Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/48

34 coming, but abandoned Dundalk and retreated into Drogheda. His generals, indeed, represented to him that caution and delay were his best policy against so powerful a force, and even recommended that he should retreat beyond Dublin and entrench himself at Athlone, as a more central and defensible position; but James would not listen to this, and Tyrconnel strengthened him in the resolution.

William marched on through a country beautiful in its natural features, but presenting all the dreadful traces of the lawless condition of things under James—houses and outbuildings burnt down, woods destroyed, and fields destitute of man and beast; yet the natural features and fertility of the country were such amid its ruin, that William was heard to say, "It is a country worth fighting for." On the 30th of June, the sixth day of his advance, William reached an eminence early in the morning near Drogheda, and beheld the camp of James posted along the south bank of the Boyne, and his flags and those of the French flying from the walls of that town. William appeared rejoiced at the sight, and exclaimed, "I am glad to see you, gentlemen; if you escape me now, the fault will be mine." He rode forward with a number of his staff to reconnoitre the hostile forces. He found the enemy disposed in two lines, extending from the walls of Drogheda to near the bridge of Slane, two miles off. At a place called Oldbridge—probably from a bridge once having existed there—was yet a ford, which he determined on the morrow to force with his troops. Only part of James's forces were visible from the undulations of the country, and some of his staff remarked that James's army was but small. "It may be larger than it looks," observed William; "but, large or small, I will soon know more about them."

With a degree of incaution remarkable in a man of such cautious habits, on such an important occasion, where the fortunes of the whole kingdom depended on his security, he ordered his followers to lay breakfast on the turf nearly opposite to Oldbridge, and there, with his staff, Schomberg, Solmes, Ormond, Sidney, Coningsby, prince George of Hesse, and others, he coolly sat down to his repast within gunshot of the opposite shore. The circumstance soon attracted the notice of the enemy, and a body of horsemen rode close to the river's brink to reconnoitre. They were so near that William's attendants could recognise amongst them the duke of Berwick, Lauzun, the French general, Tyrconnel, and others. This, which ought to have warned William and his party to remove their banquet to a safer distance, failed to do so, till suddenly, just as they had finished and were mounting, a cannon-shot struck the horse of the prince of Hesse to the ground, and a second, falling short, made a bound, and struck William himself on the shoulder. He fell on the neck of his horse, and the enemy, observing it, raised a loud shout, believing him dead. But William quickly regained his position, bade his attendants, who were now terribly alarmed, to make themselves easy; that no harm was done, but that the bullet had come quite near enough. It was found that it had torn away his coat from the shoulder, and wounded him, but not seriously. His hurt was bandaged on the spot, and William proceeded, as if nothing had happened, to superintend the operations of the field. His troops were brought down to the banks of the river, and a brisk cannonade was commenced betwixt the armies, which continued through the day. What William saw of the conduct of those regiments which had to-day for the first time come under fire, satisfied him. "All is right," he observed; "they stand fire well."

William did not return to his tent till about nine o'clock in the evening, having seen all arrangements made for forcing the river, and engaging the enemy on their own bank in the morning; and notwithstanding his wound, at midnight he rode through the ranks with torches to see that all his orders had been fully executed. Once more Schomberg declared that he was too rash in venturing to engage under such disadvantages of position; but William was not to be dissuaded, a proof that if Schomberg and not William had had to prosecute the war, it would not have been soon over.

The morning of the 1st of July, destined to become a great epoch in Ireland, rose brilliantly, and the opposing armies were in motion by four o'clock. William overnight had given the word Westminster as the recognition sign, and ordered his men, moreover, to wear each a green sprig in his hat, to distinguish them from the enemy, who, out of compliment to France, wore a white cockade, generally of paper. William's disposition of battle was for Meinhart Schomberg, the son of the old general, supported by Portland and Douglas with the Scotch guards, to take the and secure the bridge of Slane. He himself headed the left wing near Drogheda with a strong force of cavalry, and Schomberg the centre, which was opposite Oldbridge, where he was supported by the Blues of Solmes, and the brave Londonderries and Enniskilleners, and on his left the French Huguenots under Caillemot, and betwixt them and William the Danes. Meinhart Schomberg found the bridge of Slane already occupied by Sir Neil O'Neil, with a regiment of Irish Dragoons; but the English charged them briskly, killed O'Neil, and made themselves masters of the bridge. This was a grand advantage at the outset. It enabled the English to attack the right wing of James, and endangered their seizure of the pass of Duleck, a very narrow defile in the hills, about four miles in their rear, by which they would cut off altogether their retreat. Lauzun, who had posted the main strength of the Irish infantry at the foot of Oldbridge, and supported them by Sarsfield's horse, was compelled to dispatch the horse towards Slane Bridge, to guard against this danger, thus weakening his centre.

Nearly at the same moment that this movement took place, William put himself at the head of his cavalry, and with his sword in his left hand, for his right arm was too sore and stiff from his wound to hold it, he dashed into the river and led his wing across. At the same moment Schomberg gave the word, and the centre was in motion. Solmes' Dutch Blues led the way, and their example was instantly followed by the men of Londonderry and Enniskillen, and at their left the Huguenots. The men waded through the stream, holding aloft their muskets and ammunition. The brunt of the encounter was there, for there the enemy had expected the main attack, and had not only concentrated their forces there, horse and foot, but had defended the bank with a breastwork and batteries. The