But this sweep, ample as it was, did not reconcile Chichester to the disappointment of not being able to secure, as his share, the great Irish territory in Upper Clannaboy, then and still known as Castlereagh, extending southward from the shore of Belfast Lough, below Holywood, to the neighbourhood of Lisburn ; its green slopes overlooking the valley of the Lagan and much of the Antrim coast. On this great territory, now divided into the two modern baronies of Upper and Lower Castlereagh, he had set his heart, first riding about its fields and around its boundaries at the head of his flying column from Carrickfergus. Its chieftain, Con O’Neill, had taken a prominent place in the then northern revolt against Elizabeth, and, as a matter of course, had thus forfeited his lands to the Crown ; which lands Chichester felt pretty confident he would very soon be able to secure for himself. It so happened, however, that suddenly, and to the great surprise of both friends and foes, Con O’Neill deserted the Irish cause and surrendered himself to the Queen. As a likely means of encouraging other Irish leaders to follow in Con’s footsteps, Elizabeth gladly accepted his surrender and restored him to his lands : thus Chichester’s cherished anticipations were frustrated, and to make matters worse, he was obliged to assist Con in re-entering and keeping possession of his castle and lands ; for no sooner did his desertion of the Irish become known, than his kinsman, Bryan MacArt O’Neill, seized Castlereagh and held it for the Northern Lords until Chichester and Con together succeeded, after much delay, in regaining the castle for its rightful owner.

When Con, however, had time to look over his lands, he found that he had not returned a moment too soon to preserve his tenantry from the attacks of Chichester and his soldiers. It happened, unfortunately, soon afterwards, in the closing days of Elizabeth’s life, that some of Con’s servants had engaged in a brawl with certain of the Queen’s tax-gatherers, who had been appointed at Belfast, and in this fight one of the latter was killed. Thereupon Chichester instantly sprang upon Con, had him thrown into a dungeon at Carrickfergus, and had judges and jurors prepared to try him on a charge of high treason in levying war on Her Majesty, and what not. Chichester believed that he had here another, and a still better, opportunity of finally disposing of Con, and of thus, after all, securing the green slopes of Castlereagh that looked down so temptingly upon the ford of Belfast ; but he was again doomed to fail, and this second disappointment he must have felt even more bitterly than his first.

During Con’s imprisonment at Carrickfergus his devoted wife kept hovering constantly around his place of confinement, thus attracting the notice and sympathy of Anna Dobbin, the daughter of the chief gaoler in the old castle. On an evening when these two ladies were talking not unlikely condoling together over the approaching doom of the prisoner, in came two Scottish gentlemen brothers named Montgomery, one of whom was Anna Dobbin’s accepted suitor, and soon afterwards became her husband. Being formally introduced to Lady O’Neill (for Con had been dubbed an English knight), these gentlemen announced that the Queen was dead, and that their King, James VI., was being everywhere proclaimed as her successor. From this starting-point the little company entered into a free and friendly talk about public affairs in general. The Montgomerys had heard of Con O’Neill’s arrest, and expressed their abhorrence in no measured terms of Chichester’s conduct in the affair. From Irish topics the conversation turned to Scotland, where, as the visitors stated, there was then a widespread expectation that Ulster was soon to be planted with English and Scottish settlers. These Montgomerys, although from Largs, were nearly related to the Montgomerys of Braidstane, who had been then taking much pains to understand the exact position in Ulster, and regularly communicating to the Scottish king whatever information they could obtain on the subject. For much of this information the Braidstane Montgomerys were indebted to these gentlemen from Largs, who owned two trading vessels, and had thus frequent opportunities of visiting the coasts of Ulster.

To this conversation Lady O’Neill kept listening intently, and when it drew to an end she came forward solemnly to the speakers and said that her husband and she would willingly and thankfully give the half of their whole lands to anyone who would obtain his pardon from the King. The two Montgomerys seemed at first astounded : they stared for an instant at each other ; then consulted together ; and finally turning to Lady O’Neill, they proposed that she should return with them that afternoon to Largs ; that they would accompany her the next day to Braidstane, and that she could there make her offer to the laird of that ilk, as there was certainly no time to be lost in making any efforts that could yet possibly be made for her husband’s safety. Lady O’Neill accepted their counsel with grateful emotion, and delightedly rendered her entire acquiescence in the arrangement thus proposed. They found the Laird of Braidstane eagerly anxious to assist, but only on the condition that Con O’Neill should be rescued by some means from prison, and thus enabled to accompany him into the presence of the King.

The party from Largs then returned thither in hot haste, re-crossing the channel to Carrickfergus. Hugh Montgomery of Braidstane, afterwards Lord Viscount Montgomery of the Great Ardes, saw at a glance how significant this offer on the part of Lady O’Neill might be made, both for himself and his two kinsmen, who had so interested themselves in the affair ; but he felt also that whilst he would be engaged in negotiations with the King, the prisoner might be executed, as the time of his trial drew very near, and therefore he urged on all concerned the absolute necessity of Con’s immediate rescue. Fortunately, Anna Dobbin, through sympathy and pity for the O’Neills, and from the urgent solicitations of her intended husband, not only connived at Con’s escape, but even arranged the only means by which it could be accomplished. The escape was not discovered until Con had time to hide himself in the ruins of an old church at Donaghadee ; and before Chichester could find his place of concealment, a little boat had carried him out into the channel to a friendly vessel that soon conveyed him to Largs ; and so Chichester lost his second and last opportunity of getting into Castlereagh.

Montgomery, however, obtained eventually one-third of Con O’Neill’s lands. For although the King had sanctioned the conditions of the original agreement for the full half thereof, James Hamilton, afterwards Lord Viscount Clandeboy, had also supplied James VI. with much information about Ireland, and had rendered other services, and was thus able to induce him to divide Con’s estates into three parts one for Con, one for Montgomery, and one for Hamilton. Out of Con’s third part, however, one of that generous Irish chieftain’s first grants indeed we think the very first was made by him to the two Montgomerys of Largs, and an ample grant of lands in perpetuity it was whereon Anna Dobbin and her husband lived happily until the end of their days.

Concluded