemn union, binding themselves to stand or fall together.  To Spain Tyrone sent letters urging the necessity of an immediate despatch of troops.  With the Pope he also put himself into communication, and the rising was openly and avowedly declared to be a Catholic one.  Just at this juncture old Tyrlough Luinagh died, and Tyrone forthwith assumed the soul-stirring name of “The O’Neill” for himself.  Let the Spanish allies only arrive in time and the rule of England it was confidently declared would shortly in Ireland be a thing of the past.

[Illustration:  INITIAL LETTER FROM THE BOOK OF KELLS.]

XXVIII.

BATTLE OF THE YELLOW FORD.

The northern river Blackwater—­there are at least three Blackwaters in Ireland—­forms the southern boundary of the county Tyrone, which takes a succession of deep loops or elbows in order to follow its windings.  At the end of the sixteenth century and for centuries previously it had marked the boundary of the territory of the chiefs or princes of Tyrone, and here, therefore, it was that the struggle between the earl and the queen’s troops advancing from Dublin was necessarily fought out.

A good deal of desultory fighting took place at first, without any marked result upon either side.  Tyrone got possession of the English fort which commanded the passage of the river, but it was in turn snatched from him by the lately arrived deputy, Lord Borough, who, however, was so severely wounded in the affray that he had to fall back upon Newry, where he not long afterwards died.  Ireland was thus for the moment without a governor, and when after a temporary armistice, which Tyrone spun out as long as possible in hopes of his Spanish allies appearing, hostilities recommenced, the command devolved upon his brother-in-law and chief enemy, Sir Henry Bagnall.