The King, accompanied by Portland, set out from London on June 4, and slept that night at Northampton. On Sunday, the 8th, he attended service in Chester Cathedral, and heard a sermon from Dr. Stratford, who had succeeded Cartwright in that see. On the 12th he took ship at Hoylake and arrived with 300 sail at Carrickfergus on the 14th. An eye-witness says that the total number of vessels assembled was 700, and that Belfast Lough looked like a wood. William mounted his horse as soon as possible and rode amid cheering crowds through the town on his way to Belfast. At Whitehouse, Schomberg met him with his coach, and they drove together; a second carriage was sent by the General to bring up some of the grandees who had landed. At the north gate of the town the illustrious visitor was met by the Corporation in their robes, accompanied by Dr. Walker and a dozen other clergymen. All the way to the castle there were shouts of ‘God save King William,’ ‘God save our Protestant King.’ At night the streets and all the country round blazed with bonfires. They were seen, and the signal guns heard by one of Lauzun’s spies, who brought him the news two days later. Next day being Sunday, William heard Dr. Royse preach in the Cathedral on ‘Who through faith subdued kingdoms,’ and on the Monday received an address from the clergy, with Walker at their head. Good order was kept, and necessaries were cheap, for the ships brought vast quantities of provisions, and even of hay and straw. ‘We fear no more Dundalk wants,’ says one letter, and the army was thoroughly well provided; but of money there was no great plenty. William spent four days at Belfast, reviewing the troops and making arrangements. Sick of inaction and not fully paid, officers and soldiers longed for active service, and were not disappointed. On the 19th William dined with Schomberg at Lisburn, having previously issued a proclamation against plundering or taking goods without payment, and on the next day he was at Hillsborough, spurring those in authority under him to fresh efforts. He had not, he said, come to let the grass grow under his feet. Lest there should be any doubt about the meaning of his proclamation, he here issued a special order against pressing horses belonging to the country people without permission under the sign manual, which was afterwards refused even for ambulance purposes. A soldier transgressing this order was to run the gauntlet thrice through the whole regiment. A few months before Schomberg had rather made light of seizing the little country horses. On the 22nd William was at Loughbrickland, and by the 27th the whole army, mustering about 36,000 men, encamped a little to the south of Dundalk. During the whole campaign the King and Prince George of Denmark lived each in a wooden hut designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and capable of being carried on two wagons. When William inspected his troops he was not satisfied with seeing them march past from a comfortable eminence, but went in among the ranks, regardless of heat, wind, and clouds of dust. When a fuss was made about the wine for his table, he said he would drink water rather than that the men should suffer. He was deficient in courtly graces, but he was the kind of king whom soldiers will follow cheerfully against any odds.[263]
Skirmish near Newry, June 22.
Before making a general advance, William took care to have the line of march thoroughly reconnoitred. At a boggy spot about half-way between Newry and Dundalk, where there was a broken bridge, a party of 200 foot and dragoons fell into an ambuscade on the day that the King reached Loughbrickland. Lauzun takes credit for having laid the snare, and he had reason to know the place, for his horse had fallen under him there only two days before. The morning was foggy and the surprise complete. Captain Farlow, who led the infantry detachment, was taken prisoner with several others, and Colonel Dempsy, who commanded the Irish, was mortally wounded. There was a sharp skirmish, and the English were decidedly worsted, but not pursued. From Farlow James had the first certain news of William’s landing.[264]
James leaves Dublin, June 16.
He falls back without fighting.
Two days after King William’s landing, King James left Dublin to join his army near Dundalk. They were encamped about Roche Castle, and the prisoners taken with Captain Farlow reported that William was on the road to Newry with 50,000 men, which was an exaggeration. On the day after the skirmish there was a general retreat to the old position at Ardee, where entrenchments had been left unfinished the year before. James’s main object in advancing had been to exhaust the country through which his rival would have to march, but William, with the sea open, was in no want of supplies. The guns of the English fleet could be heard by both armies. The difficult ground about Moyry and Ravensdale had been the scene of much fighting in Elizabethan times, and had been slightly fortified by James, who was blamed for not trying to stop the invader there; but Berwick says that, with the force at his disposal, William could easily have turned the position from the Armagh side. Dundalk itself, though well fortified, was judged to be untenable, and Lauzun evacuated it five days before the final struggle. He abstained from burning the soldiers’ huts because some of last year’s infection still hung about them and might do the enemy more harm than want of shelter at midsummer. But both Dundalk and Ardee were thoroughly sacked by the Irish. On June 28, twelve days after leaving Dublin, James recrossed the Boyne, half of his army marching through Drogheda and the other half over the ford at Oldbridge, where entrenchments were begun but not finished, owing to the want of labour. Lord Iveagh was Governor of Drogheda, with 1300 men, and had he been an enterprising man he might have done much to cover the Jacobite right. The left wing, extending up the river, was evidently open to a flank attack, but James rightly says that the country afforded no better position. Sarsfield’s division, which had been detached to guard against a possible attack on Athlone, joined the main body on June 26, their leader having satisfied himself that all the troops about Cavan and Belturbet had drawn towards Armagh, so as to fall in with William’s line of march.[265]
William’s march to the Boyne.
He is wounded, June 30.
On June 27 William’s army was encamped a little to the south of Dundalk. He intended to attack the enemy at Ardee, but a party of cavalry found that position already abandoned. On the 30th the whole army marched towards the Boyne, the King himself diverging a little to the left so as to view Drogheda and the course of the river from the hill at Tullyesker. Schomberg was with him, and also Prince George, the Duke of Ormonde, Sidney, Solms, and Scravenmore. The latter, who had seen many armies, remarked that James’s was a small one, but William said there might be more in the town and behind the hills. A deserter said they were about 25,000, and the Williamite chaplain admits that his King had some 36,000. The line of march was through a deep depression, where a modern road runs to the east of Townley Hall, which is still known, and will always be known, as King William’s Glen. Thomas Bellingham, an officer who had connections in the country, took the opportunity of paying Mr. Townley a visit. About noon the head of the column came out into the open, and took up ground facing Oldbridge on the other side of the Boyne. William sat down to eat and rest a little higher up. A party of five officers, of whom Berwick, Tyrconnel, and Sarsfield were three, were observed riding slowly along the opposite bank, and shortly afterwards two field guns were quietly brought up and fired as soon as William was in the saddle again. A six-pound shot ricochetted and struck him on the right shoulder, tearing his coat and breaking the skin. He merely remarked in Dutch that it was near enough. Thomas Coningsby, afterwards an earl, applied a handkerchief to the bleeding wound, and William made light of it, retiring to a tent to have it dressed and then remounting. He remained on horseback for three hours without changing his coat, and laughed at one Dr. Sangrado who proposed to bleed him. The enemy, says Captain Parker, ‘concluded he was killed, and this news soon flew to Dublin and from thence to Paris, where they had public rejoicings for it.’ About three o’clock his artillery came up, and both shot and shells from small mortars were sent across the river, doing some mischief, but without altering the situation. At sunset there was a council of war, and Schomberg advised that a strong force should be sent up the river at midnight, so that James’s army might be taken in flank and rear and cut off from Dublin. William, however, who was supported by Solms and other Dutch officers, decided upon a frontal attack, somewhat to the veteran’s disgust. Many of the Enniskillen officers knew all the fords, and with their help the order for next day’s battle was arranged. At twelve o’clock William rode by torchlight through the whole army. He was a man who kept his own counsel, but his unwillingness to take Schomberg’s advice and perhaps gain a victory as complete as Ulm or Sedan may fairly be ascribed to his dread of catching James. As at Rochester, a means of escape was provided, and experience had shown that it would not be neglected. The necessity of sparing Mary’s feelings and the political danger of a captive king might well prevail against purely military considerations.[266]