up a galling fire, falling back
gradually as heavy bodies of troops were brought up against them, until
they reached the cover of the guns of the city and fort. Upon these
opening fire, William's army halted and encamped before the Irish town.

Here, as at the Boyne, the king had a narrow escape, a cannonball from
the walls striking the ground at his foot as he was passing through a gap
in a hedge.

The king had learned that great dissensions existed between the Irish and
French, and relied upon this, as much as upon the strength of his arms,
to obtain possession of the city. His information was, indeed, correct.
King James, in his flight, had left no orders as to who should assume the
supreme command. The Duke of Berwick had considerable claims. Lauzun and
the French officers declined altogether to receive orders from
Tyrconnell, and the Irish officers equally objected to act under the
command of a Frenchman. Consequently, during the whole siege, the main
Irish army, which, by acting upon William's rear, could speedily have
made his position untenable, remained inactive. Monsieur Boileau, a
French officer, was governor of the town, but Lauzun, having examined the
fortifications, pronounced the place wholly incapable of defence,
declaring that the walls could be knocked down with roasted apples, and
so ordered the entire French division to march to Galway, and there await
an opportunity for embarking for France, leaving the Irish to defend the
city if they chose.

Lauzun, in fact, was a courtier, not a soldier. He desired to get back to
Versailles at any hazard, and had so inspired his officers and men with
his own sentiments that there was a general cry among them to be recalled
to France. They had, indeed, no interest in the cause in which they
fought. They looked with contempt at their half-armed and half-trained
allies, and they grumbled continually at the hardships which they had to
undergo. It was indeed an evil day, for King James's cause, when he
exchanged Mountcashel's fine division for these useless allies, who,
throughout the war, not only did no service, but were the cause of
endless dissension and disaster.

As soon as King William had taken up his position in front of Limerick,
he sent a summons to Boileau to surrender. The latter consulted with
Tyrconnell, Sarsfield, and some other officers, for, even to the last
moment, it was a question whether the place should be defended.

At last, however, a dec