the Tower; and commissioners were appointed to examine the particular circumstances of his conduct. A camp was formed in the neighbourhood of Torbay, where the French seemed to threaten a descent. Their fleet which lay at anchor in the bay, cannonaded a small village called Tingmouth. About a thousand of their men landed without opposition, set fire to the place, and burned a few coasting vessels; then they reembarked, and returned to Brest, so vain of this achievement, that they printed a pompous account of their invasion. Some of the whig partisans published pamphlets, and diffused reports, implying, that the suspended bishops were concerned in the conspiracy against the government; and these arts proved so inflammatory among the common people, that the prelates thought it necessary to print a paper, in which they asserted their innocence in the most solemn protestations. The court seems to have harboured no suspicion against them, otherwise they would not have escaped imprisonment. The queen issued a proclamation for apprehending the earls of Lichfield, Aylesbury, and Castlemain; viscount Preston; the lords Montgomery and Bellasis; sir Edward Hales, sir Robert Tharold, sir Robert Hamilton, sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, colonel Edward Sackville, and some other officers. These were accused of having conspired with other disaffected persons to disturb and destroy the government, and of a design to concur with her majesty's enemies in the intended invasion. The earl of Torrington continued a prisoner in the Tower till next session, when he was brought into the house of commons, and made a speech in his own defence. His case produced long debates in the upper house, where the form of his commitment was judged illegal: at length he was tried by a court martial, appointed by the commissioners of the admiralty, though not before an act had passed, declaring the power of a lord high admiral vested in those commissioners. The president of the court was sir Ralph Delaval, who had acted as vice-admiral of the blue in the engagement. The earl was acquitted, but the king dismissed him from the service; and the Dutch exclaimed against the partiality of his judges.

XXXIV. William is said to have intercepted all the papers of his father-in-law and Tyrconnel, and to have

learned from them, not only the design projected by the French to burn the English transports, but likewise the undertaking of one Jones, who engaged to assassinate king William. No such attempt, however, was made, and, in all probability, the whole report was a fiction, calculated to throw an odium on James's character. On the ninth day of July, William detached general Douglas with a considerable body of horse and foot towards Athlone, while, he himself, having left Trelawny to command at Dublin, advanced with the rest of his army to Inchiquin, in his way to Kilkenny. Colonel Grace, the governor of Athlone for king James, being summoned to surrender, fired a pistol at the trumpeter, saying, "These are my terms," Then Douglas resolved to undertake the siege of the place, which was naturally very strong, and defended by a resolute garrison. An inconsiderable breach was made, when Douglas, receiving intelligence that Sarsfield was on his march to the relief of the besieged, abandoned the enterprise, after having lost above four hundred men in the attempt. The king continued his march to the westward; and, by dint of severe examples, established such order and discip line in his army, that the peasants were secure from the least violence. At Carlow he detached the duke of Ormond to take possession of Kilkenny, where that nobleman regaled him in his own castle, which the enemy had left undamaged. While the army encamped at Carrick, major general Kirke was sent to Waterford, the garrison of which, consisting of two regiments, capitulated, upon condition of marching out with their arms and baggage; and being conducted to Mallow. The fort of Duncannon was surrendered on the same terms. Here the lord Dover and the lord George Howard were admitted to the benefit of the king's mercy and protection.

§ XXXV. On the first day of August, William being at Chapel Izard, published a second declaration of mercy, confirming the former, and even extending it to persons of superior rank and station, whether natives or foreigners, provided they would, by the twenty-fifth day of the month, lay down their arms, and submit to certain conditions. This offer of indemnity produced very little effect; for the Irish were generally governed by their priests, and the news of

the victory which the French fleet had obtained over the English and Dutch was circulated with such exaggerations as elevated their spirits, and effaced all thoughts of submission. The king had returned to Dublin, with a view to embark for England; but receiving notice that the designs of his domestic enemies were discovered and frustrated, that the fleet was repaired, and the French navy retired to Brest, he postponed his voyage, and resolved to reduce Limerick; in which monsieur Boisseleau commanded as governor, and the duke of Berwick and colonel Sarsfield acted as inferior officers. On the ninth day of August, the king having called in his detachment, and advanced into the neighbourhood of the place, summoned the commander to deliver the town; and Boisseleau answered, that he imagined the best way to gain the good opinion of the prince of Orange would be a vigorous defence of the town which his majesty had committed to his charge. Before the place was fully invested, colonel Sarsfield, with a body of horse and dragoons, passed the Shannon in the night, intercepted the king's train of artillery on its way to the camp, routed the troops that guarded it, disabled the cannon, destroyed the carriages, wagons, and ammunition, and returned in safety to Limerick. Notwithstanding this disaster, the trenches were opened on the seventeenth day of the month, and a battery was raised with some cannon brought from Waterford. The siege was carried on with vigour, and the place defended with great resolution. length the king ordered his troops to make a lodgment in the covered way or counters carp, which was accordingly assaulted with great fury: but the assailants met with such a warm reception from the besieged, that they were repulsed with the loss of twelve hundred men, either killed on the spot or mortally wounded. This disappointment concurring with the badness of the weather, which became rainy and unwholesome, induced the king to renounce his undertaking. The heavy baggage and cannon being sent away, the army decamped, and marched towards Clonmel. William having constituted the lord Sydney and Thomas Conningsby lords justices of Ireland, and left the command of the army with, count Solmes, embarked at Duncannon with prince George of Denmark, on the fifth of

At

September, and next day arrived in King Road, near Bristol, from whence he repaired to Windsor.

§ XXXVI. About the latter end of this month the earl of Marlborough arrived in Ireland, with five thousand English troops to attack Cork and Kinsale, in conjunction with a detachment from the great army, according to a scheme he had proposed to king William. Having landed his soldiers without much opposition in the neighbourhood of Cork, he was joined by five thousand men, under the prince of Wirtemberg, between whom and the earl a dispute arose about the command; but this was compromised by the interposition of La Mellionere. The place being invested, and the batteries raised, the besiegers proceeded with such rapidity that a breach was soon effected. Colonel Mackillicut, the governor, demanded a parley, and hostages were exchanged; but he rejected the conditions that were offered, and hostilities recommenced with redoubled vigour. The duke of Grafton, who served on this occasion as a volunteer, was mortally wounded in one of the attacks, and died regretted as a youth of promising talents. Preparations being made for a general assault, the besieged thought proper to capitulate, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Besides the governor and colonel Ricaut, the victor found the earls of Clancarte and Tyrone among the individuals of the garrison. Marlborough having taken possession of Cork, detached brigadier Villiers with a body of horse and dragoons to summon the town and forts of Kinsale, and next day advanced with the rest of the forces. The old fort was immediately taken by assault; but sir Edward Scott, who commanded the other, sustained a regular siege, until the breach was practicable, and then obtained an honourable capitulation. These maritime places. being reduced, all communication between France and the enemy, on this side of the island, was cut off, and the Irish were confined to Ulster, where they could not subsist without great difficulty. The earl of Marlborough having finished this expedition in thirty days, returned with his prisoners to England, where the fame of this exploit added greatly to his reputation.

§ XXXVII. During these transactions, count de Lauzun, commander of the French auxiliaries in Ireland, lay

inactive in the neighbourhood of Galway, and transmitted such a lamentable account of his situation to the court of France, that transports were sent over to bring home the French forces. In these he embarked with his troops, and the command of the Irish forces devolved to the duke of Berwick, though it was afterwards transferred to M. St. Ruth. Lauzun was dhgraced at Versailles for having deserted the cause before it was desperate: Tyrconnel, who accompanied him in his voyage, solicited the French court for a further supply of officers, arms, clothes, and ammunition for the Irish army, which he said would continue firm to the interest of king James, if thus supported. Meanwhile they formed themselves into separate bodies of freebooters, and plundered the country, under the appellation of Rapparies: while the troops of king William either enjoyed their ease in quarters, or imitated the rapine of the enemy; so that, between both, the poor people were miserably harassed.

§ XXXVIII. The affairs of the continent had not yet undergone any change of importance, except in the conduct of the duke of Savoy, who renounced his neutrality, engaged in an alliance with the emperor and king of Spain; and, in a word, acceded to the grand confederacy. He had no sooner declared himself than Catinat, the French general, entered his territories at the head of eighteen thousand men, and defeated him in a pitched battle near Saluces, which immediately surrendered to the conqueror. Then he reduced Savillina, Villa Franca, with several other places, pursued the duke to Carignan, surprised Suza, and distributed his forces in winter quarters, partly in Provence, and partly in the dutchy of Savoy, which St. Ruth had lately reduced under the dominion of France. The duke finding himself disappointed in the succours he expected from the emperor and the king of Spain, demanded assistance of the states general and king William; to this last he sent an ambassador, to congratulate him upon his accession to the throne of England. The confederates in their general congress at the Hague, had agreed that the army of the States under prince Waldeck should oppose the forces of France, commanded by the duke of Luxembourg in Flanders; while the elector of Brandenburgh