Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/220

Derry and Limerick On the 17th of March King James landed at Kinsale accompanied by De Rosen and some 400 French officers and gunners, bringing 500,000 crowns, and arms and ammunition for 10,000 men. About the same time the first instalment of assistance from William reached Derry: 8,000 stand of arms, 480 barrels of powder, £595, and a commission to Lundy as Governor. Next day the mask was entirely thrown off, and William and Mary were proclaimed in the City. In the beginning of April the Irish army passed the Bann, and the Protestants from all sides fell back on Derry "as their last refuge."

The Derry of 1689 was a walled city, oblong in shape, about a mile in circumference, standing upon the northern face of a peninsula formed on the left bank of the Foyle by a bend in the river, which enters the Lough some four miles: lower down. There was then no bridge over the river at Derry, where it is very deep and in some parts 350 yards wide. The city is built on a hill sloping up from the water's edge to a height of 119 feet, on which the cathedral stands. There were four entrances: Ferryquay Gate on the east, Shipquay Gate on the north, Butcher's Gate on the west, and Bishop's Gate on the south. The walls, which were thick and defended by several bastions, varied in height from twenty-four to 208