[365] "Restraint must be had that this army shall not spoil ne rob any person, but as the deputy and council shall appoint; and that the captains be obedient to their orders, or it shall not be well. Ne it is not meet that every soldier shall make a man a traitor for to have his goods. They be so nusselled in this robbery, that now they almost will not go forth to defend the country, except they may have gain."--Allen to Cromwell, Feb. 16. [366] "The bows which came out of the stores at Ludlow Castle were naught; many of them would not hold the bending."--_State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 228. [367] The king, a few months later, wrote to him a letter of warm thanks for his services, and admitted his plea of ill-health with peculiar kindness.--Henry VIII. to Skeffington: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 280. [368] Brabazon to Cromwell: Ibid. p. 224. [369] Allen to Cromwell: Ibid. p. 230. [370] Campion, p. 179. [371] Leland, Coxe, Ware. [372] Henry VIII. was one of the first men to foresee and value the power of artillery. Sebastiani mentions experiments on the range of guns which were made by him, in Southampton water; and it is likely that the cannon used in the siege of Maynooth were the large-sized brass guns which were first cast in England in the year of its capture.--Stow, p. 572. When the history of artillery is written, Henry VIII.'s labours in this department must not be forgotten. Two foreign engineers whom he tempted into his service, first invented "shells." "One Peter Baud, a Frenchman born," says Stow, "and another alien, called Peter Van Collen, a gunsmith, both the king's feed men, conferring together, devised and caused to be made certain mortar pieces, being at the mouth from eleven inches unto nineteen inches wide, for the use whereof they [also] caused to be made certain hollow shot of cast iron, to be stuffed with fire-work or wildfire; whereof the bigger sort for the same had screws of iron to receive a match to carry fire kindled, that the firework might be set on fire for to break in pieces the same hollow shot, whereof the smallest piece hitting any man would kill or spoil him."--Stow, _Chronicle_, p. 584. [373] _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 237. [374] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 446. [375] Ibid Vol. II. p. 253. [376] Lord Thomas Fitzgerald to Lord Leonard Grey: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 273. [377] The Lord Leonard repayreth at this season to your Majesty, bringing with him the said Thomas, beseeching your Highness most humbly, that according to the comfort of our words spoken to the same Thomas to allure him to yield him, ye would be merciful to the said Thomas, especially concerning his life.--The Council of Ireland to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 275. [378] _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 274.