His fall was like that of Turenne at Salsbach, or Tilly's at Norlingen. "Cut off in his early bloom from high command in the French armies," says the historian of the Irish brigades-" from honour and from glory--from the renown which accompanied Turenne and Luxembourg, Villars and Vendôme from a monument in St. Denis or in the Invalides; his mortal remains lie hidden and unnoticed on the hill of Kilcommodon.”

When he fell the crisis of the battle had arrived. At the moment when Mackay made the flank movement at the

head of the Guards and dragoons, Talmash made a vigorous front movement, and then the whole of the Irish

gave way, and a

most horrible massacre of them ensued, in consequence of the report of the murder of the colonel of the Welsh Fusiliers and other English prisoners, to whom quarter had first been granted. But for a moonless night, made more gloomy by a fall of rain, very few would have escaped the English cavalry.

Again, as at the Boyne, the whole of the cannon, tents,

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immense pasture covered with flocks of sheep. But it seems probable that the number of Irish who fell was not less than 7,000. Soon a multitude of dogs came to feast on the carnage. These beasts became so fierce, and acquired such a taste for human flesh, that it was long dangerous for men. to travel that road otherwise than in companies."

For half a century after, says O'Connor, the heights of Kilcommodon were whitened by the unburied bones of the Irish loyalists.

The roads around Aughrim were covered with

and baggage became the spoil of the victors, together with twelve standards and twenty-nine pairs of colours, some of which were very beautiful.

Of the king's troops 600 were killed and 1,000 wounded. Kane raises this number to 4,000 killed and wounded, and adds that the Irish prisoners were forced to inter their own slain. Macaulay, on other authorities, says, "The vanquished were left unburied, a strange and ghastly spectacle. 4,000 Irish corpses were counted on the field of battle; 150 lay in one small enclosure, 120 in another. One who was there tells us that from the top of the hill on which the Celtic camp had been pitched, he saw the country to the distance of nearly four miles white with the naked bodies of the slain. The plain looked like an

11

URRAGHRY

abandoned weapons. De Ginckel offered sixpence for each musket; but such vast quantities were brought in that he reduced the sum to twopence.

On the day after the battle, the army encamped a mile distant from the field, on the road to Loughrea; and soon after, for their services, the Generals Baron de Ginckel and the Marquis de Ruvigné were raised to the Irish peerage, the former by the titles of Earl of Athlone and Viscount Aughrim, and the latter by the style of Baron Galway.

The veteran Mac

kay was passed over; but this was a time when neither Scottish soldiers nor English seamen found much favour at the somewhat Dutch Court of King William at Kensington.

The victors marched first against Galway. D'Usson was there with seven battalions under his command, but thinned by the slaughter of Aughrim, disheartened, and demoralised. The last hope of the garrison and of the Catholic inhabitants was that the promised deliverer of the Irish race, Boldeary O'Donnel, would come to the rescue; but he was not to be duped by the superstitious and Celtic veneration of which he was the object; so while there was any doubt about the issue between the Saxon and the Celt, he stood aloof.

IMMEDIATELY after the overthrow of King James at the battle of the Boyne, the Duke of Berwick and General Sarsfield, with the best troops of the Irish army, strongly garrisoned Limerick, and successfully resisted King William's efforts to take the city. In the autumn of the next year, after the capture of Athlone, the battle of Aughrim, and the surrender of Galway, the Jacobite army under St. Ruth took post in Limerick as their last tenable place in Ireland.

The city stands on low ground, at an insulating division of the Shannon, and in the midst of an extensive plain. The suburb of Thomond Gate stands on the western bank of the main stream. The division of the city called English Town occupies the south end of the island; that called Irish Town stands on the right bank of the branch known as the Abbey River.

After the Boyne, the French officers are said to have ridiculed the idea of defending Limerick. Accustomed as they were to such fortifications as those of Lisle and Mons, Philipsburg and Tournay, they stigmatised those of Limerick as "heaps of dirt;" and the Count de Lauzun said, "It is unnecessary for the English to bring cannon against such a place as this. What you call your ramparts might be battered down with roasted apples."

However, after the fall of Galway, Limerick was fated to be the last asylum of a loyal but vanquished race. There the authority of Tyrconnell was supreme, and he made every preparation for defending the place. He repaired the fortifications, such as they were, and sent out foraging parties to bring in provisions. For miles around they swept the country, and a vast quantity of cattle and fodder was brought in, while a necessary stock of biscuit came from France. Within the walls of Limerick were assembled 15,000 infantry; their horse and dragoons, mustering some 4,000 more, were encamped on the Clare side of the Shannon, and the communication between them and the city was maintained by the Thomond Bridge.

Though the means of defence were far from poor, the loss of Athlone and the slaughter of Aughrim had crushed the spirit of the Irish army; and a small party, at the head of whom were Sarsfield and a gallant Scottish officer named Wauchope, alone cherished the hope that the progress of General De Ginckel might be arrested by the same ramparts

which had curbed the course of William in the preceding year. But many of the Irish leaders urged capitulation, and Colonel Henry Luttrel entered into secret negotiations with the advancing English. This traitor, General Kane tells us in his Memoirs, "having a plentiful fortune in the kingdom, and being loth to lose it, promised when he had the guard of the river to give us an opportunity of throwing bridges over it. When the night came that he had the guard, he gave us notice, and ordered his patrols a different way, so that we laid our bridges and passed part of the army over before day."

One of his letters was intercepted prior to this, and he was put under arrest. Tyrconnell was convinced that King James's cause was lost, and he could only hope for a prolongation of the contest till he received final orders from the king to abandon it, and he bound the desponding Irish army by an oath not to capitulate till such orders came.

Not long after this Tyrconnell, worn by disease and care, expired, and on the very day of his decease the advanced guard of the British army came in sight of Limerick, and the main body rapidly closed up. Their leader, the Dutchman, Goderat de Ginckel, Earl of Athlone, encamped on the same ground which William's troops had occupied in the preceding year; and his batteries, which were heavily armed, played day and night on Limerick. In every part of the city the brick walls fell with astounding crashes, and by the bombs whole streets were set in flames, while several ships of war came up the Shannon, and anchored about a mile below the beleaguered city, which still held manfully out.

In numerical strength the garrison was but little inferior to the blockading force, and there seemed every probability that the defence might be prolonged till the equinoctial rains should compel the latter to retire; hence, then, De Ginckel resolved to take sharp and sudden measures. In the whole circle of the fortifications, no point seemed more important or more secure than the Thomond Bridge, which connected the city with the Irish cavalry camp on the Clare shore of the Shannon; and his plan was to separate the infantry within from the cavalry without the ramparts.

Across the river he laid a bridge of boats, by which a strong body of troops passed. These drove before them in confusion 1,500 dragoons, after

interview to Sarsfield. The former had been exiled from France as a Protestant, and the brave Irishman was now about to become an exile for his attachment to the faith of his forefathers. De Ginckel consented to an armistice, for many and cogent reasons, being anxious to possess the city, and thus end the war.

The Irish offered to surrender, on condition "that offences should be covered with oblivion, and that perfect freedom of worship should be allowed to the native population; that every parish should have its Roman Catholic priest; and that Irish Roman Catholics should be capable of holding all offices, civil and military, and of enjoying all municipal privileges." These just and moderate requirements to the English mind of that age were deemed alike preposterous and extravagant; and equally so did they appear to De Ginckel.

"I am a stranger here," said he; "I am ignorant of the constitution of these kingdoms; but I am assured that what you ask is inconsistent with that constitution, and, therefore, I cannot with honour consent." And, breaking off the treaty, he ordered an additional battery, armed with cannon and mortars, to be thrown up. Ultimately it was agreed that there should be "a cessation of arms, not only by land, but in the ports and bays of Munster, and that a fleet of French transports should be suffered to come up the Shannon in peace, and to depart in peace. The signing of the treaty was deferred till the Lords Justices, who represented William at Dublin, should arrive at De Ginckel's quarters."

There Thomas Coningsby, Paymaster-General under William III., and Sir Charles Porter, two of the Lords, arrived on the 1st of October, 1691, and it was soon arranged that all the Irish troops who preferred exile in France to the dominion of a foreign king at home should be conveyed by French vessels from Munster to Brittany. Part of Limerick was to be immediately delivered up to the army of De Ginckel; but the island, on which the cathedral and the castle stood, was to remain in possession, for a time, of the Irish. To all inhabitants of Limerick, and to all officers and soldiers of the Jacobite army who should submit to William, and take an oath of allegiance to him, an entire amnesty was promised. As soon as the instruments were signed, the British troops marched into the city, where a deep but narrow branch of the Shannon separated them from the quarter which was still in possession of the Irish.

De Ginckel was unwilling to permit this great body of trained soldiers to land in France, and swell the ranks of a monarch with whom his master was then while Sarsfield, who had determined to

become an exile, had secret hopes that if the army remained unbroken, and France invaded Ireland, they and their lawful king might yet enjoy their own again. He and Wauchope exerted all their influence to take all that would volunteer to France; while, on the other hand, De Ginckel circulated a proclamation to the effect that all who wished to retire to their homes were at liberty to do so, and that such as preferred a military life would be received into the service of King William. The Irish troops were thus required to make their election between their own country and France.

When the eventful day to do so came, the garrison, consisting of 14,000 infantry, was drawn up in the great green meadow on the Clare bank of the Shannon. Printed copies of Ginckel's proclamation were scattered thickly about, and many British officers went through the ranks, "imploring the men. not to ruin themselves, and describing to them the advantages which the soldiers of King William enjoyed." But soon the moment for decision came. They were ordered to march past in review order, and those who wished to remain in Ireland were directed to file off at a particular point, while those who marched past it were supposed to have accepted a lifelong exile. The march began, and with painful anxiety it was watched by the Lords Justices on one side, and by Sarsfield and his Scottish comrade, Wauchope, on the other; while the French officers are said to have viewed the parade with unconcealed derision. "The clamour, the confusion, the grotesque appearance of an army in which there could scarcely be seen a shirt, a pair of pantaloons, a shoe, or a stocking, presented so ludicrous a contrast to the orderly and brilliant appearance of their master's troops, that they amused themselves by wondering what the Parisians would say to see such a force mustered on the plain of Griselle" (Macaulay).

Shirtless and shoeless they might be then, but their hearts were stout and true. First marched the Royal Regiment of Ireland, 1,400 strong, and all save seven passed the fatal point, preferring exile with their king to relinquishing the faith of their fathers. When the long and sad procession closed-a scene which none, Irishmen especially, could have beheld without emotion-it was found that only a thousand, and these were chiefly men of Ulster, volunteered for the service of William. Many, however, deserted; and when the day of embarkation came, more sorrowful still was the scene by the Shannon.

"After the soldiers had embarked," says Macaulay, "there remained on the water-side a great multitude clamouring piteously to be taken on

board. As the last boats put off there was a rush into the surf. Some women caught hold of the ropes, were dragged out of their depth, clung till their fingers were cut through, and perished in the waves. The ships began to move. A wild and terrible wail rose from the shore, and excited unwonted compassion in hearts steeled by hatred of the Irish race and of the Romish faith. The sails disappeared. The emaciated and heartbroken crowd of those whom a stroke more cruel than that of death had made widows and orphans dispersed, to beg their way home through a wasted land, or to lie down and die by the wayside of grief and hunger."

These exiles were joined by many others, who in the years and wars that were to follow have made the very name of the Irish Brigade of France synonymous with all that is glorious and gallant;

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and hence it was that when the Duke of Fitzjames, in 1791, was advancing the claims of the Irish soldiers to Louis XVI., he said

"Sire, my grandfather came not into France alone! His brave companions are now mine, and the dearest friends of my heart! He was accompanied by 30,000 Irishmen, who abandoned home, fortune, and honour, to follow their unfortunate king."

Six regiments of this brigade were received into the British service in 1794, and were soon after disbanded; so this fine force, with its traditions and sad history, passed away for ever.

On Thomond Bridge, over the Shannon, is still to be seen the stone on which was signed the treaty that made William King of Ireland; that confiscated one million of her acres to the Crown, and drove their former possessors to seek their bread in the camps of the French and Spaniards.

To oppose or anticipate the movements of this land and sea armament, Admiral Edward Russell collected a powerful fleet of English and Dutch ships at St. Helen's.

The Red squadron, which he led in person, consisted of 31 sail, with 2,220 guns and 13,985 men. The Blue squadron, under Admirals Sir John Ashby, Rooke, and Carter, was 32 sail, with 2,310 guns and 14,675 men. The Dutch squadron, under Admirals Allemande, Calembourg, and Vandergoes, amounted to 36 sail, with 2,614 guns and 13,051

men.

The whole fleet made a grand total of 99 sail, mounted with 6,676 pieces of cannon, and manned by 41,621 seamen and marines. So great was the expedition used, that one of the first-rates in the Red squadron was equipped and went to sea in ten days after she was launched.

The enemy's fleet under the Count de Tourville, after being joined by the Rochefort squadron, consisted of 63 ships and 20,000 men; but had not

An assembly of flag-officers met in the cabin of the Britannia, a splendid three-decker, at St. Helen's. Admiral Russell's flag was flying at the masthead, and all stood bareheaded to hear a letter read from the queen, the king being then in Flanders. Certain officers had recently been dismissed for their affection for the exiled king, her father. Among many others were Randal Macdonald, who destroyed the corsairs in the harbour of Mamora, William Viscount Dunbar, Thomas Ashton, and Edmund Elliot, all captains of bravery: but now the letter stated that Her Majesty was resolved to believe nothing against servants of the State, as the officers of her husband's fleet; so the listeners became enthusiastically loyal as soon as they were assured of the entire confidence of the queen. They signed an address to her, asserting their resolution to defend her rights (whatever they might mean), the freedom of England, and the Protestant religion, against all French and Popish invaders. "God," they added, " direct your counsels, preserve your person and prosper your arms, and let all your people say 'Amen.""

Soon after this the topsails of the French fleet