What passed during those few minutes appeared when he was a second time brought before the Council.

He had the effrontery to deny that he had owned any thing or accused any body.
His hearers, several of whom had taken down his confession in writing, were enraged at his impudence.

The Lords justices broke out; "You are a rogue; You are a villain; You shall be hanged; Where is the Provost Marshal ?" The Provost Marshal came.

"Take that man," said Coningsby, pointing to Gafney; "take that man, and hang him." There was no gallows ready; but the carriage of a gun served the purpose; and the prisoner was instantly tied up without a trial, without even a written order for the execution; and this though the courts of law were sitting at the distance of only a few hundred yards.

The English House of Commons, some years later, after a long discussion, resolved, without a division, that the order for the execution of Gafney was arbitrary and illegal, but that Coningsby's fault was so much extenuated by the circumstances in which he was placed that it was not a proper subject for impeachment.
[73] It was not only by the implacable hostility of the Irish that the Saxon of the pale was at this time harassed.