Preston never really co-operated with O'Neill, but he joined him in making certain proposals to Ormonde in which the nuncio's hand can be very clearly seen. The first was that the Roman Catholic religion should be exercised in every part of Ireland as in Paris or Brussels. The third was 'that Dublin, Drogheda, Trim, Newry, Carlow, Carlingford, and all the garrisons within the Protestant quarters be garrisoned by the Confederate Catholics.' They were to be held for the King, but only in name. 'The madness of their propositions to you,' Digby wrote to Ormonde after he had joined Clanricarde, 'makes him almost despair of doing any good with Preston.' Ormonde did not condescend to discuss the propositions at all, but contented himself with asking who composed the Council of the Confederates and by whose authority they were established. 'These questions,' says Bellings, pithily, 'were too knotty to be resolved on the sudden, and therefore, as it is the custom in such cases, they were not answered.' Four days later Clanricarde was at Tecroghan, near Trim, and at once opened communications with Preston. Safe-conducts were granted to him and Digby, but to the latter, who was still nominally Secretary of State, not without great difficulty. 'I conjure you,' said Ormonde, '(as you expect to serve our master, or his hereafter) not to venture any more among so faithless a generation, if you have any probable hope of getting away from thence. For, if I have any judgment, your coming will be fruitless.' And fruitless it was. Two days later the Parliamentary commissioners reached Dublin, and O'Neill, probably fearing to be caught in a trap, threw an extempore bridge over the Liffey at Leixlip, collected his men by firing a gun, and passed them all over to the left bank. It was thought that Sir Phelim O'Neill, who was jealous of Owen Roe's supremacy in Ulster and who had married Preston's daughter, might be induced to join the latter. Digby's plan was to make Clanricarde general, who would thus be in a position to make the best terms for his own Church, while loyally co-operating with the Lord Lieutenant. Preston and his friends bound themselves most solemnly to embrace the peace in consideration of such additional securities as Clanricarde undertook to procure. These included the repeal of the penal laws and enjoyment by Catholics of such churches and ecclesiastical possessions as they held at the conclusion of the peace, until a settlement by a free Irish Parliament, 'his Majesty being in a free condition himself.' To confirm these promises Clanricarde was to procure an engagement under the King's hand as well as from the Queen and Prince of Wales and the French crown. The peace once concluded on these terms the Catholics were to be 'forthwith invested in such commands by his Majesty's authority, both in field and garrison, as may pass for a very sufficient part of the security.' Ormonde was no party to