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doing everything possible to undermine his influence. At last their
efforts appeared to be growing perceptible. The king had introduced
into the ministry, one after another, men to whom Caermarthen had
a particular aversion, or who were particularly hostile to his power.
Godolphin was made First Lord of the Treasury; Marlborough was
rising fast in the military department; and Sidney was sent for by
William from Ireland, without consulting Caermarthen, and
appointed Secretary of State. His enemies were eagerly watching for
the favourable moment to come down on the declining minister and
complete his ruin, when he suddenly, at the very close of the year
and the Session, laid before William all the particulars of a desperate
plot of the Jacobites, which showed plainly enough that a minister of
such vigilance was not to be lightly dispensed with. Fortune,
however, rather than his own sagacity, had favoured the Prime
Minister.
The anticipated absence of William from England in the spring
appeared to offer a favourable conjuncture for James making
another attempt for the recovery of the throne. The Jacobites,
therefore, had met and concluded to send three of their number to
St. Germains to consult with the Court there on the best means of
effecting this object. It was proposed that James should make great
protestations of his determination to allow of and secure the political
and religious rights of all his subjects, and that he should come
attended only by so moderate a force that it should not look like a
French invasion. The opinions of the leading Jacobites were to be
conveyed by these messengers in a packet of letters to be carefully
concealed; and amongst the writers of these letters were the Earl of
Dartmouth, Viscount Preston—so-called—and the Earl of Clarendon.
This weak man, whom William had warned through Rochester of his
knowledge of his practices, and who had declared that he would
never again meddle with treason, was again as busy as ever. A
vessel was engaged, called the James and Elizabeth, to carry over
the three agents, namely, Preston, Ashton, and Elliott, who were to
come on board on the last night of the year. The skipper of the
James and Elizabeth, though offered extraordinary pay for the trip,
suspecting what was the nature of his passengers, gave notice of
the fact to Caermarthen, who sent and boarded the vessel at
midnight, when the traitors were secured along with their papers,
which were conveyed to the Secretary of State's office at Whitehall,
where Caermarthen and Nottingham passed the night in examining
the contents of the fatal packet, and the next morning laid them
before the king.
This great discovery, which fell like a thunderbolt on the Jacobites,
was scarcely less disconcerting to the Whigs. It was hopeless after
this to attempt anything against so alert and trusty a minister.
William, relieved from all apprehensions of danger by this timely
discovery, left the three traitors in the custody of his Government,
and the leaders yet at large under their eye, and hastened to get
over to Holland. On the 5th of January he prorogued Parliament till
the 31st of March; and in his farewell speech he said that he thought
it proper to assure them that he should make no grants of the
forfeited lands in England or Ireland; that those matters could be
settled in Parliament in such a manner as should be thought most
expedient. Unfortunately, this was a promise which William failed to
keep, and which brought upon him no lack of trouble in the future.
On the 6th, whilst his English subjects were indulging in all the
festivities of the season, William set out, attended by a splendid train
of courtiers, for the Hague, where a great Congress was appointed
to consider the best means of resisting the aggressions of Louis of
France. He was received by his subjects, after a dangerous voyage,
with shouts of joy.
William's spirit and sound sense seemed to reanimate the drooping
energies of the Allies. The quota of troops to be furnished by every
prince was determined; it was agreed to bring two hundred and
twenty thousand men into the field in spring, and never to rest till
they had not only driven Louis from the territories of his neighbours,
but had compelled him to give toleration to his Protestant subjects.
These matters arranged, William made use of the influence which
the new alliance with the Duke of Savoy gave him, to procure a
cessation of the persecutions of the duke's Protestant subjects, the
Waldenses. To him these simple mountain shepherds—Christians of
a Church remaining independent of Rome from the earliest times—
owed it that they could once more live in peace; that numbers of
them were released from dungeons, and their children, who had
been torn from them to be educated in Popery, were restored.
All being thus favourably settled, the princes dispersed to their
several States, and William retired to obtain a short period of
relaxation at Loo. But he was speedily roused from his repose. The
proceedings of the Congress had been closely and anxiously
watched by Louis of France. He saw that its deliberations were
certain to produce a profound impression on Europe, and he
resolved to neutralise this by one of his sudden and telling blows. At
once all his available means and forces were put in motion. A
hundred thousand soldiers were in rapid march on Mons, one of the
most important fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands. Louis did not
even trust the operations of this assault to his famous general,
Luxemburg, and the greatest military genius of the age, Vauban; but
he hurried to the scene of action himself, early as the season was—
in March. Five days after the siege commenced Louis was there,
accompanied by the Dauphin, the Dukes of Orleans and of Chartres.
He pushed on the attack with vigour, to have it over before any
assistance could arrive. Though suffering from the gout, he went
about amongst the soldiers, encouraging them by the blandest and
most familiar addresses; helped personally to bind up their wounds
in the hospitals, and partook of the broth prepared for them. With
his quick perception of the dangers from his adversaries, he had
noticed the diversion which it was intended that the Duke of Savoy
should make, by taking the field on that side; and he had suddenly
thrown an army into Savoy, captured Nice, and provided the duke
with enough to do to hold his own. By this means he had been able
to bring from the Maritime Alps a large body of troops to this siege.
William was sensible of the disastrous effect which the fall of Mons
would have on the spirits of his Allies, and on the Courts of Sweden
and Denmark which had been brought to the point of joining the
confederation; he therefore rushed from his place of temporary
retirement, mustered the forces of the States-General, sent
dispatches after the German princes, urging them to bring up all the
troops they could collect to the rescue of Mons, and to the generals
of the Spanish troops in Flanders. By forced marches he advanced
towards the devoted city; but all the vices of confederations were
now glaringly apparent in contrast to the single and prompt action of
a despot. The German princes, naturally slow, were already far off;
the Spanish generals were utterly unprepared for such an
emergency; and William found it almost impossible to procure even
horses to drag his artillery and stores. He sent on, however, hasty
messengers to apprise the people of Mons of his approach; but the
vigilance of the French prevented them from reaching the city. An
immense quantity of artillery was thundering against the walls of
Mons; breaches were made in them; a redoubt was carried, sword in
hand; shells fell in showers on the roofs and streets of the town,
which was burning in ten places. The inhabitants, appalled by the
terrible destruction awaiting them, threatened to murder the
garrison if they did not surrender; and the garrison, ignorant of the
relief which William was bringing, surrendered on the 20th of April.
William, deeply chagrined, returned to the Hague, and thence
hastened back to London; whilst Louis, in proud triumph, returned to
Versailles to receive the congratulations of his courtiers on his
splendid coup-de-main.
On William's return to London, he found his Government had tried
the traitors, Preston, Ashton, and Elliott. Preston and Ashton were
found guilty, and sentenced to death; Elliott was not brought to trial.
By some it has been asserted that the evidence of his being
admitted into the real interior of the plot was not clear; by others,
that he purchased his escape by disclosures. Ashton was hanged on
the 18th of January—the very day on which William had embarked
at Gravesend for Holland. Preston, after much vacillation between
the desire to accept a proffered pardon and repugnance to the
conditions attached to it—that of making a full disclosure of his
accomplices—at length chose life and dishonour, and made charges
against Clarendon, Dartmouth, Turner Bishop of Ely, and William
Penn. Clarendon was sent for a time to the Tower; Dartmouth, who
was accused, as an admiral, of the heinous crime of intending to
betray Portsmouth to the French, indignantly repelled the
accusation, and died in the Tower without having been brought to
trial. Turner escaped to France. Penn was accused of writing to
James to assure him that, with thirty thousand men, he might
command England. But this message to James rested on the
evidence of the lying and infamous Melfort, who was totally
unworthy of all belief; and Penn, so far from shrinking from the
charge, went straight to Sidney, the Secretary of State, and denied
the whole allegation. That he had a friendly feeling for and
commiseration of James, he did not deny; but he declared himself a
faithful subject of William and Mary, and, so far from being willing to
aid any design against them, if he became aware of any such he
would at once disclose it. Instead of clapping Penn in the Tower—
which the Government would have done, had they any such letters
inviting James to come over with thirty thousand men,—he was
suffered to depart in full freedom. He afterwards made a religious
journey on the Continent as a minister of the Society of Friends, and
then he returned to England; but without any attempt on the part of
Government to molest him.
But there were deeper and more real traitors than any of these
around William—namely, Admiral Russell, Sidney Godolphin, and
Marlborough. These men, encouraged by the fall of Mons and the
triumphant aspect of Louis's affairs, renewed with fresh activity their
intrigues with the Court of James. It was in vain that William heaped
riches, honours, and places of confidence upon them; they were
ready to receive any amount of favours, but still kept an eye open to
the possible return of James, and made themselves secure of pardon
from him, and kept him duly informed of all the intended movements
of William both at home and on the Continent. Russell was made
High Admiral in place of Torrington. He was Treasurer of the Navy,
enjoyed a pension of three thousand pounds a year, and a grant
from the Crown of property of great and increasing value near
Charing Cross. But, with an insatiable greediness, he still complained
of unrequited services; and, having a shoal of poor and hungry
relatives badgering him for places and pensions, he complained that
their incessant demands could not be gratified; and he cherished the
hope that he could sell his treason at a favourable crisis to King
James at no mean price. Godolphin was First Commissioner of the
Treasury, sat in the Privy Council, and enjoyed the confidence of the
sovereign; his former conduct in being one of the most pliant tools
of James, ready to vote for his Act of Indulgence, being overlooked.
Yet he was sworn, through the agency of a Mr. Bulkeley, to serve the
interests of James. Hand in hand with him went Marlborough, who—
though he was now fast overcoming the long-retained prejudices of
William, and had been honoured by his commission in the expedition
to Ireland, and by his warm approbation on his return, and had the
prospect of a brilliant command of the army in Flanders, where he
could indulge his highest ambition—was yet a most thorough traitor,
making a hypocritical pretence of great sorrow to James for his
desertion of him, and, through Colonel Sackville, and Lloyd, the non-
juring Bishop of Norwich, offering, on a good opportunity, to carry
over the whole army to James.
Amid these lurking treasons, the exultation of the Jacobites over the
fall of Mons was open and insolent. They came by swarms out of
their hiding-places, and thronged the Park and the neighbourhood of
the Palace, even insulting the queen in her drives before William's
return.
William's indignation on hearing these facts roused him to put the
laws in force against the non-juring bishops. The most extraordinary
lenity had been shown them. They had been suffered to reside in
their sees and occupy their palaces; they had been offered to be
excused taking the oaths on condition that they would live quietly,
and discharge their ecclesiastical functions of ordaining ministers,
confirming their young flocks, and other such duties, but without
avail. Now that Turner was discovered in treasonable
correspondence with St. Germains, and the rest refused to disavow
what he had attributed to them in his letters, it was resolved to eject
them. Sancroft was ejected from Lambeth, and Tillotson was
nominated Archbishop of Canterbury in his place; Ken was removed
from Bath and Wells, and Kidder instituted in his stead. In place of
Turner, succeeded Dr. Patrick; Fowler was appointed to Gloucester,
and Cumberland to Peterborough. Soon after Lamplugh, Archbishop
of York, died and Dr. Sharp took his place. Sancroft continued to
maintain all his old pugnacity, and nominated other bishops in
opposition to William's Government as sees fell vacant. But perhaps
the most savage outcry was raised on the appointment of Dr.
Sherlock to the deanery of St. Paul's, vacated by the election of
Tillotson to Canterbury. Tillotson himself was furiously assailed by
the Jacobites as a thief and a false shepherd, who had stolen into
the fold of the rightful pastor. Sherlock had been a zealous non-juror
himself, but had been seriously convinced of the Scriptural ordinance
to submit to any Government, whatever its origin, which was firmly
established. He was, therefore, violently and scurrilously assailed as
a perjured apostate. Amongst the ejected non-juring clergy, Henry
Dodwell was so insolent, that William remarked, "That Dodwell
wants me to put him in prison, but I will disappoint him." The
magnanimous forbearance of William, and the audacious
impertinence of the non-jurors in consequence, form a wonderful
contrast.
 THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. (After the Portrait by Sir Godfrey
Kneller.)
[See larger version]
Scarcely had William time to settle these affairs, and arrange the
plan of campaign in Ireland, when he was compelled to return to
Holland. Unaware as yet of the more recent treason of Marlborough,
he took him with him. He had conceived the highest opinion of his
military talents, and he was confirmed in this opinion, on his arrival
at the Hague, by the Prince of Vaudemont, a distinguished
commander in the Dutch service. He praised highly the Generals
Talmash and Mackay; as to Marlborough, he declared that he had
every quality of a general; that his very look showed it, and that he
was certainly destined to do something great. William replied that he
was of the same conviction.
William found himself at the head of seventy thousand men of
various nations, the different contingents of the Allies, and the
beginning of the campaign was very promising. He sent Marlborough
on to Flanders to collect the forces there, and form a camp to cover
Brussels against the advance of Luxemburg and the French. His
convenient position no doubt suggested to James the idea of his
immediate execution of his promised treason. James, therefore, sent
him word that he expected his fulfilment of his engagement; but to
this startling demand Marlborough replied that the time was not
come. It was necessary to have first obtained a complete
ascendency over the troops, or, instead of following him, they would
abandon him, and the only consequence would be making things
worse. William's immediate arrival put an end to the temptation, and
he marched against Luxemburg, who retired before him. He next
sent a detachment against Marshal Boufflers, who was besieging
Liége, and, having succeeded in this, he crossed the Sambre, to
endeavour to bring Luxemburg to an engagement. But this crafty
general, who had an inferior though well-appointed army, took care
to avoid a general action, calculating that William's army, made up of
so many nonentities, would, if let alone, ere long go to pieces. Thus
the summer was spent in marches and counter-marches without any
result, except of wearying out the patience of William, who in
September surrendered the command to the Prince of Waldeck, and
retired to his favourite hunting-seat at Loo, and soon after returned
to England.
The summer campaign was carried on by the Allies in other quarters
with more or less success. In Spain the French made some
barbarous inroads, but were vigorously repelled. They were more
successful in their combat with the Duke of Savoy. Marshal Catinat
took several of their towns, besieged Coni, and advanced within
three leagues of Turin, the duke's capital. Just, however, as they
were hoping for a signal triumph, they were arrested by the
appearance of a new hero, destined, in co-operation with
Marlborough, to shake to the foundations the power of Louis XIV.
This was Eugene, Prince of Savoy. Eugene, being joined by young
Schomberg with a few troops, and some money from William, at the
suggestion of Schomberg made a sudden march across the
mountains, raised the siege of Coni, and then, issuing on the plains,
drove back Catinat, and regained Carmagnola. On the Rhine, where
the Elector of Saxony commanded, nothing of moment was effected;
but the French allies, the Turks, who were harassing Austria,
received a severe defeat at Salankeman, on the Danube, which
placed the Emperor of Germany at his ease.
The campaign in Ireland did not begin till June. The condition of that
island during the winter was miserable in the extreme. The ravages
which the Irish—mad with oppression, ignorance, and revenge, let
loose by the frightful policy of James—had inflicted on the country
from the north to the south, such as we have described them, must
necessarily have left it a prey to famine, chaos, and crime. In the
north, where the Protestants had regained the power, there was the
commencement of restoration. Those who had fled to England with
their movable property came swarming back. It was, indeed, to
towns burnt down and fields laid waste; but they brought with them
money, and, still more, indomitable energies, which impelled them
instantly to begin rebuilding their dwellings, at least in such a
manner as to shelter them from the elements, and to cultivate and
sow their fields. Commerce came back with them; and the estuaries
of the Foyle, the Lagan, the Bann, the Carlingford, and the Boyne
were busy with ships and boats pouring in food, seed, and live-
stock. So soon as Nature had time to do her part and to ripen her
crops, there would be once more comparative plenty, and there was
an animating prospect of a secure permanence of peace and order.
But in the south, and still more the south-west, where the troops of
James still held their ground, the condition of things was as
appalling as can be conceived. In the north the Protestants kept a
tight hand on the native Irish; they refused them the possession of
arms; they forbade them to proceed more than three miles from
their own dwellings, except to attend market; and not more than
five Papists were to meet together on any occasion or pretence.
They forbade them to approach the frontier within ten miles, to
prevent them from communicating with the enemy. If outrages were
committed, they were visited with unsparing severity. But if the
north was strict and yet struggling, the south was in a fearful state
of calamity. The soldiers traversed the country, levying contributions
of cattle and provisions wherever they could find them. They were
no better than so many bandits and rapparees, who swarmed over
the desolated region, carrying violence, terror, and spoliation
wherever they came. There was no money but James's copper trash,
bearing high nominal values. Provisions and clothes, where they
were to be had, fetched incredible prices; and merchants feared to
approach the ports, because they were in as much danger of
wholesale robbery as the shopkeepers and farmers on land.
In the Irish camp the utmost license, disorder, and destitution
prevailed. The Duke of Berwick was elected to command during the
absence of Tyrconnel in France; but his power was a mere fiction,
and he let things take their course. Sarsfield was the only officer
who had any real influence with the soldiers. But early in the spring
Tyrconnel returned, bringing some supplies of money and clothing;
and in April a fleet also arrived, bringing arms, ammunition, flour,
and provisions. With these came what was much needed—two
general officers—St. Ruth and D'Usson. St. Ruth was a general of
considerable experience. He had lately served in Savoy, and had the
prestige of victory; but he was vain and cruel, was mortally hated by
the Huguenots for his persecutions of them, and was called by them
"the hangman." His very name, therefore, was a guarantee for the
Huguenot troops in the English service fighting to the utmost. He
was astonished and disgusted at the dirty, ragged, and disorderly
crew that bore the name of the Irish army; but he began actively to
repress their license, and to drill them into some discipline.
On the 6th of June Ginkell took the field against him with a body of
efficient troops, reinforced by some excellent regiments from
Scotland, and having now under his command Talmash and Mackay,
two brave officers. At the head of the French refugees was the
Marquis Ruvigny, the brother-in-law of General Caillemot, who fell at
the Boyne. On the 7th Ginkell reached Ballymore, and compelled the
fortress there, containing a garrison of one thousand men, to
surrender, and sent all the prisoners to Dublin. Having placed the
fortress, which stood on an island in the lake, in good defence, he
marched forward, and, on the 18th, sat down before the very
strongly-fortified town of Athlone. On his march he had been joined
by the Duke of Würtemberg and his Danish division.
Athlone stood on the Shannon, the river cutting it in two. The
stream there was deep and rapid, and was spanned by a bridge on
which stood two mills, worked by the current below, and on the
Connaught side was a strong fort, called King John's Fort, with a
tower seventy feet high, and flanking the river for a distance of two
hundred feet. The town on the Leinster side, where Ginkell was, was
defended by bold earthen ramparts, the most indestructible of any
kind by cannon. Ginkell, however, lost no time in attacking it. On the
20th his cannon were all in order for bombarding, and he opened a
terrible fire on the town. Under cover of his fire the troops rushed to
the walls, and the French refugees were the first to mount a breach,
and one of them, flinging his grenade, fell with a shout of triumph.
His example was quickly followed. The assailants sprang over the
walls in hundreds, clearing the way with hand grenades; and the
Irish giving way, there was a hot pursuit along the bridge, by which
they sought to escape into the other half of the town. The crash and
confusion there were such, that many of the flying Irish were
trodden under foot, and others were forced over the parapets of the
bridge, and perished in the Shannon. The near side of the town was
in Ginkell's possession, with the loss of only twenty men killed and
forty wounded.
The cannonade was continued on the bridge and on the town across
the river, and the next day it was repeated with increased effect
from batteries thrown up along the river bank. The next morning it
was discovered that the mills were greatly damaged; one, indeed,
had taken fire, and its little garrison of sixty men had perished in it.
A great part of the fort had also been beaten down. The French
officers had constructed a tête-de-pont at the end of the bridge to
assist the fort, had broken down some of the arches, and made the
conquest of a passage by the bridge next to impossible. To add to
the difficulty of the enterprise, St. Ruth had hastened from Limerick
with an army superior in numbers to that of Ginkell. But this force
was more imposing in appearance than formidable in reality. St.
Ruth, calculating on the difficulty of the passage, imagined that he
could hold the place with little loss till the autumnal rains drove the
English from the field through sickness. He therefore ordered
D'Usson to attend to the defence of the passage, and fixed his camp
about three miles from the town.
There was a weak spot, however, which was pointed out to Ginkell—
a ford at some little distance from the bridge. It is true that a force
was posted to guard this ford, commanded by Maxwell, an officer
who had recently been to St. Germains with dispatches from the
Duke of Berwick, and was put into command at this ford by
Tyrconnel in defiance of St. Ruth—the interference of Tyrconnel in
military affairs, much to the disgust of St. Ruth, being as constant as
if he were commander-in-chief as well as lord-lieutenant. Sarsfield
soon became aware of the design of Ginkell to attempt this ford, and
warned St. Ruth of it. But the vanity of that officer made him treat
the warning with scorn. "What!" said he, "attempt the ford; they
dare not do it, and I so near." Warned again, he exclaimed,
"Monsieur! Ginkell's master ought to hang him for attempting to take
Athlone, and mine ought to hang me if I let him." Sarsfield, who
knew better what the enemy dared do, said as he withdrew, "He
does not know the English."
 THE ASSAULT OF ATHLONE. (See p. 443.)
[See larger version]
Ginkell himself, after reconnoitring the ford and the breastwork
opposite, had no great desire for the attempt. He continued the
cannonade on the fort and town till the end of June, and it became
necessary, from the want of forage, to advance or retreat. A council
of war was called. Mackay was against the attempt, but
Würtemberg, Talmash, and Ruvigny were for it, and Ginkell, though
hesitatingly, consented. There was observed a degree of
carelessness in the Irish soldiers guarding the ford; there had been a
rumour in their camp that the English were about to retreat in
despair, and the light-hearted Hibernians had begun to relax their
vigilance, and to gamble and idle about. It was resolved to seize the
opportunity and dash over at once. Fifteen hundred grenadiers were
selected for the service, and a handsome present was distributed to
each man. The Duke of Würtemberg, Talmash, and a number of
other officers volunteered to accompany them as privates, and the
spirits of the men rose to enthusiasm. In memory of the auspicious
day at the Boyne they stuck each a green twig in their hats, and,
locking their arms twenty abreast, they plunged into the stream. In
their ardour they lifted up the Duke of Würtemberg and bore him on
their shoulders. Six battalions were drawn up ready to support them,
under the command of Mackay. The stream, even at the ford, was
deep enough to reach their chins, and very strong; but the resolute
men pressed on, and soon got firm footing, and, with a stunning
shout, reached the other bank. The Irish, suddenly aroused to the
danger, hurried to the bank, fired a single volley, and broke. The
grenadiers the next moment were over the breastwork, and in full
pursuit of the enemy. In a few minutes they had chased the guards
from the head of the bridge; planks were thrown over the broken
arches, and the troops, rushing over, enabled others to cross in rude
pontoons; and in less than an hour the English were masters of the
town, with the loss of only twelve men killed and about thirty
wounded.
 SCENE AT THE REMOVAL OF THE IRISH SOLDIERS FROM LIMERICK.
(See p. 447.)
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D'Usson made a vain attempt to regain the town; he was repelled
with ruinous loss, and was himself thrown down by the flying rout
and nearly trampled to death. St. Ruth, when he heard that the
town was taken, exclaimed, "Taken! that is impossible, and I close at
hand." But he found it no longer safe to be so close at hand. In the
night, covered with shame at his folly and absurd confidence, he
struck his tents, and made a hasty retreat towards Aghrim, where,
encouraged by the natural strength of bogs and hills, he halted and
entrenched himself. There was the fiercest bickering in the camp;
the French party and the Irish charging each other with the
misfortune. St. Ruth, to excuse himself, laid the blame on Maxwell,
whose duty it was to guard the ford. Maxwell was not there to
defend himself, for his soldiers fled faster than he, and he was made
prisoner. But Tyrconnel, who had always supported Maxwell,
protested that he had done his duty like a brave man, and had,
along with himself, repeatedly warned St. Ruth of his temerity. The
dispute rose so high that Tyrconnel quitted the camp, and retired to
Limerick in high dudgeon.
Being relieved from the presence and interference of Tyrconnel, St.
Ruth again resolved to fight. He was stung by the loss of reputation
which he had sustained at Athlone, and by the reflection of its
injurious impression at the Court of France. Sarsfield, one of those
Cassandra-like counsellors who give the most prudent advice but are
never listened to, attempted to dissuade him. He pointed out how
far superior in discipline and bottom were the troops of Ginkell to
those which he now commanded, and recommended a system of
excursive warfare, which should harass and, by seizing favourable
crises, defeat the English piecemeal. His words were lost on St.
Ruth, who prepared for the approach of Ginkell by going amongst
his soldiers personally to rouse their desire to reconquer their good
name, and by sending the priests amongst them to stimulate them
by religious motives. Ginkell did not let him wait long. As soon as he
had settled the defences of Athlone, he pursued his march towards
Aghrim.
On the 12th of July he came up with the army of St. Ruth, and
found it very strongly posted. Before him was a morass of half a mile
across; beyond the morass rose the hills round the old ruined castle
of Aghrim, and at their feet, between them and the bog, the infantry
were strongly entrenched, and supported by the cavalry posted
commandingly on the slopes of the hills. Difficult as was the
approach, it was recommended by Mackay to make an instant
attack, whilst the spirits of the troops were high from the first sight
of the enemy they had so lately beaten. The battle was determined
on, though it was getting late in the afternoon. The infantry struck
boldly into the red bog, and plunged on courageously, though often
up to their waists in mud and water. Mackay led his horse against
their right, and Eppinger's dragoons and Portland's horse advanced
against their left. The cavalry found their way through the bogs very
difficult; the Dutch and English dragoons met with a repulse in the
pass of Urachree, and the infantry were in front of the enemy long
before the cavalry could operate on the wings. The Irish infantry that
day fought bravely. They poured a fierce fire into the English, and
were well supported by the horse. The battle became desperate; the
English fought their way into the entrenchments, and drove the Irish
up one of the hills; but there they found two old Danish forts, the
old castle of Aghrim, and every hedge and thicket lined with
muskets. The contest was unequal, and the infantry found
themselves at length driven back to the margin of the bog. Elated at
the sight, St. Ruth exclaimed, "The day is ours! Now will we drive
these English back to the gates of Dublin!"
But he was deceived. Talmash rallied the foot, and led them again to
the conflict; and whilst the struggle was renewed and the day fast
closing, St. Ruth perceived the horse of Mackay and Ruvigny, the
English and Huguenot cavalry, approaching on the right. They came
over but a few soldiers abreast, through a narrow track between the
bogs; but they soon formed in a dense body, and St. Ruth rode off
to encounter them and stop them from out-flanking his force. As he
galloped up towards them, a cannon-shot carried off his head. The
officers threw a cloak over his body to prevent his fall from
disheartening his men. But the absence of command was soon felt.
The English fought with fresh fury; and Sarsfield, who was in the
rear with the reserve, waiting orders, did not advance till the Irish
ranks were broken and all was over. The flight became general. The
English horse pursued and hewed down the fugitives as long as they
could see; and had not Sarsfield covered the miserable fugitives with
his horse, scarcely a man of the infantry would have been left.
The English army camped for the night on the ground which had
been occupied by the enemy. Nearly twenty thousand English and
their allies entered the battle against something more than the same
number of Irish and French. On the side of the English six hundred
were killed and one thousand wounded. On the part of the Irish four
thousand fell on the field, and nearly as many are said to have
perished in the flight. The panic-stricken multitude, flinging their
arms away, continued their flight, some of them to Limerick, and
others to Galway, where D'Usson was now in command. Whole
waggon-loads of muskets and other arms were picked up and
purchased by Ginkell at a few pence apiece.
The English spent the next day in burying their own dead; but left
the corpses of the Irish on the field, and marched forward to attack
Galway. D'Usson, who had about two thousand five hundred men in
Galway, made at first a show of resistance, calculating on the
assistance of Baldearg O'Donnell. But O'Donnell, after endeavouring
in vain to bargain for an earldom, consented to accept five hundred
pounds a year and a commission in William's army. This unexpected
event compelled D'Usson to surrender, on condition that he might
march out and join the Irish army in its last place of retreat,
Limerick.
Ginkell soon followed and invested the town. The last struggle for a
monarch little worthy the cause of so much bloodshed was now to
be fought out. At Limerick the Irish were to make their last stand for
the possession of their native country. If they failed here, the Saxon
remained absolute lord of their soil.
On the 14th of August the advanced guard of Ginkell's army
appeared in sight of Limerick. On the same day Tyrconnel, who was
in authority in this city, died of apoplexy, and D'Usson and Sarsfield
were left in full command of the troops. A commission was
produced, which appointed three lords-justices—Plowden, Fitton,
and Nagle; but the city was in reality a military garrison, and the
military ruled. There were fifteen thousand infantry in the town, and
three or four thousand cavalry posted on the Clare side of the
Shannon, communicating with the town on the island by the
Thomond bridge. By this means communication was kept up with
the country on that side, so that provisions might be brought in; and
several cargoes of biscuits and other dry stores were imported from
France. The country all around, however, had been so swept by
successive forages, that it was difficult to collect any cattle or corn,
and the stoutest hearts were little confident of being able to
maintain a long defence.
Ginkell took possession of the Limerick side of the town, and
reoccupied the ground before held by the besiegers. He commenced
by erecting fresh batteries of far heavier cannon than William
brought to bear on the city, and soon poured a fiery storm of balls
and shells into it, which crashed in the roofs and laid whole streets
desolate. At the same time a squadron of English men-of-war sailed
up the Shannon, and closed access to the city or escape from it by
water. The town, however, held out till the 22nd of September, when
Ginkell, beginning to fear the rains and fevers of autumn, and that
they might compel him to draw off, and thus continue the war to
another year, determined to obtain possession of the bridge, and
attack the cavalry on the other side. He therefore passed the river by
a bridge of William's tin boats, and, assaulting the cavalry, put them
to utter rout. They left their camp with many arms and much store
of provisions, and fled with as much precipitation as they had done
from Aghrim, scattering again the whole country with their arms.
Ginkell next attacked the fort which defended the bridge, carried it
and the bridge, and thus was able to invest the whole town. In the
haste to draw up the movable part of the bridge nearest to the city,
the soldiers retreating from the fort were shut out, and a terrible
massacre was made of them on the bridge. Out of eight hundred
men only one hundred and twenty escaped into Limerick.
This disaster broke the spirit of the Irish entirely. Even the stout-
hearted Sarsfield was convinced that all was over, and it was
resolved to capitulate. An armistice was agreed to. The Irish
demanded that they should retain their property and their rights;
that there should be perfect freedom for the Catholic worship, a
Catholic priest for every parish, full enjoyment of all municipal
privileges, and full capability to hold all civil and military offices.
Ginkell refused these terms, but offered others so liberal that they
were loudly condemned by the English, who were hungering after
the estates of the Irish. He consented that all such soldiers as
desired to continue in the service of James should be not only
allowed to do so, but should be shipped to France in English vessels;
that French vessels should be permitted to come up and return in
safety; that all soldiers who were willing to enter William's service
should be received, and that on taking the oath of allegiance all past
offences should be overlooked, and they and all Irish subjects taking
the oaths should retain their property, should not be sued for any
damages or spoliation committed during the war, nor prosecuted for
any treason, felony, or misdemeanour, but should, moreover, be
capable of holding any office or practising any profession which they
were capable of before the war. They were to be allowed to exercise
their religion in peace as fully as in the reign of Charles II. It is to
the disgrace of England that this part of the treaty should not have
been kept.
These terms were accepted, and the treaty was signed on the 3rd of
October, and thus terminated this war, which, in the vain endeavour
to restore a worthless monarch, had turned Ireland into a desert and
a charnel-house. When it came to the choice of the soldiers to which
banner they would ally themselves, out of the fifteen thousand men,
about ten thousand chose to follow the fortunes of James, and were
shipped off with all speed, as they began to desert in great
numbers. Many of those who actually embarked did it under a
solemn assurance from Sarsfield that their wives and children should
go with them; but, once having the men on board, this pledge was
most cruelly broken, and the greatest part of the women and
children were left in frantic misery on the shore. The scenes which
took place on this occasion at Cork are described as amongst the
most heartrending in history. But this agony once over, the country
sank down into a condition of passive but gloomy quiet, which it
required more than a century to dissipate. Whilst Scotland again and
again was agitated by the endeavours to reinstate the expelled
dynasty, Ireland remained passive; and it was not till the French
Revolution scattered its volcanic fires through Europe that she once
more began to shake the yoke on her galled neck. Yet during all this
time a burning sense of her subjection glowed in her blood, and the
name of the Luttrel who went over to the Saxon at the dividing day
at Limerick, and received for his apostacy the estates of his absent
brother, remained a term of execration amongst the Irish. Meanwhile
the Irish regiments which went to France won a brilliant reputation
in the wars of the Continent, and many of the officers rose to high
position in France, in Spain, in Austria, and Prussia. Their
descendants still rank with the nobility of those countries.
 CHAPTER XIII.
WILLIAM AND MARY.
Proceedings in Parliament—Complaints against Admiral Russell—
Treason in the Navy—Legislation against the Roman Catholics—
The East India Company—Treasons Bill—The Poll Tax—Changes
in the Ministry—Marlborough is deprived of his Offices—His
Treachery—The Queen's Quarrel with the Princess Anne—
William goes Abroad—Fall of Namur—Battle of Steinkirk—Results
of the Campaign—The Massacre of Glencoe—Proposed Invasion
of England—James's Declaration—Russell's Hesitation overcome
by the Queen—Battle of La Hogue—Gallant Conduct of Rooke—
Young's Sham Plot—Founding of Greenwich Hospital—Ill Success
of the Fleet—Discontent of the People—Complaints in the Lords
and Commons—The Land Tax—Origin of the National Debt—
Liberty of the Press—The Continental Campaign—Battle of
Landen—Loss of the Smyrna Fleet—Attack on the Navy—New
Legislation—Banking Schemes of Chamberlayne and Paterson—
The Bank of England Established—Ministerial Changes—
Negotiations for Peace—Marlborough's Treason and the Death
of Talmash—Illness and Death of Queen Mary.

On the 19th of October William arrived from Holland, and on the

22nd he opened Parliament. He congratulated it on the termination
of the war in Ireland, and on the progress of the English arms both
on land and sea. It was true that on the Continent there had been
no very decisive action, but the Allies had compelled the French to
retreat before them, and to confess their power by avoiding a
general engagement with them. At sea, though not so much had
been effected in some directions as might have been hoped, yet the
French had been driven from the open into their own ports, and an
English fleet had convoyed a large merchant fleet from the
Mediterranean in safety. This was very different to previous years,
when their cruisers had made great captures of our merchantmen.
We had also sent a fleet up the Shannon, which prevented them
from aiding the insurgents in Ireland, and were now in undisputed
supremacy again on the ocean. Of course William had to demand
heavy supplies to maintain the fleet in this position, and to pursue
the war with vigour against Louis. All this the members of both
Houses listened to with apparent satisfaction, and voted him cordial
thanks.
On the 6th of November it was unanimously voted in the Commons
that the supplies asked for by the Crown should be granted; and first
they voted £1,575,898 for the service of the navy, including the
building of three new docks at Portsmouth—one dry and two wet
ones. On the 16th they resolved that the army, in compliance with
William's recommendation, should be raised to 46,924 men; and on
the 4th of January, 1692, they voted £2,100,000 for the
maintenance of the army, of which Ireland was to pay £165,000.
But though a large majority in both Houses supported warmly the
endeavour to curb the inordinate ambition of Louis XIV., these sums
were not passed by the Commons without searching inquiries into
the accounts and into the abuses which, notwithstanding William's
vigilance, abounded in all departments of Government. No doubt the
party in opposition, as is generally the case, did much of this work of
reform more to gratify their private resentment, and to make their
rivals' term of office anything but agreeable, than from genuine
patriotism; but, at the same time, there was plenty of ground for
their complaints. Serious charges were made against Admiral Russell
for his lukewarm conduct at sea, and his mismanagement of the
Admiralty. The fact was that Russell, as was strongly suspected, and
as we now know from documents since come to light, was no less a
traitor than Torrington, Dartmouth, and Marlborough. He was in
active correspondence with James, and ready, if some turn in affairs
should serve to make it advantageous, to go over to him with the
fleet, or as much of it as would follow him, and others of the
admirals; for Delaval, Killigrew, and other admirals and naval
officers, were as deep in the treason.
There were loud complaints of the vileness of the commissariat still,
and it was declared that far more of our men fell by disease from
bad and adulterated food than in battle. The complaints against
Russell, who was called to the bar of the House, he threw upon the
Admiralty, and the Admiralty on the commissariat department.
Russell complained also of the ministry, and particularly of the Earl
of Nottingham; and thus, by this system of mutual recrimination, all
parties contrived to escape. The Commons, however, were not so to
be silenced. They charged on the officers of the army, on its
commissariat, on the men in office, and on the Government officials
almost universally, the same monstrous system of corruption,
peculation, and negligence of every thing but making money for
themselves. They insisted on a rigorous examination of all the
accounts by their own members, and they voted that all salaries and
profits arising from any place or places under the Crown should not
amount to more than five hundred pounds for any one person,
except in the cases of the Speaker of the House of Commons, the
Commissioners of the Great Seal, the judges, ambassadors, and
officers of the army and navy.
 GEORGE SAVILLE, MARQUIS OF HALIFAX.
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There were plenty of posts in which this restriction would have been
most salutary, for men in some of the most trivial and useless of
them were pocketing many thousands of pounds; but it was soon
found that the whole nation could not furnish sufficient people
patriotic enough to serve their country for five hundred pounds a
year each; and, therefore, in a few weeks a fresh resolution was
taken, which negatived this.
The business of the year 1691 closed by the passing of a Bill to
exclude all Catholics, in pursuance of the Treaty of Limerick, from
holding any office in Ireland, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, or from
practising in any profession, or sitting in the Irish Parliament, before
they had taken the Oath of Allegiance. The Commons attempted by
this Bill to make it necessary for a Catholic to take also the Oath of
Supremacy, and the Oath against Transubstantiation; but the Lords
showed that this was contrary to the first article of the Treaty of
Limerick, and this clause was struck out, and the Bill then passed.
When the agitation for Catholic emancipation commenced, loud
complaints were made that by this Bill the Treaty of Limerick had
been violated. But this was a mistake; the violation of it took place
some years afterwards by another Bill. The first article of the Treaty
provided that on a Catholic taking the Oath of Allegiance, he should
be admitted to all the privileges specified, according to the law in
Charles II.'s time; and this law, whether always enforced or not,
empowered the Crown to tender this Oath to all subjects.
The year 1692 was opened by Parliament bringing forward several
important Bills, which were, however, too much contested to be
carried this year. The first of these was a Bill for regulating the trade
of the East India Company, increasing the number of shareholders,
restricting the amount of stock in the hands of individuals, and
incorporating a new Company which had sprung up with the old
one. The East India Company had become a most flourishing
concern. From the Restoration to this time, only thirty-three years,
its annual imports had risen in value from eight thousand pounds to
three hundred thousand pounds. Its capital amounted only to three
hundred and seventy thousand pounds, but it yielded an annual
profit of thirty per cent., besides having, up to 1676, doubled the
value of the whole capital. The Company, however, instead of
increasing in shareholders, was rapidly sinking into a monopoly of a
few individuals. Amongst these Sir Josiah Child, whom we lately
quoted in our review of the commerce of the period, stood chief, and
was become, as it were, the king and despot of the whole concern.
Five members were said to possess or hold one-sixth of all the
votes, and amongst these Child had the predominant amount. His
income from the Company was stated at twenty thousand pounds a
year, and his word was law in it.
These enormous profits naturally called forth a rival company, and
the contest between them grew from year to year till it came to
occupy and divide the spirit of the whole mercantile world. The new
Company insisted on the right of trading also to many parts of India,
the old one stood on their charter as a charter of exclusion of all
others. The favour of Government was purchased by the old
Company by well-applied gifts of money to Government, and by
sharing with Government the profitable patronage. The question was
now brought before Parliament, and hotly debated; but the Bill was
dropped for the present, and a proposition to William to grant a
charter to the new Company was evaded, on the plea of requiring
deep consideration.
The next important Bill was for regulating trials in cases of high
treason. It was time that great reforms should take place on this
head. During the Stuart times men had been most easily and
conveniently put out of the way, by counsel being refused them
under charge of high treason, and by refusal to allow them the
perusal of the Bill of Indictment previous to the trial. Juries were
packed by sheriffs, and State prisoners were thus murdered at will.
The same gross injustice extended to prisoners charged with other
offences; but the great strain towards injustice was in the case of
those charged by the State with treason, and against whom it
employed the ablest lawyers of the realm. By this machinery, all
through the reigns of the Stuarts, as well as of their predecessors,
whole throngs of men, many of them of extraordinary endowments
and high rank, had been judicially destroyed. The proposed Bill,
therefore, provided that every person charged with high treason
should be allowed to have his own counsel, to have a copy of the
indictment delivered to him ten days before the trial, along with a
list of the freeholders from whom his jury were to be selected, that
he might have opportunity to challenge any of them. The Bill was
most desirable, but it was frustrated for the time by the Lords
insisting on an extension of their own privileges regarding such
trials. Instead of being tried by the court of the Lord High Steward—
who could summon twelve or more peers at his discretion if the
Parliament was not sitting—they demanded that, during the recess,
as during the Session, every peer should be summoned to attend
any such trial. The Commons somewhat unreasonably opposed this
very proper reform, on the ground that the peers had too many
privileges already, and the Bill dropped for the time.
Besides these the Commons sent up various other bills, which were
nearly all rejected by the Lords. There was a Bill for reducing the
rate of interest on money; a Bill investing in the king the forfeited
estates in both England and Ireland as a fund for the war; a Bill to
proportion the pay in the army to the real complement of men; for
there was a practice, in which Marlborough was especially engaged,
of returning regiments as complete which were far from being so,
and of pocketing the pay of the men wanting. There was a Bill to
continue the commissioners of public accounts, most unreasonably
rejected by the Lords, whilst they allowed to pass a Bill which has
always been regarded with hostility in England—a poll tax, levying
on all persons, except servants, children, and paupers, a shilling a
quarter; on every peer of Parliament, ten pounds a year; on every
income of three hundred pounds a year, ten shillings per annum;
and on all gentlemen of three hundred pounds a year income from
real property, and on all clergymen or teachers with incomes of
eighty pounds, one pound each a year.
On the 29th of February William prorogued Parliament, and made
active preparations for his departure for the Continent. Before he
took his leave, however, he made various changes in his Cabinet and
Ministry, which showed that the Whigs were still losing ground with
him, and the Tories, or the "Trimmers," who veered, according to
circumstances, to one party or the other, acquiring favour. The Earl
of Rochester, younger brother of Lord Clarendon, one of Mary's
uncles; Lord Ranelagh, Lord Cornwallis, and Sir Edward Seymour,
who had all along hitherto opposed the king, were made members
of the Privy Council, and the Earl of Pembroke Privy Seal. Charles
Montague was made a Commissioner of the Treasury, and Sidney
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. But the circumstance which occasioned
the greatest sensation, and wonder, and mystery was the sudden
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