Cecil was favourable to Sir Arthur, and the Lord Lieutenant doubtless reflected that to extend his “command” to embrace Lough Neagh would only increase his responsibility without enriching his estate or enlarging his pay. They, therefore, furthered Chichester’s petition without troubling as to the purpose to which an “amended” King’s Letter might be turned. In the first profuse year of the Stuart regime, small scrutiny was spent by James I. on requests of this kind. Once Devonshire and Cecil backed up a suppliant’s prayer, no difficulty was made in yielding it. His Majesty accordingly, on the 29th December, 1603, consented to sign a second Letter; and thereby became anew the victim of servitors who prostituted regal forms to corrupt ends. The difference between the first and second King’s Letter related chiefly to the “command” of Lough Neagh; but that difference enabled the craftsmen to effect a far-reaching extension of the Patent it authorised. The “amended” Letter was drawn to invest Chichester with “the government of Carrickfergus and of all other forts, places, and commands, with the Lough Neagh and the commodities thereof mentioned in our Letters Patent formerly granted unto him, together with the fee of 13s. 4d. by the day, for the term of his natural life.” This phraseology shows that although Lough Neagh had never been mentioned in the first King’s Letter, a patent was founded on it which illegally dealt with the Lough. On the strength of the new Letter, the rogues minted a fresh Patent on the 9th May, 1604. This revealed the original design and reeked with every kind of illegality. Having declared Chichester “Colonel and Governor of our forces at Carrickfergus,” with the fee of 13s. 4d. a day for life, it created him “Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of Lough Neagh for the disposal of all shipping and boats thereon.” There was daring in that, but a greater marvel followed, for the Patent thievishly went on to confer on him “the fishing of the said Lough as far as the Salmon Leap in the River of the Bann.” In other words, it annexed to the command at Carrickfergus a life estate in the fishery of Lough Neagh and the Bann. This was a stupendous encroachment on the nature and limits of the grant sanctioned by the King. To transform a military “command” into the gift of a huge fishery, and adjoin thereto the rank of “Admiral,” was a masterpiece of perversion. The English Crown had never laid claim to the waters so purloined. James I. did not mean to give them away; and had neither power nor right to do so. The feigned dignity of “Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of Lough Neagh” was usurped to mask a material advantage, and its author vainly tried afterwards to confirm his shaky title by dubbing the lake “Lough Chichester.” The mock baptism was as scornfully rejected by the natives as his piratical claim of ownership.