eat number were drowned. The Annals of Kilronan and Clonmacnois enter
these events under the year 1200; the Four Masters under the year 1199.
The former state that "Cahall Carragh was taken deceitfully by the
English of Meath," and imprisoned until he paid a ransom; and that De
Courcy, "after slaying of his people," returned to Ulster.

Cathal Crovderg now obtained the assistance of the Lord Justice, who
plundered Clonmacnois. He also purchased the services of FitzAldelm, and
thus deprived his adversary of his best support. The English, like the
mercenary troops of Switzerland and the Netherlands, appear to have
changed sides with equal alacrity, when it suited their convenience; and
so as they were well paid, it mattered little to them against whom they
turned their arms. In 1201 Cathal Crovderg marched from Limerick to
Roscommon, with his new ally and the sons of Donnell O'Brien and
Florence MacCarthy. They took up their quarters at Boyle, and occupied
themselves in wantonly desecrating the abbey. Meanwhile Cathal Carragh,
King of Connaught, had assembled his forces, and came to give them
battle. Some skirmishes ensued, in which he was slain, and thus the
affair was ended. FitzAldelm, or De Burgo, as he is more generally
called now, assisted by O'Flaherty of West Connaught, turned against
Cathal when they arrived at Cong to spend the Easter. It would appear
that the English were billeted on the Irish throughout the country; and
when De Burgo demanded wages for them, the Connacians rushed upon them,
and slew six hundred men. For once his rapacity was foiled, and he
marched off to Munster with such of his soldiers as had escaped the
massacre. Three years after he revenged himself by plundering the whole
of Connaught, lay and ecclesiastical.

During this period Ulster was also desolated by civil war. Hugh O'Neill
was deposed, and Connor O'Loughlin obtained rule; but the former was
restored after a few years.

John de Courcy appears always to have been regarded with jealousy by the
English court. His downfall was at hand, A.D. 1204; and to add to its
bitterness, his old enemies, the De Lacys, were chosen to be the
instruments of his disgrace. It is said that he had given mortal offence
to John, by speaking openly of him as a usurper and the murderer of his
nephew; but even had he not been guilty of this imprudence, the state he
kept, and the large tract of country which he held, was cause enough for
his ruin. He had est