t there was such perfect confidence and affection, between the
royal pair that no practical inconvenience was to be apprehended, [619]

As far as Ireland was concerned, the prospects of William were much
more cheering than they had been a few months earlier. The activity
with which he had personally urged forward the preparations for the
next campaign had produced an extraordinary effect. The nerves of
the government were new strung. In every department of the military
administration the influence of a vigorous mind was perceptible.
Abundant supplies of food, clothing and medicine, very different in
quality from those which Shales had furnished, were sent across Saint
George's Channel. A thousand baggage waggons had been made or collected
with great expedition; and, during some weeks, the road between London
and Chester was covered with them. Great numbers of recruits were sent
to fill the chasms which pestilence had made in the English ranks. Fresh
regiments from Scotland, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland had landed
in the Bay of Belfast. The uniforms and arms of the new corners clearly
indicated the potent influence of the master's eye. With the British
battalions were interspersed several hardy bands of German and
Scandinavian mercenaries. Before the end of May. the English force in
Ulster amounted to thirty thousand fighting men. A few more troops and
an immense quantity of military stores were on board of a fleet which
lay in the estuary of the Dee, and which was ready to weigh anchor as
soon as the King was on board, [620]

James ought to have made an equally good use of the time during which
his army had been in winter quarters. Strict discipline and regular
drilling might, in the interval between November and May, have turned
the athletic and enthusiastic peasants who were assembled under his
standard into good soldiers. But the opportunity was lost. The Court of
Dublin was, during that season of inaction, busied with dice and claret,
love letters and challenges. The aspect of the capital was indeed not
very brilliant. The whole number of coaches which could be mustered
there, those of the King and of the French Legation included, did not
amount to forty, [621] But though there was little splendour there was
much dissoluteness. Grave Roman Catholics shook their heads and said
that the Castle did not look like the palace of a King who gloried in
being the champion of the Church, [622] The military administrat