The Queen chided Sidney for coupling Sir Edmund's name with Fitzmaurice's and MacCarthymore's, for which, however, there was abundant justification, and she let Ormonde go as the only chance of restoring peace. Before he could leave London, his brothers Edmund, Piers, and Edward had joined Fitzmaurice, with whom MacCarthy had made plans for concerted action. The Butlers had done their own part by devastating the eastern part of the Queen's County, and killing the warders of Balliknockane. Fitzmaurice followed up the blow by attacking Kilmallock and extorting a ransom of 160_l._, the townsmen fearing that they would after all have to receive a Geraldine garrison. He met the Earl of Thomond and John Burke close to Limerick, and the citizens, who feared to lose all their cattle, were in some doubt as to the proper course. The men of Waterford, as became the city's ancient reputation, did not wait for orders, but worked hard at their fortifications, sent provisions to Cork and Youghal, and gave shelter to the miserable inhabitants of the country. They reported that the Geraldine rebels burned and slew where they listed, stripping honest men and women naked and using more cruel tortures 'than either Phalaris or any of the old tyrants could invent.' Even before the open rebellion great disorders had been caused by the general poverty. On Good Friday the city, according to ancient custom, opened its gates to 1,100 poor men, who, when they had eaten, fell to plundering and housebreaking; and it took three weeks to get rid of them by beating out the sturdy beggars, and coaxing out those of a weaker sort. Corn was daily growing dearer, and 'the caterpillars' boasted that they would reap the next harvest. The kine, 'which by milk used to keep the poor wretches alive,' were killed or driven away. Edward Butler had devastated Waterford County, but the citizens feared nothing. To attack them without the aid of a foreign prince would be to 'spurn against a wall,' and Spain was of no such force in Ireland as their own sovereign liege.[166] [Sidenote: Waterford and Cork.]