O'Neil
stalked in, his saffron mantle sweeping round and round him, his hair
curling on his back and clipped short below the eyes, which gleamed from
under it with a gray lustre, frowning, fierce, and cruel. Behind him
followed his gallow-glasses, bareheaded and fair-haired, with shirts of
mail which reached beneath their knees, a wolf's skin flung across their
shoulders, and short, broad battle-axes in their hands." O'Neil made a
formal act of submission to the Queen, and negotiations set in for a
definite and lasting arrangement. Nothing came of it. O'Neil seems to
have understood that he was acting under a promise of safe-conduct, and
was to be confirmed in the ownership of his estates in return for his
submission. But, whatever may have been the misunderstanding, it is
certain that these terms were not carried out according to O'Neil's
expectation. He was detained in London in qualified captivity, and was
informed that he could only be restored to his lands when he had engaged
to make war against his former allies the Scots, had pledged himself not
to make war without the consent of the English government, and to set up
no claim of supremacy over other chiefs in Ireland.
O'Neil seems to have proved himself skilful as a diplomatist, and he
greatly gratified the Queen by paying intense deference to all her
suggestions, and even by modestly requesting that she would choose a wife
for him.
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