Before leaving Lifford Essex commissioned O'Donnell to seize upon all O'Neill's cattle which had crossed the Foyle to be under Con's protection, but under no circumstances to allow his nephew's own herds to be touched. The O'Donnells disregarded the latter injunction, but 'laid hold on them, and, as their manner is, every man carried his booty home;' 1,400 head only out of a much larger number being brought into the English camp. In consideration of what his followers had gained, Essex bound the chief to have an extra force of 600 men, and swore him to fight with Tirlogh Luineach as long as her Majesty did. On his road home he carefully burned all O'Neill's corn, and boasted that the value was not less than 5,000_l._--a mode of making war which was certainly not calculated to advance the civilisation of Ulster. Tirlogh's strength was practically unbroken, and it is evident that few thought Essex capable of doing anything great. He had, he complained, in all his journeys to the North had no help from the Pale but fifteen pack-horses on one occasion and seven on another. Provisions were never given 'but at such extreme pennyworths as hath not been heard of in this country.' To his sanguine mind it still seemed easy, if the Lord Deputy would only co-operate cordially, 'to establish the country as it may be ever preserved from rebellion hereafter.' Fitzwilliam, who had no illusions left, thought differently, and there can be little doubt that he was right. The Earl himself had privately told Burghley that the Queen was nothing benefited by former pacifications of the North, and that only a permanent garrison could make permanent work. There was little hope of revenue. Every captain in Ulster was, he thought, ready to take an estate of inheritance and give up Irish customs. Many said they had offered as much and had been refused; 'and yet they allege, that they have ever paid more than would maintain a good garrison, which hath been put in some of their purses which governed here.' The Crown was in fact too poor to pay its servants, and so they paid themselves. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that expeditions into Ulster were like the fortresses which children build upon the beach: the unresisting sand is easily moulded, the architect's pride is great, but the next flood washes all the work away.[292] [Sidenote: Essex is summoned to Court.]