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Sarsfield ceased, and the work of fortification was hotly pushed on. Yet the ill-feeling was in no way subdued, and before William had reached the left bank of the Shannon, Lauzun with all his French marched up the right bank to Galway, whither Tyrconnell followed them, on the evening after William's appearance—drawing off as he went all the regiments that were guarding the fords. Under these circumstances the Irish were to fight for their own hand. Boisseleau, a French officer, who was left as governor of the town, and the Duke of Berwick, then a youth of twenty, showed however a different spirit, and put down sharply those of the "New Interest" who still upheld Tyrconnell's policy of surrender.

Sarsfield's actual part in the siege is difficult to determine. But accounts agree in making him more than any man responsible for the decision to defend the place, and for the spirit in the troops which justified that decision. And, above all, the brilliant feat of arms which in the first days checked the besiegers and heartened the besieged was his, both in conception and execution. William secured without trouble one of the fords which Tyrconnell had left undefended. But the town defied him from behind its walls; and, led by his knowledge of Tyrconnell's vacillations to hope that his appearance might deter- 265