connell, M'Quillan, who was not equal in war to his savage neighbours, called together his militia, or gallogloghs, to revenge his affronts over the Bann; and M'Donald, thinking it uncivil not to offer his service that day to M'Quillan, after having been so kindly treated, sent one of his gentlemen with an offer of his service in the field.

"M'Quillan was right well pleased with the offer, and declared it to be a perpetual obligation on him and his posterity. So M‘Quillan and the Highlanders went against the enemy, and, where there was a cow taken from M'Quillan's people before, there were two restored back; after which M'Quillan and Coll M'Donald returned back with great prey, and without the loss of a man.

"Winter then drawing nigh, M'Quillan gave Coll McDonald an invitation to stay with him at his castle, advising him to settle himself until Spring, and to quarter his men up and down the Root. This Coll M'Donald gladly accepted; and, in the mean time, seduced M'Quillan's daughter, and privately married her-on which ground the

Scots afterwards founded their claims to M'Quillan's territories.

"The men were quartered two and two through the Root, that is to say, one of M'Quillan's gallogloghs and a Highlander in every tenant's house.

"It so happened that the galloglogh, according to custom, besides his ordinary, was entitled to a meather,* of milk, as a privilege. This the Highlanders esteemed a great affront; and at last one of them asked his landlord- Why do you not give me milk, as you do the other?' The galloglogh immediately made answer- Would you, a Highland beggar as you are, compare yourself to me, or any of M'Quillan's gallogloghs?" The poor honest tenant, (who was heartily weary of them both,) said, Pray, gentlemen, I'll open the two doors, and you may go and fight it out in the fair fields, and he that has the victory, let him take

* A vessel commonly used by the Irish, formed out of a solid piece of wood of a triangular shape.

milk and all to himself.' The combat ended in the death of the galloglogh; after which, the Highlander came in again and dined heartily.

"M'Quillan's gallogloghs immediately assembled to demand satisfaction; and in a council which was held, where the conduct of the Scots was debated, their great and dangerous power, and the disgrace arising from the seduction of M'Quillan's daughter, it was agreed that each galloglogh should kill his comrade Highlander by night, and their lord and master with them; but Coll McDonald's wife discovered the plot, and told it to her husband-so the Highlanders fled in the night time, and escaped to the island of Raghery.

"From this beginning the M'Donalds and M'Quillans entered on a war, and continued to worry each other for half a century, till the English power became so superior in Ireland, that both parties made an appeal to James the First, who had just then ascended the throne of England. James had a predilection for his Scotch countryman, the M'Donald, to whom he made over by

patent four great baronies, including, along with other lands, all poor M'Quillan's possessions."

Instead of making Macdonald and his wife fly to Raghery, according to the manuscript, I send them into the Glens; I am sure I do not know for what purpose, except to gain the friendship of Macaulay, who was a powerful chief there at that time, and who afterwards assisted the Macdonalds at 'the battle of Aura. I have substituted the routing of the Scots at their landing, for the battle at Lough Lynch, where the Macquillans were victorious, and from whence the Macdonalds fled in disorder towards the head of Glenshesk, previous to the battle of Aura.

The idea of the siege at Dunluce is founded on the circumstance of Sir John Perrot,* then

* A curious document happened to fall into my hands a few days ago, showing who this Sir John Perrot was; and as it may be interesting to my readers, I shall quote it here:

"Sir John Perrot fought the first boxing match upon record, in Southwark, when he beat two of the king's yeomen of the guards, an

d

Lord Deputy of Ireland, having, in the year 1584, laid siege to and reduced Dunluce castle.

The following extract from the government of Ireland, under Sir John Perrot, will serve to show the manner in which it was taken by him from the Macdonalds:

"In the mean time himself, with the rest of his force, besieged the strong castle of Dunluce. Here was at this time a strong ward, commanded by a Scottish Captaine, who being summoned to deliver

action which brought him into public notice at that time. He was the supposed son of King Henry the Eighth, by Mary, wife to Thomas Perrot, Esq., of Haroldstone, in the County of Pembroke. In his stature and high spirit, he bore a strong resemblance to that monarch. At the beginning of the reign of Mary, he was sent to prison for harbouring Protestants; but by the interference of friends he was discharged. He assisted at the coronation of Queen Eliza. beth, who sent him to Ireland as Lord President of Munster, where he grew very unpopular by reason of his haughty conduct; he was recalled, unjustly accused, and condemned of treason. In 1592, he was tried by a special commission, brought in guilty of high treason, and sentenced to die. He was, however, respited by favour of the Queen, but died of a broken heart in the Tower."-(Doings in London, p. 195.)