Count Schonberg's Division 334 joined the rest of the army in Duleek. The cavalry followed up the enemy for some three miles beyond this village, but the retreat was so excellently covered 331 by the French troops that the enemy suffered little loss. The enemy was the less encumbered because James had dispatched the baggage 331 and most of his artillery towards Dublin when the action commenced.

Night came down at last over the corpse-bestrewed fields beside the blood-stained river; over the victors housing themselves as they best could at Duleek; over the vanquished, harrassed and tired, still toiling wearily along the Dublin road; and many a wretched straggler blessed the sheltering darkness as he had never had reason to bless it before. The BATTLE OF THE BOYNE was over (Ill. XXXVII).

The loss of the enemy was about sixteen hundred killed,335 wounded, and taken prisoners. The slain in King William's army amounted to less than a third of that number: 335 the Dutch Guards suffered most, and had lost above a hundred men : in the other regiments the loss was very slight; even Caillemotte's regiment had but eighteen men killed. Most of the Irish casualties fell to their Horse regiments,336 for the infantry and dragoons had not waited to be killed.

Schonberg's death was the subject of universal regret. The body of the kindly old soldier was conveyed to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Caillemotte, his frequent companion in arms, lies buried at the foot of the trees close to Oldbridge ford.337

Doctor Walker, Bishop of Derry, and Colonel of the Derry volunteers as well as late governor of that city and garrison, to whose example and spirited exhortations the frustration of the late siege had been mainly due, also met his death 338 in this battle. It does not appear that he was actually fighting on this occasion by some it was said that upon news of Schonberg's death 339 he had gone over the river to look after him if perchance

334 Wars in Ireland.

Mullenaux.

335 Berwick.

Story.

Wars in Ireland.

Parker.

Richardson.

336 Berwick.

337 Local tradition; a little mound is still pointed out as the grave.

338 Story.

Richardson.

339 Story.

he should be still alive though wounded. Walker's body was seen just afterwards at a short distance from the river,339 already stripped naked by the rascals who followed the camp and pounced upon the corpses of the slain while they were yet warm. Bishop Walker was the last warrior bishop of English history.339 (Ill. XXXVIII.)

339

MSS.

Among the Authorities not quoted throughout is the account in the Fingall

CHAPTER VIII.

THE WAR IN IRELAND. CAMPAIGN OF 1690. FROM THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE TO THE CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN.

A.D. 1690.

Surrender of Drogheda.-The march on Dublin.-Evacuation of Dublin by the Irish. The first siege of Athlone. -Douglas's retreat from Athlone.-The march on Limerick.-Surrender of Waterford.-The first siege of Limerick.-The affair of Ballynedy.-The assault.-Raising of the siege. -The defence of Birr.-The siege of Cork.—The siege of Kinsale.—The close of the campaign.

[For Illustrations, see Note on p. xiii.]

KING WILLIAM has been often blamed, especially by Irish writers, that he did not follow up more briskly his victory at the Boyne: but many reasons may be advanced that would transform this apparent sloth into a soldierlike and prudent restraint. It was well known that James had called out a number of regiments 340 of Militia and that several of these were now in Dublin, but it was not known what the exact strength or character of these regiments might be: 341 if William pushed on at once he would have to leave a strong detachment to invest Drogheda, while James on the contrary would be drawing fresh men from Dublin and the places beyond. William was now sure that his troops could beat the Irish alone; but he was not yet assured that the raw lads who marched so readily up to troops as new at soldiering as themselves, would be a match for the steady discipline of Lauzun's French veterans; and it was not unlikely that, with the French to their front, the behaviour of the Irish troops might be very different to that shown by them when left to themselves, as they were at Oldbridge. William's siege-train was not yet arrived; and above all his Commissariat had not yet come up with the rest of the army; when it did arrive it could not quit the neighbourhood of the sea for an inland march of unknown duration and through a

340 True and perfect journal of the affairs in Ireland since H. M.'s arrival in that kingdom. By a person of quality, 1690.

341 Story.

district of exhausted resources, without a little time being allowed for necessary arrangements.

342

On the morning after the battle, de la Melonière with guns and thirteen hundred men was sent to summon Drogheda. After some demur, the place surrendered upon condition that the garrison should receive safe-conduct to Athlone.

On the third the army made a short march to Balbriggan; 341 but information being received that the enemy had evacuated Dublin, the Duke of Ormond, Colonel of the second troop of Life Guards, was sent forward with a thousand cavalry and the Dutch Guards 341 to take possession; and an officer of the Commissary-General's staff 343 with an escort of dragoons was pushed on to seize all stores and munitions left behind by the enemy.

The protestant section of the population of Dublin had for the last week been in a fever of excitement over passing events, events whose result was so momentous to their collective and individual prospects. On the day of the battle conflicting and contradictory reports 343 had reached the capital every hour. Now, the Prince of Orange was killed and all hope for the protestants was over; then, he was alive and preparing for battle; at one time, the English had been annihilated; at another, it was bruited that the Irish had given way. At length, King James escorted by Sarsfield and a regiment of Horse, came clattering into the town;-the Irish had gained the day, and James had arrived to further the arrangements for clinching the victory Bye and bye, when lights appeared in the windows and the long summer twilight merged into dusk, Irish dragoons came galloping in by twos and threes, and still spurring their fagged horses as if the devil himself were after them: 343 then the Irish inhabitants began to gather in clusters and to look serious, while their late loud and boastful talk turned to troubled whispers. The protestants too began to assemble in the streets and, silently and still half in fear, to shake hands one with the other, as men will do after deliverance from some overwhelming danger or relief from some anxiety of suspense. The next day there remained no doubt of James's defeat,340 for all through the morning from before dawn to midday Irish soldiers were

Cutts's Foot was with la Melonière's detachment (Story). 343 Wars in Ireland.

True and perfect journal.

pouring through the city, dusty, weary, and blood-stained, some marching in bodies, some straggling singly, and some on vehicles that they had pressed on the road to expedite their escape; many of the infantry were even without weapons of any sort. The Horse alone, as soldiers conscious of having performed their duty, marched in in complete order 340 with their kettledrums and trumpets sounding a march. All that day parties of stragglers continued to come in,840 and towards evening the whole army marched off southwards. It was noised about that the town was to be set on fire by the rear-guard,340 and that the object of the governor in remaining till last was to see this done. The unhappy protestants looked in vain for the dust of the English army on the north road: however, a false report of its approach caused the governor and the Irish rear-guard to quit the town. Then the protestants, after months of suffering and persecution, dared again to come forth openly: supplying themselves with arms they ran about greeting one another 340 as though they had been raised from the dead; they crowded the streets, they sang and shouted and gave vent to an exultation which knew no bounds. It was at eight o'clock in the evening, just at the hour when the streets were alive with this revival, that the Commissariat Officer and his escort entered the town. The delight of the people at the sight of these red-coats was beyond all description: not the King himself at the head of the whole army could be so warmly welcomed as this one staffofficer 343 and his single troop of English dragoons: every trooper was regarded as a saviour and a hero. The people not only shouted and raved with joy and excitement, but in the intensity and exuberance of their gratitude to their deliverers they embraced the necks of the very horses and were ready to pull the men off them as they marched up to the Castle.848

343

On the fifth the King followed the Duke of Ormond, and the army encamped at Finglas, a suburb of Dublin.

William was compelled for political reasons to make a longer halt at Dublin than would have been advisable from a purely military point of view. There were addresses to be received, deputations to be heard, a provisional government to be appointed, proclamations to be issued. The time was not, however, altogether lost to the army, for a very particular muster 341 was made by the Commissariat Officers in presence of the King on the seventh and eighth.

On the day after this two days' review the army marched southwards, a strong division being at the same time detached