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CHAP. XXXIV.

XXXIV.

1690.

Reduction of Cork and Kinsale by the earl of Mart-
borough-Departure of the French-Rapparees-
Civil regulations-Battle of the moat of Grenoge
-State of affairs of the Irish-Military operations
-Attack of Athlone-Desperate passage of the ford

-Flight of Saint-Ruth-Proceedings of GinckleBattle of Aghrim-Death of Saint-Ruth-Defeat of the Irish-Siege of Galway-Affairs of the Irish -Death of Tyrconnel-Siege of Limerick-False report concerning Luttrel-Capitulation-Condition of prisoners-Articles of Limerick-Emigration— Ennoblement of Ginckle and Rouvigny.

CHAP BEFORE William had relinquished his enterprise Marlbo- against Limerick, a proposal made by John Churchil, rough's ex- earl of Marlborough, afterwards so renowned, unpedition. der the title of duke, in the reign of queen Anne, for the reduction of Cork and Kinsale, was accepted, by which the French would be excluded from intercourse with the Irish ports in the south, and the West-Indian traffic of England rendered more secure. The earl, sailing from Portsmouth with a body of five thousand men, effected his landing near Cork with little opposition, on the twenty-first of Septem

ber:

XXXIV.

ber, and was soon joined by nine hundred cavalry CHA P. under Sgravenmore, and afterwards by four thousand foot under the prince of Wirtemberg, detached to his assistance by Ginckle, on whom had devolved the chief command by the departure of count Solmes. Cork stands at the bottom of an extensive hollow, or wide valley, on the river Lee, built on a cluster of low marshy islands in the river and on the sloping banks on both sides, ten miles from the ocean, near the inner end of a gulf, in great part occupied by islands, which forms one of the finest harbours in the world. At the time of this attack the city was far less in extent than at present, surrounded by marshes and branches of the Lee. The earl had made successful approaches before the arrival of Wirtemberg,

chief command in virto, by insisting on the

of his title, while the earl reminded him that he was only a leader of auxiliaries, raised a dispute which threatened to defeat the enterprise, till, by the mediation of La Mellionere, a prudent French officer, the two leaders agreed to hold alternately the chief place. By the politeness of the earl, who, commanding on the first day, gave "Wirtemberg" for the word, the prince was in some degree conciliated, who in his turn gave" Marlborough.

When, on the effecting of a breach, and preparations made for an assault, the governor parleyed, the earl insisted on the surrendry of the garrison as prisoners of war, the prince on the granting of more favourable terms. The dispute continued until the marsh, through

XXXIV.

CHAP. through which the assailants were to advance to the breach, became impassable by the return of the tide; when the governor, seeing the danger, for the present, elapsed, interrupted the conference. The fire was renewed, the breach enlarged, and the river crossed by the Dutch and English, who waded immersed to the shoulders, and took post under the bank of a marsh which served as a counterscarp to the wall of the city. Here fell the duke of Grafton, who had volunteered in the business, the most respected of the sons of Charles the second. storm was prevented by the surrendry of the garrison, as prisoners of war, including the officers, of whom some were 'of considerable note; and a detachment was immediately sent to summon Kinsale.

A

The commander of this post gave a haughty answer, threatening to kill the messenger; and, abandoning the town, which he set in flames, placed his garrison in two fortresses, the old, or Castle-nyfort, and the new, or Charles-fort. The former was taken by storm after an obstinate resistance, in which half the garrison with the governor were slain. The governor of the latter, confident of its strength, made answer to the summons, that "it would be time enough to talk of that business a month hence." But after a vigorous attack for ten days, when the besiegers were preparing for a general assault, the garrison capitulated, on condition of being allowed to march with arms and baggage to Limerick. Marlborough returned to England, having com

pleted

XXXIV.

pleted his enterprize in twenty-three days, to the joy CHA P. of the English loyalists, who, with a jealousy of the king's foreign officers, gloried in their native general.

of the

1690:

Immediately on the retreat of William from Departure Limerick, Boileau with his French troops had French, marched thence to Galway, where he joined his compatriots, who had waited there for transports, and returned to France, recalled in consequence of the representations, made by James, of Irish cowardice. Jealousies and broils had taken place between the French and Irish soldiery. The former spoke with contempt of the meanness of their allies; the latter ridiculed the pageantry of the French, and cursed those insolent fellows who strutted in "leathern trunks," by which they meant their great boots. The Irish, left to the conduct of their native chief, the brave and popular Sarsfield, seemed not to regret the departure of their foreign friends, and prepared to exert with vigour their unaided force; while Ginckle, after the conquest of Cork and Kinsale, thinking the enemy's ardour abated, withdrew his troops into winter quarters, without such a disposition of his frontier line as to secure the passes and castles along the Shannon, an omission of which he had soon reason to repent.

*

Braving the asperity of the season, the hardy Irish Rapparees. made ruinous incursions, surprized and slaughtered small parties of the royal army, and set villages in flames. In the general confusion and misery, while

the soldiers also of Ginckle, in spite of general or

ders,

XXXIV.

CHAP. ders, plundered the peasants and violated protections, a banditti, who had previously subsisted under the name of tories, became hideously numerous and formidable under the denomination of rapparees, an Irish denomination from the half pike, their usual weapon. In summer they hovered round the English camp, butchering every straggling soldier whom they found. In winter they appeared in the different quarters of the army with the humility of beggars, leaving their weapons concealed in convenient places. Assembling in troops in solitary spots in the night, they rushed on their prey, and vanished at the first appearance of danger, discoverable only by the conflagrations of houses and the cries of their murdered victims. Throughout the winter the English forces were every where barrassed in pursuit, mostly fruitless, of these miscreants, with whom were often associated soldiers of regular regiments in the Irish army. To repel these marauders the assistance was found necessary to the English of a class of the same description, called protestant rapparees, whose mode of hostility being similar rendered them fitter instruments in this kind of warfare. Deplorable beyond conception was the state of the country, particularly of the protestant inhabitants, objects of rapine and slaughter to the catholic enemy, and undistinguished from catholics by the foreign troops in William's service, who plundered indiscriminately, with exception of the Dutch, who were honourably conspicuous by an inoffensive and modest conduct, a noble proof of the excellence of the republican

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