gainst him: part of it was still ill disposed towards him;
and the whole was utterly disorganized. Of the army which he had brought
from Holland not a regiment could be spared. He had found the treasury
empty and the pay of the navy in arrear. He had no power to hypothecate
any part of the public revenue. Those who lent him money lent it on no
security but his bare word. It was only by the patriotic liberality
of the merchants of London that he was enabled to defray the ordinary
charges of government till the meeting of the Convention. It is
surely unjust to blame him for not instantly fitting out, in such
circumstances, an armament sufficient to conquer a kingdom.

Perceiving that, till the government of England was settled, it would
not be in his power to interfere effectually by arms in the affairs of
Ireland, he determined to try what effect negotiation would produce.
Those who judged after the event pronounced that he had not, on this
occasion, shown his usual sagacity. He ought, they said, to have known
that it was absurd to expect submission from Tyrconnel. Such however
was not at the time the opinion of men who had the best means of
information, and whose interest was a sufficient pledge for their
sincerity. A great meeting of noblemen and gentlemen who had property
in Ireland was held, during the interregnum, at the house of the Duke of
Ormond in Saint James's Square. They advised the Prince to try whether
the Lord Deputy might not be induced to capitulate on honourable and
advantageous terms, [142] In truth there is strong reason to believe
that Tyrconnel really wavered. For, fierce as were his passions, they
never made him forgetful of his interest; and he might well doubt
whether it were not for his interest, in declining years and health,
to retire from business with full indemnity for all past offences, with
high rank and with an ample fortune, rather than to stake his life and
property on the event of a war against the whole power of England. It
is certain that he professed himself willing to yield. He opened a
communication with the Prince of Orange, and affected to take counsel
with Mountjoy, and with others who, though they had not thrown off their
allegiance to James, were yet firmly attached to the Established Church
and to the English connection.

In one quarter, a quarter from which William was justified in expecting
the most judicious counsel, there was a strong conviction that the
professions of