f of French officers with arms, ammunition, and a supply
of money was placed therefore at the service of the exiled king, and the
news of his coming no sooner reached Dublin at the opening of 1689 than
Tyrconnell threw off the mask. A flag was hoisted over Dublin Castle
with the words embroidered on its folds "Now or Never." The signal
called every Catholic to arms. The maddened Irishmen flung themselves on
the plunder which their masters had left and in a few weeks havoc was
done, the French envoy told Lewis, which it would take years to repair.

[Sidenote: Siege of Londonderry.]

It was in this condition that James found Ireland when he landed at
Kinsale. The rising of the natives had already baffled his plans. To him
as to Lewis Ireland was simply a basis of operations against William,
and whatever were their hopes of a future restoration of the soil to its
older possessors both kings were equally anxious that no strife of races
should at this moment interrupt their plans of an invasion of England
with the fifty thousand soldiers that Tyrconnell was said to have at his
disposal. But long ere James landed the war of races had already begun.
To Tyrconnell indeed and the Irish leaders the king's plans were utterly
distasteful. They had no wish for an invasion and conquest of England
which would replace Ireland again in its position of dependence. Their
policy was simply that of Ireland for the Irish, and the first step in
such a policy was to drive out the Englishmen who still stood at bay in
Ulster. Half of Tyrconnell's army therefore had already been sent
against Londonderry, where the bulk of the fugitives found shelter
behind a weak wall, manned by a few old guns and destitute even of a
ditch. But the seven thousand desperate Englishmen behind the wall made
up for its weakness. They rejected with firmness the offers of James,
who was still anxious to free his hands from a strife which broke his
plans. They kept up their fire even when the neighbouring Protestants
with their women and children were brutally driven under their walls and
placed in the way of their guns. So fierce were their sallies, so
crushing the repulse of his attack, that the king's general, Hamilton,
at last turned the siege into a blockade. The Protestants died of hunger
in the streets and of the fever which comes of hunger, but the cry of
the town was still "No Surrender." The siege had lasted a hundred and
five days, and only two days' food rem