CONTENTS.

[CHAPTER I].
PAGE
Saved from the Sea1
[CHAPTER II].
The Princess begins Her Reign13
[CHAPTER III].
The Title-Deed of the Sword25
[CHAPTER IV].
The Colonel of Connaught37
[CHAPTER V].
The Queen’s Peace50
[CHAPTER VI].
Grace O’Malley dances out of Galway64
[CHAPTER VII].
The Die Cast81
[CHAPTER VIII].
The Capture of the Capitana94
[CHAPTER IX].
A Chest of Gold108
[CHAPTER X].
A Woman’s Wile121
[CHAPTER XI].
“Redshank and Rebel”135
[CHAPTER XII].
The Whispering Rocks149
[CHAPTER XIII].
A Surprise164
[CHAPTER XIV].
The Gate of Fears179
[CHAPTER XV].
The Siege is Raised194
[CHAPTER XVI].
“Our Natural Leader”210
[CHAPTER XVII].
A Dear Victory224
[CHAPTER XVIII].
At Askeaton239
[CHAPTER XIX].
The Landing of the Spaniards253
[CHAPTER XX].
Such Stuff as Dreams267
[CHAPTER XXI].
The Perfidy of Desmond282
[CHAPTER XXII].
“Only a Woman”297
[CHAPTER XXIII].
The Parting of the Ways310
[CHAPTER XXIV].
Barrington Bridge325

GRACE O’MALLEY,
PRINCESS AND PIRATE.

CHAPTER I.
SAVED FROM THE SEA.

It has now become so much a matter of custom—after that familiar human fashion which causes us to turn our faces to the rising sun—to praise and laud the King, James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England and Ireland, in the beginning of whose reign over the three kingdoms—to which he has been pleased to give the name of Great Britain—this chronicle is written, that there would appear to be some danger of a wonderful truth being forgotten.

For there can be no doubt that his Highness follows upon a most remarkable age—an age which must be known throughout all time to come as the Age of Great Women.

And when I think upon Elizabeth of England, who broke the power of Spain, of Mary of Scotland, whose beauty and whose wickedness were at once the delight and the despair of her people, and of the French queens, whose talents in statecraft have never been equalled, I make bold to deny that the period of the rule of his Highness will be in any respect as glorious as that which immediately preceded his time, and in which these great women lived.

Now, whether it was from the influence and inspiration of these high and mighty exemplars, or because it was born of the pith and marrow of decreed circumstance, and so lay at the very heart of things, that women should then lead the way, and that men should give themselves up entirely to their service, I cannot say. Yet I know that there were other women of less exalted rank than those I have mentioned, whose powers, although displayed on but a small stage, were seen to be so superior to those of men that men willingly obeyed them, and lived and died for them—and living or dying were glad indeed.