120 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.42. part had determined never to submit at all unless he was secured in their possession. But he too thought it prudent to temporize. His father was by this time dead. He was required to appear before Elizabeth in person to explain the grounds on which he challenged his inheritance ; and after stipulating for a safe-conduct, and an advance of money for expenses of his journey, he affected a willingness to comply ; but he chose to treat with the Government at first hand, and in a cha- racteristic letter to Elizabeth he prepared the way for his reception. He described his father's miscellaneous habits, and
- gentlemanlike ' readiness to acknowledge every child
that was assigned to him ; he explained his brother's birth and his own election as the O'Neil ; he then pro- ceeded thus : * ' The deputy has much ill-used me, your Majesty; and now that I am going over to see you I hope you will consider that I am but rude and uncivil, and do not know my duty to your Highness nor yet your Majesty's laws, but am one brought up in wildness far from all civility. Yet have I a good will to the commonwealth of my country ; and please your Majesty to send over two commission- ers that you can trust that will take no bribes nor otherwise be imposed on, to observe what I have done to improve the country and to hear what my accusers have to say ; and then let them go into the Pale and 1 The voluininousness of the letter renders some abridgment necessary; but the character, suhstancc, and arrangement are preserved.
