ized as it was, there was much spirit, though little firmness.
Fits of enthusiasm and fits of faintheartedness succeeded each other.
The same battalion, which at one time threw away its arms in a panic and
shrieked for quarter, would on another occasion fight valiantly. On the
day of the Boyne the courage of the ill trained and ill commanded kernes
had ebbed to the lowest point. When they had rallied at Limerick, their
blood was up. Patriotism, fanaticism, shame, revenge, despair, had
raised them above themselves. With one voice officers and men insisted
that the city should be defended to the last. At the head of those
who were for resisting was the brave Sarsfield; and his exhortations
diffused through all ranks a spirit resembling his own. To save his
country was beyond his power. All that he could do was to prolong her
last agony through one bloody and disastrous year, [745]

Tyrconnel was altogether incompetent to decide the question on which the
French and the Irish differed. The only military qualities that he had
ever possessed were personal bravery and skill in the use of the sword.
These qualities had once enabled him to frighten away rivals from the
doors of his mistresses, and to play the Hector at cockpits and hazard
tables. But more was necessary to enable him to form an opinion as to
the possibility of defending Limerick. He would probably, had his temper
been as hot as in the days when he diced with Grammont and threatened
to cut the old Duke of Ormond's throat, have voted for running any risk
however desperate. But age, pain and sickness had left little of the
canting, bullying, fighting Dick Talbot of the Restoration. He had
sunk into deep despondency. He was incapable of strenuous exertion. The
French officers pronounced him utterly ignorant of the art of war. They
had observed that at the Boyne he had seemed to be stupified, unable
to give directions himself, unable even to make up his mind about the
suggestions which were offered by others, [746] The disasters which
had since followed one another in rapid succession were not likely to
restore the tone of a mind so pitiably unnerved. His wife was already in
France with the little which remained of his once ample fortune: his
own wish was to follow her thither: his voice was therefore given for
abandoning the city.

At last a compromise was made. Lauzun and Tyrconnel, with the French
troops, retired to Galway. The great body of the native army, about