n without
disgrace, but that high and serene intrepidity which is the virtue of
great commanders, [698] It is equally certain that, in his later years,
he repeatedly, at conjunctures such as have often inspired timorous and
delicate women with heroic courage, showed a pusillanimous anxiety about
his personal safety. Of the most powerful motives which can induce human
beings to encounter peril none was wanting to him on the day of the
Boyne. The eyes of his contemporaries and of posterity, of friends
devoted to his cause and of enemies eager to witness his humiliation,
were fixed upon him. He had, in his own opinion, sacred rights to
maintain and cruel wrongs to revenge. He was a King come to fight for
three kingdoms. He was a father come to fight for the birthright of his
child. He was a zealous Roman Catholic, come to fight in the holiest of
crusades. If all this was not enough, he saw, from the secure position
which he occupied on the height of Donore, a sight which, it might have
been thought, would have roused the most torpid of mankind to emulation.
He saw his rival, weak, sickly, wounded, swimming the river, struggling
through the mud, leading the charge, stopping the flight, grasping the
sword with the left hand, managing the bridle with a bandaged arm. But
none of these things moved that sluggish and ignoble nature. He watched,
from a safe distance, the beginning of the battle on which his fate and
the fate of his race depended. When it became clear that the day was
going against Ireland, he was seized with an apprehension that his
flight might be intercepted, and galloped towards Dublin. He was
escorted by a bodyguard under the command of Sarsfield, who had, on that
day, had no opportunity of displaying the skill and courage which his
enemies allowed that he possessed, [699] The French auxiliaries, who
had been employed the whole morning in keeping William's right wing in
check, covered the flight of the beaten army. They were indeed in some
danger of being broken and swept away by the torrent of runaways, all
pressing to get first to the pass of Duleek, and were forced to fire
repeatedly on these despicable allies, [700] The retreat was, however,
effected with less loss than might have been expected. For even the
admirers of William owned that he did not show in the pursuit the energy
which even his detractors acknowledged that he had shown in the battle.
Perhaps his physical infirmities, his hurt, and the fatig