Although the wind served well for Ireland, Skeffington, who was old and delicate, delayed long at Beaumaris. The North-countrymen, on whom he placed his chief reliance, chafed at the delay; and many of their horses, which were perhaps not very well stowed, died from being cooped up on board ship for three weeks. At last, on the very day on which the siege of Dublin was raised, the Lord-Deputy sailed. The fleet was driven by a gale under Lambay, where a report reached it that Dublin had fallen. The news was not believed, but Brereton and Salisbury were detached. They reached the Liffey without any difficulty; and there was no reason why Skeffington should not have done so, but that he had made up his mind to go to Waterford. As it was, he was able to lie close to Skerries and to send in his boats, which burned four Geraldine vessels at anchor in the roads. The fleet then made sail again, and was again driven under Lambay, whence two ships made chase after Brode, the pirate, and drove him ashore near Drogheda. At last the Lord Deputy was persuaded to take the obvious course, and landed safely at Dublin more than a week after Brereton. Other troops from Bristol, under Sir John St. Loo, reached Waterford about the same time. Messengers were at once sent to Drogheda, and Brode and his crew were brought by sea to Dublin.[137] [Sidenote: Offaly is proclaimed a traitor.] Driven from Dublin, Offaly threatened Drogheda with some 400 horse, but Skeffington, with unwonted energy, marched the whole distance in one day, and the rebels did not venture to attack him. The Geraldine chief was proclaimed traitor at the market-cross, and the gentlemen of Louth and Meath, finding that there was again something in the shape of a government, came in fast to the Lord-Deputy. Meanwhile Ossory and St. Loo were at work in the south, and agreed to meet Skeffington at Kildare's castle of Kilkea. The Earl and the English knight kept their appointment, but the Deputy was again ill, and without artillery nothing could be done. Ossory had enough to do to keep the O'Mores and Kavanaghs in check, but he gained one important ally in the person of Sir Thomas Eustace, of Baltinglass, who brought forty of his kinsmen and left hostages in the Earl's hands. Eustace kept his word, and received a peerage for his services, an honour forfeited in Elizabeth's time for a rebellion, which, if one of the most foolish, was also one of the least selfish of the many recorded in Irish annals.[138] [Sidenote: The rebellion continues.]