but by common interest. For there could be no doubt that, if Londonderry fell, the whole Irish army would instantly march in irresistible force upon Lough Erne. Yet what could be done? Some brave men were for making a desperate attempt to relieve the besieged city; but the odds were too great. Detachments however were sent which infested the rear of the blockading army, cut off supplies, and, on one occasion, carried away the horses of three entire troops of cavalry.* Still the line of posts which surrounded Londonderry by land remained unbroken. The river was still strictly closed and guarded. Within the walls the distress had become extreme. So early as the eighth of June horseflesh was almost the only meat which could be purchased; and of horseflesh the supply was scanty. It was necessary to make up the deficiency with tallow; and even tallow was doled out with a parsimonious hand.

Expedi

Kirke ar

rives in Lough Foyle,

some provisions, which had been concealed in cellars by people who had since died or made their escape, were discovered and carried to the magazines. The stock of cannon balls was almost exhausted; and their place was supplied by brickbats coated with lead. Pestilence began, as usual, to make its appearance in the train of hunger. Fifteen officers died of fever in one day. The Governor Baker was among those who sank under the disease. His place was supplied by Colonel John Mitchelburne.*

Meanwhile it was known at Dublin that Kirke and his squadron were on the coast of Ulster. The alarm was great at the Castle. Even before this news arrived, Avaux had given it as his opinion that Richard Hamilton was unequal to the difficulties of the situation. It had therefore been resolved that Rosen should take the chief command. He was now sent down with all speed.†

On the fifteenth of June a gleam of On the nineteenth of June he arrived hope appeared. The sentinels at the head quarters of the cruelty of tion under on the top of the Cathedral saw besieging army. At first he Rosen. sails nine miles off in the bay attempted to undermine the walls; but of Lough Foyle. Thirty vessels his plan was discovered; and he was of different sizes were counted.compelled to abandon it after a sharp Signals were made from the steeples fight, in which more than a hundred of and returned from the mast heads, but his men were slain. Then his fury were imperfectly understood on both rose to a strange pitch. He, an old sides. At last a messenger from the soldier, a Marshal of France in exfleet eluded the Irish sentinels, dived pectancy, trained in the school of the under the boom, and informed the greatest generals, accustomed, during garrison that Kirke had arrived from many years, to scientific war, to be England with troops, arms, ammuni- baffled by a mob of country gentlemen, tion, and provisions, to relieve the farmers, shopkeepers, who were procity.† tected only by a wall which any good engineer would at once have pronounced * untenable! He raved, he blasphemed, in a language of his own, made up of all the dialects spoken from the Baltic to the Atlantic. He would raze the city to the ground: he would spare no living thing; no, not the young girls; not the babies at the breast. the leaders, death was too light a punishment for them: he would rack them: he would roast them alive. In his rage he ordered a shell to be flung into the town with a letter containing

In Londonderry expectation was at the height: but a few hours of feverish joy were followed by weeks of misery. Kirke thought it unsafe to make any attempt, either by land or by water, on the lines of the besiegers, and retired to the entrance of Lough Foyle, where, during several weeks, he lay inactive.

And now the pressure of famine became every day more severe. A strict search was made in all the recesses of all the houses of the city; and

* Hamilton's True Relation.
† Walker.

As to

a horrible menace. He would, he said, cers felt on this occasion as it was gather into one body all the Protest-natural that brave men should feel, ants who had remained at their homes and declared, weeping with pity and between Charlemont and the sea, old indignation, that they should never men, women, children, many of them cease to have in their ears the cries of near in blood and affection to the de- the poor women and children who had fenders of Londonderry. No protection, been driven at the point of the pike to whatever might be the authority by die of famine between the camp and which it had been given, should be city. Rosen persisted during forty respected. The multitude thus brought eight hours. In that time many untogether should be driven under the happy creatures perished: but Londonwalls of Londonderry, and should there derry held out as resolutely as ever; be starved to death in the sight of their and he saw that his crime was likely countrymen, their friends, their kins- to produce nothing but hatred and obmen. This was no idle threat. Parties loquy. He at length gave way, and were instantly sent out in all directions suffered the survivors to withdraw. to collect victims. At dawn, on the The garrison then took down the galmorning of the second of July, hun-lows which had been erected on the dreds of Protestants, who were charged bastion.* with no crime, who were incapable of When the tidings of these events bearing arms, and many of whom had reached Dublin, James, though by no protections granted by James, were means prone to compassion, was startled dragged to the gates of the city. It by an atrocity of which the civil wars was imagined that the piteous sight of England had furnished no example, would quell the spirit of the colonists. and was displeased by learning that But the only effect was to rouse that protections, given by his authority, and spirit to still greater energy. An order guaranteed by his honour, had been was immediately put forth that no man publicly declared to be nullities. He should utter the word Surrender on complained to the French ambassador, pain of death; and no man uttered and said, with a warmth which the that word. Several prisoners of high occasion fully justified, that Rosen was rank were in the town. Hitherto they a barbarous Muscovite. Melfort could had been well treated, and had received not refrain from adding that, if Rosen as good rations as were measured out had been an Englishman, he would to the garrison. They were now closely have been hanged. Avaux was utterly confined. A gallows was erected on unable to understand this effeminate one of the bastions; and a message sensibility. In his opinion, nothing was conveyed to Rosen, requesting him had been done that was at all repreto send a confessor instantly to prepare hensible; and he had some difficulty in his friends for death. The prisoners in commanding himself when he heard great dismay wrote to the savage Livo- the King and the secretary blame, in nian, but received no answer. They strong language, an act of wholesome then addressed themselves to their severity. In truth the French amcountryman, Richard Hamilton. They bassador and the French general were were willing, they said, to shed their well paired. There was a great differblood for their King; but they thought ence, doubtless, in appearance and it hard to die the ignominious death of manner, between the handsome, gracethieves in consequence of the barbarity ful, and refined politician, whose dexof their own companions in arms. terity and suavity had been renowned Hamilton, though a man of lax principles, was not cruel. He had been dis-King, iii. 13.; Leslie's Answer to King; Life *Walker; Mackenzie; Light to the Blind; gusted by the inhumanity of Rosen, of James, ii. 366. I ought to say that on this but, being only second in command, occasion King is unjust to James. could not venture to express publicly all that he thought. He however remonstrated strongly. Some Irish offi

+ Leslie's Answer to King; Avaux, July 1689. "Je trouvay l'expression bien forte: mais je ne voulois rien répondre, car le Roy s'estoit desja fort emporté."

at the most polite courts of Europe, | Several of them, in the act of striking and the military adventurer, whose at the enemy, fell down from mere look and voice reminded all who came weakness. A very small quantity of near him that he had been born in a grain remained, and was doled out by half savage country, that he had risen mouthfuls. The stock of salted hides from the ranks, and that he had once was considerable, and by gnawing them been sentenced to death for maraud- the garrison appeased the rage of huning. But the heart of the diplomatist ger. Dogs, fattened on the blood of was really even more callous than that the slain who lay unburied round the of the soldier. town, were luxuries which few could Rosen was recalled to Dublin; and afford to purchase. The price of a Richard Hamilton was again left in whelp's paw was five shillings and sixthe chief command. He tried gentler pence. Nine horses were still alive, means than those which had brought and but barely alive. They were so so much reproach on his predecessor. lean that little meat was likely to be No trick, no lie, which was thought found upon them. It was, however, likely to discourage the starving garri- determined to slaughter them for food. son was spared. One day a great shout The people perished so fast, that it was was raised by the whole Irish camp. impossible for the survivors to perform The defenders of Londonderry were the rites of sepulture. There was soon informed that the army of James scarcely a cellar in which some corpse was rejoicing on account of the fall of was not decaying. Such was the exEnniskillen. They were told that they tremity of distress that the rats who had now no chance of being relieved, came to feast in those hideous dens and were exhorted to save their lives were eagerly hunted and greedily deby capitulating. They consented to voured. A small fish, caught in the negotiate. But what they asked was, river, was not to be purchased with that they should be permitted to depart money. The only price for which such armed and in military array, by land a treasure could be obtained was some or by water at their choice. They de- handfuls of oatmeal. Leprosies, such manded hostages for the exact fulfil- as strange and unwholesome diet enment of these conditions, and insisted genders, made existence a constant torthat the hostages should be sent on ment. The whole city was poisoned by board of the fleet which lay in Lough the stench exhaled from the bodies of Foyle. Such terms Hamilton durst the dead and of the half dead. That not grant: the Governors would abate there should be fits of discontent and nothing: the treaty was broken off; insubordination among men enduring and the conflict recommenced.* such misery was inevitable. At one moment it was suspected that Walker had laid up somewhere a secret store of food, and was revelling in private, while he exhorted others to suffer resolutely for the good cause. His house was strictly examined: his innocence was fully proved: he regained his popularity; and the garrison, with death in near prospect, thronged to the cathedral to hear him preach, drank in his earnest eloquence with delight, and went forth from the house of God with haggard faces and tottering steps, but with spirit still unsubdued. There were, indeed, some secret plottings. A very few obscure traitors opened communications with the enemy. But it was necessary that all such dealings should

The

Londonderry

By this time July was far advanced; and the state of the city was, famine in hour by hour, becoming more frightful. The number of the extreme. inhabitants had been thinned more by famine and disease than by the fire of the enemy. Yet that fire was sharper and more constant than ever. One of the gates was beaten in: one of the bastions was laid in ruins; but the breaches made by day were repaired by night with indefatigable activity. Every attack was still repelled. But the fighting men of the garrison were so much exhausted that they could scarcely keep their legs.

VOL. II.

* Mackenzie.

A A

Among the merchant ships which had come to Lough Foyle under his convoy was one called the Mountjoy. The master, Micaiah Browning, a native of Londonderry, had brought from England a large cargo of provisions. He had, it is said, repeatedly remonstrated against the inaction of the armament. He now eagerly volun

be carefully concealed. None dared to utter publicly any words save words of defiance and stubborn resolution. Even in that extremity the general cry was "No surrender." And there were not wanting voices which, in low tones, added, "First the horses and hides; and then the prisoners; and then each other." It was afterwards related, half in jest, yet not without a horrible mix-teered to take the first risk of succourture of earnest, that a corpulent citizen, ing his fellow citizens; and his offer whose bulk presented a strange con- was accepted. Andrew Douglas, master trast to the skeletons which surrounded of the Phoenix, who had on board a him, thought it expedient to conceal great quantity of meal from Scotland, himself from the numerous eyes which was willing to share the danger and followed him with cannibal looks when- the honour. The two merchantmen ever he appeared in the streets.* were to be escorted by the Dartmouth, a frigate of thirty six guns, commanded by Captain John Leake, afterwards an admiral of great fame.

It was no slight aggravation of the sufferings of the garrison that all this time the English ships were seen far off in Lough Foyle. Communication between the fleet and the city was almost impossible. One diver who had attempted to pass the boom was drowned. Another was hanged. The language of signals was hardly intelligible. On the thirteenth of July, however, a piece of paper sewed up in a cloth button came to Walker's hands. It was a letter from Kirke, and contained assurances of speedy relief. But more than a fortnight of intense misery had since elapsed; and the hearts of the most sanguine were sick with deferred hope. By no art could the provisions which were left be made to hold out two days more.†

Attack on

over;

It was the twenty-eighth of July. The sun had just set: the evening sermon in the cathedral was and the heartbroken congregation had separated; when the sentinels on the tower saw the sails of three vessels coming up the Foyle. Soon there was a stir in the Irish camp. The besiegers were on the alert for miles along both shores. The ships were in extreme peril: for the river was low; and the only navigable channel ran very near to the left bank, where the head quarters of the enemy had been fixed, and where the batteries were most numerous. Leake performed his duty with a skill and spirit worthy of his noble profession, exposed his frigate to cover the merchantmen, and used his guns with great effect. At length the little squadron came to the

Just at this time Kirke received from England a despatch, which conthe boom. tained positive orders that Londonderry should be relieved. He accordingly determined to make an at-place of peril. Then the Mountjoy tempt which, as far as appears, he might have made, with at least an equally fair prospect of success, six weeks earlier. +

took the lead, and went right at the boom. The huge barricade cracked and gave way: but the shock was such that the Mountjoy rebounded, and

pointed commander in chief of all the English forces in Ireland. A copy of it is among the Nairne MSS. in the Bodleian Library. Wod

*Walker's Account. "The fat man in Londonderry" became a proverbial expression for a person whose prosperity excited the envy and cupidity of his less fortunate neigh-row, on no better authority than the gossip bours.

This, according to Narcissus Luttrell, was the report made by Captain Withers, afterwards a highly distinguished officer, on whom Pope wrote an epitaph.

of a country parish in Dumbartonshire, attributes the relief of Londonderry to the exhortations of a heroic Scotch preacher named Gordon. I am inclined to think that Kirke was more likely to be influenced by a peremp tory order from Schomberg, than by the united eloquence of a whole synod of Presby

The despatch, which positively commanded Kirke to attack the boom, was signed by Schomberg, who had already been ap-terian divines.

The siege

raised.

stuck in the mud. A yell of triumph of beef, and a pint of pease. It is easy rose from the banks: the Irish rushed to imagine with what tears grace was to their boats, and were preparing to said over the suppers of that evening. board; but the Dartmouth poured on There was little sleep on either side of them a well directed broadside, which the wall. The bonfires shone bright threw them into disorder. Just then along the whole circuit of the ramthe Phoenix dashed at the breach parts. The Irish guns continued to which the Mountjoy had made, and roar all night; and all night the bells was in a moment within the fence. of the rescued city made answer to the Meantime the tide was rising fast. Irish guns with a peal of joyous deThe Mountjoy began to move, and fiance. Through the three following soon passed safe through the broken days the batteries of the enemy constakes and floating spars. But her tinued to play. But, on the third brave master was no more. A shot night, flames were seen arising from from one of the batteries had struck the camp; and, when the first of him; and he died by the most enviable August dawned, a line of smoking of all deaths, in sight of the city which ruins marked the site lately occupied was his birthplace, which was his by the huts of the besiegers; and the home, and which had just been saved citizens saw far off the long column of by his courage and selfdevotion from spikes and standards retreating up the the most frightful form of destruction. left bank of the Foyle towards StraThe night had closed in before the bane.* conflict at the boom began: but the So ended this great siege, the most flash of the guns was seen, and the memorable in the annals of noise heard, by the lean and ghastly the British isles. It had lasted fo multitude which covered the walls of a hundred and five days. The donderry the city. When the Mountjoy ground-garrison had been reduced from ed, and when the shout of triumph about seven thousand effective men rose from the Irish on both sides of to about three thousand. The loss of the river, the hearts of the besieged died within them. One who endured the unutterable anguish of that moment has told us that they looked fearfully livid in each other's eyes. Even after the barricade had been passed, there was a terrible half hour of suspense. It was ten o'clock before the ships arrived at the quay. The whole population was there to welcome them. A screen made of casks filled with earth was hastily thrown up to protect the landing place from the batteries on the other side of the river; and then the work of unloading began. First were rolled on shore barrels containing six thousand bushels of meal. Then came great cheeses, casks of beef, flitches of bacon, kegs of butter, sacks of pease and biscuit, ankers of brandy. Not many hours before, half a pound of tallow and three quarters of a pound of salted hide had been weighed out with niggardly care to every fighting man. The ration which each now received was three pounds of flour, two pounds

the besiegers cannot be precisely ascertained. Walker estimated it at eight thousand men. It is certain from the despatches of Avaux that the regiments which returned from the blockade had been so much thinned that many of them were not more than two hundred strong. Of thirty six French gunners who had superintended the cannonading, thirty one had been killed or disabled. † The means both of attack and of defence had undoubtedly been such as would have moved the great warriors of the Continent to laughter; and this is the very circumstance which gives so peculiar an interest to the history of the contest. It was a contest, not between engineers, but between nations; and the victory

* Walker; Mackenzie; Histoire de la Révolution d'Irlande, Amsterdam, 1691; London Gazette, Aug. 5. 12. 1689; Letter of Buchan among the Nairne MSS.; Life of Sir John Walker's Account of the Siege of Londonderry, licensed Oct. 4. 1689.

Leake; The Londeriad; Observations on Mr.

18

† Avaux to Seignelay, July to Lewis, 28' ; Aug..