This recognition of Sir Arthur’s merits, though princely, left him ungrateful. On the 23rd August, 1603, he wrote Cecil pretending that the King’s Letter had been “by the learned counsel found defective,” and praying that “some other to better purpose may be signed by his Majesty.” He did not disclose what was amiss with the Letter, or that its only “defect” was that it did not authorise what he coveted. The help of the vulnerable Viceroy was also enlisted, but to him the plea put forward was that the Letter “was not so ample as his Majesty intended.” Without awaiting Cecil’s reply Chichester stretched the Letter by taking out two Patents, in each of which he inserted grants greater than his Majesty had sanctioned. In the first Patent, dealing with Belfast, issued on the 10th September, 1603, he included the entire of the river Lagan, although the fishing at the Castle alone was given him. The second, relating to the Carrickfergus Governorship, he enlarged by a still more daring addition. The original of either Patent is no longer available, as they were first concealed, and then cancelled; but from those substituted for them the conclusion is irresistible that they swept the “command” of Lough Neagh into his hands. So glaring were their excesses that Sir Arthur shrank from enrolling them lest a comparison between their text and the King’s Letter, on which they purported to be based, should shock inquiring minds. The King’s Letter then (as now) lay in the custody of the Master of the Rolls. Davies’ arrival in Dublin in November, 1603, proved a godsend to all jobbers. The new Solicitor-General brought the latest London gossip of the extravagant largesse of the Scotch King and Queen, and of the Lord Lieutenant’s careless amours. This intelligence and his lawcraft lent aid to Sir Arthur’s purposes and shaped his methods. The system under which swollen grants were called into being for the profit of needy favourites had already been set in full swing; and Davies knew that the absentee Viceroy was not squeamish about the scope of the Patents taken out by his brothers-in-arms. The Solicitor-General framed himself to that situation. The entanglement with Lady Rich made the Lord Lieutenant reluctant to return to Ireland, and the delicacy of his position was becoming notorious. Davies saw its weakness, and discerned in Chichester a kindred spirit and a rising power. Before long their interchanges resulted in a dashing expedient. Underlying the application for the new Letter lurked the design to make it cover a Patent bulking the “command” at Carrickfergus with a right over Lough Neagh. If the scheme prospered, the concealed Patents could afterwards be destroyed; and, as they were not enrolled, legal proof of malpractice in framing them would also disappear. This plan bore upon its face the stamp of Davies’ mint.