duty with sighs and tears. But the hearts even of these sufferers fainted not; the dying collected their last breath, to exhort the garrison to persevere in their heroic resistance; the women and children besought the soldiers on the walls to disregard their sufferings, and remain true to their cause; all conjured their brethren to revenge their wrongs, by baffling an enemy that was capable of such barbarities. The irritated garrison determined, as a retaliation, to hang up all the prisoners they had taken in their several sallies; and for this purpose, erected a gallows in sight of the enemy's camp. Among these were several very popular leaders; and the Irish army was on the point of mutiny, while Rosen still continued unmoved; but Hamilton and the other leaders had, in the mean time, communicated the circumstances to James, and obtained from him a positive order that the multitude should be allowed to return uninjured to their own homes.* The garrison took advantage of this opportunity to send out some of the most helpless citizens, receiving a reinforcement of the young and active in their stead; so that Rosen's cruelty eventually tended to their advantage.

Kirke was at length stimulated to make some exertions for the relief of Derry, on learning the general indignation that his conduct had caused in England, and that the garrison was about to yield at last to the enemy. He therefore despatched two victuallers, under the convoy of the Dartmouth frigate, to force the passage, which he might easily have effected seven weeks before. No pen can describe the excitement which prevailed in the town and the camp, when the approach of these vessels was discovered. The citizens rushed to the walls; the

* Tradition asserts, that Rosen would have disobeyed this order but for the fear of mutiny occasioned by the threat of hanging the prisoners; and that Hamilton was so pleased with the conduct of the governor on the occasion, that he sent him a present of provisions, and a letter commending his spirit.

Irish manned their batteries. As the ships approached the boom which the besiegers had placed across the entrance, the frigate shortened sail, and the transports proceeded alone. Heedless of the fire of the batteries, the larger of the victuallers steered with full force against the boom and broke it, but was driven ashore by the violence of the shock. It was a moment of intense anxiety. The besiegers rushed to seize the vessel; but before they could reach her she was forced off by the rebound of her own guns, and floated majestically into the harbour.

Thus ended the siege of Derry. More than half of the garrison perished by famine or disease; and the survivors were so worn by suffering, that they could scarcely be recognised. The Irish army broke up the siege and retired. The men of Derry had the courage, or rather the rashness, to sally out and attack their rear, for which they were punished by a severe defeat.

During the siege of Derry, the royal army had been greatly embarrassed by the Enniskilleners, who frequently surprised their outposts and intercepted their convoys. Lord Galway being sent to reduce them, laid siege to their frontier garrison, Crom Castle on Lough Erne. As he was prevented by the difficulties of the ground from bringing up his artillery, he was forced to have recourse to stratagem. He procured two mock cannons made of tin, which he ostentatiously placed in a battering condition, and then summoned the garrison to surrender. They not only sent him a spirited defiance, but, sallying out, drove the besiegers from their trenches, and routed them with great slaughter. The tin cannon were exhibited as trophies of their success, and long continued to furnish the Enniskilleners with a theme of boastful merriment. Kirke supplied these insurgents with arms; and their numbers soon becoming formidable, James determined to overwhelm them with three armies. The Duke of Berwick marched

against them from the north; Sarsfield advanced from Connaught with troops lately levied; and General Macarthy, who had completely subdued Inchiquin in Munster, now hasted to overwhelm the Enniskilleners. Ignorance of their danger saved them from ruin; they knew only of the motions of the Connaught army, and against this body they marched with great intrepidity. They surprised Sarsfield's camp, threw his soldiers into confusion, and routed them with great slaughter. They had not the same success against the Duke of Berwick, who cut several of their companies to pieces; but this disaster was more than compensated by their decisive victory over Macarthy at Newtown-Butler.

Wolsley, the commander of the Enniskilleners, had not more than two thousand men. Macarthy's numbers amounted to six thousand. Bravery alone would not have atoned for this disparity of force; but a fortunate accident gave a victory to the weaker army. Wolsley commenced the engagement by a furious attack on Macarthy's right wing, which he threw into confusion. The Irish general commanded some battalions from the centre to advance to its support. The officer who conveyed the order, gave the word "Wheel to the right," which was mistaken for "Wheel to the right about." The battalions consequently began to march from the field; and the troops in the rear, seeing the symptoms of retreat, broke and fled. The Irish general was unable to remedy this fatal error; the Enniskilleners pursued their advantage and completed the rout. Two thousand of the Irish were slain, and about six hundred forced into Lough Erne, where they perished. The Enniskilleners sullied their victory by needless barbarity. They refused quarter to all but officers, and murdered their wounded captives in cold blood. Macarthy was brought as a prisoner into Enniskillen, bitterly lamenting the chance by which his life had been preserved.

The successes of the Protestants of the north, however brilliant, could have produced but little effect in the final decision of the contest, had James acted with spirit or energy. Dundee wrote to him a pressing letter, requesting him to delay no longer in a country, nine-tenths of which were already in his possession; but to come over and show himself in Scotland, where an army would start up at the very moment of his landing. There is little doubt that James would have been restored, if he had adopted this prudent counsel; but he knew not the value of the Highlanders as soldiers, and hesitated until his cause was ruined by the fall of Dundee. James was at this time, and indeed during the whole period of his residence in Ireland, guided entirely by the advice of the French ambassador, who regarded rather the interests of his own master, than the restoration of the dethroned monarch. He detained James in Ireland, because he deemed that his presence there was an advantage to France.

CHAPTER X.

King James's Irish Parliament.

THE military career of James had not tended to raise his character for courage or conduct; and we shall find as little reason to admire him as a legislator. The parliament met on the 7th of May 1689, at the Inns of Court in Dublin. The number of the Catholic peers was increased by the reversal of several attainders, and by some new creations, which it is but just to add were well merited. Several Protestant lords and bishops attended. They frequently opposed the measures of the court with great spirit; but no attempt was ever made to check

their freedom. No Catholic prelates were summoned. The members of the Lower House were chiefly Catholics. The university, and a few other places, returned Protestants; but they were lost in the great majority which the late change in the corporations by Tyrconnel enabled the court to secure. The parliament was opened by the king in person, wearing his royal robes, and with the crown on his head. The king's speech was temperate and judicious. He commended the zeal and loyalty of his Irish subjects; declared his abhorrence of violating the rights of conscience or those of property; promised equal protection to Catholics and Protestants; and stated his readiness to assent to any laws which would benefit the nation. He particularly recommended to the notice of the Parliament the distressed state of trades and manufactures, and the condition of those who had been unjustly deprived of their property by the Act of Settlement. Nagle, the speaker of the House of Commons, and Fitton, the lord chancellor, made the proper commentary on the speech; and affectionate addresses were unanimously voted in reply by both houses.

With the single exception of the Act of Attainder, never sat a parliament in Ireland whose laws were better calculated to serve the country, and whose exertions were more uniformly directed by a spirit of equity and sound policy. But the Act of Attainder was a piece of monstrous injustice, almost rivalling the sweeping confiscations of the Cromwellians. By this law, about two thousand Protestant noblemen and gentlemen, known or suspected to be adherents of William, were attainted and declared to have forfeited all their property, real and, personal, unless they surrendered before a certain day. By a clause still more atrocious, the king was deprived of the power of pardoning all who did not establish their innocence before a certain day. As an excuse for this violent measure, the precedent of the for