1560.] SHAN a NEIL. 119 sufficient work at home. They could spare no troops for Ireland while they were unable to reinforce their army at Leith. O'Brien however received promises in abundance. Three French ships accompanied him on his return, and Irish imagination added thirty or forty which were said to be on the way. Kildare called his retainers under arms, and held a Parliament of chiefs at Maynooth which was opened with public mass. In speeches of the time- honoured type the patriotic orators dwelt upon the wrongs of Ireland ; they swore that they would be
- slaves ' no longer ; they protested ' that their kingdom
was kept from them by force by such as were aliens in blood ; ' and Fitzwilliam, frightened by the loud words, wrote in haste for assistance that ' the English might fight for their lives before they were all dead.' 1 "With the death of Henry the Second, the fall of Leith, and the failure of the French to appear, the Irish courage cooled and the more pressing danger passed off. Kildare's larger knowledge showed him that the opportunity was gone. His father's death on the scaffold and his own long exile had taught him that without support from abroad a successful insurrec- tion was impossible ; and having no personal interests to defend he bought his pardon for the treason which he had meditated by loyally returning to his allegiance. Shan O'Neil was less favourably circumstanced. His rank and his estates were at stake, and he on his Advertisements out of Ireland, May 28, 1560 : Irish MSS. Soils House.
