[119] 'Cui quidam turbarius jocose dixerat, "Domine, cur gemis tam dire, cum ego semel habui iii bulletos in me, et vides, domine, quam sanus sum ad præsens?" Cui comes mite respondit (in agonia) quod hunc etiam bulletum vellet ipsum in se una cum cæteris habuisse.'--Dowling's _Annals_, wrongly placed at 1528. [120] _Four Masters_, 1532. _Annals of Lough Cé._ [121] _Jus Primatiale Armachanum_, Part I. No. 361; Dethyke to Cromwell, Sept. 3, 1533; Report to Cromwell, No. 64 of the printed _State Papers_; Sir James Fitzgerald to the King, August 31. [122] Report to Cromwell, printed _State Papers_, vol. ii. p. 174. Instructions to Sir John Alen, No. 63 in same. [123] Report to Cromwell, quoted above. [124] Skeffington to Cromwell, October 25 and November 4, 1533. [125] Stanihurst. CHAPTER X. THE GERALDINE REBELLION--SKEFFINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1534-1535. [Sidenote: Kildare is sent to the Tower.] Among the letters which Alen brought with him from England was one of thanks for past services to Connor Maguire, chief of Fermanagh. Maguire belonged to the party in Ulster which opposed O'Neill, and consequently Kildare; and he seems to have been in some degree under Alen's influence. He now wrote to the King, adding to the already overwhelming case against Kildare, and praying for the appointment of Skeffington. This despatch probably reached London about the same time as the Earl, who was examined by the Council and at once sent to the Tower. The heaviest charge against him was that of fortifying his own castles with the King's artillery; and it was in fact this which enabled his son to make head for a time against the Crown. He could only answer that he had intended to defend the Pale against the Irish: perhaps the hesitation caused by his wound was taken for the confession of guilt. He was no longer the man who had bearded Wolsey in his pride; and, unfortunately, his old power of repartee had descended to his son, who annoyed with his taunts those whom he should most have conciliated. The young Vice-Deputy made no secret of his dislike to the King's policy, sought alliances with O'Brien and Desmond, and gave the enemies of his House plausible grounds for stigmatising him as a traitor from the very first.[126] [Sidenote: His death prematurely reported.]