force of arms, but by
offering every concession to the Irish.

The imminence of the peril had cowed even the party of confiscation, and
they offered no opposition to the issue, by Ginckle, of proclamations
renewing the offers of William. Ginckle himself moved forward,
immediately after the battle, and granted the most liberal terms to the
garrisons of the various small posts which he came upon. On arriving
before Galway, he permitted that town and garrison to surrender on the
terms of a pardon for all, security of property and estate, freedom of
religious worship, and permission for the garrison to march away to
Limerick, with drums beating and colours flying, the British furnishing
horses for the transport of their cannon and baggage.

Chapter 15: A Fortunate Recognition.

After the capitulation of Galway, Ginckle moved towards Limerick. King
William, who was absent on the Continent, was most anxious for the aid of
the army warring in Ireland, and the queen and her advisers, considering
that the war was now virtually over, ordered transports to Ireland to
take on board ten thousand men; but Ginckle was allowed a month's delay.

He himself was by no means sanguine as to his position. The Irish army
was still as numerous as the British, and they were not discouraged by
their defeat at Aughrim, where they considered, and rightly, that victory
had only been snatched from their grasp by an accident. Ginckle relied
rather upon concession than force. The Irish were divided into two
parties, one of which earnestly desired peace, if they could obtain fair
terms, while the other insisted that the British could not be trusted to
keep any terms they might make. Sarsfield was at the head of the war
party, and succeeded, for the present, in preventing any arrangement.

Ginckle advanced slowly, for he had to march through a waste and desolate
country. Sarsfield, with his cavalry, hovered round him, and intercepted
his communications, and he was so short of draught horses that it was
only by forcing the gentry of Dublin to give up their carriage horses,
for the use of the army, that he was enabled to move forward.

It was not until the end of August that he sat down with his siege train
in front of Limerick, and prepared for the siege. For the moment, the
party in favour of peace among the Irish had been silenced by the news
that twenty large ships of war, with a great number of transport and
store ships, were being pushed