Guard to fire upon them which they did with effect, the three men being killed. The documents found on these three men have been forwarded to the orderly room. On May 9, Bowen-Colthurst provided an account with a more anxious tone. This was three days after his arrest and just before his arraignment on murder/manslaughter charges. The May 9 report in part read as follows: On Tuesday and up to Wednesday morning rumours of massacres of police and soldiers from all parts of Dublin were being constantly sent to me from different sources. Among others the rumour reached me that 600 German prisoners at Oldcastle had been released and armed and were marching on Dublin. I also heard that the rebels in the city had opened up depots for the supply and issue of arms, and that a large force of rebels intended to attack Portobello Barracks, which was held only by a few troops ... We had also in the barracks a considerable number of officers and men who had been wounded by the rebels. ... Rumours of risings all over Ireland and of a large German-American and Irish-American landing in Galway were prevalent. ... I knew of the sedition which had been preached in Ireland for years past and of the popular sympathy with rebellion. I knew also that men on leave home from the trenches, although unarmed, had been shot like dogs in the streets of their own city, simply because they were in khaki, and I had also heard that wounded soldiers home for convalescence had been shot down also. On the Wednesday morning 26 April all this was in my mind. I was very much exhausted and unstrung after practically a sleepless night, and I took the gloomiest view of the situation and felt that only desperate measures would save the situation. When I saw the position described in my previous report I felt I must act quickly, and believing I had the power under martial law, I felt, under the circumstances, that it was clearly my duty to have the ring-leaders shot. It was a terrible ordeal for me, but I nerved myself to carry out what for me at the time a terrible duty. There was another possible explanation for Colthurst's actions, mentioned in passing in the report of the subsequent Royal Commission [on the Arrest ... Sheehy Skeffington...Dickson...McIntyre]. This was the suggestion