CHAPTER II.
THE RULE OF THE O'NEILLS.
Shane O'Neill was a man of extraordinary ability and tremendous energy, as the English found to their cost.

He was guilty of atrocious deeds; but he had too many examples in those lawless times encouraging him to sacrifice the most sacred ties to his ambition.

He resolved to seize the chieftainship by deposing his father and banishing him to the Pale, where, after passing some years in captivity, he died.

He was, no doubt, urged to do this, lest by some chance the son of the baron of Dungannon should be adopted by England as the rightful heir, and made Earl of Tyrone.

This title he spurned, and proclaimed himself the O'Neill, the true representative of the ancient kings of Ulster, to which office he was elected by his people, taking the usual oath with his foot upon the sacred stone.