remained with the nation which, though | which he owed to the brave and trusty inferior in number, was superior in citizens of his good city. The whole civilisation, in capacity for selfgovern- population crowded to the Diamond to ment, and in stubbornness of resolution.* hear the royal epistle read. At the close all the guns on the ramparts sent forth a voice of joy: all the ships in the river made answer: barrels of ale were broken up; and the health of Their Majesties was drunk with shouts and volleys of musketry. As soon as it was known that the Irish army had retired, a deputation from the city hastened to Lough Foyle, and invited Kirke to take the command. He came accompanied by a long train of officers, and was received Five generations have since passed in state by the two Governors, who away; and still the wall of Londondelivered up to him the authority derry is to the Protestants of Ulster which, under the pressure of necessity, what the trophy of Marathon was to they had assumed. He remained only the Athenians. A lofty pillar, rising a few days; but he had time to show from a bastion which bore during enough of the incurable vices of his many weeks the heaviest fire of the character to disgust a population dis- enemy, is seen far up and far down the tinguished by austere morals and ar- Foyle. On the summit is the statue of dent public spirit. There was, how- Walker, such as when, in the last and ever, no outbreak. The city was in most terrible emergency, his eloquence the highest good humour. Such quan- roused the fainting courage of his tities of provisions had been landed brethren. In one hand he grasps a from the fleet that there was in every Bible. The other, pointing down the house a plenty never before known. A river, seems to direct the eyes of his few days earlier a man had been glad famished audience to the English topto obtain for twenty pence a mouthful masts in the distant bay. Such a of carrion scraped from the bones of a monument was well deserved: yet it starved horse. A pound of good beef was scarcely needed: for in truth the was now sold for three halfpence. whole city is to this day a monument Meanwhile all hands were busied in of the great deliverance. The wall is removing corpses which had been carefully preserved; nor would any thinly covered with earth, in filling plea of health or convenience be held up the holes which the shells had by the inhabitants sufficient to justify ploughed in the ground, and in repair- the demolition of that sacred enclosure ing the battered roofs of the houses. which, in the evil time, gave shelter to The recollection of past dangers and their race and their religion.* privations, and the consciousness of summit of the ramparts forms a pleahaving deserved well of the English sant walk. The bastions have been nation and of all Protestant Churches, turned into little gardens. Here and swelled the hearts of the townspeople there, among the shrubs and flowers, with honest pride. That pride grew may be seen the old culverins which stronger when they received from scattered bricks, cased with lead, among William a letter acknowledging, in the the Irish ranks. One antique gun, the most affectionate language, the debt gift of the Fishmongers of London, I was distinguished, during the hundred "You will see here, as you have all and five memorable days, by the loudalong, that the tradesmen of Londonderry had more skill in their defence than the greatness of its report, and still bears the officers of the Irish army in their attacks."- name of Roaring Meg. The cathedral Light to the Blind. The author of this work is furious against the Irish gunners. The boom, he thinks, would never have been broken if they had done their duty. Were they drunk? Were they traitors? He does not determine the point. "Lord," he exclaims, "who seest the hearts of people, we leave the judgment of this affair to thy mercy. In the interim those gunners lost Ireland." The is filled with relics and trophies. In the vestibule is a huge shell, one of many hundreds of shells which were thrown into the city. Over the altar * In a collection entitled "Derriana," which was published more than sixty years ago, is a curious letter on this subject. against are still seen the French flagstaves, tage over a detachment of the Ennistaken by the garrison in a desperate killeners, and had, by their Operasally. The white ensigns of the own confession, killed or taken tions House of Bourbon have long been dust: more than fifty of them. the Ennisbut their place has been supplied by They were in hopes of obtain- killeners. new banners, the work of the fairest ing some assistance from Kirke, to hands of Ulster. The anniversary of whom they had sent a deputation; and the day on which the gates were closed, they still persisted in rejecting all and the anniversary of the day on terms offered by the enemy. It was which the siege was raised, have been therefore determined at Dublin that an down to our own time celebrated by attack should be made upon them from salutes, processions, banquets, and ser- several quarters at once. Macarthy, mons: Lundy has been executed in who had been rewarded for his services effigy; and the sword, said by tradition in Munster with the title of Viscount to be that of Maumont, has, on great Mountcashel, marched towards Lough occasions, been carried in triumph. Erne from the east with three regiments There is still a Walker Club and a of foot, two regiments of dragoons, and Murray Club. The humble tombs of some troops of cavalry. A considerable the Protestant captains have been care- force, which lay encamped near the fully sought out, repaired, and embel- mouth of the river Drowes, was at the lished. It is impossible not to respect same time to advance from the west. the sentiment which indicates itself The Duke of Berwick was to come by these tokens. It is a sentiment from the north, with such horse and which belongs to the higher and purer dragoons as could be spared from the part of human nature, and which adds army which was besieging Londonnot a little to the strength of states. derry. The Enniskilleners were not A people which takes no pride in the fully apprised of the whole plan which noble achievements of remote ancestors had been laid for their destruction; will never achieve any thing worthy to but they knew that Macarthy was on be remembered with pride by remote the road with a force exceeding any descendants. Yet it is impossible for which they could bring into the field. the moralist or the statesman to look Their anxiety was in some degree rewith unmixed complacency on the lieved by the return of the deputation solemnities with which Londonderry which they had sent to Kirke. Kirke commemorates her deliverance, and on could spare no soldiers; but he had the honours which she pays to those sent some arms, some ammunition, and who saved her. Unhappily the ani- some experienced officers, of whom the mosities of her brave champions have chief were Colonel Wolseley and Lieudescended with their glory. The faults tenant Colonel Berry. These officers which are ordinarily found in dominant had come by sea round the coast of castes and dominant sects have not sel- Donegal, and had run up the Erne. dom shown themselves without disguise On Sunday, the twenty-ninth of July, at her festivities; and even with the it was known that their boat was apexpressions of pious gratitude which proaching the island of Enniskillen. have resounded from her pulpits have The whole population, male and female, too often been mingled words of wrath came to the shore to greet them. It and defiance. was with difficulty that they made their way to the Castle through the crowds which hung on them, blessing God that dear old England had not quite forgotten the Englishmen who were upholding her cause against great odds in the heart of Ireland. The Irish army which had retreated to Strabane remained there but a very short time. The spirit of the troops had been depressed by their recent failure, and was soon completely cowed by the news of a great disaster in another quarter. Three weeks before this time the Duke of Berwick had gained an advan Wolseley seems to have been in every respect well qualified for his post. He was a stanch Protestant, had distinguished himself among the York- haste that they had brought only one shiremen who rose up for the Prince of day's provisions. It was therefore abOrange and a free Parliament, and had, solutely necessary for them either to even before the landing of the Dutch fight instantly or to retreat. Wolseley army, proved his zeal for liberty and determined to consult the men; and pure religion, by causing the Mayor of this determination, which, in ordinary Scarborough, who had made a speech circumstances, would have been most in favour of King James, to be brought unworthy of a general, was fully justiinto the market place and well tossed fied by the peculiar composition and there in a blanket.* This vehement temper of the little army, an army hatred of Popery was, in the estimation made up of gentlemen and yeomen of the men of Enniskillen, the first of fighting, not for pay, but for their all the qualifications of a leader; and lands, their wives, their children, and Wolseley had other and more import- their God. The ranks were drawn up ant qualifications. Though himself re- under arms; and the question was put, gularly bred to war, he seems to have "Advance or Retreat?" The answer had a peculiar aptitude for the manage- was an universal shout of "Advance." ment of irregular troops. He had Wolseley gave out the word, "No scarcely taken on himself the chief Popery." It was received with loud command when he received notice that applause. He instantly made his disMtcashel had laid siege to the positions for an attack. As he apCastle of Crum. Crum was the fron-proached, the enemy, to his great tier garrison of the Protestants of surprise, began to retire. The EnnisFermanagh. The ruins of the old killeners were eager to pursue with all fortifications are now among the attrac- speed: but their commander, suspecting tions of a beautiful pleasure ground, a snare, restrained their ardour, and situated on a woody promontory which positively forbade them to break their overlooks Lough Erne. Wolseley de- ranks. Thus one army retreated and termined to raise the siege. He sent the other followed, in good order, Berry forward with such troops as through the little town of Newton could be instantly put in motion, and Butler. About a mile from that town promised to follow speedily with a the Irish faced about, and made a larger force. stand. Their position was well chosen. They were drawn up on a hill at the foot of which lay a deep bog. A narrow paved causeway which ran across the bog was the only road by which the cavalry of the Enniskilleners could advance; for on the right and left were pools, turf pits, and quagmires, which afforded no footing to horses. Macarthy placed his cannon in such a manner as to sweep this causeway. Battle of Butler. Berry, after marching some miles, encountered thirteen companies Newton of Macarthy's dragoons, commanded by Anthony, the most brilliant and accomplished of all who bore the name of Hamilton, but much less successful as a soldier than as a courtier, a lover, and a writer. Hamilton's dragoons ran at the first fire: he was severely wounded; and his second in command was shot dead. Macarthy soon came up to support Hamilton; and at the same time Wolseley came up to support Berry. The hostile armies were now in presence of each other. Macarthy had above five thousand men and several pieces of artillery. The Enniskilleners were under three thousand; and they had marched in such *Bernardi's Life of Himself, 1737. Welseley's exploit at Scarborough is mentioned in one of the letters published by Sir Henry Ellis. Wolseley ordered his infantry to the attack. They struggled through the bog, made their way to firm ground, and rushed on the guns. There was then a short and desperate fight. The Irish cannoneers stood gallantly to their pieces till they were cut down to a man. The Enniskillen horse, no longer in danger of being mowed down by the fire of the artillery, came fast up the causeway. The Irish dragoons who had ran away in the morning, were smitten with another panic, and, without striking a the Irish. blow, galloped from the field. The The battle of Newton Butler was horse followed the example. Such was won on the third day after the Consterthe terror of the fugitives that many of boom thrown over the Foyle nation of them spurred hard till their beasts fell was broken. At Strabane the down, and then continued to fly on foot, news met the Celtic army which was throwing away carbines, swords, and retreating from Londonderry. All was even coats, as incumbrances. The terror and confusion: the tents were infantry, seeing themselves deserted, struck: the military stores were flung flung down their pikes and muskets by waggon loads into the waters of and ran for their lives. The conquerors the Mourne; and the dismayed Irish, now gave loose to that ferocity which leaving many sick and wounded to the has seldom failed to disgrace the civil mercy of the victorious Protestants, wars of Ireland. The butchery was fled to Omagh, and thence to Charleterrible. Near fifteen hundred of the mont. Sarsfield, who commanded at vanquished were put to the sword. Sligo, found it necessary to abandon About five hundred more, in ignorance that town, which was instantly occupied of the country, took a road which led by a detachment of Kirke's troops.* to Lough Erne. The lake was before Dublin was in consternation. James them: the enemy behind: they plunged dropped words which indicated an ininto the waters and perished there. tention of flying to the Continent. Fvil Macarthy, abandoned by his troops, tidings indeed came fast upon rushed into the midst of his pursuers, Almost at the same time at which he and very nearly found the death which learned that one of his armies had he sought. He was wounded in several raised the siege of Londonderry, and places: he was struck to the ground; that another had been routed at Newton and in another moment his brains Butler, he received intelligence scarcely would have been knocked out with the less disheartening from Scotland. but end of a musket, when he was re- It is now necessary to trace the procognised and saved. The colonists lostgress of those events to which Scotland only twenty men killed and fifty owes her political and her religious wounded. They took four hundred liberty, her prosperity, and her civiliprisoners, seven pieces of cannon, sation. fourteen barrels of powder, all the drums and all the colours of the vanquished enemy.* m. this mistake. Indeed the dragoons who set *Hamilton's True Relation; Mac Cor-account of the defeat: "Ces mesmes dragons mick's Further Account; London Gazette, Aug. 22. 1689; Life of James, ii. 368, 369.; Avaux to Lewis, Aug. 14., and to Louvois of the same date. Story mentions a report that the panic among the Irish was caused by the mistake of an officer who called out "Right about face" instead of "Right face." Neither Avaux nor James had heard any thing about END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. LONDON PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND 00. NEW-STREET SQUARE |