570 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 46. action. O'Dogherty with his Irish horse chased the flying crowd, killing every man he caught, and Shan recovered himself to find he had lost four hundred men of the bravest of his followers. More fatal overthrow neither he nor any other Irish chief had yet received at English hands. But* the success was dearly bought ; Colonel Randolph himself leading the pursuit was struck by a random shot and fell dead from his horse. The Irish had fortunately suffered too severely to profit by his loss. Shan's motley army, held together as it was by the hope of easily-bought plunder, scattered when the service became dangerous. Sidney, allowing him no rest, struck in again beyond Dundalk, burning his farms and capturing his castles. 1 The Scots came in over the Bann, wasting the country all along the river side. Allaster M'Connell, like some chief of Sioux Indians, sent to the Captain of Knockfergus an account of the cattle that he had driven, and * the wives and bairns ' that he had slain. 2 Like swarms of angry hornets these avenging savages drove their stings into the now maddened and desperate Shan, on every point where they could fasten ; while in December the old O'Donnell came out December. over the mountains from Donegal, and paid back O'Neil with interest for his stolen wife, his pillaged country, and his own long imprisonment and exile. The tide of fortune had turned too late for his own revenge : 1 Sidney to the Lords of the Council, December 12 : Irish MSS. Roll* House. ~ Allaster M'Connell to the Captain of Knockfergus ; enclosed in u letter of R. Piers to Sir H. Sidney, December 15 : MS. Ibid.
