It would be unkind if we did not here parenthetically record the charitable action of MacDonnell in regard to these same Spanish castaways. Theirs, indeed, was a hard lot. The best blood of Spain young nobles from a southern clime inflated with the arrogance of power and wealth, crusading, as they thought, in a worthy cause, shattered by the elements, hunted by their enemies, unsuccoured by their friends. All along the western coast of Ireland, wherever a Spanish galleon took shelter after that awful run around the Hebrides, the poor half-famished soldiers were mercilessly butchered. Better, far better, was the lot of those who sank in mid-ocean, or yielded up their lives in the breaking waves of the strand or on the cruel rocks of an angry coast.

It was excusable in Fitzwilliam, the English deputy, to give no quarter to the Spaniard, his country’s bitterest foe ; but of many of the Irish better was expected. Had not the Spaniard assailed their conqueror, their enemy ? Were they not of their own religion, and would-be friends ? Sligo men vied with those of Clare in their inhuman actions plundering the wrecks, stripping or murdering the poor distracted wretches that clung to floating planks and spars ;or worse still, yielding them for favour to the Viceroy, to be marched in shackles to Dublin, and there butchered by dozens in the castle yard.

The inducements held out to the Irish and the threats used to act thus, scarcely excuse them in their actions. The loyalty drawn out by Sir John Perrot, the greatest and truest of all the Viceroys, should not have forced them to act so inhumanly. It is a dark passage in a dark time, and has sombre lessons. Be this as it may, to MacDonnell of Dunluce pre-eminently belongs the place of honour in having succoured those who were in dire distress defiantly refusing to hand over the wretches who had fled to him for safety, and those flung by the waves at the foot of his fortress cas tle knowing well the enemies he was thus making preferring to give them every assistance and safe transport back to Spain, through his many friends in Scotland.

MacDonnell complained angrily to the Government that soldiers from the garrison at Carrickfergus had been sent illegally over his lands to plunder and spoil such of his tenants as refused to pay the imposed taxes. The English authorities in Ireland, unwilling, through their own weakness, to drive this powerful chieftain into the ranks of the enemy, recommended that the two knights thus so threateningly opposed to each other, should have a personal meeting to arrange an amicable settlement of the several points in dispute. A day was appointed for the interview, and Sir James MacDonnell, with a multitude of his hardy Scots, went early southward to be present in due time at the place of meeting near Carrickfergus. Suspecting what afterwards really happened that some treacherous attempt might be made on his liberty or life, he left the greater part of his troops at a place called Altfracken, near the present village of Ballycarry, and went forward with a small company of personal friends and attendants.

He saw at a glance, however, that Sir John Chichester, who had come with a formidable array, had some sinister design in view, and accordingly, when MacDonnell commenced rather hastily to retire from the meeting, a rush was made upon his small party by the opposing force from the garrison. The pursuit, however, suddenly came to an end, for the whole Scottish force was up and around their leader just in time to save him and his friends. Sir John Chichester fell soon after the fight commenced, and his force fled in all directions some back to their garrison, some into Island Magee, others taking refuge in various places throughout the district. Among the refugees was Sir Moses Hill, then an unknown lieutenant, who found a hiding-place in a cave in Island Magee, which cave is known by his name to this day. Among the runners also was Lieutenant Dobbs the first of his name in the district and he ingloriously retreated under a bridge until the danger had passed. Another runaway was Lieutenant John Dalway, who concealed himself for a time in the dry flow or ooze left by the shallow water that had once separated Island Magee from the mainland.

The survivors of the English force were in such haste away from the Glen of Altfracken that they did not even attempt to carry with them the body of their dead Governor. Sir James MacDonnell had it brought to a flat stone and decapitated, sending the head to the camp of O’Neill and O’Donnell, who were then in Tyrone, where it was made a football by the rude gallowglass of the army. This little barbarity was done, no doubt, by way of encouragement to the Irish leaders, and also as an act of retaliation against the English, who had previously thus mutilated the body of MacDonnell’s elder brother, Alexander, sending the head to be stuck up on a spike in front of Dublin Castle. Sir James MacDonnell, after that day’s achievement, retired quietly to Dunluce Castle, where he was permitted to dwell in peace until the time of his death in 1601.

The news of the conflict at Altfracken brought consternation to the English in Ulster, and deep deliberation amongst the authorities in Dublin as to whom they should appoint to the governorship at Carrickfergus. The mandate, however, soon came from London that Sir Arthur Chichester was to succeed his brother; and although Sir James MacDonnell and others remonstrated against this appointment, the Queen quickly made it final, knowing through some influential channel that Sir Arthur would not only be well able to give a good account of the Irish throughout Upper and Lower Clannaboy, but would also keep a sharp look-out on the Scots in the Route and Glynns.

To be continued