Sidney was reluctant and Elizabeth undecided, and more than a year and a half slipped by without the change being actually made. 'For God's sake despatch him,' said Fitzwilliam; 'this uncertainty is a hell of unquietness to me, and so increases mine infirmities of shoulder, arm, side, and stomach, that I look shortly to become serviceable for nothing else but the worms of this land.' He could not hope to be in England before October; too late for Bath, and leaving him no resource but physicians in whom he did not believe.[304] [Sidenote: The revenue. A pestilence,] The Government of Ireland from April 1, 1573, to September 30, 1575, cost the Queen more than 130,000_l._ in ready money sent from England, besides the Irish revenue and debts incurred but not discharged. It was a principal part of Sidney's instructions to devise some means of checking this outflow. The Ulster account being almost closed, it was supposed that he would be able to manage with 5,000_l._ a quarter regularly paid, and that by improving the Irish revenue even that sum might in good time be reduced. Sidney was not likely to indulge in such golden dreams, and he undertook the government of Ireland for the third time with little expectation either of honour or profit. Leaving the Queen at Dudley Castle, he landed at Skerries after nearly losing two vessels in a storm. The summer had been very hot, and no rain fell from May 1 to August 1. 'A loathsome disease and dreadful malady,' say the 'Four Masters,' 'arose from this heat--namely, the plague, which raged violently among the English and Irish in Dublin, Naas, Ardee, Mullingar, and Athboy. Between those places many a castle was left without a guard, many a flock without a shepherd, and many a noble corpse without burial.' [Sidenote: and panic.] The whole Pale being infected, it was difficult to find a safe resting-place. The well-to-do citizens of Dublin fled to Drogheda, where they were grudgingly admitted, and whither they probably brought the pestilence; for deaths occurred in the town soon after the arrival of Essex and of the old and new Deputies, who all reached it on the same day. Immobility was the fault for which Fitzwilliam had been most blamed, and his successor, by starting immediately for Carrickfergus, no doubt meant to show that he was as capable as ever of those rapid movements which had bewildered and charmed the Irish mind. A blow had just been struck in Ulster, which for the time made resistance little to be feared. The terror of Sidney's name might do the rest.[305] [Sidenote: General results of Essex's grant.]