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DES was in a more pleasant country in all my life, so never saw I a more waste and desolate land… Such horrible and lamentable spectacles are there to behold as the burning of villages, the ruin of churches, the wasting of such as have been good towns and castles." He was especially severe against the Earl for the mismanagement of his estates, and being likewise fearful of his strong Catholic proclivities, seized him at Kilmallock, and carried him about in durance the remainder of his progress. The sons of the Earl of Clanricard were also captured in Connaught, and the Lord-Deputy returned to Dublin with his prisoners the 16th April. He had caused numberless malefactors to be executed in the course of his visitation. In October Sidney proceeded to England, bringing with him the Earl of Desmond and his brother Sir John, Hugh O'Neill, the O'Conor Sligo, and other chieftains. The Earl and his brother Sir John were detained captives for six years in the Tower of London, while their cousin FitzMaurice assumed the leadership of the family, and carried on those hostilities against the Government that will be found detailed in his life. After FitzMaurice's submission in 1573, they were set free and received at court. A ship was furnished to convey them to Dublin, where, however, the Earl was detained under an honourable arrest, whilst Sir John was permitted to return to Munster. Before long the Earl managed to escape whilst out hunting near Grangegorman, and although large rewards were offered for his apprehension, he was soon safe amongst his followers in the fastnesses of Desmond. During the O'Neill wars of the following months he remained neutral. In May 1574 the Earl met at Waterford by appointment the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Kildare, and under the protection of a safe conduct returned with them to Dublin. There he was informed that the Queen desired his presence in London; but remembering his former captivity, he made many excuses, and Essex honourably conducted him to the frontiers of the Pale. Shortly afterwards he surrendered Castlemaine and Castlemartyr, which were occupied by English garrisons. In other respects his authority over his feudal principality was left undisturbed, and he passed for a loyal subject. In the autumn of 1575 he proffered Sir Henry Sidney his services against the northern chieftains. In 1576 he was brought into collision with the new President of Munster, Sir William Drury. He protested against the holding of courts within his palatinate; but finding Drury obdurate, and about proceeding to Tralee to hold a sessions, he made a virtue of necessity, and offered the hospitality of his castle. On approaching Tralee, the President perceived about 800 armed men retiring into the woods. The Countess of Desmond met him outside the town and assured him that her lord had no hostile intention, but that, his visit being unexpected, the forces had assembled for a general hunting. Shortly afterwards Drury seized Sir John of Desmond in Cork, on suspicion of treasonable practices, and sent him under an escort to Dublin. When FitzMaurice landed with the" Papal expedition at Smerwick, in 1579, the Earl maintained a semblance of loyalty, and even forwarded to Dublin his cousin's letters. The previous year he had arrested, and handed over to the President, Patrick O'Haly, Bishop of Mayo, and other ecclesiastics, who had landed from Spain. Sir John, who appears to have been liberated, and Sir James, hastened to meet their cousin and his allies. The Lord-Justice, who was in Cork, immediately despatched Henry Davells, Constable of Dungarvan, and Arthur Carter, Provost-Marshal of Munster, to summon the Earl of Desmond and his brothers to attack FitzMaurice and the Spaniards. They were extremely officious and insolent to the Earl, reconnoitred the fort at Smerwick, where FitzMaurice and the Spaniards were entrenched, and were on their way back to Cork, when they were murdered by Sir John in a little inn at Tralee. The atrocity of the deed was aggravated by the fact that Sir John and Davells had been intimate friends. A few days after FitzMaurice's death in August 1579, the Earl met Sir William Drury at Kilmallock, and endeavoured to clear himself from the charge of complicity in his cousin's proceedings. After being kept under arrest for three days, he was liberated on undertaking to send in his only son, James, as a hostage. He received a promise that his lands and tenants should be respected—an engagement violated almost as soon as made. Most of the Earl's forces went over to Sir John of Desmond, who took his cousin FitzMaurice's place—the Spanish officers materially assisting in disciplining these irregular levies. Sir William Drury, on the other hand, collected a considerable army, chiefly composed of Catholic Irish. In an engagement that ensued between a portion of these forces and those under Sir John and Sir James, at Springfield, in the south of the County of Tipperary, the latter were successful. Shortly  141