Forget not the field where they perished— All gone-and the bright hopes we cherished Oh! could we from death but recover Those hearts as they bounded before, Could the chain for a moment be riven Which Tyranny flung round us then- But 'tis past; and though blazoned in story Accurst is the march of that glory Which threads o'er the hearts of the free! Far dearer the grave or the prison Than the trophies of all who have risen We cannot take leave of the field of Aughrim and pass unnoticed an episode connected with that scene which may well claim a place in history; a true story, which, if it rested on any other authority than that of the hostile and unsympathizing Williamite chaplain, might be deemed either the creation of poetic fancy or the warmly tinged picture of exaggerated fact. The bodies of the fallen Irish, as already mentioned, were for the most part left unburied on the ground, "a prey to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field." "There is," says the Williamite chronicler, "a true and remarkable story of a greyhound, belonging to an Irish officer. The gentleman was killed and stripped in the battle, † whose body the dog re * * It was a wolf-hound, or a wolf-dog. + Meaning to say, killed in the battle and stripped after it by the Williamite campfollowers, with whom stripping and robbing the slain was a common practice. They did not spare even the corpse of their own lieutenant-colonel, the Right Rev. Dr. Walker, Protestant Bishop of Derry, which they stripped naked at the Boyne. mained by night and day; and though he fed upon other corpses with the rest of the dogs, yet he would not allow them or anything else to touch that of his master. When all the corpses were consumed, the other dogs departed; but this one used to go in the night to the adjacent villages for food, and presently return to the place where his master's bones only were then left. And thus he continued (from July when the battle was fought) till January following, when one of Colonel Foulkes's soldiers, being quartered nigh at hand, and going that way by chance, the dog fearing he came to disturb his master's bones flew upon the soldier, who, being surprised at the suddenness of the thing, unslung his piece then upon his back and shot the poor dog."*" He expired," adds Mr. O'Callaghan, "with the same fidelity to the remains of his unfortunate master, as that master had shown devotion to the cause of his unhappy country. In the history of nations there are few spectacles more entitled to the admiration of the noble mind and the sympathy of the generous and feeling heart, than the fate of the gallant men and the faithful dog of Aughrim." + LXXII. HOW GLORIOUS LIMERICK ONCE MORE BRAVED THE ORDEAL. HOW AT LENGTH A TREATY AND CAPITULATION HOW SARSFIELD AND THE IRISH ARMY WAS AGREED UPON. ரு ALWAY surrendered on favorable terms ten days after the battle. Sligo also, the last western garrison, succumbed soon after, and its governor, the brave Sir Teige O'Regan, the hero of Charlemont, marched his six hundred survivors southward to Limerick." "Thus once more all eyes and hearts in the British Islands were turned towards the well-known city of the lower Shannon." * On the 25th of August, Ginckle, reinforced by all the troops he could gather in with safety, invested the place on three sides. It appears he had powers, and indeed urgent directions, from William long previously, to let no hesitation in granting favorable terms keep him from ending the war, if it could be ended by such means, and it is said he apprehended serious censure for not having proclaimed such disposition before he assaulted Athlone. He now resolved to use without stint the powers given to him, in the anxious hope of thereby averting the necessity of trying to succeed where William himself had failed-beneath the unconquered walls of Limerick. Accordingly, a proclamation was issued by Ginckle, offering a full and free pardon of all "treasons" (so-called-meaning thereby loyalty to the king, and resistance of the foreign emissaries), with restoration for all to their estates "forfeited" by such "treason," and employment in his majesty's service for all who would accept it, if the Irish army would abandon the war. * M'Gee. It is not to be wondered at that this proclamation developed on the instant a "peace party " within the Irish lines. Not even the most sanguine could now hope to snatch the crown from William's head, and replace it on that of the fugitive James. For what object, therefore, if not simply to secure honorable terms, should they prolong the struggle? And did not this proclamation afford a fair and reasonable basis for negotiation? The Anglo-Irish Catholic nobles and gentry, whose estates were thus offered to be secured to them, may well be pardoned, if they exhibited weakness at this stage. To battle further was, in their judgment, to peril all for a shadow. Nevertheless, the national party, led by Sarsfield, prevailed, and Ginckle's summons to surrender was courteously but firmly refused. Once more glorious Limerick was to brave the fiery ordeal. Sixty guns, none of less than twelve pounds calibre, opened their deadly fire against it. An English fleet ascended the river, hurling its missiles right and left. Bombardment by land and water showered destruction upon the city-in vain! Ginckle now gave up all hope of reducing the place by assault, and resolved to turn the siege into a blockade. Starvation must, in time, effect what fire and sword had so often and so vainly tried to accomplish. The treason of an Anglo-Irish officer long suspected, Luttrell, betrayed to Ginckle the pass over the Shannon above the city; and one morning the Irish, to their horror, beheld the foe upon the Clare side of the river. Ginckle again offered to grant almost any terms, if the city would but capitulate; for even still he judged it rather a forlorn chance to await its capture. The announcement of this offer placed further resistance out of the question. It was plain there was a party within the walls so impressed with the madness of refusing such terms, that, any moment, they might, of themselves, attempt to hand over the city. Accordingly, on the 23rd September (1691)—after a day of bloody struggle from early dawn-the Irish gave the signal for a parley, and a cessation of arms took place. Favorable as were the terms offered, and even though Sarsfield now assented to accepting them, the news that the struggle was to be ended, was received by the soldiers and citizens with loud and bitter grief. They ran to the ramparts, from which they so often had hurled the foe, and broke their swords in pieces. "Muskets that had scattered fire and death amidst the British grenadiers, were broken in a frenzy of desperation, and the tough shafts of pikes that had resisted William's choicest cavalry, crashed across the knees of maddened rapparees." The citizens, too, ran to the walls, with the arms they had treasured proudly as mementoes of the last year's glorious struggle, and shivered them into fragments, exclaiming with husky voices : "We need them no longer. Ireland is no more!" On the 26th September the negotiations were opened, hostages were exchanged, and Sarsfield and Major-General Wauchop dined with Ginckle in the English camp. The terms of capitulation were settled soon after; but the Irish, happily -resolved to leave no pretext for subsequent repudiation of Ginckle's treaty, even though he showed them his formal powers-demanded that the lords justices should come down from Dublin to ratify the articles. This was done; and on the 3rd of October, 1691, the several contracting parties met in full state at a spot on the Clare side of the river, to sign and exchange the treaty. That memorable spot is marked by a large stone, which remains to this day, proudly guarded and preserved by the people of that city, for whom it is a monument more glorious than the Titan arch for Rome. The visitor who seeks it on the Shannon side, needs but to name the object of his search, when a hundred eager volunteers, their faces all radiant with pride, will point him out that memorial of Irish honor and heroism, that silent witness of English troth-punica fides—the “Treaty Stone of Limerick.” The treaty consisted of military articles, or clauses, twentynine in number; and civil articles, thirteen. Set out in all the formal and precise language of the original document, those forty-two articles would occupy a great space. They were substantially as follows: The military articles provided that all persons willing to expatriate themselves, as well officers and soldiers, as rapparees and volunteers, should have free liberty to do so, to any place beyond seas, except England and Scotland; that they might depart in whole bodies, |