CHAPTER XVII.
THE INTERVAL FROM JULY 1ST TO THE 12TH.
From its central position on the principal river of the country, Athlone, at any period of the war, was of the utmost importance to either belligerent; its loss to the Irish cause was, at this particular crisis, a misfortune almost irreparable. It was the main link in that chain of fortresses which the Irish generals had early recommended as a base of operations, from which they could indefinitely prolong the war, and eventually roll back the tide of invasion. Their successful defence of it since the battle of the Boyne had tended to strengthen that belief, for, notwithstanding the incessant assaults of the enemy, not a link in the chain had been broken, and every attempt to sever it had resulted in his repulse or discomfiture.
Well has the Shannon been termed the "principal feature of the island:" nay more! in a military sense it is the key to it. Though most of its principal garrisons are approachable by roads at all seasons; yet, by reason of its high winter floods, rising towards the beginning of October, and scarce ever receding until the end of May; with its islands and adjacent callow lands completely inundated, it appears throughout its whole length a chain of extensive lakes, completely hiding its main channel, and greatly limiting the number of assailable points throughout the intervening period. The possession of Limerick, too, by the native army, deprived the invader of the advantage of any craft, save such as could be improvised in the interior, and against the action of cannon these were almost or totally unserviceable. There were, therefore, only five or six months of the year during which the invading army could prosecute a vigorous campaign along its environs, and with its garrisons in a proper state of defence, with the native army lying conveniently behind them, and the other three provinces open to its incursions at will, all the power of England alone were incompetent to the reduction of the country.
Deeply impressed with this conviction, the defence of Athlone had been tenacious, and desperate even to recklessness.[63] Other considerations, too, tended to heighten the importance of this siege. It was the opening event of the campaign; it was carried on under the eye of their new general, of whom fame had spoken so loudly, and above all, it was hoped that a successful result would remove all misgivings from the mind of the French monarch as to the wisdom of his advocacy, and prompt him to immediate and more effective intervention. But the fall of Athlone at once dashed all these bright anticipations. The mind of Louis, continually warped by the misrepresentations of de Lausen and Louvois, had from the beginning wavered on the sustenance of the war; the ill success of his generals had been hitherto attributed to the intractability of the native race; deceived by the subterfuge, he adopted the accusation, and would, it might now be inferred, refuse any further support to a cause whose fate was already foreshadowed. Nor could it be doubted that the error of St. Ruth, though too palpable for evasion, would have its palliation, while the brave men whom his pride and arrogance had cheated out of assured victory, would again be the victims of covert calumny.
It is no wonder, then, that the Irish soldiers felt the loss of Athlone with a grief bordering on despair, and the Irish officers with a rage strongly savoring of mutiny. To those it seemed as though they were to be perpetually the dupes of every adventurer in search of a reputation, and to these, that their dearest liberties weighed as nothing, and that their country was but as a diversion from the military chess-board of Europe, and they deemed the neglect of St. Ruth a crime scarce less detestable than covert treason. To all it was an overwhelming calamity, opening at once to the tread of the invader the province which they had so long and so gallantly defended, and which until this day they could proudly claim as their country.
It is extremely painful, after the lapse of nearly two hundred years, to revive the weaker traits of St. Ruth's most singular character: for it would be far more congenial, in view of his subsequent career, to revive in him a bright reputation than a clouded one. He came to the country in good faith; he gave his life as an earnest of his sincerity in her behalf; and his ashes lie with those of her best and bravest on their last great battle-field for civil and religious liberty. That he planned it skilfully and fought it well, all admit; that it was lost only by the "special interposition of Providence," is generally conceded. He was brave, intrepid, and collected, in that moment which tries true heroism, and his fate still awakens a sympathetic chord in the breast of every generous Irishman. It should be remembered, too, that his name was one of hatred to the French Huguenots of the time, who sold their services to every country at war with their lawful sovereign, and came to Ireland as the crusaders of that religious ascendency they failed to establish in their own. From them the English historians who have treated of this war, have taken their estimate of St. Ruth's character; and such of the Irish historians, too, as advocate "Protestant ascendency and the dependency of Ireland upon England." Deeply imbued with the hatred of French influence in the island, the dissertations of such chroniclers on individual character is persistently in accordance with that feeling. With them the character of Tyrconnell and St. Ruth are alike the subjects of bitter and unmeasured sarcasm; that of the one, because he is said to have first advanced the theory of a French protectorate over the country; and that of the other, simply because he was the servant of their enemy, and a Frenchman; and so much, if not all of their testimony in this connection, may be regarded as either studied falsehood or gross exaggeration.
On the other hand, this policy of Tyrconnell is that which most endears his name to the Irish race, and wins it the general approbation of the native historian. And the wisdom of that policy has grown on them, age after age, until it has at last settled into a faith, that they are to be one day freed by the armed intervention of the enemy of their oppressor. This, too, may account in a great measure for the sympathy manifested by our native historians for the misfortunes of St. Ruth; for, in treating of him, the calamities consequent on his errors seem to be forgotten, and faults that, if committed by a native general, would call forth execrations, are touched so delicately, that one can scarce know which to applaud or to condemn.
Yet, weighing all these, and many other extenuating causes, there still stands out testimony, abundant and reliable, that his errors were ruinous to Ireland, and that in him a great soul was clouded by a most inordinate vanity; that his conduct towards Sarsfield was unwise and untimely, alienating from him the heart of that devoted soldier, and destroying that mutual confidence so indispensable to success; that the position of Tyrconnell as commander-in-chief was a canker in his heart, and not as regarded military affairs only, but that he persistently denied him that courtesy and consideration due to his age, his services, and his position as deputy: but, above all, that through his folly he lost Athlone, and precipitated the country's fate, at a time when a strong hope pervaded every breast, when the army had reached a high standard of efficiency, and after he himself, exultant in its valor, had pronounced it invincible.
Resting his character on its antecedents at this particular juncture, no special pleading could shield it from obloquy. But following it to the end, and coupling his faults with the heroic efforts he made to redeem them, the heart, deeply touched by his vicissitude, cannot restrain its sympathy; and that his memory can thus hold the heart divided between love and hatred, between disgust and admiration, is still the great singularity of his character. At one moment it would seem that he held the cause he championed unworthy of his desert, and had concluded to let it go by default; while the next, he appears to be impressed with its importance, and is seen imparting hope and animation to all around him. Yet over all his arrogance and folly a native nobility of soul predominated, and well had it been for his fame, and for the country that holds his ashes, had some reverse of a less serious nature overtaken him at a period less critical in its history and in his.
But whatever were the foibles of St. Ruth, from his advent in the country to his retreat from Athlone, we have now to look on an entirely different character. There he had learned, though at a fearful cost, that his name had no fears for his potent adversary; that deeds alone were to be the test of high emprise; and that his folly had narrowed down the campaign, and indeed the whole war, to the last resource of fallen heroes;—death or victory. With this feeling, all that was vainglorious in his character at once disappeared; the mist was removed from his mind, and it shone out to the end of his short career, as that of a true hero in adversity. Unlike his French predecessors, he scorned to hide his faults behind the shield of calumny, he candidly acknowledged his error, and bitterly lamented it. He became courteous to his officers, affable to his soldiers, changed at once from the despot to the patriarch, and touched by his sorrows, as much as by their own calamity, they again rallied round him, and determined on a final throw for religion and liberty.