doning them to certain pillage and destruction. The little property they made an effort to take with them soon became the prey of the Protestant protectors they had wished for so anxiously, and relied upon so much. The Limerick refugees had not proceeded far, when they were as naked and bereft of food, clothing, and property of every kind, as the devoted people of Athlone had long been.

A retreating army is seldom merciful; but William's, even in their seasons of success, had been a dreadful scourge. Now their ferocity knew no bounds. The king had quitted the army immediately on its breaking up from Limerick; and this fierce and almost disorganised military rabble of all nations, threw themselves upon the country with a rage of spoliation hardly ever surpassed. The people fled in all directions; but the unhappy Protestants of Limerick and Athlone could not fly; they could not escape from the dreadful usage to which they were every moment exposed, and which made them more than martyrs for their faith.

The king was probably tired of his army and of his ill success; and, to escape from both, he set out from Limerick, accompanied by the Prince of Denmark, the Duke of Ormond, and other men of rank, and travelled, with the utmost rapidity, by Clonmel and Waterford, to England. Before embarking at Waterford, he appointed

Lord Sidney, Sir Charles Porter, and Mr. Coningsby, to be lords justices of Ireland, and Count Solmes to be commander-in-chief of the army.

The king had spent three months in Ireland; and, like Cromwell, he had become impatient and apprehensive of the difficulties of an Irish war. Though he had not succeeded before Limerick, he had not suffered so severely before that city as Cromwell had done before Clonmel. Cromwell took Clonmel, but he lost more than half his army. William failed at Limerick, but his loss did not much exceed three thousand men. Both quitted the kingdom after those unlucky sieges, and never after returned. were fully impressed with the conviction that no war against the Irish could be successful, unless that people could be broken by faction and division. Cromwell accordingly laboured that point with the energy and success for which he was so remarkable. He subdued the kingdom by intrigue, and hardly ventured to direct any military operation after his return to England.

Both

Cromwell fought no battle in Ireland. Far from seeking one, he carefully avoided any decisive combat. William's necessities compelled him to fight; and, though successful at the Boyne, it was such a victory as, coupled with the sieges of Limerick and Athlone, had nearly destroyed his army.

The result of the campaign was far from being

unfavourable to the Irish. The two severe defeats which William had sustained at Limerick and Athlone more than balanced his success at the Boyne; and the loss of men and materiel which he had sustained was infinitely greater than any thing which had befallen the Irish army. His chief advantage, and it was a great one, was his possession of Dublin: he who is master of the capital being always in some sort the sovereign of the country. William had nearly copied Cromwell's plan of military operations in Ireland; he now sought to imitate his successful system of intrigue. The materials he had to work upon were not quite so good, though by no means unfavourable. Cromwell had the advantage of the incurable and intricate dissensions of the confederates, and the jealousies of the old Irish and Anglo-Irish. In place of these, William had the disgusts and contentions existing between the Irish and French. 5 and ultimately these answered the purpose.

When the British army had reached Callan, on their march from Limerick, some pay, which had been long in arrear, was distributed to them; and the ill humour of the soldiers being thus somewhat appeased, the army broke up for winter-quarters. General Kirk, with seven regiments of foot, and three of cavalry, took the road to Birr. Scravenmore and Tetteau, with twelve hundred horse, and two regiments of Danish foot,

marched for Mallow, on their way to Cork. The remainder of the army was distributed in Cashel, Clonmel, Waterford, and Carlow. After this dispersion, Count Solmes went to Dublin, and shortly afterwards proceeded to England; and the chief command of the army in Ireland devolved upon General Ginckle, who fixed his headquarters at Kilkenny.

Solmes and Ginckle were both Dutchmen; for William had no confidence in his British officers, and entrusted them with no important command. He showed distrust and jealousy of Marlborough, and with some cause. William was too able a proficient in his art of war, not to discern Marlborough's talent; and he was too good a judge of human nature to trust a man, who, on the first change of fortune, had deserted a prince, who, whatever were his errors, was his friend and benefactor, for a stranger and a foreigner.

About the middle of September the new lords justices arrived in Dublin, and were received with great joy by the citizens, who had been greatly displeased by the coldness, and almost contempt, with which William had treated their overflowing loyalty and protestantism. The justices found the city in great disorder. Their first attention was directed to settle the militia of the town upon a good footing, as some check upon the violent proceedings of a foreign soldiery. Having done this, a proclamation was

issued, ordering, "that country people bringing provisions to market should be protected." William's troops had acted invariably since their arrival in Ireland as in an enemy's country, and could never be made to comprehend the distinction between Papists and Protestants: they robbed all alike, but the Protestants suffered most, being most in contact with them.

The city was now almost in a state of famine, owing to the depredations committed by the soldiers on such of the country people as ventured to bring in provisions. Another proclamation ordered "all Papists to keep within their own parishes." A third commanded the wives and children of soldiers, and other persons belonging to King James's army, "to remove beyond the Shannon." A fourth forbad all Papists "to dwell within ten miles of the frontier, on any pretence whatsoever."

This series of proclamations exhibits a melancholy condition of society. The effort to check the outrages of the troops led to the most alarming feuds between them and the militia, without producing much effect in letting in a supply of food to the almost starving citizens. To the evil of scarcity was added a state of almost constant disorder, arising out of the quarrels of the troops. The precautions relative to "Papists" were chiefly directed against the "Rapparies, and those who harboured them. The vast in