took ship at Kinsale for
France.

[Sidenote: Irish War.]

But though James had fled in despair, and though the beaten army was
forced by William's pursuit to abandon the capital, it was still
resolute to fight. The incapacity of the Stuart sovereign moved the
scorn even of his followers. "Change kings with us," an Irish officer
replied to an Englishman who taunted him with the panic of the Boyne,
"change kings with us and we will fight you again." They did better in
fighting without a king. The French indeed withdrew scornfully from the
routed army as it turned at bay beneath the walls of Limerick. "Do you
call these ramparts?" sneered Lauzun: "the English will need no cannon;
they may batter them down with roasted apples." But twenty thousand
Irish soldiers remained with Sarsfield, a brave and skilful officer who
had seen service in England and abroad; and his daring surprise of the
English ammunition train, his repulse of a desperate attempt to storm
the town, and the approach of winter forced William to raise the siege.
The course of the war abroad recalled him to England, but he was hardly
gone when a new turn was given to the struggle by one who was quietly
proving himself a master in the art of war. Churchill, rewarded for his
opportune desertion of James with the earldom of Marlborough, had been
recalled from Flanders to command a division which landed in the south
of Ireland. Only a few days remained before the operations were
interrupted by the coming of winter, but the few days were turned to
good account. The two ports by which alone Ireland could receive
supplies from France fell into English hands. Cork, with five thousand
men behind its walls, was taken in forty-eight hours. Kinsale a few days
later shared the fate of Cork. Winter indeed left Connaught and the
greater part of Munster in Irish hands, the French force remained
untouched, and the coming of a new French general, St. Ruth, with arms
and supplies encouraged the insurgents. But the summer of 1691 had
hardly begun when Ginkell, the new English general, by his seizure of
Athlone forced on a battle with the combined French and Irish forces at
Aughrim, in which St. Ruth fell on the field and his army was utterly
broken.

[Sidenote: Ireland conquered.]

The defeat at Aughrim left Limerick alone in its revolt, and in October
Sarsfield bowed to the necessity of surrender. Two treaties were drawn
up between the Irish and English generals. By the fir