Coote and Reynolds elude Clanricarde.
Leinster and Ulster being now pretty safe, Coote was directed to cross the Erne near its mouth, and to turn the line of the Shannon. Reynolds was sent with a regiment of horse to help him, and there was no force in Connaught able to repel the invasion. Coote and Reynolds were at Athenry before the end of May, while Ireton himself advanced to the Shannon opposite Killaloe, and Hewson to Athlone. Castlehaven was at Killaloe with what were called ten regiments, ‘but nothing answerable in numbers,’ and there he received a long letter from Ireton setting forth the justice of the Parliamentary cause, speaking slightingly of the King, and inviting him to retire to England, where he would be well received. He would thus save his property and be spared a hopeless struggle in company unworthy of him. Peter Walsh was with Castlehaven, and by his advice Ireton’s offers were spurned, after which all intercourse ceased between the two generals. Preparations for crossing at Killaloe, where the bridge was broken down, were openly made, and more quietly at O’Brien’s Bridge, where there had been no bridge for generations. A few men were sent over in a boat at daybreak, and seized an old house on the Clare side, under cover of which and of field guns on the Tipperary shore 500 men were ferried over in one hour. The Irish were seized with panic, and deserted their entrenchments, while Colonel Ingoldsby with 300 horse crossed the river unopposed at Castleconnell. Castlehaven came too late to rally the fugitives, and in his absence Colonel Fennell deserted his post at Killaloe and fled to Limerick. Ireton then crossed himself without trouble, while Castlehaven, whose force had dwindled to 300 horse, lost his plate and other property, and went northwards in hopes of joining Clanricarde and intercepting Coote and Reynolds, who had left Londonderry together on May 5, and who for the first time dragged two pieces into Donegal over Barnesmore gap, ‘till then thought impassable for the lightest carriages.’ When they drew near the Curlew mountains, where Sir Conyers Clifford was overthrown in the Elizabethan days, their scouts reported that Clanricarde had occupied the passes, whereupon they turned westward, and got ‘by strange and unexpected ways undiscovered into the county of Mayo,’ near Ballaghdereen, leaving Clanricarde two days’ march in their rear. They were at Athenry on May 31, and outside Loughrea on June 2, where they lost no time, but pushed on towards Portumna without fighting. Clanricarde and Castlehaven were together at Loughrea, but too weak to do anything. They warned all the population to fly with their property, and retired beyond the Galway river, taking refuge in the town when Coote appeared on its eastern side.[207]
Ludlow’s march to Portumna, June.
Desperate defence of Gort.
The laws of war.
As soon as he heard of Coote’s approach, Ireton sent 1000 cavalry and dragoons to meet him, with whom Ludlow, who volunteered his services, started northwards through a desolate country. One ‘creaght’ or encampment of half a dozen families with their cattle, was sighted, and the soldiers would have killed these poor people as enemies had not Ludlow interfered. ‘I took a share with them,’ he says, ‘of a pot of sour milk, which seemed to me the most pleasant liquor that ever I drank.’ Having marched forty miles in about twenty-four hours, Ludlow left the bulk of his men comfortably encamped, and hurried on with sixty troopers to Portumna, which, having repulsed one attack, surrendered next morning. Coote being safe, Reynolds joined Ludlow with 500 horse, and they pursued Clanricarde as far as Ballinasloe, which surrendered and was garrisoned. Reynolds then returned to Portumna, and Ludlow marched through Clare to Limerick. At Gort he found that Sir Dermot O’Shaughnessy had gone to Galway, leaving his tenants with some soldiers under an English lieutenant named Foliot to hold the castle. A countryman employed by Ludlow deserted, and told the garrison that he had no artillery or other equipage for a siege. But faggots or fascines were made, and each soldier carried one to use as a shield first, and afterwards to fill up the ditch. Enraged by the fall of two comrades the men climbed the twelve foot wall of the courtyard, helping each other to the top. Some ladders were found inside which gave admission to more, a window was soon forced open, and the occupants of the room killed. Foliot fought desperately ‘with a tuck in one hand and a stiletto in the other,’ but was soon run through the body. Faggots were piled against the gates and fired, when the garrison, fearing to be burned alive, hung out a white flag and threw down their arms. Ludlow gave one of his men twenty shillings to fetch out two barrels of powder that were near the fire, which could not be put out, eighty men besides many women and children being rescued by ‘skeins of match thrown up into the chambers.’ A few soldiers were put to death as defenders of an untenable post. Ludlow says he was pressed by his council of war to use this severity, but O’Shaughnessy’s tenants were all dismissed unhurt to their homes, and the general went on to Ireton, driving before him 500 cattle which his foragers had collected among the Burren hills.[208]
Siege of Limerick, June-Oct.
The bombardment does little harm.
Ireton came before Limerick on June 3 on the Clare side of the Shannon. A large number of cattle had been collected at a place called Ferboe, a little above the town, where there was a narrow pass partly defended by an old castle. A stout resistance was made here, but Ingoldsby forced the passage with his cavalry and drove the Irish back to Thomond Bridge, about 150 being killed or drowned. The cattle formed a welcome addition to the commissariat, and Ireton marched on without further opposition. The estuary was in the hands of the Parliament, and the next few days were spent in landing cannon and mortars. The word bomb was, perhaps, first applied to the mortar-shells used during this siege. June 18 was set apart as a day of thanksgiving ‘for the Lord’s mercies in bringing us over the Shannon,’ and other unexpected successes, and on the next day Ireton having formally summoned Limerick, at once began the bombardment. A battery of twenty-eight guns played upon the castle defending Thomond Bridge. Two mortars, afterwards increased to four, threw shells into the town, but the largest, carrying projectiles of two hundred weight, burst, but without hurting anyone. Ludlow joined Ireton three days later, and found that a lodgment had already been effected on the great salmon-weir above Limerick, where a castle still stands. Two guns were brought to bear, and from one the first shot went in at a window and broke a soldier’s leg. The garrison at once took to their boats, but the fire was so hot that they all rowed to shore and surrendered, some to Tothill on the Clare bank, and some to Ingoldsby on the Limerick bank.[209]
Ireton’s justice.