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Like the matrons of Sparta, they infused life into the drooping spirits of those who fought for their country-and in tones not to be misunderstood, conjured them to make ramparts of their bodies rather than return from the walls, except amid shouts of victory! The morning of the 27th of August dawned cloudily; a mist was dense on Keeper Hill and on Cratloe Woods; rain had fallen in abundance during the previous night-the ground near the camp was almost untenable from the water. Lord Macaulay admits that all about the city at this period was a swamp-the view from the towers of St. Mary's, he says, did not stretch over smiling meadows and waving fields of corn-all was bog and water. Between Newcastle and Singland there was a marsh, whilst between Groody and the river, it was impossible to make an approach by infantry or cavalry, owing to the swampy nature of the ground. Monabraher, or the Friar's Bog, was beyond the water, and it was well nigh impassable. Within the walls all night, there was deep silence allied to the most resolute and sleepless determination and activity on the part of soldiers and citizens. And now came the eventful moment of the attack, as day broke through the thick rain which continued to fall. The attack was commenced, according to Storey3 by a detachment of nine companies of Grenadiers, supported by a hundred French (Huguenot) officers and volunteers. The Grenadiers were armed with hand-grenades, which they cast away from them with tremendous velocity, hideously shouting in the jargon of their country. The bells with which their waist belts were furnished made a tinkling, clanking noise, such as may be imagined from the jarring and jingling of so many of them together as the men leaped and ran in hot haste to the covered way and the two forts near John's Gate, which they were ordered to occupy. A hand to hand, desperate encounter now took place between the assailants and defenders at this point; but such were the numbers, the violence, the strength, and impetuosity of the Grenadiers and their supporters that the soldiers of the Irish army gave way! Here too, the tact and foresight of Sarsfield were manifest. Had not the Irish given way and retreated when they found it impossible wholly to repel the assault, they would have permitted the Williamites to make a lodgement at this important point-and nothing could have prevented its permanent occupation by the enemy in that event, and most likely the reduction of the city within a much shorter time than even William anticipated, flushed as he already was with the assured hope of complete success. Such at least was the thought that possessed the souls of the grim Grenadiers, and the fierce Huguenots at this moment. Grenadiers," says Dr. Molleneux, "were seconded by other detachments, who went on with that heat and courage, that having gained the counterscarp, and a fort which the Irish had under the walls, they, instead of lodging themselves there, as they were ordered to do, and not to advance any further, mounted the counterscarp, following the Irish that fled that way, but these being entrenched behind the breach and having planted cannon against it," (this was the masked battery at Curry's Lane) "they were cut off"! It must be added, that the moment the retreat of the Irish soldiery was discerned by their comrades in the streets, and above all by the women, it is impossible to describe the sudden, overwhelming reaction which at once took place. Every feeling that could arm citizens and soldiers, with vengeance,

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and brave, defiant, death-scorning women, was aroused within their souls. Grenades flew thick and heavy about them, shot and shell swept the walls, but they faltered not; the Grenadiers followed now by several detachments, were fighting within the very streets. John Street, Broad Street, Mungret Street, every street of the Irishtown down to Ball's Bridge, were crowded with those detested freebooters and vagabonds-the ruffian rabble soldiers of the bloody-minded contriver of the massacre of Glencoe! Burning with insatiable revenge, the women, forgetting their nature, called aloud on husbands, sons, and brothers to rally-and showed the example themselves. The ranks that had been broken were re-formed in order to beat back with irresistible force the tide of sanguinary foreign cut-throats which poured across the walls, and which even the battery above referred to was not able sufficiently to resist, though it continued to make lanes in the legions of the Dutchmen and to strew the pavement with their bodies. The brave Wauchop, a Scotch officer of considerable ability, commanded seventeen hundred Irish soldiers chosen for the duty. The contest was the fiercest ever yet remembered. The fight raged, the women, in front and centre urged on the soldiers by word and example. Half the Earl of Drogheda's Grenadiers were actually on the rampart, says Harris, while others, still more eager, pushed into the very town. Captain Cadogan, of William's army, raised his sword in triumph as his men were on the breach. Sarsfield, lion-like, went through the streets, ascended the walls-was everywhere. By an exhibition of personal courage and daring never yet surpassed, he proclaimed aloud the imperative duty which every Irishman owed to his country in the crisis.2

Elated with this success the Irish ventured again upon the breach, and the resolution of the women was so great, they pelted the besiegers with stones, and so inspired the men by their example, that after three hours unequal fighting, the Williamites were forced to retire to their trenches. In the assault the besieged used whatever weapons came first to hand-stones not the least useful. Dr. Davies, Dean of Cork, then present in William's army, states in his journal, 27th August, 1690-after describing the assault he says:"It was a very hot service, both great and small shot firing continually on both sides-we lost many men, and had more wounded, and of them the Lord Charlemont was bruised with stones. The Earl of Meath was bruised with a stone on the shoulder, &c. &c."3 Here the fact is proclaimed, trumpet-tongued to the entire world, that it was the heroines. of Limerick who nobly repelled the savage invaders, that endeavoured to obtain a firm footing within the walls! Let us picture to ourselves the heterogeneous battalions of William bristling with all the latest appliances and weapons of aggressive war-stung by the miseries of a protracted siege; resolved on "death or glory"-making their way blindly over the counterscarp, through the breach, enfiladed by the fire from the ambuscade, from which the Irish soldiers had not been driven at any time-like famished wolves, hungry for their prey-and at length, within the precincts

1 Harris's Life of William III. p. 288.

2 Harris tells us, "This action would have been decisive had the Engineers made a lodgement in time, or the Counts Zolmes and Nassau suffered the detachment, appointed to second the Grenadiers, to advance beyond the counterscarp. For the Irish were running over the walls over the Bridge into the English Town; but observing that few of the English had entered the town, they rallied and killed many of them."

3 See Camden Society's Publications.

of the coveted city, the capture of which was to place the crown permanently on the head of William, who in person commanded the besieging host! Picture the garrison-worn out by constant watching-pinched by irremediable hunger-the victim to every species of privation; subject to treachery within-swayed, however, by the never flinching courage of Sarsfield, and holding out against all odds! Imagine the wan and wasted figures of those maids and matrons who, forgetful of the gentler influences which reign predominant in the female breast, lost for the moment the amenities of their nature, wild with the excitement of battle-and nerving their arms to hurl death on the heads of the most odious foemen that ever challenged an oppressed and outraged people to combat. On, on the crowds rushed from every contiguous lane and alley-from Palmerstown, from Mungret Lane, from Curry's Lane, across Ball's Bridge from all the streets and lanes; from Emly Lane, Barrack Street, Tumbling Lane, &c. of the English town, which had never, even in Ireton's cruel time, been witness to a scene so bloody and so awful as that which was enacted on the ever memorable evening of the 27th of August, 1690. Creagh Lane, Fish Lane, and Churchyard Lane; the "Great Street," and every other street, gave out their crowds of enraged heroines, who, armed with whatever weapon fury supplied, swelled the ranks of the Irish soldiers, who now fully restored to nerve and vigour, and with the cry, which in a few years, afterwards, made the English pale in the fields of Fontenoy and Cremona, of Steenkirke and Dettingen they drove terror into the coward hearts of the retreating Dutchmen, Huguenots, and Danes, as they endeavoured to run from the streets over the walls, through the breach back to their trenches! Broken bottles was a favorite weapon with the women. But few, comparatively few of William's army lived to make their escape from the city.William, all the time, was viewing from Cromwell's fort, the events of that to him, most disastrous evening! The afternoon had cleared up; the sun, in the west, invested with a crimson glory, gave a delightful tinge to the foliage of the old woods of Cratloe. The scene beyond the city was one calculated to challenge the admiration of the painter, whilst the ruin and havoc of war blended with those elements of tranquil rural attractiveness which nature profusely shed over the more distant outlines of the landscape, constituting a picture to which Claude Lorraine only could do justice. A shout of victory arose from the besieged, as they hurled from the walls the last remnant of the beaten Dutch battalions. But there was more yet to be done. Those mines which Sarsfield had planned had not as yet been set to work-but the opportunity was speedily to arrive! Dr. Molleneux says that "they sprung a mine in the Ditch with but little effect." Dean Storey does not say a syllable about the Ditch or anywhere else.Harris more truthful-tells us, that "during the heat of the engagement a detachment of the Brandenburgh regiment got on the enemy's Black Battery, the powder by accident took fire, and blew up numbers." No. There was no accident: It was all intended in the well-weighed and artistically planned calculations of Sarsfield. Molleneux admits that there was a mine in the ditch:" no doubt of it; and there were mines, in numbers, wherever it was imagined that one could be of use.

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Story, Ibid.

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

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3 Rapin, who was with King William at the siege and was wounded, gives a most favorable

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Attached to the fortunes of William, whose countrymen the soldiers of the Brandenburgh regiment were, they attempted what no other regiment dreamt of effecting. Like a cloud of vultures they swarmed about the Black Battery, little dreaming of the volcano that slumbered beneath their feet. They were allowed to crowd in all their strength on the walls, and wellnigh to dream that they might win back what had gone so far against them, when, in an instant, the ground beneath their feet began to rock and to tremble-to sway to this side and to that—to form chasms into whose widening jaws many a Brandenburgian fell helplessly-never to see daylight more -and at length, with a terrific outburst of all the explosive elements that were concealed within the chamber of the mine, to blow high into the air, amid the sunset of that glorious evening, the ruthless barbarians whose very name smelt horribly in the nostrils of the people! "When our men

drew off (says Dean Storey),' some were brought up dead, and some without a leg; others wanted arms, and some were blind with powder; especially many of the poor Brandenburghers looked like furies with the misfortune of gunpowder; one Mr. Upton got into the town among the Irish, and surrendered himself to the governor. Bedloe, a deserter from the Irish army, in which he was a captain, went over to William, and obtained equal rank in that army." This event has been so often and so variously told-it has been the theme of so many a pen, and so long the boast of Limerick, that to dwell longer on it would seem supererogatory. But too much cannot be said of an event which had so decisive an effect on the determination of William that he saw in an instant the game was up. That night he slept uneasily on his pillow at Singland. Dreams disturbed his soul-he had not retired before he drenched himself thoroughly with those strong drinks which he loved so dearly. He cursed the fate which brought him to Limerick to witness a defeat unparalleled in the annals of warfare. None of his generals dare approach him-tortured and maddened he cast blame on all about him-and as he weighed the advantages of the Boyne with the losses and disgrace at Limerick, he groaned in spirit. It was a splendid victory.3

picture of the siege, but also says the action would have been decisive if Counts Somes and Nassau would have suffered the detachment, that was to second the Grenadiers, to go farther than the counterscarp. Storey, too, admits the truth. "The Irish then ventured upon the Breach again, and from the walls and every place so pestered us upon the counterscarp, that after nigh three hours' resisting, bullets, stones, (broken bottles from the very women, who boldly stood in the breach, and were nearer our men than their own) and whatever ways could be thought on to destroy us, our ammunition being spent, it was judged safest to return to our trenches."-Dean Storey's Impartial History of the Affairs of Ireland, p. 129. He adds, "that the Danes were not idle all this while, but fired upon the enemy with all imaginable fury, and had several killed; but the mischief was, we had but one breach, and all towards the left it was impossible to get into the town when the gates were shut, if there had been no enemy to oppose us, without a great many scaling ladders, which we had not. From half-an-hour after three till near seven, there was one continued fire of both great and small shot, without any intermission; insomuch that the smoke that went from the town reached in one, continued cloud to the top of a mountain at least six miles off." This was Keeper Hill.

1 Dean Storey's Impartial History of the Affairs of Ireland, p. 130.

2 Ibid.

Dalrymple (Memoirs, Vol. I. p. 503) says "that the inhabitants of Limerick, eager to give that defeat to King William which those of Londonderry had given to King James, animated the garrison. Even the women, from the same emulation, filled the places which the soldiers had quitted. The garrison rallied, more troops poured into the town from the country behind; and after a dispute of three hours, William was obliged to desist, with the loss of 500 of his English troops killed, and 1000 wounded, besides the loss of the foreigners, which was probably so great, because in the attack they were equal in numbers to the English. He raised the siege soon after, and the same day set off for England, leaving Count Solmes to command the army. But Solmes leaving it likewise soon after, General Ginkle, a Dutchman, was put in his place.""

Meetings were held within the walls, and in the camp of the enemy on the following morning, which broke over a scene as terrible and as bloody, as ever battle-field exhibited after fierce contention in the deadly struggle. The streets were flowing with blood-the blood of friends and foes-the latter greatly predominating. The uniforms of the Brandenburghers and of Drogheda's horse were easily discernible among the heaps of slain that made a mount in John-street, and up from Ball's Bridge to the very mouth of the breach. About the Devil's Tower, too, there was an awful appearance of carnage-here many a Dutchman was made to bite the dust in unavailing agony, as he strove to master a position which defied the united strength of William's trained and well-equipped veterans. In several other places about the walls, the helmets of horsemen and the curiously formed hats of infantry, all headless, showed that their owners were sleeping the long sleep from which there is no waking; and, as the event proved, the killed, missing, and wounded of the enemy numbered some thousands, though Storey, and his copyist in this respect, Harris, are unwilling to admit that they amounted to more than eighteen hundred! Not a few of the fair forms of those heroines to whom all William's historians attribute the success of the repulse, lay stretched in death, their pure features smiling in the rigid stillness of the grave, on the victory which they had aided in winning. Wives looked among the slain for husbands and sons; and as they found them, the salvoes of triumph which thundered from the walls, were mingled with the heart-piercing wail of sorrow, which ascended from the voices of those who were deprived by the ruthless invader of the prop and stay of many a cheerful homestead, before the hour that William appeared before those walls, which not only roasted apples did not take, but which stood firm against the

1 A more absurd untruth never was uttered, when the fact is admitted by Storey and Harris, that no less than nearly two thousand men were killed, or placed beyond harm's reach, during the attempt to storm the city. The official return between killed and wounded, as given in Appendix LI., p. lxix., Harris's Life of Wm. III., is as follows:

A List of the Slain and Wounded in the Attack made on Limerick on the 26th of August, 1690, transmitted by the Secretary at War to the Earl of Nottingham :

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