his wife, were seized upon by the Earl, and all his people put unsparingly to the sword--men, women, youths, and maidens--in Brian's own presence. Brian was afterwards sent to Dublin, together with his wife and brother, where they were cut in quarters. Such was the end of their feast. This unexpected massacre, this wicked and treacherous murder of the lord of the race of Hugh Boy O'Neill, the head and the senior of the race of Owen, son of Nial of the Nine Hostages, and of all the Gaels, a few only excepted, was a sufficient cause of hatred and disgust of the English to the Irish.' Some praised the Earl's conduct, and there seems to have been no official blame, but Ormonde hinted his dislike of what had been done. Essex meant well, he said, God send it so: 'I am loth to speak of the North, which has cost her Majesty much, but I pray God a worse come not in Sir Brian's place.' The Earl himself boasted 'that this little execution hath broken the faction and made them all afeard;' and that two of Sir Brian's kinsmen were competitors for his inheritance, and had applied to Captain Norris, each offering to live in peace. The knight-errant who had started with visions of creating an Eden in Ulster, now thought it a triumph to make men of two minds in an house.[294] [Sidenote: Vacillation of the Queen.] Essex believed that 2,000 soldiers would suffice for Ireland, 1,300 of them being stationed in Ulster while permanent fortified posts were being built and garrisoned, and that when the building was done 500 men would easily hold the province. To this arrangement the Queen, with much hesitation, agreed. Garrisons cost money, as she knew by the experience of Maryborough and Philipstown, and like them they might after all be but very moderately successful. [Sidenote: Essex and Fitzwilliam.]