Dublin (but
ordered to keep the field), the king shall never be well served, but his
purpose shall long be delayed."[364]

[Sidenote: The wages are ill-paid. The army is mutinous.]

[Sidenote: The military stores worthless.]

The wages, also, were ill-paid, though money in abundance had been
provided. The men were mutinous, and indemnified themselves at the
expense of the wretched citizens, whose houses they pillaged at will
under pretence that the owners were in league with the rebels.[365] The
arms, also, which had been supplied to the troops, were of the worst
kind: they had been furnished out of ordnance which had been long on
hand, and were worthless.[366]

[Sidenote: The Irish council desire the recal of Skeffington. The king
refuses.]

[Sidenote: The army leave Dublin, and commence work.]

The conduct of the king, when the representations of Allen were laid
before him, was very unlike what the popular conception of his
character would have led us to expect. We imagine him impatient and
irritable; and supposing him to have been (as he certainly was) most
anxious to see the rebellion crushed, we should have looked for some
explosion of temper; or, at least, for some imperious or arbitrary
message to the unfortunate deputy. He contented himself, however, with
calmly sending some one whom he could trust to make inquiries; and even
when the result confirmed the language of the Master of the Rolls, and
the deputy's recal was in consequence urged upon him, he still refused
to pass an affront upon an old servant. He appointed Lord Leonard Grey,
brother-in-law of the Countess of Kildare, chief marshal of the army;
but he would not even send Grey over till the summer, and he left
Skeffington an opportunity of recovering his reputation in the campaign
which was to open with the spring.[367] The army, however, was ordered
to leave Dublin without delay; and the first move, which was made early
in February, was followed by immediate fruits. Two of the pirates who
had been acting with Fitzgerald were taken, and hanged.[368] Several
other offenders of note were also caught and thrown into prison; and in
two instances, as if the human ministers of justice had not been
sufficiently prompt, the higher powers thought fit to inflict the
necessary punishment. John Teling, one of the archbishop's murderers,
died of a foul disorder at Maynooth;[369] and the Earl of Kildare, the
contriver of the whole mischief, closed his evil car