e
expected they asked in terror, under a man so unscrupulous and so
bigoted, with an army, too, composed mainly of Roman Catholics at his
back to enforce his orders? The departure of Clarendon was thus the
signal for a new Protestant exodus. Wild reports of a general massacre,
one which was to surpass the massacre of '41, flew through the land.
Terrified people flocked to the sea-coast and embarked in any boat they
could find for England. Those that remained behind drew themselves
together for their own defence within barricaded houses, and in the
towns in the north, especially in Enniskillen and Londonderry, the
Protestant inhabitants closed their gates and made ready to withstand
a siege.

Meanwhile in Dublin sentences of outlawry were fast being reversed, and
the estates of the Protestants being restored in all directions to their
former proprietors. The charters of the corporate towns were next
revoked, and new (by preference Catholic) aldermen and mayors appointed
by the viceroy. All Protestants were ordered to give up their arms by a
certain day, and to those who did not, "their lives and goods," it was
announced, "should be at the mercy and discretion of the soldiers."
These soldiers, now almost exclusively Catholic, lived at free quarters
upon the farms and estates of the Protestants. "Tories," lately out
"upon their keeping," with prices upon their heads, were now officers in
the king's service. The property of Protestants was seized all over the
country, their houses taken possession of, their sheep and cattle
slaughtered by hundreds of thousands. All who could manage to escape
made for the north, where the best Protestant manhood of the country had
now gathered together, and was standing resolutely in an attitude of
self-defence.

In England, William of Orange had meanwhile landed in Torbay, and James
had fled precipitately to France. Tyrconnel, who seems to have been
unprepared for this event, hesitated at first, undecided what to do or
how matters would eventually shape themselves. He even wrote to William,
professing to be rather favourable than otherwise to his cause, a
profession which the king, who was as yet anything but firm in his own
seat, seems to have listened to with some belief, and General Richard
Hamilton was sent over by him to negotiate matters with the viceroy.

The passions awakened on both sides were far too strong however, for any
such temporizing. Louis XIV. had received James upon h