uarters that Sarsfield
had stolen out of Limerick and was ranging the country. The King guessed
the design of his brave enemy, and sent five hundred horse to protect
the guns. Unhappily there was some delay, which the English, always
disposed to believe the worst of the Dutch courtiers, attributed to
the negligence or perverseness of Portland. At one in the morning the
detachment set out, but had scarcely left the camp when a blaze like
lightning and a crash like thunder announced to the wide plain of the
Shannon that all was over, [751]

Sarsfield had long been the favourite of his countrymen; and this most
seasonable exploit, judiciously planned and vigorously executed, raised
him still higher in their estimation. Their spirits rose; and the
besiegers began to lose heart. William did his best to repair his
loss. Two of the guns which had been blown up were found to be still
serviceable. Two more were sent for from Waterford. Batteries were
constructed of small field pieces, which, though they might have been
useless against one of the fortresses of Hainault or Brabant, made some
impression on the feeble defences of Limerick. Several outworks were
carried by storm; and a breach in the rampart of the city began to
appear.

During these operations, the English army was astonished and amused by
an incident, which produced indeed no very important consequences, but
which illustrates in the most striking manner the real nature of Irish
Jacobitism. In the first rank of those great Celtic houses, which, down
to the close of the reign of Elizabeth, bore rule in Ulster, were the
O'Donnels. The head of that house had yielded to the skill and energy of
Mountjoy, had kissed the hand of James the First, and had consented
to exchange the rude independence of a petty prince for an eminently
honourable place among British subjects. During a short time the
vanquished chief held the rank of an Earl, and was the landlord of an
immense domain of which he had once been the sovereign. But soon he
began to suspect the government of plotting against him, and, in revenge
or in selfdefence, plotted against the government. His schemes failed;
he fled to the continent; his title and his estates were forfeited; and
an Anglosaxon colony was planted in the territory which he had governed.
He meanwhile took refuge at the court of Spain. Between that court and
the aboriginal Irish there had, during the long contest between Philip
and Elizabeth, been