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pear before her. On Easter Tuesday Desmond arrived at Liverpool in custody of Captain Nicholas Heron, having suffered much from sea-sickness. Ormonde was already at court. Charges and counter-charges of high treason followed. Eventually the two earls submitted, and consented to enter into recognisances of 20,000l. each to stand to such order for their controversies as her majesty should think good. On 7 Jan. 1566 the lord deputy was informed that the earls were reconciled and licensed to depart into Ireland, but Desmond was not to leave Dublin until he had paid what debts he had incurred. The original controversy between them, however, remained, and seemed likely to remain, undecided. 'I will never,' wrote Sir H. Sidney to Cecil on 27 April, 'unpressed, upon my allegiance, deal in the great matters of my lord of Ormonde, until another chancellor come, or some other commissioner out of England, to be joined with me for hearing and determining of that cause ; for how indifferently soever I shall deal, I know it will not be thought favourably enough on my lord of Ormonde's side.' He protested that he was not prejudiced against Ormonde, only the case had been 'forejudged.' On 12 Dec. he renewed his request, and soon afterwards (27 Jan. 1567) began a tour of inspection through Munster, in consequence of which he was most unfavourably impressed with Desmond's character. At Youghal he entered into an examination of the controversy between the earls, and having found that the disputed lands were in the possession of Ormonde 'at the time of the fray-making,' he gave judgment accordingly, 'whereat the Earl of Desmond did not a little stir, and fell into some disallowable heats and passions.' 'From this time forward, nor never since,' he wrote to Elizabeth, 'found I any willingness in him to come to any conformity or good order,' but, on the contrary, found him to be 'a man void of judgment to govern and will to be ruled,' the cause in short of the turbulent state of Munster. He therefore arrested him at Kilmallock, and, carrying him to Dublin, locked him up in the Castle, leaving his brother, Sir John of Desmond, of whose capabilities he seems to have had a higher opinion, seneschal or captain of the country. In August 1567 Sidney left Ireland, and during his absence, as he himself said, Sir John was by the lord justices inveigled up to Dublin, taken prisoner, sent over to England with the earl, and both of them committed to the Tower. 'And truly, Mr. Secretary,' said he, 'this kind of dealing with Sir John of Desmond was the origin of James Fitzmaurice's rebellion.' The earl and Sir John landed at Graycoite, near Beaumaris, on 14 Dec., and on their arrival in London they were confined to the Tower, where they remained until midwinter 1570, when the state of Sir John's health necessitated his removal. They were then placed under the supervision of Sir Warham St. Leger, at his house at Southwark. In August 1571 St. Leger complained to the council that the earl had refused to accompany him into Kent, and that during his absence he had rashly ranged abroad into sundry parts of London. Next summer he tried to bribe Martin Frobisher, who revealed the plot to Burghley, to assist him to escape by sea. Meanwhile, on 30 June 1569, the question of the prize wines had been settled in Ormonde's favour. In the following year Eleanor, countess of Desmond (the earl's second wife), came to England, where she remained with her husband till his release. The government was undecided what to do with him. Sir John Perrot, then president of Munster, strenuously urged that he should be detained for another year or two, but that Sir John should be allowed to return. However, in March 1573, after signing articles for his future good conduct (Cal. Carew MSS. i. 430), he was permitted to return to Ireland, to Perrot's disgust, who marvelled much that her majesty should so act in regard to 'a man rather meet to keep Bedlam than to come to a new reformed country.' The Irish government thought with Perrot, and on his arrival in Dublin on Lady-day they rearrested him ; but on 16 Nov. he managed to escape, and within a month afterwards he had destroyed almost every trace of Perrot's government in the province. Elizabeth was now anxious to recapture him, and a certain Edward Fitzgerald, brother of the Earl of Kildare, and presumably persona grata, was in December commissioned to remonstrate with him. The attempt failed, as did also the intervention of the Earl of Essex in June 1574. Desmond was profuse in his protestations of loyalty, but refused to surrender unconditionally. Required to consent to the abolition of coyne and livery, the surrender of certain castles and other things embodied in the articles of 8 July, he declined, and his conduct was approved by his kinsmen, who bound themselves by oath (18 July) 'to maintain and defend this our advice against the lord deputy or any others that will covet the earl's inheritance' (this combination, printed in Morrin's Patent Rolls, ii. 109, and the deed of feoffment that followed, have an interesting history. See Wallop to Burghley, Ham. Cal. iii. 63). Thereupon he was proclaimed, a price set on his head, and in August Fitzwilliam and Ormonde advanced