Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/107

 An English list spells the names of the regiments thus:— Lord Galloway’s, Mormon’s, Martoon’s, Lamellioneer’s, and Belcastle’s.

Hiberniae Notitia calls them Gallway’s, Moliniere’s, Lifford’s, Bellcastle’s, and Miremont’s.

In 1689, died at Dundalk, Monsieur Bonel, son of Fresné-Cantbrun of Caen, by his wife, a daughter of Secretary Cognart In 1690, at the siege of Limerick, the first sortie was repulsed, but it left the Marquis de Cagny mortally wounded; his name was Gedeon-Mesnage, and he was the son of Louis, Sieur dc Cagny, and Marie de Barberie de Saint-Contest; he had married a daughter of a distinguished physician, Francois de Mouginot, and had been, with his father-in-law, imprisoned for two years in the Bastile and in the Castle of Angers; in 1688 he was banished, and he retired to Holland; he died with great constancy and resignation, having often said that he had no wish to survive the Duke of Schomberg; the Marquis de Cagny’s death was deeply regretted by the whole army. At the last assault on Limerick in 1690, Monsieur Martel, grandson of the Baron de Saint-Just, was killed just as he had entered the breach and was shouting Ville gagnée; at the same time were wounded Colonel Belcastel, and Messrs. Bruneval and La Motte Fremontier: the French infantry officers were in the van, and commanded by the Sieur de la Barbé; the English grenadiers were commanded by Le Bourgay, who was taken prisoner. At the same siege was killed Lieutenant Maurice de Vignolles of Belcastel’s, a grandson of Vignolles de Montredon and Claude de Belcastel, his wife.

Old Schomberg wrote from Dundalk, 12th October 1689: “When we arrived [in Ireland], I had not more than 6000 men, no equipages, and the officers of the army not one horse. I was happy that the troops found horses to buy; these did not answer our necessities. Among those who took some horses there are Frenchmen; and, I believe, people are very glad in the letters that they write from hence to lay the blame upon them. I do not take a side either way. Others can inform Your Majesty that the three regiments of French infantry, and their regiment of cavalry, do their duty better than the others.”

Two hundred and fifty Papists had contrived to enrol themselves in those regiments; but a conspiracy having been discovered at Dundalk to promote desertion, they were detected and cashiered. Their ringleader, Captain Du Plessis, and five of the traitors, were tried and executed. The rest were sent prisoners to England, and transported thence to Holland, where they were set at liberty.

It was not from dread of Popery in disguise that the refugee officers were unpopular with some politicians, for the good haters of Protestant strangers were ardent lovers of foreigners, if they were Romanists and Anti-Williamites. It was the French refugees’ honest and immutable attachment to King William that led to the ultimately successful proposal to disband their regiments. And a new stroke of vindictiveness was attempted in 1701 by the Earl of Rochester, the Semi-Jacobite Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland:—

“That which gave the greatest disgust in his administration there,” says Burnet, “was his usage of the reduced officers who were on half-pay, a fund being settled for that by Act of Parliament, and they being ordered to live in Ireland, and to be ready for service there. The Earl of Rochester called them before him, and required them to express under their hands their readiness to go and serve in the West Indies. They did not comply with this; so he set them a day for their final answer, and threatened that they should have no more appointments if they stood out beyond that time. This was represented to the King as a great hardship put on them, and as done on design to leave Ireland destitute of the service that might be done by so many gallant officers, who were all known to be well affected to the present government So the king ordered a stop to be put to it.” (II. 291).

These officers did afterwards tender their services for an expedition to the West Indies to be commanded by the Earl of Peterborough. Some progress had been made in organising a regiment before the withdrawal of that Earl’s commission.

The best account of the granting and withdrawing of Lord Peterborough’s commission to command an expedition to the West Indies may be found in John Locke’s Correspondence. My authority for stating that Huguenot refugee soldiers offered their services to his Lordship, is the following paragraph in a pamphlet, entitled, “The Lawfulness, Glory, and Advantage of giving immediate and effectual relief to the Protestants in the Cevennes”:—

“If Her Majesty can spare none of Her English Forces, there are above 300 French Protestant officers, near half of which are natives of Languedoc, in Her Majesty’s half-pay upon the Irish establishment, who are weary of being idle whilst others are employed abroad in the service of Her Majesty and the nation: and who, if they were encouraged, would undertake