would show the loss of the Confederates to have been less, concludes thus-"Nothing, however, in this battle, can repaie the loss of so great a man as the Duke of Schomberg, which is too glorious a triumph for our enemies to boast of." Such are the most interesting particulars connected with the battle of Marsaglia, or Orbassan, where the Irish appear to have gained the highest honour which they acquired since their landing in France. In the account given of this engagement by Lord Macaulay-in which he certainly ought not to have been silent respecting the above-recorded circumstances of the death of Charles, Duke of Schonberg, as well from the nature of the circumstances themselves, as from the Duke being the chief officer of the Williamite Huguenot contingent there, and son of the veteran Marshal, who bore such a remarkable share in the events, which secured to William the triple royalty of the British Isles-his Lordship adverts, as follows, to the creditable conduct of the Irish, in Catinat's army: "This battle is memorable as the first of a long series of battles, in which the Irish troops retrieved the honour, lost, by misfortunes, and misconduct, in domestic war. Some of the exiles of Limerick showed, on that day, under the standard of France, a valour, that distinguished them, among many thousands of brave men." But, on several occasions, previous to this famous day, or wherever the Irish were brought into immediate or direct contact with an enemy since their landing on the Continent, it is sufficiently evident, from this work, that they were duly noticed as remarkable for their bravery.

In 1694, the Marshal Duke de Noailles, with 15,000 foot, and 6000 horse, entered Catalonia in May, and, by the 27th, reached the river Ter. It was dangerous to pass in presence of an enemy, from its considerable width, the uncertainty of footing occasioned by its moving sands, and a depth of water up to one's waist. The Spanish army under the Duke of Escalona, variously represented as somewhat less, and as considerably more in number, than the French, but certainly inferior in point of artillery, were posted along the banks, in order to defend the fords, from Verges, on their left, to Montgry, on their right; those fords being well intrenched. The passage was first attempted by Noailles at Montgry, where the Spaniards had three battalions, protected by good works, and supported by 10 squadrons. The assailants were received with a warm fire, accompanied with a loud defiance from drums, trumpets, and hautbois. But, states the Marshal, writing to Louis XIV., the same day— "The Carabiniers, headed by M. de Chazeron, the grenadiers of the army, with the Regiment of the Queen of England's Dragoons, which is an excellent corps that M. de St. Silvestre was desirous to lead as he commanded the infantry, dashed into the water with an extraordinary vigour, and forced the enemy to abandon their retrenchments. An action of greater vigour, or better conducted than on the part of these gentlemen, could not be witnessed." The Spanish infantry there were either slain, or captured, their cavalry put to flight; and, higher up the stream, another party of infantry, stationed at a wood about the Duke of Escalona's quarters to defend the ford of Ouilla, "wishing to make a stand," says a French contemporary, "on the approach of the Dragoons of La Salle, and of the Carabiniers, to whom were joined the Dismounted Dragoons of the Queen of England, was defeated; such as were not killed being made prisoners of war." In this engagement, which, including a pursuit, mixed with cavalry-charges, for 12 miles, lasted from between 3 and 4 in the morning to about 11 o'clock, the French did not lose above 500 men. The

Spaniards admit their loss, in killed and taken, to have been 3000 or 4000 men, though the French make it many more; and, among the spoils of the vanquished, were their tents and baggage, with the Duke of Escalona's equipage and papers, 16, colours, &c. Of officers praised by the Marshal, for having been "several times distinguished" during the day, was Charles O'Brien, 5th Viscount Clare, as "Milord Clare, at the head of a regiment of dragoons," or that of the Queen of England above mentioned. Among the important results of this victory, were the reduction of Palamos, Girona, Ostalric, or Hostalrich, and Castelfollit.

In Italy, the Marshal de Catinat, assembling, in May, 1694, a portion of his army near Pignerol, "despatched, in the mean time," observes my French authority, "8 Irish battalions into the Valley of La Perouse, in '. order to oppose the Vaudois, and to put a stop to their incursions. On arriving there, they killed a great number of those who were taken off their guard; which obliged the Duke of Savoy, who had an interest in protecting them, to send them 600 men of his regular troops, and the Marquis de Parelle to command there." King William's historian, Harris, refers to some "small successes of the Vaudois in the Valley of Pragelas," and "their routing some Irish detachments in the Valley of St. Martin," as not "worthy the reader's notice." On the other hand, according to Mr. O'Conor, between the number of the Alpine mountaineers cut off, and the extent of devastation and pillage committed among them, by the Irish, Catinat's commission was executed with a terrible fidelity; the memory of which "has rendered the Irish name and nation odious to the Vaudois. Six generations," he remarks, “have since passed away, but neither time, nor subsequent calamities, have obliterated the impression made by the waste and desolation of this military incursion."

This year, we, in reference to the Irish of Catinat's army, renew our acquaintance with Brigadier Don Hugh O'Donnell, known on the Continent as Earl of Tyrconnell; so celebrated during the War of the Revolution in Ireland, from the alleged prophecies, and consequent popularity, associated with him as "Ball-dearg," or of the "red mark;" and subsequently still more talked of, as, like another Jacobite Brigadier, Henry Luttrell, having finally passed over to the side of William III., receiving a similar government pension, or 1 of £500 per annum. After the conclusion of the war in Ireland, or in 1692, O'Donnell, having proceeded by Dublin to London, was offered there the command of that body of his countrymen in Ireland, who, not having chosen to accompany the majority of the Jacobite or national army to France, were formed, as Catholics, into a corps for the service of William III.'s Catholic ally, the Emperor Leopold I. of Austria, to be employed against the Turks in Hungary. Desirous, however, of returning to the service of Spain, O'Donnell refused this command; which was, in consequence, conferred upon a nobleman of the most anciently-renowned or Irian race of Uladh or Ulster, Brian Macgennis, Lord Iveagh; who accordingly led those Irish destined for the Imperial service into Germany, and thence into Hungary. O'Donnell, after being detained by illness till 1693 in

These Irish, about 2200 in number, were long delayed in Munster by contrary winds; landed from Cork at Hamburg, early in the summer of 1692; and, being mustered by the Imperial Commissary near Bergersdorf, were marched thence into Hungary; where they suffered so much against the Ottomans, that the remnant had, by November, 1693, to be drafted into other corps of the Imperial army.

London, first went to Flanders, and then into Spain. By the State Papers, abstracted in Thorpe's Catalogue for 1834 of the Southwell MSS., we find the Brigadier, in May, 1694, corresponding, from Madrid, with the English Secretary at War, William Blathwayt, upon, "a design. for forming Irish Regiments in Spain for the service of that state, in order to draw off the malcontents against the government of King William III." The next letter, mentioned as directed to Secretary Blathwayt by O'Donnell, is dated from Turin, in September; the writer noting how, through the assistance given him at the Allied quarters by the Duke of Savoy, and the Spanish Viceroy of the Milanese, he, in order to induce the Jacobite Irish in Catinat's army to desert, had "officers, on all the passes in the neighbourhood of their encampments, to receive 'em, and invite 'em." But, he complains of those Irish corps, how watchful the officers were of their men; as "having no other livelihood but their companies, and no way of recruiting the desertions." As a Brigadier in the service of Charles II. of Spain, and pensioned by William III., as likewise a Brigadier in James II.'s service when abandoning it, O'Donnell, by thus seeking to gain over the Irish from the French, was aiming to be equally useful to his Catholic and Protestant patrons, Charles and William; both members of the same great alliance, or that of the League of Augsburg, against Louis XIV., and James II., as confederated with Louis.

In 1695, the Spaniards attempted, early in the campaign, to recover some of the places lost in 1694, and, among them, Ostalric, or Hostalrich, which was accordingly blocked up. The Marshal Duke de Noailles, being ill himself, ordered Lieutenant-General de St. Silvestre, accompanied by the Honourable Colonel Arthur Dillon, with a portion of the army, including the Irish troops, to relieve the town in May; which was effected, the enemy retiring at the Lieutenant-General's approach. "On his return," writes the Marshal, "the rear-guard was attacked, with an insolent audaciousness, by the miquelets, to the number of about 4000, and by 5 squadrons of cavalry. Dillon commanded it. This Irish Colonel made such a good disposition of the troops, that the enemy, far from being able to break in upon them, was put to flight." Quincy, who describes the rear-guard as "composée de troupes Irlandoises," adds, that the enemy had about 50 men killed, besides a Colonel of Dragoons, and that some, also, were taken prisoners. On the French advance, in July, under the Duke of Vendome, to raise the blockade of Castelfollit, after descending a mountain, "and observing another which the enemies occupied, and which commanded the road to Castelfollit," says the official journal," he sent forward to it Mylord Clare, with the Dismounted Dragoons of the Queen of England, and the grenadiers of the army, who made themselves masters of this height." In August, the Marquis of Gastanaga, Viceroy of Catalonia, with a considerable Spanish force, and a very fine corps of 3000 British and 500 Dutch troops, disembarked by Admiral Russell from his fleet, invested Palamos by land; while the Admiral himself bombarded the town and castle so severely from the sea, that they were, in a manner, demolished; having been set on fire in several places, and continued burning for a whole night. The enemy, however, had finally to retire, without attaining their object, before the Duke of Vendome. "During the siege," observes the contemporary Paris account, "150 Irish threw themselves into the place, where they distinguished themselves by their valour."

On the side of Italy, or Piedmont, the Irish of Catinat's army were still employed against the Vaudois, or Barbets. A French correspondence on this head, dated "Pignerol, January 16th, 1695," states--“ The snows have fallen in these quarters this winter in such great abundance, that, for several years, we have not witnessed a similar quantity. The Barbets have always been repulsed with loss, by the troops, which have been posted in different places. Yesterday, notwithstanding the care that is taken to have good intelligence between the several quarters, 100 Barbets placed themselves in ambush between Villar and Diblon. They, nevertheless, did not venture to attack a convoy of meal proceeding from La Ferouse to Villar; and contented themselves with seizing upon 6 mules, laden with merchandise, that passed 2 hours afterwards, without an escort. But the news of this having been brought to Villar, where the Irish Regiment of Clancarty was quartered, the enemy were pursued so closely, that the booty was recovered, with a loss, to the Barbets, of 7 or 8 killed or wounded, and of 3 prisoners. We destroyed, moreover, 1 of their corps de garde." On another occasion, after mentioning the despatch of a detachment, under a French Captain, from the garrison of Pignerol, and the narrow escape of that officer and his men from 500 of the Barbets, aided by 500 Germans, who burned a large mass of wood provided for the fortress, the same correspondence from "Pignerol, March 6th, 1695," adds-" An Irish officer, who is quartered in the Valley of Pragelas, has made a foray into the mountains of the Barbets, where he has burned many houses, made some prisoners, and brought away a quantity of cattle." In treating of this mountain-war, Mr. O'Conor naturally expatiates on the vigour of his countrymen, at "the pursuit of the Vaudois, in the unknown and lonely defiles of the Alpine hills, where deep chasms, and narrow pathways, fit only to afford a footing to the chamois, and the wild-goat, led to the retreats of brave and desperate men; where every rock afforded cover for a deadly aim; where the repercussion and echo of distant discharges of musquetry from concealed enemies magnified their numbers; where deep caverns and hollows, concealed by treacherous snows or frail glaciers, swallowed the unwary adventurers in fathomless abysses." In such perilous service, "they displayed their wonted bravery, agility, perseverance, and endurance of privations. They scaled the highest rocks, plunged into the mountain streams, evaded the avalanches of stones and trees which the Vaudois rolled down, beat them from their intrenchments, pursued them into the wildest recesses, and carried terror and dismay into the heart of the mountains; plundered, pillaged, destroyed, and burned what they could not carry off, and returned to the camp, driving before them herds and flocks, the only wealth of the foe." The intelligence from "Piguerol, October 16th, 1695," after a remark, of the campaign having been, to all appearance, over, and the enemy only thinking of getting into winterquarters, gives this anecdote, as the most interesting exception to that state of things. "The 12th of this month, 6 Irish soldiers, and 1 of the Regiment of Bearn, crossed the Cluson, without arms, to go in quest of some forage. They were surprised by an equal number of Barbets, well armed, under a Captain, who made them prisoners, and conducted them to the top of a mountain, in order to strip them of their clothes. For this purpose, they laid down their arms; but the Irish giving the word in their language, each seized upon 1 of them, the soldier of the Regiment of Bearn killed 2 of them; and the 6 Irish soldiers treated, in like

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manner, the Captain, and the rest, except 1, who asked for quarter, and whom they conducted to the camp at Diblon; where the Marshal de Catinat caused some money to be distributed among them."

On February 19th, this year, Brigadier Don Hugh O'Donnell addressed, from Turin, to William III., a letter, described, in Thorpe's Catalogue, as "long and interesting," with respect to the enlistment of Irish fugitives on the side of the Allies, or that of the League of Augsburg; such refugees to be employed in Catalonia, where William's confederates in that League, the Spaniards, were so pressed by the French. During this campaign, O'Donnell, who, since 1693, had served as a volunteer, obtained a regiment of foot-how far through desertions from Irish in the French army, or from other sources, I cannot say—which regiment he carried into Catalonia, and continued there to the conclusion of the war by the fall of Barcelona, where he was present. Having, by this time, recovered the favour he had lost at the Court of Madrid, by leaving its army, in order to espouse the cause of King James in Ireland, O'Donnell, soon after, became a Major-General in Spain, and is mentioned, in that rank, with its forces in Flanders, in August, 1701.* His Williamite pension of £500 per annum was still payable in 1703, or the reign of William's successor, Queen Anne. It is the 6th on the list of those Irish pensions, to the yearly amount of £17,634, 178. 0d., voted unnecessary by the colonial Parliament in Dublin, under the Lord Lieutenancy of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde. But, of the general representation based upon this vote, a contemporary English historian says, that it, "when it was perfected, and presented to his Grace, met with a cold reception;" Mr. Secretary Southwell merely informing the House, "that the Lord Lieutenant would take such care of it, as might most conduce to the service of the nation." How much longer O'Donnell's pension continued to be paid, and consequently when he died, I have not discovered.

The earliest enterprise of the campaign of 1696 was one for the "restoration" of King James in England, with the aid of a French veteran force of about 16,000 men, under the Marquis d'Harcourt as CaptainGeneral, and the gallant Richard Hamilton of the War of the Revolution in Ireland, as Lieutenant-General. "King James," writes the Duke of Berwick, "had privately concerted a rising in England, to which he had sent over a number of officers. His friends there had found means to raise 2000 horse well-equipped, and even regimented, ready to take the field at the earliest notice. Many persons of the first distinction were also engaged in the affair. But all had unanimously resolved, not to throw off the mask, until a body of troops should have first landed in the island. The Most Christian King," Louis XIV., "had readily consented to supply these; but he insisted, that, before they should be embarked, the English should take up arms; as he was not willing to risk his troops, without being sure of finding there a party to receive them. Neither side being desirous of relaxing from what it had resolved upon, such fair dispositions could not lead to any thing; which determined the King of England to send me over, as his envoy on the spot, to endeavour to convince the English of the sincerity of the intentions of the Court of France,

So far our information respecting O'Donnell is brought down by Dr. O'Donovan, in his learned papers, entitled "The O'Donnells in Exile;" but without being aware of the correspondence, from the Continent, of O'Donnell with the Williamite government, mentioned in Thorpe's Catalogue.