The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume IV Part 30

15/25. 1689, Avaux says: "Je ne puis m'empescher de vous dire qu'il est brave de sa personne, a ce que l'on dit mais que c'est un aussy mechant officie, qu'il en ayt, et qu'il n'a pas le sens commun."]

[Footnote 78: Leslie's Answer to King, Macariae Excidium.]

[Footnote 79: Macariae Excidium.]

[Footnote 80: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 422.; Memoirs of Berwick.]

[Footnote 81: Macariae Excidium.]

[Footnote 82: Life of James, ii. 422, 423.; Memoires de Berwick.]

[Footnote 83: Life of James, ii. 433-457.; Story's Continuation.]

[Footnote 84: Life of James, ii. 438.; Light to the Blind; Fumeron to Louvois, April 22/May 2 1691.]

[Footnote 85: Macariae Excidium; Memoires de Berwick; Life of James, ii.

451, 452.]

[Footnote 86: Macariae Excidium; Burnet, ii. 78.; Dangeau; The Mercurius Reformatus, June 5. 1691.]

[Footnote 87: An exact journal of the victorious progress of their Majesties' forces under the command of General Ginckle this summer in Ireland, 1691; Story's Continuation; Mackay's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 88: London Gazette, June 18. 22. 1691; Story's Continuation; Life of James, ii. 452. The author of the Life accuses the Governor of treachery or cowardice.]

[Footnote 89: London Gazette, June 22. 25. July 2. 1691; Story's Continuation; Exact Journal.]

[Footnote 90: Life of James, ii. 373. 376. 377]

[Footnote 91: Macariae Excidium. I may observe that this is one of the many pa.s.sages which lead me to believe the Latin text to be the original. The Latin is: "Oppidum ad Salaminium amnis latus recentibus ac sumptuosioribus aedificiis attollebatur; antiquius et ipsa vetustate in cultius quod in Paphiis finibus exstructum erat." The English version is: "The town on Salaminia side was better built than that in Paphia."

Surely there is in the Latin the particularity which we might expect from a person who had known Athlone before the war. The English version is contemptibly bad, I need hardly say that the Paphian side is Connaught, and the Salaminian side Leinster.]

[Footnote 92: I have consulted several contemporary maps of Athlone. One will be found in Story's Continuation.]

[Footnote 93: Diary of the Siege of Athlone, by an Engineer of the Army, a Witness of the Action, licensed July 11. 1691; Story's Continuation; London Gazette, July 2. 1691; Fumeron to Louvois, June 28/July 8. 1691.

The account of this attack in the Life of James, ii. 453., is an absurd romance. It does not appear to have been taken from the King's original Memoirs.]

[Footnote 94: Macariae Excidium. Here again I think that I see clear proof that the English version of this curious work is only a bad translation from the Latin. The English merely says: "Lysander,"--Sarsfield,--"accused him, a few days before, in the general's presence," without intimating what the accusation was. The Latin original runs thus: "Acriter Lysander, paucos ante dies, coram praefecto copiarum illi exprobraverat nescio quid, quod in aula Syriaca in Cypriorum opprobrium effutivisse dicebatur." The English translator has, by omitting the most important words, and by using the aorist instead of the preterpluperfect tense, made the whole pa.s.sage unmeaning.]

[Footnote 95: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; Daniel Macneal to Sir Arthur Rawdon, June 28. 1691, in the Rawdon Papers.]

[Footnote 96: London Gazette, July 6. 1691; Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; Light to the Blind.]

[Footnote 97: Macariae Excidium; Light to the Blind.]

[Footnote 98: Life of James, ii. 460.; Life of William, 1702.]

[Footnote 99: Story's Continuation; Mackay's Memoirs; Exact Journal; Diary of the Siege of Athlone.]

[Footnote 100: Story's Continuation.; Macariae Excid.; Burnet, ii. 78, 79.; London Gaz. 6. 13. 1689; Fumeron to Louvois June 30/July 10 1690; Diary of the Siege of Athlone; Exact Account.]

[Footnote 101: Story's Continuation; Life of James, ii. 455. Fumeron to Louvois June 30/July 10 1691; London Gazette, July 13.]

[Footnote 102: The story, as told by the enemies of Tyrconnel, will be found in the Macariae Excidium, and in a letter written by Felix O'Neill to the Countess of Antrim on the 10th of July 1691. The letter was found on the corpse of Felix O'Neill after the battle of Aghrim. It is printed in the Rawdon Papers. The other story is told in Berwick's Memoirs and in the Light to the Blind.]

[Footnote 103: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii 456.; Light to the Blind.]

[Footnote 104: Macariae Excidium.]

[Footnote 105: Story's Continuation.]

[Footnote 106: Burnet, ii. 79.; Story's Continuation.]

[Footnote 107: "They maintained their ground much longer than they had been accustomed to do," says Burnet. "They behaved themselves like men of another nation," says Story. "The Irish were never known to fight with more resolution," says the London Gazette.]

[Footnote 108: Story's Continuation; London Gazette, July 20. 23. 1691; Memoires de Berwick; Life of James, ii. 456.; Burnet, ii. 79.; Macariae Excidium; Light to the Blind; Letter from the English camp to Sir Arthur Rawdon, in the Rawdon Papers; History of William the Third, 1702.]

The narratives to which I have referred differ very widely from each other. Nor can the difference be ascribed solely or chiefly to partiality. For no two narratives differ more widely than that which will be found in the Life of James, and that which will be found in the memoirs of his son.]

In consequence, I suppose, of the fall of Saint Ruth, and of the absence of D'Usson, there is at the French War Office no despatch containing a detailed account of the battle.]

[Footnote 109: Story's Continuation.]

[Footnote 110: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 464.; London Gazette, July 30., Aug. 17. 1691; Light to the Blind.]

[Footnote 111: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 459; London Gazette, July 30., Aug. 3. 1691.]

[Footnote 112: He held this language in a letter to Louis XIV., dated the 5/15th of August. This letter, written in a hand which it is not easy to decipher, is in the French War Office. Macariae Excidium; Light to the Blind.]

[Footnote 113: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 461, 462.]

[Footnote 114: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 459. 462.; London Gazette, Aug. 31 1691; Light to the Blind; D'Usson and Tesse to Barbesieux, Aug. 13/23.]

[Footnote 115: Story's Continuation; D'Usson and Tesse to Barbesieux Aug. 169r. An unpublished letter from Nagle to Lord Merion of Auk.

15. This letter is quoted by Mr. O'Callaghan in a note on Macariae Excidium.]

[Footnote 116: Macariae Excidium; Story's Continuation.]

[Footnote 117: Story's Continuation; London Gazette, Sept. 28. 1691; Life of James, ii. 463.; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick, 1692; Light to the Blind. In the account of the siege which is among the archives of the French War Office, it is said that the Irish cavalry behaved worse than the infantry.]

[Footnote 118: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; R. Douglas to Sir A. Rawdon, Sept. 25. 1691, in the Rawdon Papers; London Gazette, October 8.; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick; Light to the Blind; Account of the Siege of Limerick in the archives of the French War Office.

The account of this affair in the Life of James, ii. 464., deserves to be noticed merely for its preeminent absurdity. The writer tells us that seven hundred of the Irish held out some time against a much larger force, and warmly praises their heroism. He did not know, or did not choose to mention, one fact which is essential to the right understanding of the story; namely, that these seven hundred men were in a fort. That a garrison should defend a fort during a few hours against superior numbers is surely not strange. Forts are built because they can be defended by few against many.]

[Footnote 119: Account of the Siege of Limerick in the archives of the French War Office; Story's Continuation.]

[Footnote 120: D'Usson to Barbesieux, Oct. 4/14. 1691.]

[Footnote 121: Macariae Excidium.]