Strafford's proposed settlement of Clare was never carried out, but the Earls of Thomond were Protestants, and encouraged English tenants, so that a considerable colony had in fact been established. Inchiquin, who had agreed to the abortive plantation, threw his influence in the same direction; but the great mass of O'Briens, Macnamaras, and others favoured the insurgents. The outbreak in the north and the attempt on Dublin were known at the fair of Clare on November 1, but it was not till the end of the month that certain news came of the insurrection having spread to the part of Tipperary near the Shannon. Barnabas Earl of Thomond, who had an English wife, tried to keep the peace, and adopted a trimming policy, but soon lost all control over the country, though he held Bunratty and some other places. Robberies of the Protestants' cattle soon began, and by Christmas the owners were generally on their guard in castles, of which thirty-one were in friendly hands. Three weeks later the troops raised by Thomond were siding openly with the rebels. Ballyallia Castle, on a lake near Ennis, belonged to Sir Valentine Blake, of Galway, who was a noted member of the Catholic confederacy, but was leased to a merchant named Maurice Cuffe, and became a place of refuge for at least a hundred Protestants. Others from the neighbourhood escaped to England in a Dutch vessel. About a thousand of the Irish encamped near the castle and built cabins, but without coming to close quarters. They captured Abraham Baker, an English carpenter apparently, and with his aid constructed a 'sow,' such as was frequently used during the war. It was a house 35 feet by 9 feet, built of beams upon four wheels, strengthened with iron and covered by a sharp ridge roof, and was moved by levers worked from inside. The whole was kept together by huge spike-nails, which cost 5_l._, 'being intended for a house of correction which should have been built at Ennis.' Captain Henry O'Grady summoned the castle, pretending to have his Majesty's commission to banish all Protestants out of Ireland. Whereupon 'a bullet was sent to examine his commission, which went through his thigh, but he made a shift to rumbel [_sic_] to the bushes and there fell down, but only lay by it sixteen weeks, in which time unhappily it was cured.' A girl who fell into the hands of the besiegers was tortured until she confessed that the shot was fired by the Rev. Andrew Chaplin. The Irish had no artillery, but devised a cannon made of half-tanned leather with a three-pound charge. The breech was blown out at the first fire, and the ball remained inside. The sow was soon taken and those within killed. A kind of loose blockade lasted from the beginning of February until near midsummer. The besieged often suffered much from want of water, but sometimes they ventured to skirmish in the open, joining with the garrison of Clare Castle and capturing cattle. Baker, who was taken in the sow,