re been in action;
their opponents were veterans trained in European wars. They were driven
back, fled, and a considerable number of them slaughtered. The Irish
cavalry stood firm, but their valour was powerless to turn the day.
Schomberg was killed, but William remained absolute and undisputed
master of the field.

At the first shock of reverse James flew down the hill and betook
himself to Dublin. He arrived there foaming and almost convulsed with
rage. "Madam, your countrymen have run away!" was his gracious address
to Lady Tyrconnel. "If they have, sire, your Majesty seems to have won
the race," was that lady's ready retort.

The king's flight was without reason or measure. As before in England,
so now, he seemed to pass in a moment from insane self-confidence to an
equally insane panic. He fled south, ordering the bridges to be broken
down behind him; took boat at Waterford, and never rested until he found
himself once more safe upon French soil.

His flight at least left the field clear for better men. Patrick
Sarsfield now took the principal command, and prosecuted the campaign
with a vigour of which it had hitherto shown no symptoms. Sarsfield is
the one redeeming figure upon the Jacobite side. His gallant presence
sheds a ray of chivalric light upon this otherwise gloomiest and least
attractive of campaigns. He could not turn defeat to victory, but he
could, and did succeed in snatching honour out of that pit into which
the other leaders, and especially his master, had let it drop. Brave,
honourable, upright, "a gentleman of eminent merit," is praise which
even those least inclined to favour his side of the quarrel bestow upon
him without stint.

William, now established in Dublin, issued a proclamation offering full
and free pardon to all who would lay down their arms. He was genuinely
anxious to avoid pushing the struggle to the bitter end, and to hinder
further bloodshed. Though deserted by their king, and fresh from
overwhelming defeat, the Irish troops showed no disposition, however, of
yielding. Athlone, Galway, Cork, Kinsale, and Limerick still held out,
and behind the walls of the last named the remains of James's broken
army was now chiefly collected. Those walls, however, were miserably
weak, and the French generals utterly scouted the possibility of their
being held. Tyrconnel, too, advised a capitulation, but Sarsfield
insisted upon holding the town, and the Irish soldiers--burning to wipe
out