HE ASSISTS AT A CONGRESS.
At a solemn congress of the confederate princes, he represented in a set speech the dangers to which they were exposed from the power and ambition of France; and the necessity of acting with vigour and dispatch. He declared he would spare neither his credit, forces, nor person, in concurring with their measures; and that in the spring he would come at the head of his troops to fulfil his engagements. They forthwith resolved to employ two hundred and twenty-two thousand men against France in the ensuing campaign. The proportions of the different princes and states were regulated; and the king of England agreed to furnish twenty thousand. He supplied the duke of Savoy so liberally, that his affairs soon assumed a more promising aspect. The plan of operations was settled, and they transacted their affairs with such harmony that no dispute interrupted their deliberations. In the beginning of March, immediately after the congress broke up, the siege of Mons was undertaken by the French king in person, accompanied by the Dauphin, the dukes of Orleans and Chartres. The garrison consisted of about six thousand men, commanded by the prince of Bergue: but the besiegers carried on their works with such rapidity as they could not withstand. King William no sooner understood that the place was invested, than he ordered prince Waldeck to assemble the army, determined to march against the enemy in person. Fifty thousand men were soon collected at Halle, near Brussels: but when he went thither, he found the Spaniards had neglected to provide carriages, and other necessaries for the expedition. Meanwhile, the burghers of Mons, seeing their town in danger of being utterly destroyed by the bombs and cannon of the enemy, pressed the governor to capitulate, and even threatened to introduce the besiegers: so that he was forced to comply, and obtained very honourable conditions. William, being apprized of this event, returned to the Hague, embarked for England, and arrived at Whitehall on the thirteenth day of April.*
* A few days before his arrival, great part of the palace of Whitehall was consumed by fire, through the negligence of a female servant.
CHAPTER III.
Conspiracy against the Government by Lord Preston and others..... The King fills up the vacant Bishoprics..... Affairs of Scotland..... Campaign in Flanneitt..... Progress of the Trench in Piedmont..... Election of a New Pope....The Emperor’s Success against the Turks..... Affairs of Ireland..... General Ginckel reduces Athlone..... Defeats the Irish at Aghrim..... Undertakes the Siege of Limerick..... The French and Irish obtain an honourable Capitulation..... Twelve Thousand Irish Catholics are transported to France..... Meeting of the English Parliament..... Discontent of the Nation..... Transactions in Parliament..... Disputes concerning the Bill for regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason..... The English and Dutch Fleets baffled by the French..... The King disobliges the Presbyterians of Scotland..... The Earl of Breadalbane undertakes for the Submission of the Highlanders..... Massacre of Glencoe..... Preparations for a Descent upon England..... Declaration of King James..... Efforts of his Friends in England..... Precautions taken by the Queen for the Defence of the Nation..... Admiral Russel puts to Sea..... He obtains a complete Victory over the French Fleet off La Bogue..... Troops embarked at St. Helen’s for a Descent upon France..... The Design laid aside..... The Troops landed at Ostend..... The French King takes Namur in sight of King William..... The Allies are defeated at Steenkirk..... Extravagant rejoicings in France on Account of this Victory..... Conspiracy against the Life of King William, hatched by the French Ministry..... Miscarriage of a Design upon Dunkirk..... The Campaign is inactive on the Rhine and in Hungary..... The Duke of Savoy invades Dauphiné..... The Duke of Hanover created an Elector of the Empire.
A CONSPIRACY.
A conspiracy against the government had been lately discovered. In the latter end of December, the master of a vessel who lived at Barking, in Essex, informed the marquis of Carmarthen that his wife had let out one of his boats to carry over some persons to France, and that they would embark on the thirteenth day of the month. This intelligence being communicated to the king and council, an order was sent to captain Billop to watch the motion of the vessel and secure the passengers. He accordingly boarded her at Gravesend, and found in the hold lord Preston, Mr. Ashton, a servant of the late queen, and one Elliot. He likewise seized a bundle of papers, some of which were scarce intelligible; among the rest, two letters supposed to be written by Turner, bishop of Ely, to king James and his queen, under fictitious names. The whole amounted to an invitation to the French king to assist king James in re-ascending the throne upon certain conditions, while William should be absent from the kingdom; but the scheme was ill laid, and countenanced but by a very few persons of consideration, among whom the chiefs were the earl of Clarendon, the bishop of Ely, lord Preston, his brother Mr. Graham, and Penn the famous quaker. Notwithstanding the outcries which had been made against the severities of the late government, Preston and his accomplice Ashton were tried at the Old Bailey for compassing the death of their majesties king William and queen Mary; and their trials were hurried on without any regard to their petitions for delay. Lord Preston alleged in his defence that the treasons charged upon him were not committed in the county of Middlesex, as laid in the indictment; that none of the witnesses declared he had any concern in hiring the vessel; that the papers were not found upon him; that there ought to be two credible witnesses to every fact, whereas the whole proof against him rested on similitude of hands and mere supposition. He was, nevertheless, found guilty. Ashton behaved with great intrepidity and composure. He owned his purpose of going to France in pursuance of a promise he had made to general Worden, who, on his death-bed, conjured him to go thither and finish some affairs of consequence which he had left there depending, as well as with a view to recover a considerable sum of money due to himself. He denied that he was privy to the contents of the papers found upon him; he complained of his having been denied time to prepare for his trial; and called several persons to prove him a protestant of exemplary piety and irreproachable morals. These circumstances had no weight with the court. He was brow-beaten by the bench, and found guilty by the jury, as he had the papers in his custody; yet there was no privity proved; and the whig party themselves had often expressly declared, that of all sorts of evidence that of finding papers in a person’s possession is the weakest, because no man can secure himself from such danger. Ashton suffered with equal courage and decorum. In a paper which he delivered to the sheriff, he owned his attachment to king James; he witnessed to the birth of the prince of Wales; denied his knowledge of the contents of the papers that were committed to his charge; complained of the hard measure he had met with from the judges and the jury, but forgave them in the sight of heaven. This man was celebrated by the nonjurors as a martyr to loyalty; and they boldly affirmed, that his chief crime in the eyes of the government was his having among his baggage an account of such evidence as would have been convincing to all the world concerning the birth of the prince of Wales, which by a great number of people was believed supposititious.* Lord Preston obtained a pardon; Elliot was not tried, because no evidence appeared against him; the earl of Clarendon was sent to the Tower, where he remained some months, and he was afterwards confined to his own house in the country—an indulgence which he owed to his consanguinity with the queen, who was his first cousin. The bishop of Ely, Graham, and Penn, absconded; and a proclamation was issued for apprehending them as traitors.
* To one of the pamphlets published on this occasion, is annexed a petition to the present government in the name of king James’s adherents, importing, that some grave and learned person should be authorized to compile a treatise, showing the grounds of William’s title; and declaring, that in case the performance should carry conviction along with it, they would submit to that title, as they had hitherto opposed it from a principle of conscience. The best answer that could be made to this summons was Locke’s book upon government, which appeared at this period.—Ralph.
THE KING FILLS UP THE BISHOPRICS.
This prelate’s being concerned in a conspiracy, furnished the king with a plausible pretence for filling up the vacant bishoprics. The deprived bishops had been given to understand, that an act of parliament might be obtained to excuse them from taking the oaths, provided they would perform their episcopal functions; but as they declined this expedient, the king resolved to fill up their places at his return from Holland. Accordingly, the archbishopric of Canterbury was conferred upon Dr. Tillotson,* one of the most learned, moderate, and virtuous ecclesiastics of the age, who did not accept of this promotion without great reluctance, because he foresaw that he should be exposed to the slander and malevolence of that party which espoused the cause of his predecessor. The other vacant Sees were given to divines of unblemished character; and the public in general seemed very well satisfied with this exertion of the king’s supremacy. The deprived bishops at first affected all the meekness of resignation. They remembered those shouts of popular approbation by which they had been animated in the persecution they suffered under the late government; and they hoped the same cordial would support them in their present affliction; but finding the nation cold in their concern, they determined to warm it by argument and declamation. The press groaned with the efforts of their learning and resentment, and every essay was answered by their opponents. The nonjurors affirmed that Christianity was a doctrine of the cross; that no pretence whatever could justify an insurrection against the sovereign; that the primitive christians thought it their indispensable duty to be passive under every invasion of their rights; and that non-resistance was the doctrine of the English church, confirmed by all the sanctions that could be derived from the laws of God and man. The other party not only supported the natural rights of mankind, and explained the use that might be made of the doctrine of non-resistance in exciting fresh commotions, but they also argued that if passive obedience was right in any instance, it was conclusively so with regard to the present government; for the obedience required by scripture was indiscriminate. “The powers that be are ordained of God—let every soul be subject to the higher powers.” From these texts they inferred that the new oaths ought to be taken without scruple, and that those who refused them concealed party under the cloak of conscience. On the other hand, the fallacy and treachery of this argument were demonstrated. They said, it levelled all distinctions of justice and duty; that those who taught such doctrines attached themselves solely to possession, however unjustly acquired; that if twenty different usurpers should succeed one another, they would recognize the last, notwithstanding the allegiance they had so solemnly sworn to his predecessor, like the fawning spaniel that followed the thief who mounted his master’s horse after having murdered the right owner. They also denied the justice of a lay-deprivation, and with respect to church government started tire same distinctions “De jure and de facto” which they had formerly made in the civil administration. They had even recourse to all the bitterness of invective against Tillotson and the new bishops, whom they reviled as intruders and usurpers; their acrimony was chiefly directed against Dr. Sherlock, who had been one of the most violent sticklers against the revolution, but thought proper to take the oaths upon the retreat of king James from Ireland. They branded him as an apostate who had betrayed his cause, and published a review of his whole conduct, which proved a severe satire upon his character. Their attacks upon individuals were mingled with their vengeance against the government; and indeed the great aim of their divines, as well as of their politicians, was to sap the foundation of the new settlement. In order to alienate the minds of the people from the interests of the reigning prince, they ridiculed his character; inveighed against his measures; they accused him of sacrificing the concerns of England to the advantage of his native country; and drew invidious comparisons between the wealth, the trade, the taxes, of the last and of the present reign. To frustrate these efforts of the malcontents, the court employed their engines to answer and recriminate; all sorts of informers were encouraged and caressed; in a proclamation issued against papists and other disaffected persons, all magistrates were enjoined to make search, and apprehend those who should, by seditious discourses and libels, presume to defame the government. Thus the revolutioners commenced the professed enemies of those very arts and practices which had enabled them to bring their scheme to perfection.
* Beveridge was promoted to the See of Bath and Wells, Fowler to that of Gloucester, Cumberland to Peterborough, Moor to Norwich, Grove to Chicester, and Patrick to Ely.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
AFFAIRS-OF SCOTLAND.
The presbyterians in Scotland acted with such folly, violence, and tyranny, as rendered them equally odious and contemptible. The transactions in their general assembly were carried on with such peevishness, partiality, and injustice, that the king dissolved it by an act of state, and convoked another for the month of November in the following year. The episcopal party promised to enter heartily into the interests of the new government, to keep the highlanders quiet, and induce the clergy to acknowledge and serve king William, provided he would balance the power of Melvil and his partisans in such a manner as would secure them from violence and oppression; provided the episcopal ministers should be permitted to perform their functions among those people by whom they were beloved; and’ that such of them as were willing to mix with the presbyterians in their judicatories should be admitted without any severe imposition in point of opinion. The king, who was extremely disgusted at the presbyterians, relished the proposal, and young Dalrymple, son of lord Stair, was appointed joint secretary of state with Melvil. He undertook to bring over the majority of the Jacobites, and a great number of them took the oaths; but at the same time they maintained a correspondence with the court of St. Germains, by the connivance of which they submitted to William that they might be in a condition to serve James the more effectually. The Scottish parliament was adjourned by proclamation to the sixteenth day of September. Precautions were taken to prevent any dangerous communication with the continent; a committee was appointed to put the kingdom in a posture of defence; to exercise the powers of the regency in securing the enemies of the government; and the earl of Home, with sir Peter Fraser and sir Æneas Macpherson, were apprehended and imprisoned.
CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS.
The king having settled the operations of the ensuing campaign in Ireland, where general Ginckel exercised the supreme command, manned his fleet by dint of pressing sailors, to the incredible annoyance of commerce; then leaving the queen as before at the helm of government in England, he returned to Holland accompanied by lord Sidney, secretary of state, the earls of Marlborough and Portland, and began to make preparations for taking the field in person. On the thirtieth day of May, the duke of Luxembourg having passed the Scheld at the head of a large army, took possession of Halle, and gave it up to plunder in sight of the confederates, who were obliged to throw up intrenchments for their preservation. At the same time the marquis de Boufflers, with a considerable body of forces, intrenched himself before Liege with a view to bombard that city. In the beginning of June, king William took upon himself the command of the allied army, by this time reinforced in such a manner as to be superior to the enemy. He forthwith detached the count de Tilly with ten thousand men to the relief of Liege, which was already reduced to ruins and desolation by the bombs, bullets, and repeated attacks of Boufflers, who now thought proper to retreat to Dinant. Tilly having thus raised the siege, and thrown a body of troops into Huy, rejoined the confederate army, which had been augmented ever since his departure with six thousand men from Brandenburgh, and ten thousand Hessians commanded by the landgrave in person. Such was the vigilance of Luxembourg, that William could not avail himself of his superiority. In vain he exhausted his invention in marches, counter-marches, and stratagems, to bring on a general engagement; the French marshal avoided it with such dexterity as baffled all his endeavours. In the course of this campaign the two armies twice confronted each other; but they were situated in such a manner that neither could begin the attack without a manifest disadvantage. While the king lay encamped at Court-sur-heure, a soldier, corrupted by the enemy, set fire to the fusees of several bombs, the explosion of which might have blown up the whole magazine and produced infinite confusion in the army, had not the mischief been prevented by the courage of the men who guarded the artillery; even while the fusees were burning, they disengaged the waggons from the line, and overturned them down the side of a hill, so that the communication of the fire was intercepted. The person who made this treacherous attempt being discovered, owned he had been employed for this purpose by the duke of Luxembourg. He was tried by a court-martial and suffered the death of a traitor. Such perfidious practices not only fix an indelible share of infamy on the French general, but prove how much the capacity of William was dreaded by his enemies. King William, quitting Court-sur-heure, encamped upon the plain of St. Girard, where he remained till the fourth day of September, consuming the forage and exhausting the country. Then he passed the Sambre near Jemeppe, while the French crossed it at La Busiere, and both armies marched towards Enghien. The enemy, perceiving the confederates were at their heels, proceeded to Gramont, passed the Lender, and took possession of a strong camp between Aeth and Oudenarde; William followed the same route, and encamped between Aeth and Leuse. While he continued in his post, the Hessian forces and those of Liege, amounting to about eighteen thousand men, separated from the army and passed the Meuse at Naimir; then the king returned to the Hague, leaving the command to prince Waldeck, who forthwith removed to Leuse, and on the twentieth day of the month began his march to Cambron. Luxembourg, who watched his motions with a curious eye, found means to attack him in his retreat so suddenly that his rear was surprised and defeated, though the French were at last obliged to retire. The prince continued his route to Cambron, and in a little time both armies retired into winter quarters. In the meantime, the Duke de Noailles besieged and took Urgel in Catalonia, while a French squadron, commanded by the count d’Etrées, bombarded Barcelona and Alicant.
The confederates had proposed to act vigorously in Italy against the French; but the season was far advanced before they were in a condition to take the field. The emperor and Spain had undertaken to furnish troops to join the duke of Savoy; and the maritime powers contributed their proportion in money. The elector of Bavaria was nominated to the supreme command of the imperial forces in that country; the marquis de Leganez, governor of the Milanese, acted as trustee for the Spanish monarch; duke Schomberg, son of that groat general who lost his life at the Boyne, lately created duke of Leinster, managed the interest of William, as king of England and stadtholder, and commanded a body of the Vaudois paid by Great Britain. Before the German auxiliaries arrived, the French had made great progress in their conquests. Catinat besieged and took Villa-Franca, Nice, and some other fortifications; then he reduced Villana and Carmagnola, and detached the marquis de Feuquieres to invest Coni, a strong fortress garrisoned by the Vaudois and French refugees. The duke of Savoy was now reduced to the brink of ruin. He saw almost all his places of strength in the possession of the enemy; Coni was besieged; and La Hoguette, another French general, had forced the passes of the valley of Aoste, so that he had free admission into the Verceillois, and the frontiers of the Milanese. Turin was threatened with a bombardment; the people were dispirited and clamorous, and their sovereign lay with his little army encamped on the hill of Montcallier, from whence he beheld his towns taken, and his palace of Rivoli destroyed. Duke Schomberg exhorted him to act on the offensive, and give battle to Catinat while that officer’s army was weakened by detachments, and prince Eugene* supported his remonstrance; but this proposal was vehemently opposed by the marquis de Leganez, who foresaw that if the duke should be defeated, the French would penetrate into the territories of Milan. The relief of Coni, however, was undertaken by prince Eugene, who began his march for that place with a convoy guarded by two-and-twenty hundred horse; at Magliano he was reinforced by five thousand militia; Bulonde, who commanded at the siege, no sooner heard of his approach than he retired with the utmost precipitation, leaving behind some pieces of cannon, mortars, bombs, arms, ammunition, tents, provisions, utensils, with all his sick and wounded. When he joined Catinat he was immediately put under arrest, and afterwards cashiered with disgrace. Hoguette abandoned the valley of Aoste; Feuquieres was sent with a detachment to change the garrison of Casal; and Catinat retired with his army towards Villa Nova d’Aste.
* Prince Eugene of Savoy, who in the sequel rivalled the fame of the greatest warriors of antiquity, was descended on the father’s side from the house of Savoy, and on the mother’s from the family of Soissons, a branch of the house of Bourbon. His father was Eugene Maurice, of Savoy, count of Soissons, colonel of the Switzers, and governor of Champagne and Brie: his mother was the celebrated Olimpia de Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarine. Eugene finding himself neglected at the court of France, engaged as a soldier of fortune in the service of the emperor, and soon distinguished himself by his great military talents: he was, moreover, an accomplished gentleman, learned, liberal, mild, and courteous; an unshaken friend; a generous enemy; an invincible captain; a consummate politician.
ELECTION OF A NEW POPE.
The miscarriage of the French before Coni affected Louvois, the minister of Louis, so deeply, that he could not help shedding tears when he communicated the event to his master, who told him with great composure that he was spoiled by good fortune. But the retreat of the French from Piedmont had a still greater influence over the resolutions of the conclave at Rome, then sitting for the election of a new pope in the room of Alexander VIII., who died in the beginning of February. Notwithstanding the power and intrigues of the French faction headed by cardinal d’Etrées, the affairs of Piedmont had no sooner taken this turn than the Italians joined the Spanish and Imperial interest, and cardinal Pignatelli, a Neapolitan, was elected pontiff. He assumed the name of Innocent, in honour of the last pope known by that appellation, and adopted all his maxims against the French monarch. When the German auxiliaries arrived under the command of the elector of Bavaria, the confederates resolved to give battle to Catinat; but he repassed the Po, and sent couriers to Versailles to solicit a reinforcement. Then prince Eugene invested Carmagnola, and carried on the siege with such vigour that in eleven days the garrison capitulated. Meanwhile the marquis de Hoquincourt undertook the conquest of Montmelian, and reduced the town without much resistance. The castle, however, made such a vigorous defence that Catinat marched thither in person; and, notwithstanding all his efforts, the place held out till the second day of December, when it surrendered on honourable conditions.
THE EMPEROR’S SUCCESS AGAINST THE TURKS.
This summer produced nothing of importance on the Rhine. The French endeavoured to surprise Mentz, by maintaining a correspondence with one of the emperor’s commissioners; but this being discovered, their design was frustrated. The imperial army, under the elector of Saxony, passed the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Manheim; and the French, crossing the same river at Philipsburgh, reduced the town of Portzheim in the marquisate of Baden-Dourlach. The execution of the scheme projected by the emperor for this campaign, was prevented by the death of his general, the elector of Saxony, which happened on the second day of September. His affairs wore a more favourable aspect in Hungary, where the Turks were totally defeated by prince Louis of Baden on the banks of the Danube. The imperialists afterwards undertook the siege of Great Waradin in Translyvania; bitt this was turned into a blockade, and the place was not surrendered till the following spring. The Turks were so dispirited by the defeat, by which they had lost the grand vizier, that the emperor might have made peace upon very advantageous terms; but his pride and ambition overshot his success. He was weak, vain, and superstitious; he imagined that now the war of Ireland was almost extinguished, king William, with the rest of his allies, would be able to humble the French power, though he himself should not co-operate with heretics, whom he abhorred; and that, in the meantime, he should not only make an entire conquest of Transylvania, but also carry his victorious arms to the gates of Constantinople, according to some ridiculous prophecy by which his vanity had been flattered. The Spanish government was become so feeble, that the ministry, rather than be at the expense of defending the Netherlands, offered to deliver the whole country to king William, either as monarch of England, or stadtholder of the United Provinces. He declined this offer, because he knew the people would never be reconciled to a protestant government; but he proposed that the Spaniards should confer the administration of Flanders upon the elector of Bavaria, who was ambitious of signalizing his courage, and able to defend the country with his own troops and treasure. This proposal was relished by the court of Spain; the emperor imparted it to the elector, who accepted the office without hesitation; and he was immediately declared governor of the Low Countries by the council of state at Madrid. King William, after his return from the army, continued some time at the Hague settling the operations of the ensuing campaign. That affair being discussed, he embarked in the Maese, and landed in England on the nineteenth day of October.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.
Before we explain the proceedings in parliament, it will be necessary to give a detail of the late transactions in Ireland. In the beginning of the season, the French king had sent a large supply of provisions, clothes, and ammunition, for the use of the Irish at Limerick, under the conduct of Monsieur St. Ruth, accompanied by a great number of French officers furnished with commissions from king James, though St. Kuth issued all his orders in the name of Louis. Tyrconnel had arrived in January with three frigates and nine vessels, laden with succours of the same nature; otherwise the Irish could not have been so long kept together. Nor indeed could these supplies prevent them from forming separate and independent bands of rapparees, who plundered the country, and committed the most shocking barbarities. The lords justices, in conjunction with general Ginckel, had taken every step their prudence could suggest to quiet the disturbances of the country, and prevent such violence and rapine, of which the soldiers in king William’s army were not entirely innocent. The justices had issued proclamations denouncing severe penalties against those who should countenance or conceal such acts of cruelty and oppression: they promised to protect all papists who should live quietly within a certain frontier line; and Ginckel gave the catholic rebels to understand that he was authorized to treat with them, if they were inclined to return to their duty. Before the armies took the field, several skirmishes had been fought between parties; and these had always turned out so unfortunate to the enemy, that their spirits were quite depressed, while the confidence of the English rose in the same proportion.
St. Euth and Tyrconnel were joined by the rapparees, and general Ginckel was reinforced by Mackay, with those troops which had reduced the highlanders in Scotland. Thus strengthened, he, in the beginning of June, marched from Mullingar to Ballymore, which was garrisoned by a thousand men under colonel Bourke, who, when summoned to surrender, returned an evasive answer. But, when a breach was made in the place, and the besiegers began to make preparations for a general assault, his men laid down their arms and submitted at discretion. The fortifications of this place being repaired and augmented, the general left a garrison for its defence, and advanced to Athlone, situated on the other side of the Shannon, and supported by the Irish army encamped almost under its walls. The English town on the hither side of the river was taken sword in hand, and the enemy broke down an arch of the bridge in their retreat. Batteries were raised against the Irish town, and several unsuccessful attempts were made to force the passage of the bridge, which was defended with great vigour. At length it was resolved, in a council of war, that a detachment should pass at a ford a little to the left of the bridge, though the river was deep and rapid, the bottom foul and stony, and the pass guarded by a ravelin, erected for that purpose. The forlorn hope consisted of sixty grenadiers in armour, headed by captain Sandys and two lieutenants. They were seconded by another detachment, and this was supported by six battalions of infantry. Never was a more desperate service, nor was ever exploit performed with more valour and intrepidity. They passed twenty a-breast in the face of the enemy, through an incessant shower of balls, bullets, and grenades. Those who followed them took possession of the bridge, and laid planks over the broken arch. Pontoons were fixed at the same time, that the troops might pass in different places. The Irish were amazed, confounded, and abandoned the town in the utmost consternation; so that in half an hour it was wholly secured by the English, who did not lose above fifty men in this attack. Mackay, Tetteau, and Ptolemache, exhibited proofs of the most undaunted courage in passing the river; and general Ginckel, for his conduct, intrepidity, and success on this occasion, was created earl of Athlone. When St. Ruth was informed, by express, that the English had entered the river, he said, it was impossible they should pretend to take a town which he covered with his army, and that he would give a thousand pistoles if they would attempt to force a passage. Sarsfield insisted upon the truth of the intelligence, and pressed him to send succours to the town; he ridiculed this officer’s fears, and some warm expostulation passed between them. Being at length convinced that the English were in possession of the place, he ordered some detachments to drive them out again; but the cannon of their own works being turned against them, they found the task impracticable, and that very night their army decamped. St. Ruth, after a march of ten miles, took post at Aghrim; and having, by drafts from garrisons, augmented his army to five-and-twenty thousand men, resolved to hazard a decisive engagement.
Ginckel, having put Athlone in a posture of defence, passed the Shannon and marched up to the enemy, determined to give them battle, though his forces did not exceed eighteen thousand, and the Irish were posted in a very advantageous situation. St. Ruth had made an admirable disposition, and taken every precaution that military skill could suggest. His centre extended along a rising ground, uneven in many places, intersected with banks and ditches, joined by lines of communication, and fronted by a large bog almost impassable. His right was fortified with intrenchments, and his left secured by the castle of Aghrim. He harangued his army in the most pathetic strain, conjuring them to exert their courage in defence of their holy religion, in the extirpation of heresy, in recovering their ancient honours and estates, and in restoring a pious king to the throne, from whence he had been expelled by an unnatural usurper. He employed the priests to enforce his exhortations; to assure the men that they might depend upon the prayers of the church; and that, in case they should fall in battle, the saints and angels would convey their souls to heaven. They are said to have sworn upon the sacrament that they would not desert their colours, and to have received an order that no quarter should be given to the French heretics in the army of the prince of Orange. Ginckel had encamped on the Roscommon side of the river Sue, within three miles of the enemy: after having reconnoitred their posture, he resolved, with the advice of a council of war, to attack them on Sunday the twelfth day of July. The necessary orders being given, the army passed the river at two fords and a stone bridge, and, advancing to the edge of the great bog, began about twelve o’clock to force the two passages, in order to possess the ground on the other side. The enemy fought with surprising fury, and the horse were several times repulsed; but at length the troops upon the right carried their point by moans of some field pieces. The day was now so far advanced, that the general determined to postpone the battle till next morning; but perceiving some disorder among the enemy, and fearing they would decamp in the night, he altered his resolution and ordered the attack to be renewed. At six o’clock in the evening the left wing of the English advanced to the right of the Irish, from whom they met with such a warm and obstinate reception, that it was not without the most surprising efforts of courage and perseverance that they at length obliged them to give ground; and even then they lost it by inches. St. Ruth, seeing them in danger of being overpowered, immediately detached succours to them from his centre and left wing. Mackay no sooner perceived them weakened by these detachments, then he ordered three battalions to skirt the bog and attack them on the left, while the centre advanced through the middle of the morass, the men wading up to the waist in mud and water. After they had reached the other side, they found themselves obliged to ascend a rugged hill fenced with hedges and ditches; and these were lined with musqeteers, supported at proper intervals with squadrons of cavalry. They made such a desperate resistance, and fought with such impetuosity, that the assailants were repulsed into the middle of the bog with great loss, and St. Ruth exclaimed—“Now will I drive the English to the gates of Dublin.” In this critical conjuncture Ptolemache came tip with a fresh body to sustain them, rallied the broken troops, and renewed the charge with such vigour that the Irish gave way in their turn, and the English recovered the ground they had lost, though they found it impossible to improve their advantage. Mackay brought a body of horse and dragoons to the assistance of the left wing, and first turned the tide of battle in favour of the English. Major-general Rouvigny, who had behaved with great gallantry during the whole action, advanced with five regiments of cavalry to support the centre; when St. Kuth, perceiving his design, resolved to fall upon him in a dangerous hollow way which he was obliged to pass. For this purpose he began to descend Kircommodon-hill with his whole reserve of horse; but in his way was killed by a cannon-ball. His troops immediately halted, and his guards retreated with his body. His fate dispirited the troops, and produced such confusion as Sarsfield could not remedy; for though he was next in command, he had been at variance with St. Ruth since the affair at Athlone, and was ignorant of the plan he had concerted. Rouvigny having passed the hollow way without opposition, charged the enemy in flank, and bore down all before him with surprising impetuosity; the centre redoubled their efforts and pushed the Irish to the top of the hill, and then the whole line giving way at once from right to left threw down their arms. The foot fled towards a bog in their rear, and their horse took the route by the highway to Loughneagh; both were pursued by the English cavalry, who for four miles made a terrible slaughter. In the battle, which lasted two hours, and in the pursuit, above four thousand of the enemy were slain and six hundred taken, together with all their baggage, tents, provisions, ammunition, and artillery, nine-and-twenty pair of colours, twelve standards, and almost all the arms of the infantry. In a word, the victory was decisive, and not above eight hundred of the English were killed upon the field of battle. The vanquished retreated in great confusion to Limerick, where they resolved to make a final stand in hope of receiving such succours from France as would either enable them to retrieve their affairs, or obtain good terms from the court of England. There Tyrconnel died of a broken heart, after having survived his authority and reputation. He had incurred the contempt of the French, as well as the hatred of the Irish, whom he had advised to submit to the new government rather than totally ruin themselves and their families.
Immediately after the battle detachments were sent to reduce Portumny, Bonnachar, and Moorcastle, considerable passes on the Shannon, which were accordingly secured. Then Ginckel advanced to Galway, which he summoned to surrender; but he received a defiance from lord Dillon and general D’Ussone who commanded the garrison. The trenches were immediately opened; a fort which commanded the approaches to the town was taken by assault; six regiments of foot and four squadrons of horse passed the river on pontoons, and the place being wholly invested, the governor thought proper to capitulate. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, and was allowed safe conduct to Limerick. Ginckel directed his march to the same town, which was the only post of consequence that now held out for king James. Within four miles of the place he halted until the heavy cannon could be brought from Athlone. Hearing that Luttrel had been seized by the French general D’Ussone, and sentenced to be shot for having proposed to surrender, he sent a trumpet to tell the commander that if any person should be put to death for such a proposal, he would make retaliation on the Irish prisoners. On the twenty-fifth day of August the enemy were driven from all their advanced posts: captain Cole, with a squadron of ships, sailed up the Shannon, and his frigates anchored in sight of the town. On the twenty-sixth day of the month the batteries were opened, and a line of contra-vallation was formed; the Irish army lay encamped on the other side of the river, on the road to Killalow, and the fords were guarded with four regiments of their dragoons. On the fifth day of September, after the town had been almost laid in ruins by the bombs, and large breaches made in the wails by the battering cannon, the guns were dismounted, the out-forts evacuated, and such other motions made as indicated a resolution to abandon the siege. The enemy expressed their joy in loud acclamations; but this was of short continuance. In the night the besiegers began to throw a bridge of pontoons over the river about a mile higher up than the camp, and this work was finished before morning. A considerable body of horse and foot had passed when the alarm was given to the enemy, who were seized with such consternation, that they threw down their arms and betook themselves to flight, leaving behind them their tents, baggage, two pieces of cannon, and one standard. The bridge was immediately removed nearer the town and fortified; all the fords and passes were secured, and the batteries continued firing incessantly till the twenty-second day of the month, when Ginckel passed over with a division of the army and fourteen pieces of cannon. About four in the afternoon the grenadiers attacked the forts that commanded Thomond-bridge, and carried them sword in hand after an obstinate resistance. The garrison had made a sally from the town to support them; and this detachment was driven back with such precipitation, that the French officer on command in that quarter, fearing the English would enter pell-mell with the fugitives, ordered the bridge to be drawn up, leaving his own men to the fury of a victorious enemy. Six hundred were killed, two hundred taken prisoners, including many officers, and a great number were drowned in the Shannon.
THE FRENCH AND IRISH OBTAIN AN HONOURABLE CAPITULATION.
Then the English made a lodgement within ten paces of the bridge-foot; and the Irish, seeing themselves surrounded on all sides, determined to capitulate. General Sarsfield and colonel Wahop signified their resolution to Scrvenmore and Rouvigny; hostages were exchanged; a negotiation was immediately begun, and hostilities ceased on both sides of the river. The lords justices arrived in the camp on the first day of October, and on the fourth the capitulation was executed, extending to all the places in the kingdom that were still in the hands of the Irish. The Roman catholics were restored to the enjoyment of such liberty in the exercise of religion as was consistent with the laws of Ireland, and conformable with that which they possessed in the reign of Charles II. All persons whatever were entitled to the protection of these laws, and restored to the possession of their estates, privileges, and immunities, upon their submitting to the present government, and taking the oath of allegiance to their majesties king William and queen Mary, excepting however certain persons who were forfeited or exiled. This article even extended to all merchants of Limerick, or any other garrison possessed by the Irish, who happened to be abroad, and had not borne arms since the declaration in the first year of the present reign, provided they should return within the term of eight months. All the persons comprised in this and the forgoing article were indulged with a general pardon of all attainders, outlawries, treasons, misprisons of treason, premunires, felonies, trespasses, and other crimes and misdemeanors whatsoever, committed since the beginning of the reign of James II.; and the lords justices promised to use their best endeavours towards the reversal of such attainders and outlawries as had passed against any of them in parliament. In order to allay the violence of party and extinguish private animosities, it was agreed that no person should be sued or impleaded on either side for any trespass, or made accountable for the rents, tenements, lands, or houses he had received or enjoyed since the beginning of the war. Every nobleman and gentleman comprised in these articles was authorized to keep a sword, a case of pistols, and a gun, for his defence or amusement. The inhabitants of Limerick and other garrisons were permitted to remove their goods and chattels, without search, visitation, or payment of duty. The lords justices promised to use their best endeavours that all persons comprehended in this capitulation should for eight months be protected from all arrests and executions for debt or damage; they undertook that their majesties should ratify these articles within the space of eight months, and use their endeavours that they might be ratified and confirmed in parliament. The subsequent article was calculated to indemnify colonel John Brown, whose estate and effects had been seized for the use of the Irish army by Tyrconnel and Sarsfield, which last had been created Lord Lucan by king James, and was now mentioned by that title. All persons were indulged with free leave to remove with their families and effects to any other country except England and Scotland. All officers and soldiers in the service of king James, comprehending even the rapparees, willing to go beyond sea, were at liberty to inarch in bodies to the places of embarkation, to be conveyed to the continent with the French officers and troops. They were furnished with passports, convoys, and carriages by land and water; and general Gluckel engaged to provide seventy ships, if necessary, for their transportation, with two men of war for the accommodation of their officers, and to serve as a convoy to the fleet. It was stipulated, That the provisions and forage for their subsistence should be paid for on their arrival in France; that hostages should be given for this indemnification, as well as for the return of the ships; that all the garrisons should march out of their respective towns and fortresses with the honours of war; that the Irish should have liberty to transport nine hundred horses; that those who should choose to stay behind might dispose of themselves according to their own fancy, after having surrendered their arms to such commissioners as the general should appoint; that all prisoners of war should be set at liberty on both sides; that the general should provide two vessels to carry over two different persons to France with intimation of this treaty; and that none of those who were willing to quit the kingdom should be detained on account of debt, or any other pretence.—This was the substance of the famous treaty of Limerick, which the Irish Roman catholics considered as the great charter of their civil and religious liberties. The town of Limerick was surrendered to Ginckel; but both sides agreed that the two armies should intrench themselves till the Irish could embark, that no disorders might arise from a communication.
TWELVE THOUSAND IRISH CATHOLICS ARE TRANSPORTED TO FRANCE.
The protestant subjects of Ireland were extremely disgusted at these concessions made in favour of vanquished rebels, who had exercised such acts of cruelty and rapine. They complained, That they themselves, who had suffered for their loyalty to king William, were neglected, and obliged to sit down with their losses; while their enemies, who had shed so much blood in opposing his government, were indemnified by the articles of the capitulation, and even favoured with particular indulgencies. They were dismissed with the honours of war; they were transported at the government’s expense, to fight against the English in foreign countries; an honourable provision was made for the rapparees, who were professed banditti; the Roman catholic interest in Ireland obtained the sanction of regal authority; attainders were overlooked, forfeitures annulled, pardons extended, and laws set aside, in order to effect a pacification. Ginckel had received orders to put an end to the war at any rate, that William might convert his whole influence and attention to the affairs of the continent. When the articles of capitulation were ratified, and hostages exchanged for their being duly executed, about two thousand Irish foot, and three hundred horse, began their march for Cork, where they proposed to take shipping for France, under the conduct of Sarsfield; but three regiments refusing to quit the kingdom, delivered up their arms and dispersed to their former habitations. Those who remained at Limerick embarked on the seventh day of November, in French transports; and sailed immediately to France, under the convoy of a French squadron which had arrived in the bay of Dangle immediately after the capitulation was signed. Twelve thousand men chose to undergo exile from their native country rather than submit to the government of king William. When they arrived in France they were welcomed by a letter from James, who thanked them for their loyalty, assured them they should still serve under his commission and command, and that the king of France had already given orders for their being new clothed and put into quarters of refreshment.