1567-] DEATH OF Cf NEIL. 577 peace offerings : he alighted at Allaster's tent, and threw himself on his hospitality ; and though the blood of the M'Connells was fresh on his hands he was received ' with dissembled gratulatory words/ The feud seemed to be buried in the restoration of Surly boy ; an alliance was again talked of, and for two days all went well. But the death of their leaders in the field was not the only wrong which Shan had offered to the Western Island- ers : he had divorced James M'ConnelPs daughter ; he had kept a high-born Scottish lady with him as his mistress ; and last of all, after killing M'Connell, he had asked Argyle to give him M'Connell's widow for a wife. The lady herself, to escape the dishonour, had remained in concealment in Edinburgh ; but the mention of it had been taken as a mortal insult by her family. The third evening, Monday the 2nd of June, after supper, when the wine and the whisky had gone freely round, and the blood in Shan's veins had warmed again, Grillespie M'Connell, who had watched him from the first with an ill-boding eye, turned round upon M 'Kevin and asked scornfully c whether it was he who had bruited abroad that the lady his aunt did offer to come from Scotland to Ireland to marry with his master ? ' M 'Kevin, meeting scorn with scorn, said ' that if his aunt was Queen of Scotland she might be proud to match the O'Neil/ ' It is false ! ' the fierce Scot shouted ; ' my aunt is too honest a woman to match with her husband's mil?-- derer.' VOT,. VTT. 37
