Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/50

36 and early in the morning James, not deeming himself safe, took leave of the mayor, aldermen, and officers of his army, upbraiding the Irish with their cowardice in having deserted him almost without a blow, and vowing that he would never trust to an Irish army again. The Irish returned the compliment, and declared that, if the English would exchange kings, they were ready to fight again, and to conquer too. If any man had ever caused his own misfortune and defeat, it was James; but he never took the means to avoid discomfiture, and he never saw, or, at least, seemed to see, that the blame lay with himself. Without, therefore, making another effort, though he had a large army still on foot, and all the south of Ireland to employ it in, he continued his flight towards Waterford, in terror all the way lest he should be overtaken by William's cavalry, and, reaching Waterford on the third day, he got away by water, without loss of time, to Kinsale, whence he sailed for France, quitting Ireland at the spot where he had entered it.

It might have been expected that Tyrconnel and Lauzun would yet rally their forces at Dublin, and make a resolute stand there. But the decisive defeat of the Boyne, the untrustworthiness of the Irish infantry, the loss on the field amounting to upwards of one thousand five hundred, and those chiefly cavalry, the desertion of vast numbers of infantry on the road southward, and the precipitate flight of James, discouraged them. Towards evening of the same day that James left, Tyrconnel and Lauzun mustered their forces and marched out of the city, determining to make their stand on the Shannon, within the strong defences of Athlone and Limerick. No sooner had they evacuated the city than the protestants issued from their retreats, liberated all the prisoners, and sent off messengers to invite William to enter his new capital in triumph.

William had lost only about five hundred men in this most important battle; the next day Drogheda had opened its gates, and on receiving the message of the people of Dublin announcing the flight of James and his army, he dispatched the duke of Ormond with nine troops of horse to occupy Dublin till his arrival. He then put his army in motion, and on the 8th of June entered that capital in triumph. He came enriched by the capture of nearly all the luggage and stores of the defeated army, the Enniskilleners alone having taken the baggage and equipage of Tyrconnel and Lauzun, including ten thousand pounds in money, a great quantity of plate and jewels, and three hundred cars laden with stores or ammunition.

The exultation of the protestants in Dublin was beyond all control. At length they had become rid of their spoilers in a manner which promised that it would be permanent. To them and to William alike came the joyful tidings that James had not only fled from the conqueror, but had quitted the island altogether. Before him the news of William's death had spread terror through Holland and Germany, and exultation through France. With him came the startling assurance of the contrary fortune, that William was alive and victorious, his banner waving from the castle of Dublin, and James a fugitive once more at St. Germains, cursed and despised by the army and the people that he had so miserably abandoned. The people of Paris had rushed into a premature illumination, with firing of cannon, feasting, and wine flowing freely in the streets. William had been burnt in effigy, and the protestants had their shops ransacked by the rabble, before the true intelligence arrived, and swamped their joy. The infamous Melfort wrote to James's queen, saying that Herod and the devil of Luny were dead, and that now they must have a signal vengeance on England. He rioted in imagination on the repeal of the habeas corpus act, the suppression of the power of the commons, and the extermination of all those who had been concerned in the revolution without any useless juries, but at the order of the crown and its own appointed judges. In a word, all that James had ever been aiming at was now to be accomplished, and the slavery of England completed. Nothing could exceed the rage of this minister when the news reached Rome—where he was—that the whole was an empty rumour, and that the Austrians had had the audacity to sing a 'Te Deum in St. Stephen's at Vienna for William's victory.

The effect of the news in London, first of Williams wound, then of the total defeat of James's army, may be imagined. To the honour of Mary, she wrote in haste to her husband to entreat that all care should be taken of her father; but James had taken good care of himself. The dispatch from William announcing to his queen and ministers his victory arrived at the moment that parliament was being prorogued, and with the members went into every part of England the rapid news of the great event.

William pitched his camp at Finglass, about two miles from Dublin, and took up his quarters there with his troops. On the 6th of July, however, he went in procession from the castle, attended by his staff, by the principal protestant bishops and clergy, by the mayor and corporation in their robes, and by a vast crowd of citizens, having the crown on his head, to the cathedral of St. Patrick, where he returned thanks to God for his success; and there they entombed the remains of marshal Sohomberg, intending afterwards to convey them to England, which, however, never was done. On the 9th he marched southward with his army in pursuit of the enemy, dispatching Douglas to besiege Athlone, and himself, with the main division, advanced towards Waterford.

William's object in reaching Waterford was to take ship for England—not, like James; to abandon his army out of mere cowardice—but in order to protect England too. He had received news that the French, under Tourville, were hovering on the southern coast of England; that they had again defeated the British fleet under the wretched Torrington, and were meditating invasion of the country. He hastened on; the Irish troops at his approach abandoned Clonmel and Kilkenny. Waterford was similarly evacuated, and William, nominating count Solmes commander-in-chief during his absence, was about to embark, when he received further intelligence. Tourville had made a partial descent at Teignmouth, in Devonshire, sacked it, and then drawn off in consequence of the menacing attitude of the inhabitants of the western counties. He therefore hastened to rejoin his army, which was on the way towards Limerick, where Douglas had found such resistance that he had been compelled to raise the siege. On the 9th of August he sate down before that town, and found the Irish determined to make a resolute defence of it.