This is my answer, commend me to my gossip the Deputy. God be with you, my masters." "Nay," said the envoys, "we brought you letters, and by letters we look for answer." "Well, letters you shall have," said he, and he caused his secretary to write. We send a true copy, so that you shall see how well speech and writing agree.'[112] [Sidenote: Sidney is obliged to temporise.] Persuasion had failed, as Sidney doubtless foresaw, and he was in no condition to carry things with a high hand. He reiterated the demands he had already made in England, and declared he could do nothing till they were granted. A competent Chancellor, a President for Munster, money to pay off the demoralised soldiers and get new ones who had not graduated in idleness and extortion; these were the most pressing wants. 4,000_l._ should be spent out of hand in fortifications, and means should be given to victual all garrisons at once, instead of waiting till the last moment and then paying double. The Lord Deputy had not even a good clerk whom he could trust to copy despatches, still less could he do good service with soldiers who lived by plunder and were everywhere allied with the Irish. With 500 well-paid and well-appointed men he would chase Shane before him within forty-eight hours, or be accounted a traitor. Otherwise he might come to the walls of Dublin and go away unfought. Ulster was ready for the foreigner to seize, and a whole province would be worse to England than the single town of Calais had been to France. He had rather die than have the name of losing Ireland, and yet he could do nothing without proper tools. Six thousand times a day did he wish himself in any part of Christendom, so that he might escape from the Irish purgatory, with its endless and thankless toil.[113] [Sidenote: The Sussex and Leicester factions.] The presence of Sussex at Court was not favourable to his successor's efforts in Ireland. Smarting under the sense of failure, he was ready to find fault, and he or his friends accused Sidney of using improper language. The party opposed to Leicester, including Ormonde, whose favour with the Queen was such as to cause some slight scandal, eagerly welcomed rumours unfavourable to the favourite's brother-in-law. Sidney denied in vigorous language that he had slandered Sussex in any way, though he knew him to be his enemy. 'That evil,' he said, 'come to me and mine, I pray God, that I wish to him.' At last Elizabeth confronted Sussex and Leicester at the Council Board, and the result was a complete vindication of Sidney. But the unconciliatory tone of Sussex made the scene painful, and such as Cecil would have given much to avoid. Though angry with Sidney for his coldness to Ormonde, for the favour shown to Stukeley, and above all, for his financial importunities, the Queen pacified him by a graceful letter, and his credit seems to have been fully re-established at Court.[114]