Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/273

Sarsfield letter in the State Papers under date November 30th, 1680, "killed eight hundred foot and one hundred and twenty-five horse." In any case the more important element of this success is certain. He took Sligo; and as one of Schomberg's officers writes on December 18th, "By the loss of Sligo we have lost the means of providing for more than half our cavalry." Three months later (March 2ist, 16090), another correspondent expresses his assurance that measures will be taken for recovering Sligo, "it being of great importance, the reducing of almost four counties depending wholly upon it." But Sligo was not retaken, and the whole of Connaught was held for King James.

This is the first of the only two successes personally and solely attributable to Sarsfield. We have no word of him for months after this till we find him at the Boyne. In that ill-matched encounter, where James's troops, outnumbered and unprovided, did no more, but certainly no less, than was to be looked for, Sarsfield had no active part. William began by a movement of his right, sending some six thousand men who crossed the Boyne from its northern bank at Slane where the ford was defended only by a body of eight hundred dragoons. As tidings of this came to headquarters, James and his 261