The Queen granted the brothers an interview before their departure, professed herself satisfied with the Earl's plain speech and good intentions, 'and to Sir John she gave a privy nip, that as he hath a good wit, so he should hereafter use it well. He, like one not unwise nor unexpert, craved pardon, if anything heretofore were amiss, all should be amended.' Burghley lectured Sir John again, at greater length no doubt, and after a further delay of some weeks, caused probably by the Queen's dislike to do anything in Burghley's absence, the restored exiles were forwarded to Ireland in charge of Fitton, who had been appointed Vice-Treasurer, and the settlement of whose quarrel with Clanricarde was referred to the friendly offices of the Lord Deputy and Council. Fitzwilliam had directions to do nothing without consulting Perrott, and Perrott had been much averse to Desmond's return. Rejoicing in his freedom, Desmond slipped through Wales, and Fitton heard nothing of him till he reached Beaumaris. Perhaps the released prisoner expected what actually happened, and had some half-formed plan of sailing before the Vice-Treasurer and reaching Munster without running the gauntlet of the Dublin politicians. Sir Thomas Smith had indeed given the sound advice that, 'seeing her Majesty doth mind to tie the Earl to her service with a benefit, it should be _ample, liberaliter et prolixe_ done, not _maligne et parce_, which doth so disgrace it, that for love many a time it leaveth a grudge beyond in the heart of him which should receive it that mars the whole benefit.' But other counsels prevailed, and Desmond was detained for many months in Dublin--a proceeding by no means calculated to cause a lively sense of benefits conferred.[241] [Sidenote: Walter, Earl of Essex.] Having desperately resolved to pacify Munster by sending Desmond home, the Queen made haste to create disturbance in Ulster by licensing private conquest on a large scale. Smith had evidently failed, but she persuaded herself that another might succeed if only he were adequately supported. It was an age when nothing seemed impossible to the brave, and all men's minds ran upon vague schemes of conquest, beyond unfathomed seas and over unmeasured lands. [Sidenote: His antecedents.]