Forbes placed "two pieces of ordnance", or cannons, at St. Mary's and used them to bombard the city. However, they had little effect and by early September Forbes's men were becoming irritated at both their lack of progress and lack of payment. On 4 September he cut his losses and sailed for Limerick. Forthill was once more under siege and on its own, Clanricarde's political stock had plummeted as he had been unable to prevent the sacking, and any waverers among the people of Galway were now solidly on the Irish Confederate side.