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his advantages; he loaded the cannon to the muzzles, and buried them deep in earth, heaping over them stones, carriages, and ammunition-wagons; he then laid a train to the whole, and drawing off his men, fired it on his retreat. The dreadful explosion was heard at the distance of several miles through the surrounding country, and was by many mistaken for a supernatural occurrence. Lanier and his party came up just in time to witness the work of destruction; they attempted to revenge it by an attack on Sarsfield's rear, but were so roughly handled that they were forced to retreat; and the whole Irish party returned into Limerick without loss.

William could not yet bring himself to raise the siege; two of his cannon had escaped without injury, and with these he determined, if possible, to effect a breach. After an incessant fire of several days, the wall at length began to yield; and by perseverance, a breach twelve yards in length was inade. A gallant storming-party was formed; five hundred British grenadiers, supported by the Dutch guards, and some English and Brandenburg regiments, drew up under cover of their intrenchments, and about three o'clock in the afternoon, were ready to start on their hazardous enterprise. These preparations had not escaped the notice of the garrison; the fire from the walls, and that from the English batteries, ceased; a perfect stillness reigned in the camp and in the city; there was a brief space of deep and awful silence-no unsuitable prelude to the work of death and destruction. The day was intensely hot; the sun shone with unusual brightness in a cloudless sky; not a breeze rippled the broad expanse of the Shannon; nature seemed to have presented all the images of tranquillity, as dissuasives from the carnage that was about to ensue. Three cannon, shot in rapid succession, gave the fatal signal; the grenadiers leaped from their intrenchments, and rushed towards the breach, firing their muskets and hurling

their grenades; the Irish opened on them from the walls a perfect hail-storm of shot; the English batteries answered with a heavy fire, to divert the attention of the garrison; the storming party hurried on, and were soon engaged, hand to hand, with their enemies at the outside of the breach. The grenadiers forced their way, and part of them actually entered the town; but the Irish closed their ranks behind them, and effectually checked the progress of the rest. These brave men were nearly all destroyed. The citizens, in overwhelming crowds, fell upon them; and only a few, desperately wounded, succeeded in cutting a way back to their companions. The breach was again assailed, and again defended, with the same determined spirit. Crowds of women mingled with the soldiers, and fought as bravely as the men. They reproached William's soldiers with the name less abominations of which they had been guilty, and vowed, in their own nervous language, to be torn in piecemeal, before they would submit to the power of such wretches. For three hours this furious contest was maintained with equal obstinacy. A regiment of Brandenburghers seized possession of an Irish battery; but at the moment that they were about to improve their advantage, the magazine took fire, and they were all blown into the air. William now saw that success was hopeless. He therefore ordered a retreat, after having lost two thousand of his best men.

It is said, that the English soldiers were anxious to make a second assault; but, the king clearly saw that it was absolutely necessary to retreat. He, therefore, disarmed his batteries, and led away his diminished army, accompanied by a melancholy troop of Protestants, who could no longer remain in their former homes, and were wholly without protection, from the indiscriminate ravages of the licentious soldiery. The excesses of William's army during this retreat can scarcely be paralleled in the annals of

war; but the imputation that the king himself countenanced their cruelties is certainly groundless. William's was not a perfect character; but he does not appear to have been capable of the monstrous atrocities with which he has been charged by his enemies; atrocities that would never have been credited, but for the horrid massacre at Glenco. Having conducted the troops to Clonmel, William hastened to Duncannon and embarked for England, accompanied by Prince George of Denmark. He intrusted the command of the army to Count Solmes and General Ginckle. Lord Sidney and Mr. Coningsby were appointed lords-justices, with a blank in their commission for the insertion of a third name.

CHAPTER XIII.

Marlborough's and Ginckle's Winter Campaign.

WE have already mentioned the jealousies that subsisted between William and those who had raised him to the throne. National animosity increased this discontent. The English felt that the Dutch had succeeded to their place among the leading powers of Europe. They deemed that they had become a mere appendage to Holland, and were unable to conceal their mortification. The appointment of foreigners to all the important military commands in Ireland was felt as a reproach upon English courage and conduct. Even the successes of the king himself afforded no pleasure to the people, for they could not cease to regard him as a foreigner. The head of the powerful party that adopted and propagated these sentiments was the Princess Anne, whom her brother-in-law had unwisely treated with

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neglect and contumely. She laboured to raise up an English hero, who might prove a worthy rival of William; and such she found in the Earl of Marlborough, with whose countess she was united in the bonds of a most intimate friendship. Marlborough proposed to the English government to undertake the conquest of Cork and Kinsale, and thus complete the reduction of the eastern coast of Ireland. William, though aware that this proposal was designed for his own mortification, could not venture to resist, and yielded a reluctant assent.

It was so late in the year as the twenty-first of September, when Marlborough arrived in the harbour of Cork, where little or no preparations had been made for resistance. He landed almost without opposition, and marched straight towards the city by the passage road. He was soon after joined by Sgravenmore, whom Ginckle had detached to his assistance, with nine hundred cavalry. These were followed by four thousand infantry, under the command of the Prince of Wirtemberg, who appears to have been instigated by William to claim a share in the expedition. Wirtemberg, as the superior in rank, claimed the chief command; but Marlborough insisted that the armament had been confided to himself, and would not allow his right to be disputed. After a long dispute, a formal reconciliation was effected by the intervention of their friends. It was agreed, that each should command in turn on alternate days. Marlborough took his turn first, and gave the word "Wirtemberg." The prince felt the force of this politeness; and when he took the command, the word was "Marlborough." But, notwithstanding this reciprocity of compliments, their mutual jealousy continued unabated.

The siege of Cork was an enterprise of more importance than difficulty. The city is built on a marshy plain, surrounded and commanded by hills. The walls were in a sad state of disrepair; and the

castle of Shandon, by which the city is commanded on the northern side, was so dilapidated, that it was at once resigned to the besiegers. The garrison had therefore no hope of final success: but they determined to make such a defence as would entitle them to favourable terms of capitulation. The batteries which Marlborough had planted on the south side of the river soon made a practicable breach; but the assault was by no means void of hazard. Between the camp and the city a branch of the Lee, fordable only at low water, runs; and beyond that lay a marsh, now built over, which served as a counterscarp to the fortifications. When the breach had been effected, the governor offered to submit on the same conditions that William had usually granted to the Irish garrisons, namely, that the troops should march out with their arms, and be conveyed to Limerick. Marlborough, anxious to show that William had been too lenient on such occasions, peremptorily insisted that the garrison should become prisoners of war. Wirtemberg as strenuously recommended compliance with the governor's demands. While the generals wasted time in this dispute, the tide returned, the ford was no longer passable, and the firing was renewed at both sides. When the breach had been further enlarged, orders were given that a storming party should be formed. Several English officers volunteered their services on the occasion, and, among others, the Duke of Grafton, the most respectable of the natural children of Charles II.

The English troops bravely pressed through the river, and formed a lodgment on the marsh, not far from the walls. Here the Duke of Grafton was killed. The spot where he fell is still called Grafton Alley, now nearly in the heart of the city. Before any further progress could be made, the garrison renewed their parley, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war, on condition that persons and property should be respected. The ink with which the

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