While O'Neill's tents were visible from the walls of Kilkenny there was great confusion inside. Some churches were shut; others, in defiance of the interdict, remained open. A letter was intercepted in which Paul King, guardian of the Franciscans and a special confidant of the nuncio's, invited the northern general to take possession. The Council imprisoned King and made Peter Walsh guardian. Walsh was employed to draw up queries and answers, which were afterwards signed by Bishop Rothe, against the validity of Rinuccini's censures. 'I remember very well,' writes the learned friar, 'how (besides others) Richard Bellings, Esq., a leading member and chief secretary of the said Council, came several times from them to my chamber to hasten my despatch, and to tell me of the great danger of delay, being the enemy was in sight and the people so divided.' He worked for five days and nights consecutively without closing his eyes, and preached in the cathedral at the end of it. A respectable number of divines followed Rothe and Walsh, but it was evident that the Confederacy could not be restored. O'Neill, who alone of the Irish generals had the prestige of victory, openly defied the authority of the Council and adhered to the nuncio. Jones was gradually growing stronger in Dublin, and it was evident that no one except Ormonde could have the weight necessary. Inchiquin had urged him to come as soon as the truce was concluded. 'Divers of my men,' he said, 'have died of hunger, after they had a while lived upon cats and dogs, as many do now. And if, while I am in this condition, the Parliament shipping should arrive according to our expectation, grounded upon good advertisement, with some officers, money, clothes, and victuals, and make tender thereof unto our soldiers, if they will give up the officers they have now, a greater strait than I shall be in cannot be imagined.'[127] [Sidenote: Activity of O'Neill, August-September.] [Sidenote: He is generally unsuccessful.]