BOOK

I.

1687

so rapidly that it was said, 'if Rice had been left to himself he would, in a few years, have given away most of the estates of Protestants in Ireland without troubling Parliament to attaint them.'1 Fitton said publicly that, among forty thousand Protestants, there was not one who was not a traitor, a rebel, and a villain. The merchants and manufacturers being Protestants, and in consequence governors of the corporate towns, the corporation charters were revoked and cancelled, and new charters issued, by which the Viceroy had himself the nomination of the aldermen. There was to be no bloodshed; the work could be done by forms of law, and there was no need of it. To make assurance more sure, a second search for arms was made in the Protestant houses. Their horses, swords, and pistols were demanded, with a threat that, if they were found with firearms in their possession for the future, their lives and goods should be at the mercy and discretion of the soldiers.' The army, being Catholic, lived at free quarters on the Protestant farms. Tories, lately outlaws and bandits, were commissioned officers in the King's service; and over those who had set prices on their heads, they were left to work their will as they pleased. Tenants of Protestant landowners were bidden not to pay their rents, for the land would soon be their own. Tyrconnell proposed to receive the money meanwhile, to be used in the service of the King.

So went matters all through the year 1687, and for ten months of 1688, when the news came that the Prince of Orange had landed, and that the King was a fugitive. What now was to be the fate of Ireland?

2 History of the Protestants in Ireland. Archbishop King.

To those who believed in the forms and shadows of things the English revolution made no difference, save that it might precipitate the severance of the two countries, which the Irish so intensely desired. The Dutch usurper might be driven out again, and the second revolution come to nothing like the first; but should it be permanent, the King of England need not be King of Ireland. Ireland might remain loyal to James, though England disowned him. They could fight against their old enemy, sheltered under the same veil as the insurgents of 1641, keeping still within the limits of the constitution, and overthrowing the detested Protestantism, while professing themselves the devoted subjects of their lawful sovereign. The members of the Established Church could not oppose them. The bishops and clergy, in the exaggeration of Royalism, had bound themselves to an opinion that, under no pretence, might men take arms against their king.' Tyrconnell, tyrant as he might be, was still the representative of the lawful prince. To resist Tyrconnell was to imitate the crimes of Cromwell, whom it had been their special function to anathematize. Secured against half the English settlers from this singular reason, the fanatic Catholics believed themselves safe in defying the rest. The Ironsides, thanks to Bramhall and Jeremy Taylor, were beyond the Atlantic. Except in Ulster, among the persecuted Presbyterians, the English could count on no friends in Ireland; and, without a party among themselves, would be too weak to resist the reviving energy of the native race.

6

There were others, however, longer-headed, like Chief Justice Keating, on whom the experience of the last rebellion had not been thrown away. Keat

CHAP.

III.

1688

I.

1688

BOOK ing warned Tyrconnell in council that in the end, in grasping at the whole, the Catholics would lose all that had been left to them. Tyrconnell himself hesitated till he saw how events would turn in England, and how James would be received in France. He wrote plausible letters, affecting a desire to come to terms. William, with England in confusion, was peculiarly reluctant to court an Irish quarrel, and for some months there seemed to be a chance of a peaceful solution. The fanatics carried the day at last. Some Irish regiments had been sent to England to support James. They had thrown down their arms, and their officers were under arrest. General Hamilton, who was one of them, volunteered his services to William to negotiate with Tyrconnell. His offer was accepted. He returned to Dublin to tell the Viceroy that William's cause was desperate, and that in a few weeks, or months, James would be again on the throne. The letters from France were equally encouraging. Cannon were coming, and powder and muskets and money; perhaps a disciplined French army.

The

The uncertainty was at end. William's overtures were construed into a consciousness of weakness, and all Catholic Ireland was called under arms. property of the Protestant farmers and gentlemen was generally seized. Cows and sheep were driven off; all was gone in three months, to the value of a million of money." What could not be consumed or carried off was destroyed, that 'the damned Whigs might not have the benefit of it.' The corn was cleared from the farm-yards. A guard of soldiers surrounded the bakehouses, that no Protestant might purchase a

1 History of the Protestants in Ireland. Archbishop King.

III.

loaf.1 The less reticent Catholics said publicly,' that CHAP. they designed to starve half the Protestants in Ireland and hang the other half, and that it never would be well till it was done."

Passionate language was not to be construed literally, but 1641 was not forgotten. When the Irish had the bit between their teeth they were unrestrainable savages; and this much they had determined, that, by fair means or foul, Ireland was to be swept clean of heretics. It was a less easy matter than Catholic enthusiasm anticipated.

The siege of Derry, almost the only heroic piece of story which the long chronicles of Ireland can boast, does not need a fresh description. At the end of 1688, an anonymous letter was addressed to Lord Mount Alexander, telling him that there was to be a second massacre. Whether such a design had or had not been formed, the story seemed only too credible; and in Ulster, where, though generally disarmed, the Protestants were numerous, they formed associations for general defence. The garrison of Derry had gone to England among the troops which Tyrconnell had dispatched to James. Lord Antrim was sent with another regiment to take its place. The inhabitants, proud of their virgin city, which, through the ten years of the last civil war, had kept their streets clear of the Irish enemy, decided to refuse to admit him till they had taken security for the character of his soldiers. Ezekiel Hopkins, the Episcopalian bishop, counselled submission; but the Derry Protestants were mainly Calvinists, whose respect for kings and bishops was not excessive. The apprentices closed. 1 History of the Protestants in Ireland. Dr. King was an eye-witness. 2 Ibid.

1688

the gates in Antrim's face; and though they were willing to accept half a dozen companies to take charge of the town, they stipulated, successfully, that half at least of the men should be of the same religion as themselves.1

Enniskillen had been no less resolute. The gentlemen throughout Ulster armed their tenants as well as they were able, and reestablished their disbanded militia. James, it was now known, was coming in person to Ireland; and Tyrconnell, to secure the North, at once sent down a strong force to disperse these incipient gatherings and seize the two towns. The militia, under command of Colonel Lundy, a feeble and perhaps treacherous officer, was easily broken up. Lundy himself fled to Derry; and finding the fortifications consisting of nothing but a half-ruined wall, insisted that defence was impossible. English ships, with two regiments, were in the lough. Lundy assured the English officers that, if the men were landed they could not be fed; and that the town was totally untenable. They sailed away, and left Derry to its fate; and Lundy prepared to surrender. James himself was approaching in person to receive the capitulation. After many difficulties, he had obtained at last the promised assistance from France. He had landed at Kingsale on the 12th of March, bringing with him 5,000 French troops under Marshal Rosen, several hundred officers for the Irish regiments, cannon, ammunition, and arms for 40,000 men. He passed through Dublin on the 24th, when writs were issued for a Parliament; and he went on to the North, to return and open the session in May, when the Ulster troubles should have been put down.