THE FIRST SIEGE OF LIMERICK.
JAMES'S FAREWELL.
The fight at the Boyne was over; the English, Dutch, Danish, and French allies resting, or preparing to rest, as well as the ground near the Pass of Duleek would allow, and their defeated but not dispirited foemen marching wearily in the summer night toward Dublin. James accompanied by Sarsfield's horse was already far in the van, and in due time he reached the castle. We can scarcely fancy a more false or uncomfortable position than that in which James now stood, when, calling together his council, the lord mayor, and other notables, he addressed them for the last time. An ill-disposed historian might have invented this speech for him if no memory of the one really delivered had survived. "My dear and loyal Irish subjects, I believe I ought not to have risked the disastrous battle of yesterday against the advice of my judicious officers. After the fighting was determined on, I unhappily did much to discourage the undisciplined fellows who so well exhibited their loyalty and bravery at the Boyne. We are beaten, I am sorry to say, and I am getting away as fast as I can to place hundreds of miles between myself and the cannons and muskets of my callous relative. Make as good terms, my poor people, with William as he will grant you. I. can do no more for you than leave you my blessing, to which you are heartily welcome. Adieu!"
There is an ill-natured tradition still afloat that in his greeting to Lady Tyrconnell he alluded to the agility of the Irish in running away from the field, and was in return complimented by that lady for having outstripped such very fleet runners. The anecdote bears every mark of a lie about it. The orderly retreat at the Boyne was nothing like a dastardly flight, and James's disposition would have been worse than his ill-wishers have ever represented it, had he cracked that bitter jest on his loyal supporters. We prefer the following sketch of the final interview from the pen of a writer whose Williamite leanings, though strong, are regulated by calm judgment and generous feelings:
"In the cold grey of the winter's morning it were hard to imagine a drearier or less inviting spectacle than this group of loyalists presented. While they were waiting thus, James, a man of punctuality to the last, was employed in paying and discharging his menial servants, previously to his taking final leave of his Irish capital. At last however the door opened, and James followed by two or three gentlemen and officers, including Colonel Luttrell who kept garrison as governor of the city, entered the apartment. . . . There was that in the fallen condition of the king, in the very magnitude of his misfortunes, which lent a mournful dignity to his presence, and which in spite of the petulance which occasionally broke from him, impressed the few disappointed, and well-nigh ruined followers of his cause who stood before him with feelings of melancholy respect.
"'Gentlemen,' said the king after a brief pause, 'it hath pleased the Almighty Disposer of events to give the victory to our enemies. . . . The enemy will be in possession of this city at least before many days are passed. . . . Matters being so, we must needs shift for ourselves as best we may. Above all we do command you, we do implore of you, gentlemen, in your several stations, and principally you, Colonel Luttrell, as governor of this our city, to prevent all undue severities, all angry reprisals, all violences .... upon the suspected within its walls. We do earnestly intreat of you all to remember that this is our city, and they our subjects; protect it and them as long as it shall seem wise to occupy this town for us. This is our last command, our parting request.'"
The poor king was overcome during his speech by the part his own daughters were acting in the bitter drama then in progress. However, that does not excuse the reference to the want of capacity or courage which he was pleased to discover among his Irish supporters. For from the beginning they appeared more interested in his success than he did himself.
WILLIAM IN DUBLIN.
But the speech came to an end, and the king departed, and conflicting and varying hopes and fears agitated the citizens, as the Irish troops marched in with drums beating and colors flying, and again quitted the city, and proceeded to Limerick, and so on till the arrival of the Duke of Ormond and the Dutch guards on Thursday.
The king rode in from the camp at Finglass on the next Sunday, attended divine service in St. Patrick's cathedral, and returned to the camp in time for dinner. On the 7th of the month he issued a proclamation from which a few extracts are here presented:
"WILLIAM, R.
"As it hath pleased Almighty God to bless our arms in this kingdom with a late victory, . . . . we hold it reasonable to think of mercy, and to have compassion on those whom we judge to have been seduced. Wherefore we do hereby declare, we shall take into our royal protection all poor labourers, common souldiers, country farmers, plough-men, and cottiers whatsoever: as also all citizens, trades-men, towns-men, and artificers, who either remained at home, or having fled from their dwellings, shall return by the first of August. . . We do also promise to secure them in their goods, their stocks of' cattel, and all their chattels personal whatever, willing and requiring them to come in, . . and to preserve the harvest of grass and corn for the supply of the winter."
Those who held from Protestant landlords were to pay their rent as usual, but tenants of Roman Catholics should hand their money to commissioners appointed to receive it. The term REBELS is applied in the proclamation to all in arms for King James, a proof that privy councillors dating from the royal camp at Finglass, 7th July, 1690, were determined to hold the adherents of James sternly to their constitutional position.
Devoted partisan as was our chaplain, [Footnote 200] he was sometimes blessed with kindly feelings toward his master's foes. He thus continues after copying the proclamation:
"This declaration was published in the camp two days after, and had it been punctually observed according to the intent of it, we had had fewer enemies at this day by at least 20,000. For though the king was punctual in his observance of it, some officers and soldiers were apt to neglect the king's honour, and the honour of our country and religion, when it stood in competition with their own profit and advantage."
[Footnote 200: Rev. George Story, chaplain in King William's army.]
DOUGLAS'S SLOW JOURNEY TO ATHLONE.
On the 9th of July, William divided his forces, sending one portion under General L. G. Douglas to force the pass at Athlone, himself conducting the rest toward Limerick. Douglas did not tire his soldiers with rapid marches. The first night they bivouacked at Chapel Issard, which place a citizen of Dublin will reach easily on foot in an hour. The second night they encamped at Manouth (May-nooth?), but here we must quote our historian.
"Friday we encamped at Glencurry (Clon-curry?) about five miles further, and we had not got this length till we begun to plunder, though the general gave strict orders to the contrary. Saturday the 12th, we marched to Glenard (Clonard) bridge, and here we staid all Sunday. The soldiers went abroad and took several things from the Irish, who had staid upon the king's declaration, and frequent complaints came already to the general'; but plundering went on still, especially among the northern men who are very dexterous at that sport. . . At Mullingar several of the Irish came in for protections, though when they had them they were of little force to secure their goods or themselves.".
General Douglas and his soldiers arrived before Athlone, which our authority locates fifty miles north of Dublin, though it happens to be nearly due west, on the 17th, having marched out of Chapelizod on the 9th (six and a quarter miles per day). Not a whit fatigued or daunted, they summoned stout old Colonel Grace to surrender. Story says he fired a pistol at the herald, to show the value he set on his request. We must pronounce the old warrior a recreant, unless the charge was mere powder, or the muzzle pointed upward, which we opine was the case. Colonel Grace expressed at the same time his determination to eat his old boots rather than capitulate; hence the application of Boot-eater to stout defenders of fortresses. So besiegers and besieged fired guns long and short, wide and small bores, at each other till the 25th, when General Douglas, hearing that Sarsfield was coming to the relief of the place, raised the siege, and marched southward to meet the main army near Limerick. Mr. Story says that about three or four hundred men were lost between Dublin and Limerick, of which number thirty only were slain before Athlone, say three men and three quarters of a man each day. Very indifferent gunners were those behind the walls of Athlone if this statement be true, Our observant author makes curious mistakes in topographical matters at times. In this portion of' his narrative he mentions the Shannon as falling into the sea beyond Knoc Patrick. Every child exercised on the map of Ireland, is able to lay finger on Cnoc-Patrick in Mayo, seventy miles or so north of the Shannon's mouth.
After laying the deaths of the three or four hundred men missing to sickness, hard marching, six and a quarter miles per diem, surprises by Rapparees, and sundry other disadvantages, he cracks a gentle joke by way of cheering up his reader's spirits. "W e killed," says he, "and took prisoners a great many thousands, but more of' these had had four feet than two." Having brought this division of the army safe through the "Golden Vale," let us see what the other portion under the immediate attention of the king were about.
HOW WILLIAM ENFORCED DISCIPLINE:
On the 9th of the month, William encamped at Crumlin, and the next night between the Ness [Footnote 201] and Rathcoole. It was well for the inhabitants of the line of march that the king commanded in person.
[Footnote 201: Naas was anciently the seat of the kings of North Leinster. The word means a fair or a commemoration. Rathcoole implies a lonely fortress.]
"Little hapned remarkable except the king's great care to keep the souldiers from plundering, and every night it was given out in orders that on pain of death no man should go beyond the line in the camp, or take violently to the least value from Protestant or Papist. The 11th the army marched to Kill-Kullen, Bridge, the king this morning passing by the Ness saw a souldier robbing a poor woman, which enraged his majesty so much, that he beat him with his cane, and gave orders that he and several others guilty of the like disobedience should be executed on the Monday following. People were so wicked as (to) put a bad construction on this action of the king's, but it had so good an effect upon that part of the army, that the country was secured from any violence done by the souldiers during that whole march. Two of the sufferers were Iniskillin dragoons."
Had General Douglas acted thus the worthy chaplain would not have had to record so much cruelty and injustice inflicted upon the harmless country people.
Story takes occasion, on Colonel Eppingar's proceeding with a party of 1,000 horse and dragoons [Footnote 202] to Wexford, to inform his English readers about the people in the south of the county.
[Footnote 202: In 1660, Marshal Brissae, fancying or feigning dragons to be in the habit of spouting fire out of their mouths, get the muzzles of short muskets adorned with the effigies of these monsters, and therewith armed some troops of horse. The early dragoons discharged the duties of infantry and cavalry. The Scots Grays formed in 1683 were the earliest British dragoons.]
"Hereabouts were the first English planted in Ireland. They were a colony of west-countrymen, and retain their old English tone and customs to this day. I am credibly informed that every day about one or two o'clock in summer, they go to bed, the whole country round; nay, the very hens fly up and the sheep go to fold as orderly as it were night." [Footnote 203]
[Footnote 203: The people of "the barony" are the descendants of a Flemish colony who had settled in Wales at the invitation of Henry I. Beans were the favorite crop, and dry bean-stalks furnished their chief fuel. If the gossip of the inhabitants of the northern part of the county could be credited, the barony of Forth formerly furnished priests for all Ireland.]
Good Mr. Story was as fond of a bit of picturesque or romantic hearsay as Herodotus himself. The well-to-do farmers really indulged in a siesta, but as to the degeneracy of manners among the hens and sheep we are altogether incredulous. Some time before the Ninety-Eight, household and village councils were held for a month in a townland of the barony to decide whether a farmer, to whom a legacy had been left in Dublin, should relinquish his right to it, or encounter the risks of the journey to the city. At last it was decided that prayers were to be solemnly offered up for his safety in all the neighboring churches and chapels, and then let him in God's name brave the perils of the way.
A good deal of irresolution prevailed at this time in William's proceedings. Ill news came rife across the water, and at one time he retraced his route even as far as Chapelizod with the intention of crossing to England. There, however, he received tidings which reassured him, and he returned to the camp at Golden Bridge, which he reached on the 2d of August. On the 8th General Douglas arrived, and on the 9th the united forces approached the Irish stronghold.
INTERIOR OF THE IRISH COUNCILS.
The Irish and French chiefs who had collected to Limerick after the day at the Boyne were far from being of the same opinions or aspirations. According to Colonel O'Kelly, Tyrconnell desired nothing more than to give up Limerick and all the other garrisons to King William, and Count de Lauzun was more anxious to get back to that centre of delights, the city of Paris, than co-operate in the defence of their present hold, which, he said, required only a smart discharge of roasted apples to be made listen to terms.
THE PARLEY BEFORE THE FIGHT.
Limerick, now apparently devoted to destruction, consisted of an island within two arms of the Shannon, and a smaller area outside called the Irish-town, both portions being connected by Ball's-bridge. King's Island was and is connected with the Clare side of the river by 'I'homond-bridge, and contains a legacy left by King John in the shape of a castle. William's people set to work forming batteries and trenches as well as the balls coming from the ramparts of' Irish-town would allow them, and the moment they were ready they proceeded to exchange iron and leaden compliments with the folk behind the parapets.
Hostilities, however, did not really begin till some civil communications had taken place on both sides. A herald-trumpeter, blowing his instrument and displaying his white flag, entered the city with a polite request to the authorities to surrender the place. Monsieur Boiselieu, chief in command, calling the Duke of Berwick and Major-General Sarsfield to council, indited a politely expressed letter to Sir Robert Southwell, secretary of state, in which was implied some wonder at the request, and a determination on his part, and that of his officers and soldiers, to gain the good opinion of the Prince of Orange by defending the city against his forces while defence was feasible. On the return of the trumpeter firing began, the king inspecting the hot business from Cromwell's fort.
Story says that a Frenchman, escaping into the city the day the enemy sat down before it, gave accurate information to Sarsfield of the complete economy of the English camp, and of a battering-train, tin boats, wagons of biscuits; etc., approaching William's camp from Dublin. [{712}] Part of the sequel is given in his own words:
"Monday the 11th in the morning, came one Manus O'Brien a substantial country gentleman to the camp, and gave notice that Sarsfield in the night had passed the river with a body of horse, and designed something extraordinary. . . . . The messenger that brought the news was not much taken notice of at first, most people looking on it as a dream. A great officer however called him aside, and after some indifferent questions, askt him about a prey of cattel in such a place, which the gentleman complained of afterwards, saying he was sorry to see general officers mind cattel more than the king's honour. But after he met with some acquaintance he was brought to the king, who, to prevent the worst, gave orders that a party of five hundred horse should be made ready, and march to meet the guns. . . . Where the fault lay, I am no competent judge, but it certainly was one or two of the clock in the morning before the party marched, which they then did very softly till about an hour after they saw———"
What shall be told farther on.
SARSFIELD'S GREAT FEAT.
"From Limerick that day bould Sarsfield dashed away, Until he came to Cullen where their artillery lay; The Lord cleared up the firmament, the moon and stars shone bright, And for the Battle of the Boyne be had revenge that night."
Poor John Banim inserted these stirring lines in his romance of the Boyne Water as belonging to an old ballad; we suspect them to have been his own composition. Whoever might have given Sarsfield information—a rapparee was as likely as the Frenchman mentioned by the chaplain—he crossed Thomond-bridge at the head of five hundred horse on Sunday night as soon as it was sufficiently dark, and the party moved up as noiselessly as they could along the western bank of the Shannon to Killaloe, or Killalow, as Rev. Mr. Story spells it. There they crossed the river and penetrated among the Tipperary mountains, over which the Keeper and the "Mother of Mountains" towered in pride. Among the hills they spent the rest of the night and the whole of the next day, being kept aware of the movements of the convoy which meantime was working its slow way along the Cashel road. Toward evening Sarsfield and a few who were most in his confidence, lying among the dry grass and fern of the hill-pass since called Lacken-na-Gapple (Lagan-na-Capal, "Hollow of the Horses"), were inspecting the last stage of the convoy. At that hour the train had passed the village of Cullen, and were about taking their rest on and about the road leading up to the grassy platform on which stood the old fortalice of Ballyneedy. This was about five miles from the mountain pass where the Jacobite general was on the watch. He waited as patiently as he could till the sun had sunk some time behind the Galteigh mountains, and the watch-fires began to glimmer from the encampment.
The watch-word that night among the wearied men and their sentinels was SARSFIELD, an ill-omened coincidence. How the party conspiring their destruction found it out is not so very apparent; but when the officers were asleep in the waste castle, and the soldiers by their wagons, Sarsfield's men sang out the password to the sentinel placed in advance of the village, to the sentinels in the village, and to the sentinels immediately in advance of the unconscious groups. There the commander thundered out "Sarsfield is the word, and Sarsfield is the man." Deafening shouts came from the rushing horsemen, and of the awakened slumberers some were slain gallantly resisting, a few escaped, and a few others got quarter. The spoils consisted or eight pieces of heavy battering-cannon, five mortars with their carriages, a hundred and fifty-three wagons of ammunition, twelve carts loaded with biscuit, eighteen tin boats for the passage of rivers, and all the cart and cavalry horses.
The commander, wisely judging that troops were at the moment marching from Limerick to interrupt his plans, had the cannons charged to the mouth and set in the earth, muzzle downward. [{713}] These he surrounded with the wagons and their contents, and skifully laid trains of powder were not neglected. The successful party then withdrawing to a safe distance—they needed a wide berth, taking the quantity of powder into account—set fire at once to the lines of powder, and at one and the same moment all the contents of the great guns and the ammunition-carts were ignited. There was an intolerable blaze, a roar and its reverberations; accompanied by a blowing up in the air of pieces of metal and blazing wood, and the combined effect was sublime and terrible beyond conception. The darkest recesses of the mountain glens were lighted up as in the summer noon, and the shock was felt for many miles in every direction. Sir John Lanier, who was hastening when too late to protect the convoy, saw the blaze and heard the terrible explosion at several miles distance, and comprehended the terrible disaster in a moment. The concussion was perceptible even in William's camp at a distance of about thirteen miles, and it is probable that the general who had "askt" Manus O'Brien about the prey of cartel, felt (to use a provincialism) very lewd of himself. Sir John Lanier directed his squadron of five hundred horse to the left to intercept the Irish party, but it was not his fortune to meet with them, and Sarsfield recrossed the Shannon without the loss of a man.
The Rev. Mr. Story relates that no one was made prisoner at Ballyneedy "only a lieutenant of Colonel Earle's, who being sick in a house hard by, was stripped and brought to Sarsfield, who used him very civilly."
While the Irish chief is snatching a short relaxation after his successful sortie, and all within the walls are filled with a momentary joy for the signal benefit, let us introduce a slight sketch of the career of the brave Earl of Lucan, whose memory is still held in love and veneration by the great mass of the Irish people, and of whom no disrespectful word is ever pronounced by the descendants of the brave men against whom he often waged battle.
SARSFIELD'S CAREER.
The first of the name known in Ireland was Thomas Sarsfield, standard-bearer to King Henry II. In the reign of Charles I., Patrick, the then representative of the family, married Anne, daughter of Ruaighré (Roger) O'Moore, and their children were William and the subject of our sketch Patrick, who succeeded to the estate on the death of his brother. "He had received his education in one of the French military colleges, and saw some early campaigns in the armies of Louis XIV. His first commission was that of ensign in the regiment of Monmouth in France, after which he obtained a lieutenancy in the Royal Guards of England." He commanded for James in one of those skirmishes which took place with William's Dutch troops on their march from Torquay. At the commencement of the Irish campaigns his estates produced £2,000 annual revenue, so that it did not inconvenience him much to raise a. company of horse. We shall not here touch on his achievements during the war in Ireland, as these have found, or will naturally find their places in the course of our narrative. On arriving in Paris after the treaty of Limerick, "he was received with kindness and distinction by the ex-king of England and Louis XIV."
"The former appointed him colonel of his body guards, and his most Christian majesty bestowed on him the rank of lieutenant-general in the French armies. He might have obtained a marshal's staff had his life been spared. He fought under Luxembourg at Steenkirk in 1692, . . . . and on the 29th of July, 1693, a little more than one year and a half after his voluntary banishment from his own country, he was killed in the command of a division at the great battle of Landen. It was a soldier's death on a glorious and memorable field.
"There are few names more worthy to be inscribed in the roll of honour than that of Patrick Sarsfield, who may be quoted as a type of loyalty and patriotic devotion. In the annals of Irish history he stands as a parallel to Pierre du Terrail, Chevalier de Bayard in those of France, and may be equally accounted 'Sans peur et sans reproche,' the fearless and irreproachable knight; in his public actions firm and consistent; in his private character amiable and unblemished. . . . (At the end of the war) William III. would gladly have won his services, and offered to confirm him in his rank and property; but he listened to no overtures, and left his native country attended by thousands of that gallant body, who, under the title of the Irish Brigade, filled the continent of Europe with their renown." [Footnote 204]
[Footnote 204: "Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, a Biography;" Dublin University Magazine for November, 1853; the writer, John William Cole, Esq., formerly captain in the Royal Fusiliers. Mary, sister of the earl, was married to Colonel Rossiter, County Wexford, and to a lineal descendant of theirs, the gentleman just mentioned, we are indebted for the only life of Sarsfield yet given to the world. He could find but scant materials, though it is supposed they might be made available if the living representative of an old family of the Pale would take the trouble of a search among the archives of his house. Mary Sarsfield's great granddaughter was the wife of Lieutenant (afterward colonel) James Cockburn, who was on the personal staff of General Wolfe on the memorable day at Quebec. His portrait (to the right of General Moncton's) was introduced by West into his picture of the "Death of Wolfe." He afterward commanded the Thirty-fifth in the American war of Independence. Colonel Cockburn's daughter, Margaret, married Thomas Cole, Esq., of Callan, in the county of Kilkenny, major in the King's Fencibles. Our authority the issue of this marriage could not resist the martial impulses of his race; so he smelled powder along with Rev. R. Gleig at Washington and New Orleans and elsewhere. Since he laid aside the "spurtle blade and dog-skin wallet," he has usefully employed his leisure hours in literary composition of a healthful character. We suspect the papers in the University Magazine on ancient military tactics illustrated by plans of battles to be his. Among his other productions are biographies of General Vallancey, Tyrone Power, and other Irish theatrical celebrities.]
In his Military Memoirs of the Irish Nation, Mathew O'Connor speaks thus of his military qualifications:
"As a partisan and for a desultory warfare, he possessed admirable qualifications; brave, patient, vigilant, rapid, indefatigable, ardent, adventurous, and enterprising; the foremost in encounter, the last in retreat. He harassed his enemy by sudden, unexpected, and generally irresistible attacks, inspiring his troops with the same ardour and contempt of danger with which his own soul was animated. . . . No general was ever more beloved by his troops."
A SIEGE INCIDENT OR TWO.
Whatever William might have felt on being made acquainted with the loss of his cannon and ammunition, he said very little on the subject. He was one of those whose fixed purpose is not to be set aside for defeat or check. With his battering-train augmented by two great guns and a mortar from Waterford, he continued to pound the walls day after day. The trenches were relieved at midnight till the following unlucky mistake occurred, all the particulars of which are not very intelligible to civilians:
"Monday 18th August at night the trenches were relieved by Lieut.-General Douglas, My Lord Sydney, and Count Nassau, as major-generals, and Brigadeer Stuart. We made our approaches towards the fort outside the wall, and Lieut.-General Douglas's and Brigadeer Stuart's regiments were posted towards the right. It was dark when they went on, and they did not perceive the enemy to be so near them as they really were. [What brought the enemy outside their walls?] for there was at that time scarce twenty yards distance between them. They were ordered to lye down upon their arms which they did, and a great part, both of the officers and soldiers, fell asleep. The enemy perceived this, and attacked them, which presently put them into a confusion, and several of them gave ground, but presently recovered themselves and fired, but did not know at what. The Danes to the left took our own men for the enemy sallying, and so fired upon them; they believed the Danes to be the Irish; and so returned the compliment. The Irish fired upon both, and they at one another. This confusion lasted nigh two hours, in which several men were killed; nor did the king or any body else know what to make of it. At last our men found their mistake, and the Irish were beat in, crying 'quarter' and 'murder' as they used to do. After this his majesty ordered the trenches to be relieved in the day, and our men marched always in and out in the very face of their cannon."
If truth lies in a well, it is a pity she should make choice of a muddy one, where her contours and lineaments are so admirably confused. Hear another version by John Banim, the novelist, from what, if any, authority we know not:
"While day after day the battering, at this one point continued, the garrison made a midnight sortie upon the besiegers. Taken by surprise, and thrown into such confusion as to be unable to discern friend from foe, they attacked each other, and the Irish [{715}] having retreated unperceived, so continued until the morning light showed them their mistake and the shocking havoc that resulted from it."
Our chaplain did not much relish that classic and severe style of composition which critics assigned to a great historical work. Moreover he was ever as ready as Homer to introduce a gossiping or traditional episode, and repose his pen from the dry or terrible details of the main course of events.
On the 19th of the month King William had another providential escape. He was riding slowly up toward Cromwell's fort, when, as he was entering a gap, an officer stayed him about some business. Within a second or two after the pause of the horse's feet, a cannon-ball swept through the spot where he and his horse would have been but for the interruption.
All this time the people within the walls were in ill-condition, their diet consisting of beans, or very coarse bread, and the enemy's mortars throwing bombs and carcasses among them with little interruption. These things disturbed them much, as Mr. Story says, for they had not seen the like before. The round or oval iron carcasses which flashed forth through it's holes a fierce and inextinguishable fire for some eight or ten minutes was nearly as terrible as the bomb. Still they doggedly held on, and made no complaint; Sarsfield's energy and hopeful spirits kept up their courage. The chaplain relates with a sort of remorseful feeling how his party and himself enjoyed the burning of a part of the town one night by the bombs and red-hot balls, "which made me reflect upon our profession of soldiery not to be overcharged with good nature."
HOW LIMERICK AS ASSAILED AND DEFENDED.
By the 27th of the month, a twelve yards breach being made in the wall of Irishtown, and William looking on from Cromwell's fort, the grenadiers, supported on either side by Dutch, Danes, and Brandenburghers, on hearing a signal of three cannon-shots, sprang out of their trenches, and cheering loudly, dashed forward to the glacis. [Footnote 205] They were hotly received from the covered way, whose occupants mounting the banquette, and resting their muskets on the edge of the glacis, poured a shower of balls among them; and the guns on the ramparts, great and small, volleying fast and fiercely, made wide lanes among the brave fellows. However, the guns from Cromwell's fort, enfilading the ramparts, soon silenced the engines of death stationed there, and the grenadiers, undaunted by the thinning of their ranks, gained the glacis, sprang into the covered way, and after a terrible struggle forced the defenders from that post, from their trenches in the ditch, and over the breach into the city.
[Footnote 205: For the behoof of young renders not conversant with the outworks of besieged towns, a few explanatory words are given. Outside the strong walls is a wide and deep, dry ditch. The sloping side from which the wall rises is the scarp, the opposite slope is the counterscarp, its upper line meeting with the platform called the covered way. This covered way is about thirty feet wide, its outward boundary being the face of the glacis or sloping plane, this last so situated that men marching along it to attack the fortress are in the direct range of the guns. The level of the glacis is higher than that of the covered way by seven or eight feet. The defenders standing on a small terrace called the banquette at the base of the glacis, and resting their muskets on its edge, can fire on the advancing foe.]
The guns on the ramparts to the right of the breach being silenced, the firing from the Danes and Dutch on the flanks of the storming party did considerable damage to those on the ramparts and in the ditch, but the guns of a fort constructed in King's Island opened on the foreigners, killed many, and afforded some relief to the defenders. While these were mowing each other down at a distance, the grenadiers, driving their opponents across the breach, cheered lustily, and flung in their hand-grenades, whose bursting and destructive iron shower were ill calculated to recall the self-possession of the fugitives. But the pikes and bayonets of their follows in shelter, now levelled full at their breasts, were [{716}] as much to be dreaded as what they expected from behind. Over the breach and inward dashed Lord Drogheda's grenadiers, but a battery snugly placed in front of the yawning breach on stones, timber, earth, and other stuff, all at once belched out a storm of grape upon them, and after struggling for some time, a second discharge sent them back over the ruins and into the ditch.
But no dastard feeling was to be found among the survivors. Re-enforced by new comrades who had yet done nothing, they returned once more to the assault, flung their grenades, and cleared the tumbled masses of lime and stone. Undaunted by the havoc made among them by a fresh discharge, they rushed on the battery, effectually silenced it, and now looked on the capture of the town as certain. But here they were met by fresh and untired foes, who being kept to that moment in inaction by Sarsfield, now rushed on from either side, and a dreadful struggle commenced, the badly armed defenders showering volleys of stones where more effective weapons were not at command, the mere townsmen and their wives and daughters mingling fiercely in the desperate fray. Those who had pushed on the furthest were slain to a man, neither asking nor receiving quarter, and the others, after effecting everything in the power of energy and dauntless courage, were for the second time driven forth from the rescued city.
"From the walls and every place (we quote our chaplain) they so pestered us on the counterscarp (properly the covered way), that after nigh three hours resisting bullets, stones (broken bottles from the very women who boldly stood in the breach, and were nearer our men than their own), and whatever ways could be thought on to destroy us, our ammunition being spent, it was judged safest to return to our trenches. When the work was at the hottest, the Brandenburgh regiment, who behaved themselves very well, were got upon the black battery, where the enemie's powder hapned to take fire, and blew up a great many of them, the men, faggots, stones, and whatnot, flying into the air with a most terrible noise."
In some Jacobite memoirs mention is made of a sortie made by Sarsfield and his driving the wearied assaulters to their camp, and their rescuing many of the enemy from an hospital which had taken fire. The exploit is overlooked by the chaplain, who thus concludes his short account of the day:
"The king stood nigh Cromwell's fort all the time, and the business being over, he went to his camp very much concerned, as indeed was the whole army, for you might have seen a mixture of anger and sorrow in every bodie's countenance."
William thus disappointed of bringing the Irish issue to a conclusion, and his presence being much needed in England, drew off his forces, and he himself made little delay till he set sail from Waterford to make matters in London comfortable, and keep a sharp lookout on the unfriendly proceedings of his bitter foeman, Louis XIV.
In September Count Solmes, who was left in command after William's departure, went to England, and Ginckell succeeded to his office. A better choice could not have been made; he established his head-quarters at Kilkenny.
TYRCONNELL'S POLICY.
Tyrconnell, who all along was no better than a drag on his party, who desired peace in order to secure his own estates, and who was accused of holding secret correspondence with William, sailed to France soon after the siege of Limerick. Previous to his departure he appointed the young Duke of Berwick commander-in-chief; giving him twelve councillors to aid him with their advice. Some of these were men after Tyrconnell's own heart, such as in our own days are called Cawtholics by their own party. Sarsfield happened to be among them, because, if he were not, Tyrconnell's arrangements would have been little regarded by the men of heart and head among the loyalists. Count O'Kelly declares that Tyrconnell's reasons for repairing to the presence of Kings Louis and James were to nullify tile [{717}] effect that the gallant defence of Limerick might have made upon their minds. He would so twist and remould circumstances as to show that there was not a shadow of hope for ultimate success. James appears to have long entertained the notion of recovering England by losing Ireland, hence his enduring patronage of Tyrconnell. Berwick was influenced, of course, by what he knew were the cherished wishes of his father and his father's favorite, and by his inaction, and want of cordial co-operation with Sarsfield and the others, who, like him, were in earnest, did all that in him lay to make General Ginckell's task easy. On more than one occasion the Irish party were about deposing the young duke, but he managed by a show of compliance to still retain his power.
In September of this year the brave soldier but faithless adherent, Lord Churchill, afterward Duke of Marborough, took Cork, which the Duke of Berwick had previously advised the brave M. Elligot to burn, and then retire to Kerry, as its defence seemed hopeless. He rather chose to hold it out for five days. The Duke of Grafton, a natural son of Charles II., and who bequeathed his name to the Bond street of Dublin, commanding the navy, perished at the siege, fighting against his uncle's supporters. Marlborough next marched against Kinsale, which he entered without opposition, but the new fort commanded by Sir Edmund Scott held out for twenty days.
THE RAPPAREES: UNCOMFORTABLE WINTER QUARTERS, 1690.
Those patriotic and troublesome light-armed irregulars, the rapparees, continued during the decline and fall of the year 1690 to do the English in Leinster and Munster much mischief by unexpectedly visiting places supplied with provisions, either cattle or corn, and carrying off all they could seize. So General Ginckell finding himself straitened, conceived the idea of effecting a settlement in Kerry, from which Limerick obtained much provender. With this object he directed Lieutenant-General Douglas to march on Sligo, and take it if possible, at all events to move down the west bank of the Shannon, and co-operate with Colonel Richard Brewer, then at Mullingar, in attempts to pass the river at Jamestown and Lanesboro' above, and Banagher below Athlone. While the attention of King James's generals would be drawn to these proceedings in the north and east, Major-General Tettau would quietly proceed from Cork into Kerry, and take possession of that ancient "kingdom," seconded in his expedition if necessary by forces from Clonmel under the brave Ginckell himself. The advance was really made, and skirmishes and attacks of forts ensued, and after all, the English forces were withdrawn, leaving matters pretty much as before, except the damage mutually inflicted. Some desultory encounters took place on the east bank of the Shannon between portions of the hostile forces, and the rapparees improved every opportunity of despoiling the English foe, and collecting munitions into their boggy or hilly retreats. There are sufficient materials for a dozen romances in the adventures of Maccabe, Grace, O'Higgins, O'Callaghan, O'Kavanagh, the White Sergeant, Galloping Hogan. The last-named worthy indeed figures in the two standard romances of the Jacobite wars which we are happy to possess. It may be supposed that the deeds of these heroes smelt unsavorily in the nostrils of our chaplain, who thus descanted both in sorrow and anger on their proceedings. He prefaced his remarks with an expression of Lord Baltimore to King James I., namely, that "the Irish were a wicked people, and had been as wickedly dealt withal," and conscientiously adds, "I make no application of the expression to ourselves, the most people that have been in that country know how to do it."
One expedition of some moment was made by Colonel Foulkes into an island in the Bog of Allen. This was connected by two toghers or causeways to two points on the dry land, one of them being furnished with twelve trenches. These the brave colonel, who brought three field-pieces along with him, was obliged to fill up one after the other. When he arrived he found Colonel Piper, who had approached by the other causeway. The rapparee garrison had all carefully retreated into the woods when they became aware of their danger, leaving, as Mr. Story says, "only some little things for the invaders."
Of course no quarter was ever extended to the poor rapparees. However, the usual forbearance was exhibited by the regular forces on both sides toward each other. Opposite Lanesboro, on the other side of the Shannon, were posted three regiments of Irish, with the duty of watching the English on the east bank, during some days in December; and (in Mr. Story's words) "then little hapned of moment only some small firings, and sometimes they made truces, Colonel Clifford and the other Irish officers drinking healths over to our men, and those on the other side returning the compliment."
It never entered the mind of the warlike chaplain to throw a halo of interest round one of his rapparee chiefs, though some were perhaps more worthy of the name of hero than Redmond O'Hanlon or Rob Roy. They were contemporaries of his, and were directing their chief energies to bring his master's rule in Ireland to an end. So it was against nature that he could see in them anything but "thieves, robbers, tories, and bogg-trotters."
The most distinguished of the heads of these free companies was Anthony O'Carroll, named Fadh from his great height. After the first siege of Limerick he fixed his head-quarters at Nenagh, and discomforted the English and their allies from that period to the beginning of the second siege. Though he or any of his followers if taken prisoners would be hung according to the laws of war, without mercy, he observed a different demeanor to his captives. Those who had money ransomed themselves; others were kept as prisoners. When he found himself crowded by his foes after the day at Aughrim, he set fire to the town, and brought his garrison of 500 men safe to Limerick Mr. Story says that he was able to collect 2,000 men to his banner at any moment while he ruled at Nenagh.