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Derry and Limerick countermanded, and ordered anew. He even thought of blockading the river with a small squadron and retiring to winter quarters. When his main battery on the north-east of the town, near the island, was finished, nearly sixty guns opened together upon the city—the hottest bombardment Limerick had ever sustained.

By the 9th of September a great breach was made in the wall within King's Island, between the Abbey and Ball's Bridge. But stormers should advance under fire 200 paces from behind their battery to the river, ford it, and then cover nearly 400 paces more before gaining its foot. So this undertaking was abandoned.

Ginkel had heard rumours of a French expedition and now prepared to pass into Clare, a movement which did not apparently promise any greater success. His engineers examined the river for miles in search of a suitable crossing-place. At last one was found at St. Thomas's Island, two miles above the town, and he tried a repetition of the tactics that had worsted St. Ruth at Athlone. Most of the guns were drawn off from the batteries, but at midnight on the 15th of September the layings of the pontoons began. Brigadier Clifford, commanding the Jacobite cavalry on the Clare side, was warned that the enemy were at work; but before he 240