brazen-throated engines of war on the Williamites, as they were pushing the siege to the most memorable crisis that occurred all through the campaign.

The shelling was constant and terrible. Inside, nothing daunted, encouraged rather than dismayed, the defenders redoubled their energies, making good what had been injured, and guided by the ablest engineers, stirred by the example of Sarsfield, and resting faithfully on those ancient prophecies by which even the English were as much as, if not more, influenced than the Irish, who assured themselves of a glorious victory despite of every disadvantage. Though the Duke of Berwick asserts in his memoirs that the weather was not rainy, we are inclined, however much we respect his testimony, to agree with those who state that it was wet during this period of the siege.2

On the 23rd in the morning one of Galmoy's troopers went over to William, and brought with him a boy, and four very good horses. About noon two captains, a lieutenant, a priest, and seventy common soldiers of the Irish, were brought in prisoners from Nenagh, whither General Ginkle marched with two thousand horse, six hundred dragoons, a regiment of foot, and two guns, the castle enduring a siege of twenty-four hours, and then surrendered at discretion. That afternoon two Frenchmen went over, and brought with them two as good horses as any in their army; they gave an account that "the rogues in the city are in a miserable condition for the want of bread and drink, but that meat is plenty among them." That night about seven in the evening, the besiegers played furiously into the town in several places. One shell fell into the great magazine of hay, which was consumed, and several houses were burned, the fire lasting there about six hours; another set fire to a place near the Church, which was not consumed till five the next morning, and as that was extinguished they fired another place, which was blown up by the besieged.

I have shown what has been said by English writers of our countrymen at this extraordinary crisis of their fortunes; ancientand modern Limerick have suffered equally in their description, yet neither Harris, the biographer of William, nor Lord Macaulay who dilates upon the "glaring red brick of the houses," and the "showy shops with their shawls and china," could tell the position of the grave of Tyrconnell, whose coffin was concealed beneath the pavement of St. Mary's until certain repairs of the Cathedral which were executed a few years ago revealed it.5

I have one of those enormous shells in my possession-it is 18 inches in diameter-weighs 200 lbs., and is as formidable an engine of destruction as can well be imagined!

2 We have the fact on the authority of three eye-witnesses-namely, Storey, Molleneux, and Dumont, whose MSS. are quoted by Lord Macaulay, p. 675, vol. 3, in support of it. Mr. Lawless, in his History of Ireland, believes with the Duke of Berwick that it was not rainy during the siege, and that it is a mere pretence and excuse on the part of the Williamite writers when they say that it was.

Dean Storey, in reference to this event (Dean Storey's Impartial History of the Affairs of Ireland, p. 127) has the following:-"This afternoon was eighty-four prisoners brought to the Camp, from a Castle some twelve or fourteen miles off, called Nighagh Round: these kept out the Castle for twenty-four hours against Major General Ginkell, and his party of about 1500 Horse and Dragoons; they killed us fourteen men; but seeing two cannon come, and the soldiers very busie in bringing Faggets for a Battery, they submitted to Mercy. Their Commander was one Captain O'Bryan." In the same paragraph he goes on to state that the same "afternoon, also, one of Colonel Leveson's Dragoons was hanged for deserting," and that "in the evening our Bombs and Red-hot balls began to fly, which set part of the Town on Fire, which burnt all that night, destroying a great quantity of Hay, with several Houses. I remember we were all as well pleased to see the Town flaming as could be, which made me reflect on our Profession of Soldiery, not to be over-charg'd with good nature."

4 Lord Macaulay's History of England, Vol. 3, p.

5 Tradition states that the house in which Tyrconnell lived during his residence in Limerick,

It is unquestionable, however, that in the face of fortune, regardless of overpowering difficulties, with a King who showed no active sympathies, with soldiers unpaid except in the brass money, £30 worth of which was made to represent at least £1000, officers and men and citizens arose in the emergency with a purpose never surpassed, and stood up so nobly, that until the last moment heroic Limerick and purest patriotism will be ever associated together and honored by all who value greatness struggling against overpowering difficulties.

As the shot and shell of the enemy poured in and uprooted the pavement of the streets, multitudes of women and children were provided with a refuge in the King's Island, which remained in the hands of the defenders, though many fruitless attacks had been made upon it. Tents made up of whatever was available, were pitched where Ireton had been forty years before; many too found refuge beyond Thomond Bridge. It was here that many of the state records were kept, that the principal judges of the land, including Sir Stephen Rice, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, dwelt during the occasion; as well as the Archbishop of Cashel, and several of the highest personages, civil and ecclesiastical. "Swine herds," 99 66 cow boys," ""Irish cut throats," was the common name by which the native Irish were designated; but the epithets were far more applicable to those who so freely used them than to the natives.

While the chivalrous Patrick Sarsfield had a command in the cavalry, the already suspected traitor, Henry Luttrell, of whom more hereafter, held the same position, whilst Simon Luttrell, who stood true throughout, held a similar commission, that of Colonel in the Dragoons. There were fifty-three Regiments of Foot-constituting in all, on their first embodiment, a native force of 40,000 men, capable of holding their ground in any field, against all odds, as such portions of the army, about 15,000 in number, as were in Limerick, proved when it was put upon them to vindicate their race from the calumnies, the reproaches, the insults, and the injuries of which they had been so long the victims. Shot and shell poured into the city from the 17th to the 25th-and the walls which had borne the assault throughout with unexpected strength, were at length beginning to crumble, in some parts, beneath the concentrated fire of the Williamite artillery, which was replied to shot by shot from the citadel and its approaches, and from every other available point. Hunger was now beginning to do its work on the beleaguered garrison. Supplies from Clare, which were frequent in the commencement, were failing as the siege progressed. The long promised and long expected aid that the

and in which tradition also states that he was afterwards "poisoned," (though written and printed authorities state the contrary), was situated near the Church of St. Munchin's, within very few yards of that Church at the Castle-street side of it. Within the last sixty years the house has been removed, and on a site nearer to the roadway, are houses in which a humble class of persons now dwell.

He had been a member of the Limerick Corporation; and it was he who first declared, when a lawyer, that he would drive a coach and six through any act of settlement ! Another of the family was collector at Limerick. Indeed, even at this period, the Rice family was provided for largely by high public employment. Mr. John Rice was at the time collector of Kinsale. County Limerick M.P.'s in James II.'s Parliament, 7th May, 1689:County-Sir John Fitzgerald, Bart. Gerald Fitzgerald, Esq., commonly called Knight of the Glynn.

Kilmallock-Sir William Hurly, Bart. John Lacy, Esq.

Askeaton John Bourke, Esq., of Cahirmoyle. Edward Rice, Esq.

City of Limerick-Nicholas Arthur, Alderman. Thomas Harold, Alderman.

Manor and Borough of Rathcormuck, Co. Cork-James Barry, Esq. Edward Powell, Esq. Memoirs of Ireland, p. 223.

French fleet, which commanded the seas, should have brought, was not appearing. A dry crust, a little oatmeal, a few beans, were luxuries which at this crisis were all that could be looked for by soldiers who had pledged their lives on the issue. Londonderry has had the annalists of its bitter days of trial; but Limerick, on its own side, has never before had one to tell the story of the daily sufferings of its inhabitants, while they withstood the might of William's power. The soul of the defenders was Patrick Sarsfield; he cheered the faint-hearted, infused spirit into, and gave hope to all. His object at this juncture was to give orders to his engineers to have masked batteries placed and mines prepared near wherever a breach might be made in the walls, in order if an entry were attempted, that the most destructive agencies should be ready to repel the attack. While the thunders of the Williamite guns were thus directed from Singland against the citadel, knocking splinters off the towers, tearing away the stones, or burying themselves in the circumjacent ground, the sappers within were at their silent and certain work. William it is said lived for some part of the time at New Castle, the ruins of which may be seen within two miles of the city, where he kept up a constant succession of drinking parties-a notorious lover of spirits, even the Irish usquebaugh was not an unwelcome beverage to him! Sarsfield was every where giving further evidence of his military genius.'

Sacred to every lover of national honor and religion is the spot from which the picked soldiers of William were hurled by the intrepidity of the soldiers and citizens of Limerick. The outside wall of the citadel bears at this moment unmistakeable evidence of a fierce cannonade; splinters are off, indentations are visible, stones displaced; everything indicates even at this

The town gate of the citadel is at present the entrance gate to the yard of St. John's Hospital; the wall is seven feet thick at this place, and wall-flowers in season bloom above the gate, and all along the wall until it meets the newly built enclosure of the Hospital on the western side. The country or outer gate of the citadel is the western portion of the Hospital, of which it forms what we may call a wing-and the lower part of the gateway is now used as a storehouse for the convenience of the Hospital: the wall is extremely strong, thick, and is fitted with a groove through which the heavy door was raised or let down by chains. The ground in front is considerably raised, and reaches so high as to cover the greater part of the trunk of an old pear tree, which is spoken of as having furnished fruit for King William III. and often for Sarsfield. The remnant of the Black Battery is at the eastern corner of the hospital, and faces Keeper Hill and the old Slieve Phelim mountains in Tipperary. The view from it is really enchanting. A masked battery, concealed by wool-bags, sand, timber, and whatever was available, was placed at what is now the extreme corner of Curry's Lane, near the same locality, exactly opposite the breach. The ancient wall of the citadel ran several feet out from the present enclosure of the hospital, and is now level with the roadway; but on the foundations of it skulls and bones were found in abundance on a recent occasion, as laborers were laying down gas-pipes.

On the wall of the hospital is an ancient tablet which was picked up from the ruins about, and which was placed in its present position by, I believe, W. J. Geary, Esq. M.D., J.P. when the Fever Hospital was undergoing enlargement. The tablet contains the following legend :

:

hour the wonderful efforts that were made to demolish the walls and citadel. We need not say what were the capacity and conduct-what the watchfulness and care of Sarsfield, when the decisive moment was drawing nigh. Whilst the besiegers were pushing on their works with activity, the besieged were equally wakeful-they not only kept their ground, but they placed their mines within a short distance of the covert-way, where it was almost certain the Williamite grenadiers and Brandenburgers would lodge themselves. There was no sufficient precaution taken by them; nor was the terrible cannonade of the Williamites able to silence the guns that continued to roar from the old grey walls. As happened before, and will again happen, the engineers of William made a mistake which it was not in their power to remedy: they made their attack at a point which they imagined the weakest, but which in fact was the best covered and the most artfully contrived for defence of any other throughout the walls; here a mine was made by the direction of Sarsfield, who showed in this instance also his able generalship. No less than three hundred shot had been discharged against the walls; but although the trenches were pushed within thirty yards of the ditch, the Williamites dared not attempt to storm the counterscarp.1

These three hundred shot, accompanied by shells and "carcasses," at length made a partial breach in the wall near the citadel: which breach may be seen at this moment; it measures twelve yards-and was loosely built up between the first and second sieges under the orders of Sarsfield. All the stones of the wall, except at the breach, are "grouted"—but the breach is repaired by mortar hastily made of clay. It was at this crisis that the endurance and courage of the soldiers and citizens, the genius and authority of the commanders were tested to the utmost, and above all, that the admitted and world-renowned courage of the women of Limerick was conspicuous above all that was done by others. The street leading to the citadel is in the same position to-day as it then was, though the houses were fewer in number and did not approach the walls so closely as afterwards and now.

On the 26th the Williamites widened the breach which they had made the day before in the wall of the town, and beat down part of the Irish pallisados on the counterscarp. That night they set fire to the town again, which burnt very vehemently. Captain Peter Drake, of Drakerath, in the county of Meath, who was in Limerick during the siege, has mentioned in connection with the battery and bombardment of the city, by the formidable artillery of William-a curious instance of the interposition of Divine Providence in his behalf, by which he adds, "I have been so often times rescued from calamity and the jaws of death. "There was," he says "between our house and the town wall a large building. The besiegers ordered two pieces of ordnance to be levelled at this building, and several shots passed through and hit at the gable end, within which was the apartment wherein I slept, with one Captain Plunkett, of my lord Gormanstown's regiment; this gentleman was to mount guard that day, and going out early left me a-bed. About two hours after I went out to one of the servants to get me a clean shirt, and before I had time to return, a ball had beat down the wall, a great

"But notwithstanding all the opposition which the besieged were able to make, the enemy had finished their battery of thirty pieces of cannon on the 24th, and in two days more had advanced their trenches within thirty paces of the ditch; there was at this time a great breach in the wall, near St. John's Gate, and part of the palisadoes beaten down by the Counterscarp, &c.”—King James's Memoirs, &c.

part of which had fallen on, and demolished the bed. It then passed through my father's bed-chamber, broke the posts of the bed where he and my mother were asleep, but thank heaven, had no more effect than putting the family in a consternation."

A deserter gave them an account, "that Colonel Dodrington, Colonel Garret Moore, Sir Maurice Eustace, and Colonel Lutterel were killed in the sally." Eustace was not killed; and it is equally certain that Colonel Henry Lutterel was not killed then or during the war; but that he did meet a violent death, in the streets of Dublin, some years afterwards, will appear hereafter. King William was everywhere at this particular juncture: balls and shot flying about him, he braved danger defiantly, and seemed to value life far less. than success in those efforts, the issue of which he looked forward to as the means of affording him a more secure footing than he had hitherto possessed. Harris says that the engineers assured King William that the breach was sufficiently large, but "could not be enlarged for want of bullets." The walls, therefore, which at first could be taken, according to Lauzun, with roasted apples, gave way but a few yards in breadth before the fire that had been so long poured upon them. William complained bitterly of his men.3

The breach not being sufficiently wide to admit a formidable body of assailants-and it was by mines, according to Harris, that William had resolved to take the city-counter-mining as a consequence became absolutely necessary with Sarsfield, who, always wakeful and wary, was thoroughly acquainted with the stratagetic movements and proceedings of the enemy. Everywhere did hemeet them with a ready wit and genius, which even his foes freely acknowledged wherever they spoke or wrote of his military ability. All the night of the 26th, within the walls, was occupied hour by hour, in making preparations for the eventful morrow. The masked battery which had been so well planned at the corner of Curry's Lane, was contrived to deceive the vigilant and cautious engineers of William, who did not dream that death-dealing missiles or gaping guns were concealed within. A formidable mine also was run underneath the Black Battery, which was reserved for a duty which it soon afterwards performed against the Brandenburgh Regiment. It had been resolved long before this to remove all the women and children from the city; but even the adverse historians avow that very large numbers of women could not be induced to abandon the post of danger. Attached to the sacred cause, and maddened with rage against the invaders, they mingled with husbands, sons, and brothers, in the streets. They appeared on the walls during the hottest cannonade; they supplied the gunners with ammunition; they attended the sick; removed the disabled; bound up the limbs of the wounded. The duty in which they were engaged was the most delightful that could devolve upon them, and they went through it with extraordinary spirit and devotion.

Macariæ Excidium.

2 Harris's Life of William III., p. 288.

3 For instance, when "Manus O'Brien, a substantial country gentleman, came to the Camp, and gave notice that Sarsfield had passed the Shannon in the night at Killaloe, with a body of five or six hundred Horse and Dragoons, and designed something extraordinary, though several concurring circumstances, and Sarsfield's activity and resolution, which fitted him for any gallant enterprise, rendered O'Brien's story at least probable, yet little regard was paid to it at first; and a great officer, instead of enquiring particularly into the matter, interrogated O'Brien concerning a prey of Cattle in the neighbourhood, of which he complained, saying, "He was sorry to see General Officers mind Cattle more than the King's Honour; (Harris's Life of William III. p. 286) and it was not until he was brought before the King, that His Majesty ordered Sir John Lanier, with 500 horse, after much delay and confusion, to meet the train." These, and similar circumstances, weighed so heavily on William, that he had not confidence in his officers.

4 Harris's Life of William III. p. 287.