Having got back their chief governor, the first care of the Council was to reconcile him with the Butlers. The old Earl's appearance plainly foretold his approaching end, but he came to Dublin and left his son to front the Desmonds and O'Carrolls. Grey wrote to the latter to keep the peace, and Lord Butler at once came to Dublin; but both father and son refused to go to Maynooth, where they would be in the Lord Deputy's power. Kilmainham was at last fixed on as the place of meeting, and Grey took the chair of state, but shook hands with none of the Council, and smiled on no one. The two Butlers offered to abide by the Council's decision, but Grey had already produced a paper reflecting on them for receiving O'Connor after his defeat in the summer of 1537. A Latin confession said to have been made by O'Connor in the presence of Paulet and Berners was relied on, but the chief was secretly cross-examined by the Council, and so modified his statement as to exonerate the Butlers completely. It was said, for instance, that O'Connor had hired Edmond MacSwiney and his free axes immediately after a conference with Ormonde. O'Connor admitted the hiring, but explained that the gallowglasses were not bound to levy war against the King, and that Ormonde knew nothing at all about the matter. Again, he was charged with retaining Scotch mercenaries, who were allowed a fortnight's free quarters in Ormonde's country. He admitted having brought in the Scots; but the Earl had known nothing of it, and the free quarters had not been given. Ormonde allowed that he had harboured O'Connor, but pleaded the instructions of Grey, who waited for orders from the King, and who was afraid of driving the chief into fresh combinations with Irish enemies. The probability is that O'Connor had at first been ready to confess anything, because absolution was sure to follow, and he is not likely to have been overflowing with Latin, which was his only means of communicating with the English officials.[211] [Sidenote: They accuse each other.]