XXXIV. CHAP. proved of the resolution of the other officers, all of —whom, except Mackay, the conqueror of the Ja cobites of Scotland, were ardent for the passage of the ford, and were emulous each to conduct the enterprize. The ardour of the soldiers corresponded with that of their leaders, fired by resentment at the insults of the Irish, who all night exclaimed in derision from the opposite side of the river, that they had ill-earned the money distributed yesterday by their officers." Talmash, appointed to command the passage, modestly resigned his place to Mackay, to whom it should have devolved in the rotation of duty, and attended as a volunteer. On the following morning, at the ordinary hour of relieving the guards, when a double garrison might appear without suspicion, the advanced guard of two thousand men, destined for this service, on a signal given by the tolling of the church bell, rushed into the river, amid the thundering shouts of their associates, of whom some ran to throw planks over the broken arch, others to attempt a passage by pontons. The detachment, encouraged by the presence of distinguished leaders, who participated the danger, advanced through the ford with cold intrepidity, amid a tremendous fire from the enemy's works, gained the opposite banks, mounted the breaches next the river, and were masters of the town in half an hour from their first entering into the stream, while the Irish fled to the camp in astonishment, not without considerable slaughter. XXXIV. Saint-Ruth on this occasion betrayed too great à CHAP. confidence, unworthy of a great commander, but not unsuitable to that narrowness of soul which admits 'religious bigotry and persecution. When he was informed that the enemy were passing the ford, he exclaimed that they could not possibly have such presumption as to attempt the town while he with his army lay so near; to which Sarsfield calmly replied, that he well knew the enterprize to be not too great for English courage, and that a moment ought not to be lost in sending strong reinforcements. While the Frenchman, offended, expressed his disdain, and the Irishman scornfully retorted, a messenger in breathless consternation just found words to inform them that the enemy were in town. Saint-Ruth in a haughty tone, under which he covered his vexation, commanded that they should immediately be driven out; and his troops were put in motion for that purpose. But after this bravado, when his men received the fire of their own guns, pointed against them from the walls, a general retreat was made; the French officers exclaiming against the Irish; the Irish execrating the French general and his countrymen. The garrison of the castle consisting of five hundred men, surrendered as prisoners; and about twelve hundred more had been lost by the Irish in the siege. Saint-Ruth, who had hoisted the standards of France at Athlone, had issued all orders in the name of the French monarch, and had solicited the Irish to swear allegiance to Louis, intending to render Ireland a province of the French 3 M 4 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 garri A including the officers, considerable note; and son, as prisoners of war, 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, CHAP. French dominion, instead of recovering it for its XXXIV. former sovereign, retired southward with wounded pride, and violent resolution of exertions to retrieve his injured reputation, beyond the Suck, a great auxiliar stream of the Shannon; while the whole Irish party, variously actuated with hope, despair, revenge and shame, concurred with the determination of their general to bring the contest to a speedy issue. Proceedings On the other hand Ginckle, desirous of ending 1691. the war without farther bloodshed, or at least of dis of Ginckle. uniting the enemy by tenders of pardon, issued on the fifth of July, notwithstanding the opposition of great English subjects in Ireland, a proclamation of that import, which the lords justices at first, influenced by members of the privy council, from motives already mentioned, seemed inclined to disavow; but the propriety of the measure was so plainly demonstrated, that in two days afterwards a proclamation was formally signed and published by government, offering a free pardon, with a reasonable payment for their horses, arms, and furniture, to all soldiers and officers who should surrender within three weeks, and to all governors who should surrender their posts; a free pardon and full possession of their estates to all officers who should bring with them the regiments, troops, or companies under their command; liberal rewards to those who had no landed property; and a free exercise of religion to all, with such security in this particular as a parliament of Ireland might devise, and which the king would endeavour to procure, so as to convince the Irish of the difference between |