In return for these concessions the Queen demanded only that Shane, to save her honour, should sue for them as a favour instead of demanding them as a right.

The rebel chief consented without difficulty to conditions which cost him nothing, and after an interview with Cusack, O'Neill wrote a formal apology to Elizabeth, and promised for the future to be her Majesty's true and faithful subject.

Indentures were drawn up on December 17, in which the Ulster sovereignty was transferred to him in everything but the name, and the treaty required only Elizabeth's signature, when a second dark effort was made to cut the knot of the Irish difficulty.'[1] [Footnote 1: Froude, vol.viii.

p.48.] This second 'dark effort' was nothing less than an attempt to murder O'Neill by means of poison.

He could not be conquered; he could not be out-manoeuvred; he could not be assassinated in the ordinary way.