These articles when duly executed were placed in Clanricarde's hands, to be kept secret until such time after May 1 as Ormonde might choose for their publication. Before that day the Parliamentary fleets had begun their summer cruises and the sea was entirely at their mercy. Chester having fallen, it was almost out of the question to land men in Wales. Six thousand of the promised troops were ready, and orders were given for levying the remainder, but shipping could not be provided, and there was no money either at Dublin or Kilkenny. The attempt to put down the English people with Irish troops failed as it had failed in the days of Strafford, and as it was destined to fail in the days of Tyrconnel. In the meantime Lord Digby found a plan of his own for bringing the Prince of Wales to Ireland and rallying round him there all the forces opposed to the Parliament. Rinuccini dreaded the success of this scheme, but it was not he who prevented it. Digby sailed with two small frigates and 300 men to Scilly, where the Prince remained from March 4 to April 16, but did not get there till after the latter date. 'The men of the island,' wrote Plunket to Ormonde, 'put themselves in arms and loudly cried that no Irish rebels should land there, the Lord Digby thereupon parted thence with one frigate, and one hundred of the men to Guernsey or Jersey.' The other frigate with the remaining men returned to Waterford. According to Daniel O'Neill, the King's principal secretary was 'drunk nine days out of ten with white wine' during the preparation of his little expedition, which may have had something to do with its being late. The Confederates depended on Glamorgan's treaty for relief to their religion further than that promised by Ormonde. It was true that both sets of articles depended really upon the King's word and upon his ability to keep it, but as professed Royalists they could not reject the first nor assume the permanent absence of the second. Rinuccini, who had no duties except to the Church, very rightly held that Charles's word was worth nothing, and it was evident to him that if the royal power was destroyed in England it could not long survive in Ireland without foreign help. The King had justified the nuncio's opinion by repudiating Glamorgan, and when this was known at Kilkenny he lost all credit, 'with the merchants in particular, so that he really had not enough to live upon.' He spoke to the French agent Dumoulin about leading the troops intended for England into Louis XIV.'s service, but there was no chance of that being allowed. The nuncio's position was strengthened by a royal letter to Ormonde written from Newcastle under Scotch influence. 'We think fit,' the King said, 'to require you to proceed no further in treaty with the rebels nor to engage us upon conditions with them after sight hereof'; the alleged motive being anxiety for the safety of the Irish Protestants. This came to Ormonde's hands three months after the