Ranelagh showed no energy, but he was in bad health and in want of money and supplies. He said Earnley's men were rogues and gaol-birds, and that he longed for a commission to raise men of his own country. In the meantime he neglected to requisition the provisions available in the neighbourhood, and the soldiers died of want and neglect. Coote provided ten days' bread, and pressed him to do something while a few men were left alive, whereupon he ordered an attack on Ballagh, which was not taken without loss, and which Earnley says was quite useless. Afterwards he joined his forces to those of Coote at Roscommon, and Sir James Dillon attacked Athlone in his absence with 1500 men, but was beaten off by the remnant left behind. A considerable Irish force under O'Connor Roe and others assembled after some skirmishing at Ballintober, where they were routed with a loss of six hundred men. Coote and Earnley were not allowed to follow up the victory, and Ranelagh refused to feed the latter's men any longer. They were therefore dispersed among the garrisons which Coote commanded. Ranelagh made no further attempt to keep the field, and in October he made a truce for three months with the Irish. Clanricarde approved of this, and would have been glad to have its operation extended, for vengeance 'need not be so sharp here, as where blood doth call for deserved punishment.' But the Lords Justices were all for war to the knife, though they had not the means to wage it successfully, while Lord Forbes and Captain Willoughby did their best to prevent peace. The English Parliament were too busy at home to do much, while arms and ammunition from the Continent poured in through Wexford and the Ulster ports, with 'most of the colonels, officers, and engineers that have served beyond seas for many years past ... which furnish all parts of the kingdom but those few that adhere to me for his Majesty's service.'[9] [Sidenote: The rebellion in Clare, 1641-2.] [Sidenote: Defence of Ballyallia, Feb.-Sept. 1642.]