The Lord Deputy and the Butlers had never been very good friends, and the dissension now reached such a height as to disturb the whole country. 'I was never,' exclaimed Brabazon, 'in despair in Ireland until now,' and others were not more hopeful. 'My Lord Deputy,' said Lord Butler, 'is the Earl of Kildare born again?' and Luttrell, a keen observer, thought Ormonde hated Grey worse than he had hated Kildare. The Butlers complained that the Lord Deputy systematically slighted their party and favoured the Geraldines; he retorted that they intrigued with Irishmen against his government. One or two of the matters in dispute call for more particular notice.[204] [Sidenote: Ormonde and the O'Carrolls.] After many struggles Fergananim O'Carroll was the acknowledged chief of Ely. His wife was daughter to Kildare and sister-in-law to O'Connor, and he was ready to submit to Grey as the best means of opposing Ormonde. He promised to hold his land of the King at a rent of twelvepence for every ploughland, to attend the Lord Deputy with a fixed contingent, and to give free quarters for a limited number of the gallowglasses in the royal service. He also undertook to open up his country by cutting passes. O'Carroll at first stipulated that Grey should help him to recover all his father's strongholds; but all those castles were already vested legally in the Crown, and some of them had been granted to Ormonde. The Council therefore objected, and Fergananim seems to have waived his claim without demanding any corresponding concession. The prudence of the Council had prevented the Lord Deputy from concluding an offensive alliance; but he acted as if he had done so, and proceeded to take Birr and Modreeny, both of which Ormonde claimed under a royal grant, and to attack Ballynaclogh. The latter place was held by an O'Kennedy who paid rent to the Earl, and it is within the bounds of Tipperary. O'Carroll boasted that Nenagh and Roscrea would soon be his, and these castles, though long in Irish hands, were part of the old Ormonde inheritance, and had been lately confirmed to the Earl by a new grant.[205] [Sidenote: Grey and the O'Mores.]