| [50] | Excesses of a savage barbarity, but upon questionable authority, have been ascribed to the king himself, on his retreat from Limerick. Disappointments might certainly have raised his resentment; at least the outrages committed by his troops contributed to stain the annals of the times; but whether they proceeded from his orders, or his want of authority, was hard to decide. (Macpherson's History of England, vol. i., p. 664.) |
| [51] | The particular line of policy that brought this deputation to France, or the cause of Tyrconnell's future regret, is nowhere clearly indicated by the Duke of Berwick. But the treason of Henry Loutrell, during the subsequent stages of the war, is an accepted belief in Ireland and in her history. His secret correspondence with William and Baron Ginkle, and his attempt to surrender Galway, are well authenticated. After the war he received his elder brother's estate and a pension of 2,000 crowns annually from William, and was assassinated in Dublin in the year 1717—"nor could it ever be discovered by whom." (See Berwick's Memoirs, vol. i, p. 97.) |
| [52] | Berwick's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 71. |
| [53] | Memoirs of the Duke of Berwick. |
| [54] | He was, says Taylor, the most respectable of the natural sons of Charles II. |
| [55] | Lesley's History of the Civil Wars, &c. |
| [56] | The value of the brass money issued by the king inthe early part of the war will be better understoodfrom the following extract:
|
| [57] | Story's Impartial History, 29th, 30th, and 31st of Dec., 1690, and Jan. 1st, 1691. |
| [58] | O'Callaghan's remarks on this subject are substantially as follows:—The import of his name, perhaps, marked him out to cooler-headed politicians, as a means of effecting much national good, by exciting the imagination of the people. Ball-dearg O'Donnell was accordingly sent for, to Spain, and arrived at Limerick, August, 1690. (See Greenbook, p. 242.) |
| [59] | O'Driscoll's History of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 288, 289.—There is a letter in the Appendix to Haverty's History of Ireland, which came into the possession of its author, "through the extreme kindness of the Editor of The Four Masters," after his work had gone to press, and which he regrets not having seen in time to change or modify the estimate which he had formed of O'Donnell, and adopted in his text. But seeing that the name of the writer of the letter is not given, and that the vindication of Ball-dearg, which it contains, though plausible, is not at all convincing, the present writer adopts the generally received opinion. For, admitting many of the assertions of the letter to be true, there is no cause given for the absence of O'Donnell from the Battle of Aughrim. He was within seven or eight miles of the field during the engagement; it was, perhaps, the most momentous battle ever fought in the country, and whatever were his private grievances, he should have shared its perils. |