1

the second day of December, when it surrendered on honourable conditions.

VII. This summer produced nothing of importance on the Rhine. The French endeavoured to surprise Mentz, by maintaining a correspondence with one of the emperor's commissioners; but this being discovered, their design was frustrated. The Imperial army, under the elector of Saxony, passed the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Manheim; and the French, crossing the same river at Philipsburgh, reduced the town of Portzheim in the marquisate of Baden Dourlach. The execution of the scheme, projected by the emperor for this campaign, was prevented by the death of his general, the elector of Saxony, which happened on the second day of September. His affairs wore a more favourable aspect in Hungary, where the Turks were totally defeated by prince Lewis of Baden on the banks of the Danube. The Imperialists afterwards undertook the siege of Great Waradin in Transylvania; but this was turned into a blockade, and the place was not surrendered till the following spring. The Turks were so dispirited by the defeat by which they had lost the grand visir, that the emperor might have made peace upon very advantageous terms; but his pride and ambition overshot his success. He was weak, vain, and superstitious; he imagined that now the war of Ireland was almost extinguished, king William, with the rest of his allies, would be able to humble the French power, though he himself should not cooperate with heretics, whom he abhorred; and that in the mean time, he should not only make an entire conquest of Transylvania, but also carry his victorious arms to the gates of Constantinople, according to some ridiculous prophecy by which his vanity had been flattered. The Spanish government was become so feeble, that the ministry, rather than be at the expense of defending the Netherlands, offered to deliver the whole country to king William, either as monarch of England, or stadtholder of the United Provinces. He declined this offer, because he knew the people would never be reconciled to a protestant government; but he proposed that the Spaniards should confer the administration of Flanders upon the elector of Bavaria, who was ambitious of signalizing his courage, and able to defend

This pro

the country with his own troops and treasure. posal was relished by the court of Spain: the emperor imparted it to the elector, who accepted the office without hesitation; and he was immediately declared governor of the Low Countries by the council of state at Madrid. King William, after his return from the army, continued some time at the Hague, settling the operations of the ensuing campaign. That affair being discussed, he embarked in the Maese, and landed in England on the nineteenth day of October.

VIII. Before we explain the proceedings in parliament, it will be necessary to give a detail of the late transactions in Ireland. In the beginning of the season, the French king had sent a large supply of provisions, clothes, and ammunition for the use of the Irish at Limerick, under the conduct of monsieur St. Ruth, accompanied by a great number of French officers furnished with commissions from king James, though St. Ruth issued all his orders in the name of Lewis. Tyrconnel had arrived in January, with three frigates and nine vessels, laden with succours of the same nature; otherwise the Irish could not have been so long kept together. Nor, indeed could these supplies prevent them from forming separate and independent bands of rapparees, who plundered the country, and committed the most shocking barbarities. The lords justices, in conjunction with general Ginckel, had taken every step their prudence could suggest, to quiet the disturbances of the country, and prevent such violence and rapine, of which the soldiers in king William's army were not entirely innocent. The justices had issued proclamations denouncing severe penalties against those who should countenance or conceal such acts of cruelty and oppression; they promised to protect all papists who should live quietly within a certain frontier line and Ginckel gave the catholic rebels to understand, that he was authorized to treat with them, if they were inclined to return to their duty. Before the armies took the field, several skirmishes had been fought between parties; and these had always turned out so unfortunate to the enemy, that their spirits were quite depressed, while the confidence of the English rose in the same proportion.

IX. St. Ruth and Tyrconnel were joined by the rapparees, and general Ginckel was reinforced by Mackay, with those troops which had reduced the Highlanders in Scotland. Thus strengthened, he, in the beginning of June, marched from Mullingar to Ballymore, which was garrisoned by a thousand men under colonel Bourke, who, when summoned to surrender, returned an evasive answer. But, when a breach was made in the place, and the besiegers began to make preparations for a general assault, his men laid down their arms, and submitted at discretion. The fortifications of this place being repaired and augmented, the general left a garrison for its defence, and advanced to Athlone, situated on the other side of the Shannon, and supported by the Irish army, encamped almost under its walls. The English town, on the hither side of the river, was taken sword in hand, and the enemy broke down an arch of the bridge in their retreat. Batteries were raised against the Irish town, and several unsuccessful attempts were made to force the passage of the bridge, which was defended with great vigour. At length, it was resolved, in the council of war, that a detachment should pass at a ford a little to the left of the bridge, though the river was deep and rapid, the bottom foul and stony, and the pass guarded by a ravelin, erected for that purpose. The forlorn hope consisted of sixty grenadiers in armour, headed by captain Sands and two lieutenants. They were seconded by another detachment, and this was supported by six battalions of infantry. Never was a more desperate service, nor was ever exploit performed with more valour and intrepidity. They passed twenty a breast, in the face of the enemy, through an incessant shower of balls, bullets, and grenades. Those who followed them took possession of the bridge, and laid planks over the broken arch. Pontoons were fixed at the same time, that the troops might pass in different places. The Irish were amazed, confounded, and abandoned the town in the utmost consternation; so that, in half an hour, it was wholly secured by the English, who did not lose above fifty men in the attack. Mackay, Tetteau, and Ptolemache, exhibited proofs of the most undaunted courage in passing the river: and general Ginckel, for his conduct,

intrepidity, and success, on this occasion, was created earl of Athlone. When St. Ruth was informed, by express, that the English had entered the river, he said, it was impossible they should pretend to take a town which he covered with his army, and that he would give a thousand pistoles if they would attempt to force a passage. Sarsfield insisted upon the truth of the intelligence, and pressed him to send succours to the town: he ridiculed this officer's fears, and some warm expostulation passed between them. Being at length convinced that the English were in possession of the place, he ordered some detachments to drive them out again: but the cannon of their own works being turned against them, they found the task impracticable, and that very night their army decamped. St. Ruth after a march of ten miles, took post at Aghrim, and having, by drafts from garrisons, augmented his army to five and twenty thousand men, resolved to hazard a decisive engagement.

X. Ginckel having put Athlone in a posture of defence, passed the Shannon, and marched up to the enemy, determined to give them battle; though his forces did not exceed eighteen thousand, and the Irish were posted in a very advantageous situation. St. Ruth had made an admirable disposition, and taken every precaution that military skill could suggest. His centre extended along a rising ground, uneven in many places, intersected with banks and ditches, joined by lines of communication, and fronted by a large bog almost impassable. His right was fortified with intrenchments, and his left secured by the castle of Aghrim. He harangued his army in the most pathetic strain, conjuring them to exert their courage in defence of their holy religion, in the extirpation of heresy, in recovering their ancient honours and estates, and in restoring a pious king to the throne, from whence he had been expelled by an unnatural usurper. He employed the priests to enforce his exhortations; to assure the men that they might depend upon the prayers of the church: and that in case they should fall in battle, the saints and angels would convey their souls to heaven. They are said to have sworn upon the secrament that they would not desert their colours, and to have received an order that no quarter should be

given to the French heretics in the army of the prince of Orange. Ginckel had encamped on the Roscommon side of the river Sue, within three miles of the enemy; after having reconnoitred their posture, he resolved, with the advice of a council of war, to attack them on Sunday the twelfth day of July. The necessary orders being given, the army passed the river at two fords and a stone bridge, and, advancing to the edge of the great bog, began about twelve o'clock to force the two passages, in order to possess the ground on the other side. The enemy fought with surprising fury, and the horse were several times repulsed; but, at length, the troops upon the right carried their point by means of some field pieces. The day was now so far advanced, that the general determined to postpone the battle till next morning; but perceiving some disorder among the enemy, and fearing they would decamp in the night, he altered his resolution, and ordered the attack to be renewed. At six o'clock in the evening the left wing of the English advanced to the right of the Irish, from whom they met with such a warm and obstinate reception, that it was not without the most surprising efforts of courage and perseverance that they at length obliged them to give ground; and even then they lost it by inches. St. Ruth, seeing them in danger of being overpowered, immediately detached succours to them from his centre and left wing. Mackay no sooner perceived them weakened by these detachments, than he ordered three battalions to skirt the bog, and attack them on the left, while the centre advanced through the middle of the morass, the men wading up to the waist in mud and water. After they had reached the other side, they found themselves obliged to ascend a rugged hill, fenced with hedges and ditches; and these were lined with musketeers, supported at proper intervals with squadrons of cavalry. They made such a desperate resistance, and fought with such impetuosity, that the assailants were repulsed into the middle of the bog with great loss, and St. Ruth exclaimed-" Now will I drive the English "to the gates of Dublin." In this critical conjuncture Ptolemache came up with a fresh body to sustain them, rallied the broken troops, and renewed the charge with such vigour, that the Irish gave way in their turn, and the