the energy which,
in circumstances so trying, the Irish displayed. It was indeed the wild
and unsteady energy of a half barbarous people: it was transient: it
was often misdirected: but, though transient and misdirected, it did
wonders. The French Ambassador was forced to own that those officers
of whose incompetency and inactivity he had so often complained had
suddenly shaken off their lethargy. Recruits came in by thousands. The
ranks which had been thinned under the walls of Londonderry were soon
again full to overflowing. Great efforts were made to arm and clothe the
troops; and, in the short space of a fortnight, every thing presented a
new and cheering aspect, [435]

The Irish required of the King, in return for their strenuous exertions
in his cause, one concession which was by no means agreeable to him. The
unpopularity of Melfort had become such, that his person was scarcely
safe. He had no friend to speak a word in his favour. The French hated
him. In every letter which arrived at Dublin from England or from
Scotland, he was described as the evil genius of the House of Stuart. It
was necessary for his own sake to dismiss him. An honourable pretext was
found. He was ordered to repair to Versailles, to represent there the
state of affairs in Ireland, and to implore the French government to
send over without delay six or seven thousand veteran infantry. He laid
down the seals; and they were, to the great delight of the Irish, put
into the hands of an Irishman, Sir Richard Nagle, who had made himself
conspicuous as Attorney General and Speaker of the House of Commons.
Melfort took his departure under cover of the night: for the rage of
the populace against him was such that he could not without danger show
himself in the streets of Dublin by day. On the following morning James
left his capital in the opposite direction to encounter Schomberg, [436]

Schomberg had landed in Antrim. The force which he had brought with him
did not exceed ten thousand men. But he expected to be joined by the
armed colonists and by the regiments which were under Kirke's command.
The coffeehouse politicians of London fully expected that such a general
with such an army would speedily reconquer the island. Unhappily it soon
appeared that the means which had been furnished to him were altogether
inadequate to the work which he had to perform: of the greater part
of these means he was speedily deprived by a succession of unforeseen
calam