I574-] THE DESMOND REBELLION. 523 mischief. He had "been deceived by Sir Brian once before, and ' for avoiding a second folly by overmuch trust/ as he expressed it, ' he determined to make sure work with so fickle a people/ A high feast November. was held in the hall. The revelling was pro- tracted late into the night before Sir Brian and his wife retired to their lodging outside the walls. As soon as they were supposed to be asleep, a company of soldiers surrounded the house, and prepared to break the door. The O'Neils flew to arms. The cry rang through the village, and they swarmed out to defend their chief, but surprised, half armed, and outnumbered, they were overpowered and cut to pieces. Two hundred men were killed. The Four Masters add that women were killed. The chieftain's wife had probably female attendants with her, and no one was knowingly spared. 1 The tide being out, a squadron of horse was sent at daybreak over the water into the ' Ardes/ from which in a few hours they returned with three thousand of Sir Brian's cattle, and with a drove of stud mares, of which the choicest were sent as a present to Fitzwilliam. Sir Brian himself, with his brother and Lady O'Neil, were carried as pri- soners to Dublin, where they were soon after executed. This exploit raised Essex high in the estimation of the Anglo- Irish of the Pale. The taint of the country ,vas upon him. He had made himself no better than 1 Annals of the Four Masters, A 1574. Essex to Fitzwilliam, No- vember 14. Essex to tbe English Council, November 24. In the re- port to the Deputy the number killed was said to be a hundred and twenty-five, in the report to England to be two hundred.
